Da: "Nello Margiotta" A: Oggetto: Fw: AFL CIO in Venezuela Data: domenica 2 giugno 2002 20.42 ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 6, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- AFTER FAILED COUP IN VENEZUELA: UNIONISTS QUESTION AFL-CIO ROLE By Milt Neidenberg A controversy has landed squarely in the laps of the AFL-CIO hierarchy in Washington, D.C., involving the labor federation's international bureau--the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS). Was ACILS connected with the counter-revolutionary forces that sought to overthrow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his democratically elected government? John J. Sweeney became AFL-CIO president in 1995 when he defeated a right-wing bureaucracy led by Lane Kirkland and Thomas R. Donahue that had been in power for over 17 years. Optimism grew as Sweeney cleaned house of the "old guard," including in the international section, which had been a front for U.S. foreign policy and participated in the overthrow of progressive governments. The old name of that section, the International Affairs Department, was discarded to remove the stench that had arisen from its activities. Now the Sweeney leadership is coming under scrutiny. Unionists are asking, what did they know, and what did they do, during the fateful days that led to a short-lived coup in Venezuela? It is indisputable that the failed coup exposed the machinations of the Bush administration, which had given aid and comfort to the coup leaders before and during the 48- hour takeover. Washington praised the fascist coup in its early hours of control. It then hastily retreated when it failed, hiding behind a façade of arrogant, pseudo- democratic mutterings. The Bush administration openly hates the Chavez regime for its warm relations with Cuba and Iraq, its independent oil policy, and its opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the centerpiece of Washington's trade strategy for this hemisphere. Did the AFL-CIO leaders get caught up in this web of a fascist coup? On Feb. 12, a month before the coup, the AFL- CIO, in collaboration with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)--which is well known for providing a moral- sounding cover for CIA-type activities--sponsored a closed, high-level meeting featuring Venezuelan Labor Federation (CTV) representatives. The CTV leaders had recently participated in a number of lockouts and other activities in collusion with Fedecamaras, the main organization of Venezuela's business oligarchy, and a sector of the military, to shut down the Venezuelan state oil company (PVSA). In retrospect, these activities were a dress rehearsal for the coup. NED funded the entire event, which included meetings with several AFL-CIO leaders, according to Katherine Hoyt, co- coordinator of the Nicaragua Network. Hoyt was an organizer of a picket line at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington to protest that Feb. 12 meeting. The ANSWER coalition also participated in the picket. LABOR GROUP RELIES ON GOV'T FUNDING NED is a government agency created and financially endowed by Congress during the Reagan administration in 1983. It and the Agency for International Development have been the main funders of ACILS. NED has rich experience in subverting governments resistant to U.S. imperialism's demands--Nicaragua in 1989, for example. With an annual appropriation of $33 million and much more from private sources, it conspires with the U.S. government to scour the globe, from Africa to Asia to Latin America and the Caribbean, seeking allies where direct U.S. government officials might be unwelcome. Its reputation for subversion and bribery is widespread. Much of this has become public since the fascist coup failed and Chavez was returned to power. The New York Times of April 25, embarrassed by the turn of events, carried a banner headline, "U.S. Bank rolling Is Under Scrutiny for Ties to Chavez Ouster." The article said that "as Mr. Chavez clashed with various business groups, labor and media groups, the endowment stepped up its assistance, quadrupling its budget for Venezuela to more than $877,000." The article mentions that ACILS received $154,377 from NED for its Venezuela project--just part of the reported $4 million a year the NED puts into this AFL-CIO center. Predictably, the Times steered away from covering the larger role the Bush administration played. Its intent was to expose only NED and its link to the AFL-CIO. Shaken by these revelations, the AFL-CIO decided to issue a statement: "The AFL-CIO and Worker Rights in Venezuela," which can be found on its web page. The thrust of the statement was to strike out wildly against President Chavez. "From the moment he took office in 1999, Hugo Chavez led an assault on freedom of association, attempting to weaken or eliminate the principal institutions of Venezuelan society including the unions." Defending the role of the CTV, the statement