Venezuela formally asked U.S. authorities to extradite an escaped prisoner who was responsible for the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976, in which 73 persons were killed. The former prisoner, Luis Posada Carriles, is a Cuban exile who had escaped a Venezuelan prison in 1985. For a while he lived in Panama, where he was also captured for planning an assassination of Cuba’s President Fidel Castro in 2000. He was then pardoned in Panama, though, and entered the U.S. about a month ago.

Venezuela’s Vice-President, José Vicente Rangel, said, “We going to step up our demands for extradition.” “I hope Mr. Bush will take note of his own anti-terrorism policies and hand over Posada Carriles,” added Rangel.

Posada Carriles’ attorney says that the U.S. should deny the extradition request because he was acquitted in Venezuela of the bombing of the Cuban airliner. Also, if deported to Cuba, he would face possible execution.

Rangel pointed out that it is no wonder that Posada Carriles is requesting asylum in the U.S., “because during all of the acts that he participated in he did so while he was an employee of the CIA.”

On Monday, Cuba’s Castro said that if the U.S. denies the extradition request, then it would effectively be backing international terrorism. He also noted that Bush once said that whoever harbors a terrorist is as guilty of terrorism as the terrorist himself.

According to Associated Press, an unidentified U.S. official said that Posada is “excludable” from the U.S. because of his involvement in the plane bombing.

Carriles Posada, who is 77 years old and dual Venezuelan-Cuban citizenship, is a veteran of the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and has also been connected to a string of bombings in Cuban tourist locations in 1997. He escaped from a Venezuelan prison in 1985, disguised as a priest, while prosecutors appealed his acquittal.

The extradition request is one of several that Venezuela has pending in the U.S. Two other requests involve Venezuelan citizens who are wanted for the bombing of the Colombian and Spanish consulates in Venezuela in February 2003.

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The decree of expropriation of Venepal in January this year was a major turning point in the Venezuelan revolution. When Chavez announced the decree, in the Ayacucho room of the presidential palace, the same place where the coup organisers swore in their “president” Pedro Carmona on April 12th, 2002, he made an appeal to "workers' leaders to follow this path". He added, “any factories closed or abandoned, we are going to take them over. All of them.”

CNV workers in struggle, August 2003 Photo : Frédéric Lévêque

The decision to nationalise Venepal and put it under the administration of the workers, and the very high profile way in which the decision was taken, was bound to have an impact amongst other groups of workers in the same situation. As part of the relentless campaign of the Venezuelan capitalists against the Chavez government they became engaged in a campaign of economic sabotage. This campaign reached its peak during the bosses’ lockout in December 2002 and January 2003. Some factories were closed for up to two months. After the failure of the lockout, soundly defeated by the action of the workers and the massive Bolivarian demonstration on January 23, the bosses tried to make the workers pay the price for the lockout, by not paying their wages, delaying their payment, etc. Some factories were declared bankrupt. In some cases the bankruptcy was genuine (the companies having been ruined by the reckless two month long lockout), in some other cases it was a tool of the economic sabotage against the government.

This created a situation in the spring and summer of 2003 of heightened class struggle. In many factories workers organised democratic unions and fought for recognition. The bosses replied with repression, making union organisers redundant, etc. In a number of cases the bosses just declared bankruptcy and abandoned the premises, forcing the workers to occupy them and take them over in order to demand payment of their wages and to defend their jobs and livelihoods. Venepal was the highest profile case, where the workers were better organised. They occupied the factory in July 2003 and ran Venepal under workers’ control for 77 days. After an uneasy truce, the bosses abandoned production again in September 2004. The workers occupied again and after more than 4 months of struggle Chavez decreed the expropriation of Venepal under joint management of the workers' and the state (in which the workers' have a majority of representatives in the company's board).

