Comrades from eleven states across
Venezuela, including youth leaders and important factory
representatives, gathered over the weekend to attend the sixth congress
of the CMR, a congress that highlighted the immense work done over the
past year and the important steps forward in building the Marxist
tendency within the Venezuelan labour and youth movement.
After an extremely successful opening meeting on Friday (May 15),
the sixth congress of the CMR kicked off on Saturday morning in Hall A
of the Recursos Humanos building at the SIDOR plant. The fact that the
congress was being held in this massive steelworks, recently
nationalised as a result of the fierce struggle carried out by the
workers there, was highly significant and indicative of the roots that
the CMR has within the revolutionary movement. The atmosphere was one
of huge enthusiasm, but also of expectation, as the comrades were
anxious to see how the congress would develop and what conclusions
would be drawn and what decisions would be taken.
From the beginning it was clear that this congress marked a new
chapter in the building of the CMR. Beginning with a small core of
comrades in December 2003, the CMR has developed into a small but
sizeable organization that is present in most parts of Venezuela and
has built important points of support in key trade unions, in the
Occupied Factories Movement, in the student movement and amongst the
ranks of the PSUV and PSUV Youth (J-PSUV).
Throughout the weekend 140 comrades attended the congress. There
were comrades from the following 11 states: Caracas (D.F.), Anzoátegui,
Monagas, Portuguesa, Miranda, Lara, Vargas, Bolívar, Mérida, Táchira
and Zulia. The congress was being held in Ciudad Guayana located in the
east of the country, which meant that many comrades, including the
delegations from Táchira, Mérida and Zulia, had to travel more than 20
hours by bus to take part.
The composition of the congress also highlighted the base that the
CMR has built within the revolutionary movement. There was a large
delegation of worker activists from the auto industry of Anzoátegui;
not just from Mitsubishi and VIVEX, where our comrades are playing a
leading role, but also from the nearby Macusa factory, which was
occupied by its workers recently. There was also an important group of
workers from INVEVAL, the factory run under workers’ control in the
state of Miranda. Comrades from PDVSA Monagas and PDVSA Zulía were
present as well. Apart from this, workers from the big plants of the
basic industries in the state of Bolívar were there. This included
workers from the Revolutionary Front of Steel Workers in SIDOR, but
also from CVG Ferrominera, Venalum and ALCASA. Apologies were received
from workers in the occupied factories of Franelas Gotcha and INAF who
were unable to send delegates.
noticeable working class composition of the congress was supplemented
by an equally impressive participation of young students, workers and
J-PSUV activists. From Táchira a sizeable group of youth had arrived,
including Freddy Acevedo, a well-known young PSUV leader in that state.
Among the comrades from Táchira there were also a number of members of
the Comando Estudiantil Simón Bolívar who participated in the congress
as visitors. From Miranda, Mérida and Caracas, there was a number of
regional J-PSUV leaders, who have recently joined the tendency. A
delegation of young students from the Bolivarian University in Ciudad
Bolívar also participated in the congress.
Apart from this mixture of youth and workers, it is also worth
noting the presence of several veteran activists of the revolutionary
movement in Venezuela. Some of them have a past in the MIR [Movimiento
Izquierda Revolucionario], some in the Venezuelan Communist Party and
others in the La Causa R and other left-wing organisations. What all of
these comrades have in common is that they remained faithful to the
revolutionary cause during the difficult years after the fall of
Stalinism and the betrayal of the degenerated leaders of those
organisations. This explains why they have found the path into the
ranks of the CMR.
Last but not least, international guests and foreigners who are
living in Venezuela were also present in the congress. There were
comrades present from Brazil, Mexico, Denmark, Great Britain and Spain.
Comrades from Colombia who are taking the first steps towards building
the IMT in that country could not attend because of security and visa
reasons.
Discussion on perspectives
The first session on Saturday was the discussion on World
Perspectives, introduced by Jorge Martín, from the secretariat of the
IMT. A perspectives document had been prepared before the congress and
distributed and discussed in all the branches of the organization. The
branches also elected 43 delegates to the congress.
explained the depth of the present crisis of capitalism, while at the
same stressing that there is no such thing as a final crisis of
capitalism, "unless the working class takes power, capitalism will
survive the present crisis, at the expense of the workers". He
underlined how this is a classical crisis of overproduction which has
already had a deep impact on the consciousness of millions of ordinary
working class people around the world. There have already been a number
of general strikes, in Greece, in Italy and in France, and we are also
witnessing fierce defensive struggles, including factory occupations.
