Screening of new documentary on workers' control in Caracas

On Monday, August 28, a public screening of a new documentary about workers' control in Venezuela was held at the Teressa Carreño in central Caracas, with the support of the Ministry of Culture.

More than 250 people turned up to see "5 Factories - Workers' Control in Venezuela", a film produced by two Italian filmmakers, Dario Azellini and Oliver Ressler. The vast majority of those present were workers from different Venezuelan factories, such as CVG ALCASA, Inveval, Textileros de Táchira, etc.

The documentary follows workers at five different factories and looks at the different examples of workers' control in Venezuela. The first one is ALCASA, an aluminium plant in the eastern part of the country where cogestión was introduced in January 2005. The managers at ALCASA are elected democratically by the employees in the different sectors and are subject to the right of recall. The workers also elect around 300 spokesmen that together form the assembly, where important decisions such as the yearly budget are discussed and voted on.

Elio Sayago, one of the directors in the factory, explained how the process of cogestión is developing towards genuine workers' control. He linked the developments in the factory to the revolutionary process as a whole and emphasized the urgent task facing the Venezuelan working class: to move towards socialism and complete the revolution.

Another case the documentary looks at is that of "Tomates Guárico", a factory producing bottled tomato ketchup. The workers occupied the factory one year ago as a result of corrupt management and fraud on the part of the bosses. 

Carmen Ortíz, a female worker at the plant, explained how the workers had prevented the former directors from returning to the plant; "We did not let them in because they don't know how to run the factory"!

The factory is now run as an Enterprise of Social Production (EPS), which means that it aims at serving the needs of the community and society as a whole, not a small minority of property owners. The main decisions are discussed and taken by the assembly of workers and part of the work is now dedicated to the political education of the staff, as Aury Arocha, another employee at the plant, explained; "It is not possible to make a revolution, nor socialism of the 21st century, without knowledge and political education".

The documentary also covered the processes taking place in Invepal, Textileros de Táchira, and Cacao. "5 Factories" is a useful documentary that provides invaluable information on the movement for workers' control in Venezula, and is also available in English and German.

The meeting at Terressa Carreño ended with a lively discussion on the differences between the revolutionary and reformist models of cogestión. The comrades of the CMR (Revolutionary Marxist Current) had a small stall with Marxist books and pamphlets as well as their new paper El Militante. The literature stall was well received by the workers present at the meeting.

Caracas, August 30