In Defence of Marxism

Solidarity with the Venezuelan Revolution

The government of Chavez has carried out a number of plans which have meant an improvement for the poorest sections of society. This has led to a clash with the parasitical Venezuelan oligarchy which has organised a campaign of boycott, with factory closures, investment strikes and flight of capital. This attitude has led the workers to occupy the companies that the employers are abandoning or want to sell to multinational companies in order to speculate with the wealth of Venezuela. In this respect, the struggle of the workers of Venepal, for the expropriation under workers' control of the company, is an example which shows the way forward towards putting the whole of the wealth of the country at the service of Venezuelan society, and put an end to poverty and misery that the majority of the population suffers from. The working class is showing that it is the only class able to make the factories and the economy of country work.

The IX Congress in Euskadi of the GENERAL WORKERS' UNION declares itself on the side of the Venezuelan working class in its struggle for a better world. We join the international HANDS OFF VENEZUELA campaign, supported by thousands of trade unionists around the world  and we send special greetings to the UNT, our sister trade union confederation, which proved to be on the side of the workers at key moments. We share with them the struggle for a world which is free, fair and egalitarian. We are aware that today the consolidation of the Venezuelan revolution can only be through the creation of a socialist society, based on the participation and control by the workers and the oppressed.

This Congress expresses its active solidarity with the Venezuelan workers and students fighting to build this new society.