The period we have entered is one of revolution and counter-revolution,
sharpening of the class struggle, wars and conflicts all over the
world. It is a period that will transform the traditional mass
organisations of the labour movement, parties and trade unions, and
open up many opportunities for the ideas of revolutionary Marxism, on
condition that we are able to build a cadre organisation firmly rooted
in the working class. There were many interventions in this session,
dealing with a wide range of issues, including the situation in the US,
Colombia, the permanent revolution, etc.
Following this there was a report of the international work of the
International Marxist Tendency and its advances over the last year,
with particular attention to the development of our work on the
American continent, where we have gone from having a small group of
comrades in Mexico ten years ago to having comrades in the US, Canada,
Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador, Peru Venezuela, Brazil,
Argentina, as well as sympathisers and supporters in a few other
countries.
The report was followed by a very enthusiastic collection which
raised the extraordinary figure of BsF 10,000 (US$4,650 approx), more
than double the figure raised at the previous congress, showing that
the CMR is being built on the best revolutionary traditions of
sacrifice of the working class.
the afternoon there was a discussion on the Venezuelan revolution and
its perspectives, led off by Leonardo Badell. He stressed that the
Bolivarian revolution, despite having achieved many social
improvements, has not yet been completed. The economy remains a
capitalist economy and the state remains, in the main, the old
capitalist state of the IV Republic, as shown by the examples of the
sabotage of the workers at Inveval, the killing of Mitsubishi workers,
and many others. Unless these obstacles are overcome, the revolution
faces the danger of being overthrown. Venezuela is being hit hard by
the world economic crisis and this is putting an end to the illusion
that one could have "petro-socialism", that social progress could be
paid by oil revenue without having to deal with the question of the
ownership of the productive forces. The oligarchy is presently in a
weak state, after their defeat in the constitutional amendment
referendum. Even when its main leader Rosales was under threat of
prosecution on corruption charges and had fled the country, the
opposition could not mobilise any significant numbers on the streets.
The main danger to the revolution comes from within, the danger of the
counter-revolutionary bureaucracy and all those reformist sections of
the leadership of the Bolivarian movement who do not believe in the
ability of the working class and the revolutionary people to move
forward towards socialism, a goal which they do not really share. It is
the working class which needs to take the initiative and put itself at
the head of the revolution, expropriating the land, banks and main
industries under workers’ control and organising a new state based on
the workers’ councils and the communal councils.
A lively debate opened up with many comrades speaking from different
parts of the country. The common thread in all the interventions was
the growing frustration and impatience of the revolutionary masses, and
particularly the working class, with all the talk about socialism is
not followed up with action. Comrades from Inveval, PDVSA and
Mitsubishi described the struggle of the workers, refuting the mantra
of the reformists that "the working class has no consciousness to
advance to socialism" or even that there is no working class at all in
Venezuela.
Organisational report and tasks
The organisational report was delivered by comrade Pablo Cormenzana
who explained both the advances made in the past year and the
challenges facing the CMR. Pablo summed up the activities and
initiatives taken by the CMR over the last year. Just after the last
CMR congress in June 2008, the comrades organized a spectacular speaking tour with Alan Woods holding public meetings in 10 states of the country, reaching a total of 4,500 people attending the meetings. Then in September, young comrades of the CMR made a large-scale intervention in the founding congress of the J-PSUV,
where they presented a special programmatic document and sold it among
the 1300 youth delegates. This intervention was followed up in March
2009 with a Gathering of Young Marxists, which took place in Vivex, the occupied auto-parts factory in Barcelona, where 85 youth from all over Venezuela took part.
with around 70 activists from the Venezuelan labour movement. This
strengthened the position of the CMR in the different trade unions and
workplaces throughout Venezuela. Thus we were able to organise regional
meetings along the same lines with the oil workers in Zulia and with
the SIDOR workers in Bolivar.
Pablo also explained the enormous authority gained by the CMR
through its work within the movement of occupied factories. FRETECO
[Revolutionary Front of Occupied Factories] has been a vital tool in
this respect. Starting with INVEVAL, we have been able to connect with
workers in other occupied factories and build branches of the
organization in plants such as INAF, Gotcha and in VIVEX, a factory
occupied in November which produces windscreens for the car-industry.
