A Letter Carrier Does Venezuela

Jamie Partridge reports

I recently spent two weeks in Venezuela, South America, representing Portland JOBS with JUSTICE and NALC 82, as part of a Portland fact-finding delegation to check out the revolutionary changes going on in Venezuela. I particularly spent time with postal workers and with union activists.

I walked into a post office in downtown Caracas, connected with the union shop steward, then the union president and spent six hours over two days talking with letter carriers, clerks, supervisors and union officials. What I found was that the “revolution” is unfolding right inside the post office.

Before President Hugo Chavez was elected, the post office was rife with corruption. Top managers were siphoning off postal revenues into their own pockets and union officials were getting in on the take. Union bureaucrats had not held direct elections for decades.

After Chavez’ election in 1998 and the creation of the new, pro-workers’ rights constitution, union activists forced democratic elections, disaffiliated with the old-guard CTV union federation and later helped form the new, militant UNT federation. They were able to use their newly won right-to-strike to throw out the corrupt postmaster, to win one elected position on the Postal Board of Governors (they want more), an on-site childcare center, and an on-site health clinic for workers and their families. Venezuelan postal workers have won 25 years and out with 100% of pay in retirement, and unlimited sick leave at 100% pay. This revolutionary labor union also won community access to their health clinic, and community access to post office class rooms, which provide basic literacy and high school completion for under-educated adults, so that they too could become postal workers.

Venezuela has oil, a lot of oil. So they have a lot of money coming in to lift up the poor and improve workers lives. But Venezuela also gets the attention of the Bushites, who like oil for themselves. Venezuela is also promoting what it calls “food sovereignty” and “endogenous development” which favors local farmers and local industries and opposes market domination by US imports and export-oriented US corporate sweatshops.

Venezuela is boldly challenging the Bush administration and their free-trade, pro-corporate, privatization agenda on a world scale. Venezuela has been in the lead in organizing the disruption of free-trade talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and at the Summit of the Americas. .

No wonder the Bushites and their corporate cronies are nervous and have made several unsuccessful attempts to unseat the elected President Hugo Chavez, including a military coup (2002), an oil industry sabotage and lockout (2003), and a recall referendum (2004). U.S. Secretary of War, Donald Rumsfeld recently heated up the rhetorical challenge by comparing Chavez to Hitler. The threat of continued U.S. intervention is very real, especially when we look at the history of repeated U.S. military and covert operations against pro-worker governments and movements in Latin America.

What we found in Venezuela was a militant, democratic labor union movement sweeping the country; challenging government bureaucrats and corporate owners; dedicated to not only improving wages, hours and working conditions for their members but taking control of production and distribution decisions, serving the community and improving the lives of all workers.

We found a government under a new constitution which guarantees not only the right to vote but the right to affordable food and housing; free health care and education through university; a secure retirement; and land, seed, equipment, credit and technical assistance for small farmers and small businesses, especially coops. President Hugo Chavez calls this “socialism for the 21st century.”

More info: A Venezuelan union leader will speak, Sunday, March 19th, 7pm at the Carpenters Union Hall, 2215 N. Lombard. PCASC is leading another labor delegation to Venezuela in November (503-236-7916). Check out www.venezuelanalysis.com.