But at the time of the occupation of Venepal in the summer of 2003 there were a number of other factories that were also occupied: Industrial de Perfumes, a perfume making company in Caracas; the textile plant Fenix in Guarico; and the Constructora Nacional de Valvulas in Los Teques, Miranda, a factory that used to produce valves for the state owned oil company PDVSA. There were other similar conflicts at the time, but the workers in these three, together with the Venepal workers, achieved a degree of unity. There were joint meetings and declarations, and two joint demonstrations in Caracas in October 1. Unfortunately, by the time a certain amount of coordination between these different struggles was reached, the conflict in Venepal, which had the largest number of workers, had already been settled. The movement, in some cases after 4 months of occupation, progressively fizzled out. Tiredness, the need to look for other sources of income, the lack of a clear perspective of a way out of the struggle – with all these factors combined, the number of workers effectively occupying these factories declined, and the struggle basically died out. The leadership of the newly created UNT trade union confederation never put forward a clear plan of struggle. Though solidarity was forthcoming from other unions to the strike fund, there was never a well-organised national campaign in support of the occupied factories.

The nationalisation of Venepal in January this year had the effect of reviving some of these struggles. The first group of workers to re-occupy their factories again was at the CNV in the working class city of Los Teques, in the state of Miranda, right next to Caracas. On February 17, a group of 63 CNV workers decided to take over the installation, and unlike in 2003, when they just set up a picket line outside the installation, this time they occupied the premises (against the advice of a representative of the Ministry of Labour present).

The Constructora Nacional de Valvulas has been producing high-pressure valves for the state owned oil company PDVSA for more than 30 years. The CNV had a monopoly in the sector and was selling overpriced valves to PDVSA, sometimes in unnecessary amounts. This was possible because of the close relationship between the owner of the CNV, Andres Sosa Pietri and the managers and directors in PDVSA. In fact the relationship was so close (and corrupt) that Sosa Pietri himself in the 1990s became a director of PDVSA. From his position he was awarding his company PDVSA exclusive contracts for the making and maintenance of the industry's high pressure valves.

Photo : Frédéric Lévêque

Sosa Pietri belongs to one of the traditional families of the Venezuelan oligarchy, popularly known as "Los Amos del Valle" ("The Owners of the Valley"). His policy advice for the oil industry was clear. He advocated PDVSA to become a private company, to adopt a "market friendly strategy, withdraw from OPEC, and ally ourselves with our main commercial partners [i.e. the oil multinationals]". It is therefore no surprise that he actively campaigned against the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998, because one of his main promises was to maintain the state owned character of the oil industry and to pursue a policy of strengthening of OPEC in order to achieve higher oil prices. At the head of his own right wing Liberal Party he joined the Democratic Coordinator, the umbrella group of the Venezuelan opposition which went on to organise the coup against Chavez in April 2002, which he wholeheartedly supported.

After the defeat of the coup, he formed yet another political party, called Alliance for Freedom. On December 9th, 2002, as part of the bosses’ lockout to overthrow Chavez, he closed down the installations of the CNV, leaving more than 100 working class families without any income. After the failure of the bosses’ lockout he refused to pay wages to the workers. After months of struggle and negotiations, in May 2003 a group of workers decided to occupy the entrance to the factory in order to prevent any finished products or machinery from being taken out of the premises. Sosa Pietri went to the tribunals which ruled in his favour. In August 2003 there was an attempt to remove the workers, but thanks to the solidarity of the labour movement and community organisations from the town this was prevented.

The workers have now set up a solidarity committee, and a meeting took place in Los Teques in order to organise solidarity with the struggle. The CNV workers are pointing out that CNV has a strategic importance from the point of view of the oil industry and that therefore it should be expropriated and put under workers' control and management, so that it can produce valves for PDVSA. The case is clear, the owner of the factory is a participant in the coup in 2002, he closed down the factory during the bosses lockout and has consistently refused to pay the workers the wages they are owed. As with many other workers' struggles taking place in Venezuela today, this is not only a matter of a fight between the workers and the bosses, but it has also a clear political character, of a struggle between the Bolivarian Revolution and the oligarchy, the owners of industry, the land and the banks, that use all possible means at their disposal to sabotage it.