The most remarkable work has been carried out by the comrades of the
CMR in the Mitsubishi factory in Barcelona, Anzoátegui state. The
occupation of that factory lasted for more than two months and included
the unsuccessful attempt on the part of the PoliAnzoategui to evict the
workers from the plant on January 29, which resulted in the killing of two workers.
In the end the comrades reached an agreement with the bosses, under
heavy pressure from the Ministry of Labour. While this agreement does
represent a partial victory for the workers who won several of their
demands, the comrades stressed that this was only a ceasefire in a war
against the multinational capitalists.
Apart from this, the comrades have dedicated a lot of time to the
publication and distribution of Marxist books and literature. In the
Caracas Book Fair in November 2008, the comrades achieved a new record,
selling material worth 13,500 Bs.F. Also the latest book by Alan Woods,
"Reformism or Revolution – Reply to Heinz Dietrich", has sold over 1500
copies in Venezuela and has been recommended publicly by president
Chávez on several occasions. The comrades took advantage of this
congress to launch the new book by Pablo Cormenzana "La batalla de
Inveval" (The Battle of Inveval), which describes in detail the history
of the occupation and expropriation of this factory which is run under
workers’ control and draws the most important lessons of this struggle.
These are just some highlights that give a flavour of the work
carried out by the CMR. Apart from that, each local branch gave a short
report, giving more details about the daily work.
Commissions on PSUV, Trade Union movement, Finances and Paper
Sunday was dedicated to commissions on different aspects of the
work. In one of them a balance-sheet of the first year since the
founding congress of the PSUV was drawn up by comrade Euler Calzadilla.
He also outlined the intervention of the Marxists in the party and in
its youth organization. This commission was particularly important,
since there are plans for a new party congress in September. The CMR
will make every effort to guarantee that this congress has a genuinely
free and open discussion about the tasks facing the Venezuelan
revolution, where the comrades will put forward a revolutionary Marxist
point of view.
has grown from a bi-monthly with a print run of 1,000 copies, to a
monthly with a print run of 5,000 copies. This gives us a much bigger
audience on a national scale. He also emphasized the need for worker
correspondents in every factory of the country.
The other two commissions also gave a good insight into the work of
the CMR, dealing with the finances and with the work in the trade-union
movement. The commission on the trade union movement was particularly
lively, bringing together the experiences of workers in struggle around
the country and showing in practice how the Venezuelan working class is
in fact in the vanguard of the world working class from the point of
view of its level of consciousness. What is missing in reality is a
proper leadership, as all the factions of the leadership of the UNT are
involved in personal disputes. As Félix Martínez stressed, the rank and
file workers want unity on the basis of a programme of struggle. The
commission discussed the forthcoming Latin American Meeting of Workers-Recovered Factories,
and also agreed to use this as a focal point for the discussion within
the Venezuelan trade union movement about unity in the struggle for
socialism.
Closure
On Sunday afternoon the congress came to an end. Before the closing
remarks by the international visitors, one of the organizers of the
congress paid tribute to the collaboration of the FRTS (Revolutionary
Front of Steelworkers in Sidor) whose help was crucial in the
organization of this congress in SIDOR. The comrade handed two Marxist
books as presents to the comrades of the FRTS who were extremely
enthusiastic about the congress and congratulated us on the successful
work carried out over the recent period and pledged to build a cell of
the CMR in the factory. Also a collection in support of the Vivex
workers was held, raising more than BsF 1100 (US$480).
Juan Ignacio Ramos from Spain and Jorge Martin from the IS of the IMT
gave some closing remarks. Juan Ignacio Ramos said that he had spent
two weeks in Venezuela, but that the place where he felt that the
revolutionary ferment could be felt most sharply was exactly in this
congress. "In this congress you cannot feel the mood of the ministries
nor of the bureaucratic functionaries, but the real revolutionary
aspirations of the exploited masses."
Jorge Martín reminded everybody about the modest beginnings of the
CMR in 2003 and about the long road from that point to these huge
congress settings of 2009. However, this is only the beginning. The CMR,
as part of the IMT, is still struggling to spread its core of cadres
and to gather within its ranks the best elements of the vanguard of the
revolutionary movement. Only with a strong Revolutionary Marxist
Current within the PSUV and the trade unions will the working class be
able to complete the revolution decisively by expropriating the
economic power of the bourgeoisie, the bankers and the landlords.
After these two closing speeches, the congress ended with a moving
rendition of the Internationale, the anthem of the world proletariat.
20th May 2009 – Article first posted at www.marxist.com
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