Fw: AFL CIO in Venezuela

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the June 6, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
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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.

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