Growing fervour in Venezuela

Charley Allan hears Jeremy Dear report on his recent Venezuela visit.

National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear, who recently went on the first official TUC delegation to Venezuela, gave a debriefing to solidarity activists on Wednesday night at the union's headquarters.

The delegation set out the week after last month's visit to London by President Hugo Chavez.

Last year, the TUC was the first European trade union federation to pass a motion supporting Mr Chavez and Venezuela.

At Wednesday's meeting, organised by Hands Off Venezuela, Mr Dear described the second national congress of the new workers' federation UNT, which he had addressed on behalf of the TUC.

"There was a kind of fervour, a sense that they were creating something new," he said.

"People talked all the time about putting that slogan that we all use, 'Another world is possible,' into practice."

Not every encounter was so inspiring. The old coup-plotting neoliberal trade union federation CTV is technically still the official ILO-affiliated organisation.

The delegation visited its headquarters, "most of which is empty, pretty much in darkness, yellowed posters on the wall," recalled Mr Dear.

"We went into this room and met a group of men sat round a black reflective table. It was like a scene out of Reservoir Dogs."

The delegation asked CTV general secretary Manuel Cova why his union had been involved in the 2002 coup.

"He looked affronted and denied any involvement, denying also that he personally was involved in the coup," Mr Dear recalled.

"So we produced photos of him sat in the palace, and said: 'That's you, isn't it? And this was the coup.'

"He went: 'Ah, now I see the confusion. This wasn't a coup, it was a popular uprising against President Chavez.'

"That is the way that they justify their participation in the coup, by saying that it was a popular uprising!"

Mr Dear highlighted the contrast of the UNT headquarters saying: "There was activity everywhere.

"I know they were in the build-up to the UNT congress, but it showed that the opposition, certainly the opposition in the trade union movement, have no forces.

"Those forces that they have are not from the workers in the factories, are not from the working people, but from the elite."

His experience of the conference was also positive. "We spent the first three hours reading out socialist, Bolivarian and solidarity greetings from virtually every workplace in the whole of Venezuela.

"It was a slightly laborious but inspiring process. You can't quite imagine the TUC conference saying: 'And the people who work at Tesco in Hither Green would like to send socialist greetings to the TUC!'

"Every time there was one of these, everyone stood up on the chairs and cheered," he said.

"The cheering went on for about five minutes after every one, until everyone calmed them down.

"Then the next one was read out.

"What was clear from everybody was their absolute support for the revolutionary process that is happening. The UNT is growing at a huge rate.

"So many new union branches have been formed in the run-up to the congress, people who have moved from the CTV to the UNT, that they actually had a huge struggle with the registration process," Mr Dear said.

The TUC delegation left before the crisis split at the conference on the second day, when disagreements over the timing of new elections led to walkouts and punch-ups.

A transcript of the debriefing is available here.