HOV at CWU Annual Conference 2008

The Communications Workers Union (CWU) invited Hands Off Venezuela along with other Latin American solidarity campaigns and guest speakers to speak at a Latin America fringe meeting held on the opening day of the Union's Annual Conference in Liverpool last Sunday. The CWU is Britain's largest trade union for the communications industry with 250,000 members, including post office and British Telecom workers. The CWU renewed their affiliation to Hands Off Venezuela, reaffirming the importance of the Venezuelan revolution to workers here in the UK.

William Roche from the Hands Off Venezuela campaign summarized many of the most important developments that have taken place in Venezuela over the past year. He explained that whilst enormous improvements to living standards have been made thanks to the social welfare programs funded by oil revenues, the key to transforming Venezuelan society in the long term lays in the factory occupation movement, the communal councils, and in the building of a revolutionary party that will implement, at a national level, everything that is being fought for at a grass roots level. The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which held it's founding congress earlier this year, could fulfil that role. A fifth of the country's population has already joined the party membership, and the party could win seats in the regional elections later this year.

William also outlined the developments in the Venezuelan labour movement, in particular the victorious campaign waged by the workers of Venezuela's largest steel plant, SIDOR. Their campaign was so effective that they pressurised President Chavez into nationalising the plant, despite the diplomatic problems created by pushing out Argentinean / Italian majority shareholders.

But, William continued,every advancement that has been made toward building socialism of the 21^st century has been met with fierce opposition. Inside Venezuela, a campaign of economic sabotage by local elites is attempting to create chaos. The US is stepping up it's media campaign of slander and disinformation. And Colombia, the regional ally of the US, made a cross border attack on Ecuador, killing 23, including one of the leaders of FARC engaged in hostage release talks with Venezuela. A new US military base is being planned in Colombia to be built right on the border of Venezuela. But most worryingly, is the reformation of the US Navy's Fourth Fleet, which will patrol Latin American and Caribbean seas under the pretense of fighting terror and Narco trafficking. At the same time a pretext for some kind of US military intervention into Venezuela is being prepared in the US Congress in a bid to add Venezuela to their list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorist activities. Accusations that have been made but never proved true.

With Venezuela under increased attack, William appealed for continued support for the revolution, and to the Hands Off Venezuela campaign. He finished by recalling how workers in Venezuela, when asked how British workers could best help defend the revolution, they replied; "by building revolution in your own countries".

This final statement by the speaker led to a round of applause from the audience of trade union activists, who followed up with a round of interesting and inspiring contributions and questions.