Following the example of Venepal, the CNV should be expropriated under workers' control and management. This is the way forward towards the socialism of the 21st century of which Chavez has been talking about.

We appeal to the trade union movement of the world and all those who support the Bolivarian revolution to show their solidarity with the workers of the CNV (in struggle for nearly 2 years now), and to ask the Venezuelan authorities to act decisively to fulfil the just demands of the workers.

Send messages of solidarity to:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

and messages to the Venezuelan President This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and the Ministry of Labour This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (you can use the model resolution proposed by the workers themselves: http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/support_cnv_workers.htm )

If you can make a financial donation to the strike fund, please send it to the following account 0039-01-0100309746 Banco Industrial de Venezuela under the name of Jorge Paredes y Rosalio Castro for the Resistance Fund, or contact the Hands Off Venezuela campaign for more details.

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In historical retrospective, very often it is sane and healing for us revolutionaries to recollect, to re-assess, to deepen that what we have done, what we have said, and to see whether our actions and thoughts were within the main stream of human emancipation.

In many commentaries, over the past six years, we have followed the revolutionary sparks and trails of the Bolivarian Revolution toward a still possible Socialism, towards real Human Emancipation.

In fact, since 25 years already, here in Venezuela, as university professor of political science and philosophy, having taught numerous active Bolivarians today in key positions, I am doing precisely this in revolutionary deed and emancipatory word. Already in 1986, at the University of The Andes, Mérida, Venezuela, in my text-book, Teoría-Práxis de la Revolución-Emancipación, I taught my students about the socialist basics of the coming Bolivarian Revolution.  (See: http://www.geocities.com/juschmi/teopind.html )

To demonstrate how near we are to the audacious drums of the Bolivarian Revolution, allow me just to quote some encouraging thoughts that already haunted many a counter-revolutionary in Venezuela, on Internet and elsewhere. On August 15, 2003, I explained:

"Exactly because of the desperation of the national 'golpistas', of the urgency for the USA to have "regime change" here, and officially trying to connect Chávez to 'terrorists', to the guerrilla forces in Colombia, and even to 'Arab terrorists', and probably having supplied the golpistas with all the necessary funds, arms and technological equipment, this time, the correlation of forces spells a fierce, violent confrontation, that will verge on civil war, exactly what the USA and the 'opposition' need for foreign military intervention."

Already then sensing the historic current of the Bolivarian Revolution, I continued:

"Until now, the government intelligently has evaded this scenario, this trap, however, when full spectrum dominance is hell bent on annihilating a most dangerous opponent, a paradigm for the oppressed world, then, the enemy himself chooses the weapons of "peace", the forms of violence, and the only thing left for Venezuela is full spectrum self-defense, with its democratic constitution in the hands of millions of people. Thus, friends, beware, we are entering a decisive era of Venezuelan and Latin American history. Jacta alea est, the fascist dice are cast. " ( http://www.aporrea.org/dameletra.php?docid=4277)

Already a few months before, on Labor Day, May 1, 2003, in "A specter is haunting the Fourth Reich -- the specter of Chávez!", I urged that we should "learn to act and think the revolution", in other words that we should develop our own revolutionary praxis and theory:

"Creatively, the Bolivarian Revolution has to be acted, be thought, be formulated transhistorically, it needs a Práxis-Theory, that considers political economy, social class differences, the labor struggle, its internal, intensive "class struggle", a philosophy that surpasses all forms of global lies, ideology and mind control". http://www.trinicenter.com/selfnews/arc4-2003.html

That the USA has planned long ago to intervene in Venezuela and Latin America, with military power, should it be necessary for its own economic, imperialist survival and struggle to retain world hegemony, is scientifically sure, there should not be any doubts about this issue. Within the very Bolivarian movement, it is counter-revolutionary to use this threat as an instrument to brake the deepening of the revolutionary process.