goes on: the midst of this assault, the CTV conducted an impressive process of internal democratization with the assistance of the AFL-CIO and the Solidarity Center." The statement also "unequivocally condemns the coup attempt" and tries to clean up the CTV's participation. "There is no evidence that the CTV or its leaders went beyond the democratic expression of discontent," it concluded. "The AFL- CIO will continue to support the CTV." There is much in the statement that is disingenuous, misleading and disturbing to many progressive unionists who have been following the Venezuelan events. It is undeniable that the CTV did participate in the coup and that NED was intimately connected with the CTV, financing its counter- revolutionary operations. The AFL-CIO statement covers this up. Nor is there a comment or an attack on the Bush administration for its open support of the coup. CTV CLOSE TO COUP LEADER Even the New York Times of April 25 had admitted, "The union leader, Carlos Ortega, worked closely with Pedro Carmona Estanga." Carmona, the head of the big business group Fedecamaras, was chosen to head the short-lived fascist government along with sections of the military. It was responsible for the 48-hour reign of terror against the working class and the progressive movement, who supported President Chavez. The workers came into the streets by the hundreds of thousands to return him to power. Venezuelan Minister of Education Dr. Aristobulo Isturiz, himself a former teachers' union leader and vice-president of the Constituent Assembly, gave a vivid account of the coup to an audience of progressive unionists gathered at AFSCME District Council 1707 in New York on May 10. He said that during the coup, "Carmona went to Miraflores [the presidential palace] and he brought together all the oligarchy who were in control of the economy, but, interestingly, he left the mafia leaders who control the unions outside, basically because they looked too much like us." It was a wry comment on how the big bourgeoisie have no respect for their own lackeys in the labor movement. The AFL-CIO leaders have put themselves in an untenable position. Their ties to NED have put them on the wrong side of the class struggle in Latin America. The workers throughout the hemisphere have demonstrated deep hostility to U.S. intervention. They are opposed to the role of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and, most important, to the threat the FTAA poses to their lives. Since Sept. 11, the AFL-CIO has been weakened by President George W. Bush, who has seized the moment to unleash a racist, anti-labor offensive. The leaders have succumbed to the Bush administration's decision to trigger a wider war abroad and to justify an "anti-terrorist" campaign at home. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been shifted from people's needs to the Pentagon and "homeland defense." Both major parties have initiated cuts in social programs, a more repressive welfare bill, and, more recently, support for FTAA by giving Bush more power to expand his globalization strategy. To add to Sweeney's woes, his base within the bureaucracy is under attack from right-wing Teamster President James Hoffa, who is collaborating with the Bush administration. Hoffa sat in Bush's box at the inauguration and has demanded more support for Republican candidates. It's a sorry situation all around. However, repression breeds resistance. Movements against these pro-imperialist, corporate/banking policies continue to grow. One example is the turnout of 100,000 activists on April 20 in Washington to oppose the war on the workers, the immigrants and the poor at home and its expansion abroad, particularly against the Palestinian people. The development of technology has revolutionized the means of production but has brought immeasurable misery to the working class, so many of whom are unable to buy the necessities of life while the idle rich and their oligarchy feed insatiably off the laboring masses. The class struggle is contagious. It is worldwide. It will continue to feed on this discontent and strengthen the development of international solidarity. The promise of international solidarity is building from below. Due to the insatiable appetites of profit-driven Wall Street and the corporate/banking establishment, resistance will grow among the 13 million multinational members of the AFL-CIO, women and men. Can the AFL-CIO find its way to these forces and break with the pro-war, anti-labor policies of both capitalist parties? It is best to view the current AFL-CIO position from the perspective of the global class struggle that is unfolding. On May Day, a day born in class struggle, tens of millions of workers, socialists, progressives and class-conscious activists spilled into the streets around the world to raise the many issues confronting their class. Much of it was against U.S. imperialist war aims. The events were inspiring and exemplary. - END -