The ITV (Intersectorial of Venezuelan Workers) emerged as a space of articulation of workers´ struggles
In the second semester of last year, a sector of Venezuelan workers began to mobilize in response to the policies of Maduro´s government, which imposed the necessity of raising an organism to articulate, organize and develop the struggles taking place nation-wide.
This was, in perspective, the great virtue of the ITV, which was going to comply with its premises so long as it maintained itself as an organism of the working class, with autonomy and independence and at the service of a vital struggle in favor of a vast majority of the population that has suffered, through inhumane attacks, the complete liquidation of the important conquests related to wages, workers´ purchasing power, collective bargaining and respect for unions, today eliminated “de facto” for not submitting to the Madurist bureaucracy.
In this sense, the documents published by the ITV founding event, held on November 7 and 8, 2018, with the participation of many workers from different states of the country, included a proclamation and plans of struggle and action, which were partially carried our, with the highlight of the march held on November 28 on Universidad de Caracas Avenue.
Class independence, the condition to save the ITV
2019 began with a political offensive by part of the right-wing opposition in the National Assembly, placing on the table the scenario of the fall of Maduro´s delegitimized government though a subterfuge of an interpretation of the Constitution, with the possibility of a foreign military intervention, and the United States at the head of it. No doubt, this posed a great challenge for the ITV from many angles, especially keeping itself involved in the framework of the crude reality workers are going through, acting according to its principles, in which class autonomy and independence are fundamental, more so taking the plurality of the ITV.
It is important to put all of the above in context, to warn of the liquidation of the space that may result from the fact that a majority of the leadership of the ITV seek to position this working class space under the orders of Guaido´s plans. They argue that this would contribute to the end of Maduro´s usurpation of power, and thus place their efforts in favor of Juan Guaido and the entire plot of Donald Trump and the Lima Group, which are factors of transnational capitalist power, with whom workers will find no solution, and whose interests, just like the Maduro leadership´s, are invested in the struggle for power which takes place on the basis of workers continuing to play the cost of the crisis.
From Marea and other left forces who contributed in launching the IVT, we have insisted on the necessity of discussing the political situation in Venezuela as a whole, and see what level of synthesis we can reach to advance from there to organizing the coming struggles, understanding that the challenge of the ITV is to turn into a factor capable of relating to the country, from the perspective of workers and the people. The disastrous situation that workers face today is chiefly responsibility of the Maduro government. But the “Plan Pais” that Guaido has presented, condemns workers to continue suffering the consequences of the crisis, on top of being with it an interventionist plan that we oppose.
The February 26 plenary, disfigured in its objective
After strong debates, we agreed on holding a plenary on February 26, in which the initial consensus was to discuss two points: Political situation and then a plan of action to be discussed in commissions.
The union leaders who pose as leadership of the ITV disfigured the plenary and, disrespecting the agreements, not only changed its character at the last minute, but also ended up inviting members of other spaces, like the Frente Amplio or the Plataforma de Conflictos, turning the event into a Guadista rally, in which the same people who call themselves union leaders completely disfigured the class character of the ITV, certifying the scarce confidence that some of these pseudo leaders have in the working class as a political subject, clearly showing the reflexes of those who occupied the bureaucratic comfort of holding union office but are incapable of carrying out real debates with co-workers.
Guaido´s Plan Pais is the structure of another authoritarian, undemocratic and elitist proposal, in which workers have nothing to gain. On the contrary, we should prepare to confront it in its eventual application with the same dedication with which we confront the austerity of PSUV-Military-Government. Therefore, whoever speaks of being a representative of the workers, and says that the pole coordinated from the United States is an alternative solution to the crisis is doing something similar to what the bureaucrats of the SCBT (Bolivarian Socialist Central of Workers) do, being the scabs of the other part that the castration of the labor movement rests on and does so many favors to the corrupt political leaders.
Advocating a “general strike” today, without clarifying that workers should not support Maduro or Guaido, is to play in favor of the later and entering a trap in which our class end up being capitalized by those who, from their economically privileged condition, act in favor of their interests which are opposite to ours. This is the great danger that hangs over the ITV, which most of its leaders are perpetrating.
Marea Socialista will continue intervening in the ITV for the independence of the working class
We make this warning from Marea Socialista, and call on the vast majority of the population, which is struggling to survive on its wages, to trust only in ourselves. At the same time, our disposition will always be to organize with the exercise of real workers´ and peoples´ democracy and prepare to break out of the false polarization that only brings poison and the continuation of out problems.
Being founding members of the ITV, we will defend the emergence of a workers´ space with class independence. Just as we have opposed the actions of the CSBT leadership, who have become executors of policies that starve workers and liquidate labor rights, and scabs of the Maduro government, we firmly oppose that a few union leaders try to turn the ITV into a platform of support for the interventionist, war-mongering and bourgeois policies of Guaido.
Marea Socialista calls on workers to struggle with us to form an autonomous working-class organization. For a working-class program.
Currently, we are carrying out important struggles, like the writ of protection that our organization has presented at the Supreme Justice Tribunal, for the policies contemplated in Art. 91 of the Constitution -wages equal to the cost of living, which is over 300 dollars, while the government maintains a wage of 5 dollars. At the same time, to achieve a sovereign solution and avoid war, through a consultative referendum, with a new National Electoral Council to relegitimize all public powers, we are participating in the Alliance of the Consultative Referendum.
In the struggle of the working class to tale power, we must promote mobilization and organization. This is the call we make from Marea Socialsita. Come organize with us.
Marea Socialista / Gustavo Martínez Rubio