As Simon Bolivar had warned already, this Yankee plague is simply there, it is our daily bread; as long as the Bolivarian Revolution exists, and is advancing towards global emancipation, so long the Damocles Sword of North American Fascism will hover over our revolutionary heads.

On August 8, 2004, in a VHeadline commentary, I explained this reality, that is, "The Emancipatory Quintessence of the Bolivarian Revolution", as follows:

"In the short term, before the total world economic collapse, the brutal conquest of the remaining reserves of oil, water, oxygen and biodiversity is a top priority for the well-being of the Super Power, for the USA; also this is relevant with reference to its possible competitors for world hegemony, Europe, China, India, etc."

We explained that all these, reflected in Bush's current global economic and military "new wars", directly accelerate the Bolivarian Revolution toward higher dimensions of armed self-defense and popular resistance:

"All these affect the Bolivarian Revolution, are globalizing its revolutionary efforts, make it an emancipatory paradigm for the world. Its praxis becomes the totality of global workers' resistance, its theory is permanent revolution.

This can be verified in its educational, political, economical and social projects, can be seen in the ferocious attacks of the global mass media, in the conspiracies, in the danger of violent US intervention."

Logically, I concluded:

"However, global fascism will have to annihilate the whole iceberg, in order to stop its "NO" on August 15, 2004 .... and all that what will follow thereafter: the still possible Emancipation of Humanity." (http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=22333)

In his new book, "The Venezuelan Revolution: A Marxist Perspective". Alan Woods, introduced by Rob Sewell, confirms the above analyses, indicating that currently the Bolivarian Revolution finds itself at the crossroads.

He writes: “Right from the beginning we have pointed out that the Venezuelan revolution has begun, but it is not finished, and it cannot be finished until the power of the Venezuelan oligarchy is broken”, states Alan Woods. “This means the expropriation of the land, banks and big industry under workers’ control and management. It means the arming of the people. It means the setting up of action committees linked up on a local, regional and national basis. It means that the working class must organize independently and strive to place itself at the head of the nation. And it means that the Marxist tendency must strive to win over the majority of the revolutionary movement.” (See: http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/venezuela_revolution_book.htm )

Rob Sewell describes that what we have called the Bolivarian tip of the global ice-berg of permanent revolution, as follows:

"However, without doubt Latin America is currently in the vanguard of world revolution, and within the Latin American continent, Venezuela stands out sharply as the country most affected by this process. It would be no exaggeration to say that Venezuela is now the key to the international situation and the developing world revolution."

Yes, indeed, in agreement with Woods and Sewell, we are crossing the bourgeois, national, democratic revolutionary Rubicon, as vanguard of the exodus out of capitalism and imperialism, via our own socialism, toward global, human emancipation.

However, this path does not exist as yet, as we near our emancipatory goal, the path is being created, gradually our socialism comes into being and existence.

This President Hugo Chavez Frias formulated as follows: “I am convinced, and I think that this conviction will be for the rest of my life, that the path to a new, better and possible world, is not capitalism, the path is socialism, that is the path: socialism, socialism.” (Also see:
http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/german_easter_marches_venezuela.htm )

However, there is no easy walk to freedom, the serpentine path toward Socialism, how to make and think the revolution, how to get rid of private property of the means of production and of communication, how to realize world socialism, Marx and Engels already have explained to us in 1850:

“... it is our interest and our task to make the revolution permanent, until all more or less possessing classes have been forced out of their position of dominance, until the proletariat has conquered state power, and the association of proletarians, not only in one country but in all the dominant countries of the world, has advanced so far that competition among the proletarians of these countries has ceased and that at least the decisive productive forces are concentrated in the hands of the proletarians. For us the issue cannot be the alteration of private property but only its annihilation, not the smoothing over of class antagonisms but the abolition of classes, not the improvement of existing society but the foundation of a new one.”
(Address to the Central Committee to the Communist League, March 1850).

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