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Campaign against the Assassination of Workers in Venezuela

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Dan Clore

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Jun 19, 2009, 2:28:27 PM6/19/09

News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos22833.html
(en) Campaign against the assassination of workers in Venezuela
Date Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:11:36 +0300

Enough killings and repression of workers in struggle! ---- The
anarchist org. El Libertario has joined this campaign and weï¿½re trying
to divulge this initiative in an attempt to confront the hired killers
that are taking the lives of labor activists in this country. ---- This
past May 5 union leader Argenis Vasquez, organizing secretary in the
union at Toyotaï¿½s plant in Cumana, was gunned down by thugs as he left
his house. This assassination occurred just after a month-long strike
demanding improvements. The murdered worker was a leader of the protest
and key in confrontations with the company and the management. It all
looks like the unofficial ï¿½answerï¿½ by a company unable to impose its
will on the strikers.

However, not even three months have passed since the deaths of workers
Pedro Suarez and Javier Marcano in Anzoategui, in the eastern part of
the country, during a violent repression by the regional police ordered
by Governor Tarek William Saab as they tried to evict workers from that
other Japanese transnational Mitsubishi Motors. The workers were
occupying the factory as protest against the firing of 135 workers and
for their demands.

These killings come on top of the horrible assassination of the three
main leaders of the Union Nacional de Trabajadores ï¿½UNT (National
Workers Union) in the state of Aragua, also at the hand of thugs who
gunned them down this past November 27 in the vicinity of La
Encrucijada. They were Richard Gallego, president of UNTï¿½s regional
section, Luis Hernandez, union leader at Pepsi-Cola and Carlos Requena,
union delegate at Produvisa, all members of political party Unidad
Socialista de Izquierda ï¿½USI (Left Socialist Union). These labor leaders
were at the head of the union in a state with one of the largest rates
of labor conflict in the country, leading the struggle in solidarity
with workers who occupied the Colombian transnational Lacteos Alpina due
to threats of lock-down and facing harsh repression by the regional
police (then under the direction of Governor Didalco Bolivar).

There have been six workers killed during the struggle in barely five
months. In most cases weï¿½re talking about a policy of ï¿½Columbizationï¿½ of
labor conflicts: pay assassins to kill labor leaders and thus intimidate
the working class and break up their organizations. Letï¿½s not forget
that workers at Sanitarios de Maracai (in Aragua) have been the target
of various threats and selective prosecutions throughout the struggle,
that the workers at Mitsubishi Motors complained that a car in which
some workers were traveling was shot up when they were engaged in an
information campaign about the filming of the killing of the two
[Mitsubishi] workers, and that in June 2008 Gloria Palomino, labor
leader at fan manufacturer FM (Fundimeca) in Carabobo, was wounded by a
bullet in her leg during a drive by shooting while she was at the front
of an occupation at the gates of the company demanding the enforcement
of an order to rehire.

These killings (and attempts) of workers in struggle seem to define a
method of conflict ï¿½resolutionï¿½ in the midst of reigning impunity, since
to date there has not been anybody politically or intellectually
responsible for the killings and attempts found, tried or condemned. On
the contrary, there is a process to criminalize workerï¿½s protest, there
are close to one hundred workers on trial or under orders to appear in
front of tribunals for having taken part in protests.

Therefore the organizations and persons whose signatures appear below
strongly condemn this situation, we loudly raise our voice in
repudiation of the assassination of workers in struggle, by thugs paid
by the bosses as well as by the official security forces, we protest
against the rampant impunity and demand prosecution and exemplary
punishment for those politically and intellectually responsible.

We are convinced that if these crimes go unpunished we slide dangerously
towards a national situation of outlawing and silencing by force the
workerï¿½s legitimate protest and struggle.

Enough deaths of workers for fighting for their rights!

We demand of all the State powers the prosecution and punishment of
those responsible for these crimes, to that end we propose the formation
of an Independent Investigative Commission, made up of workers
organizations, human rights organizations and relatives of the victims,
with access to all the information and freedom to act on a real
investigation of the whole problem!

We demand a stop to the prosecution of the workers on trial or under
orders to present themselves to the tribunals for struggling for their
rights!

We call for the widest coordination and mobilization of workers,
students and human rights organizations, truly democratic intellectuals
and artists to unite our efforts in a large national and international
campaign against these crimes!

INITIAL SIGNATURES

Asamblea de Trabajadores de la Toyota 15/5, Cumanï¿½; Carlos
Farï¿½as,Secretario de Prensa y Propaganda de SINTRATOYOTA; Sindicato de
Trabajadores de la NESTLï¿½, Sindicato Bolivariano de Trabajadores de
CATIVEN; Sindicato ï¿½nico de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de MANPA;
Sindicato de Trabajadores de SANITARIOS MARACAY; Sindicato de
Trabajadores de GENERAL MILLS de Venezuela (DIABLITOS UNDER WOOD);
Sindicato de Trabajadores Bolivarianos Inversiones SEABOOCS C.A.;
Sindicato ï¿½nico de Trabajadores de la Universidad Central de Venezuela
(SUTRA-UCV); Sindicato de Obreros del Comedor Estudiantil de la
Universidad Central de Venezuela (SOCE-UCV); Sindicato Nacional de
Trabajadores de la UCV (SINATRA-UCV); Emilio Bastida y Marcos Guzmï¿½n,
Coordinadores Regionales de la UNION NACIONAL DE TRABAJADORES (UNT) de
Aragua; Orlando Chirino, Coordinador Nacional de la UNT y por la
Corriente Clasista, Unitaria, Revolucionaria y Autï¿½noma (CCURA);
Sindicato Profesional de Insecticidas y Conexos del estado Aragua; Josï¿½
Bodas, Secretario General del FEDEPETROL (Anzoï¿½tegui); Frank Hernï¿½ndez
del Sindicato de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la PEPSICOLA; Cristhian
Pereira, secretario del Sindicato de Trabajadores de CHRYLER AUTOMOTRIZ;
Stalin Pï¿½rez Borges, Coordinador Nacional de la UNT; Tendencia Clasista
Revolucionaria (TCR), SIDOR (Guayana); Centro de Estudiantes de
Sociologï¿½a de la Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV); Consejeros
Estudiantiles de la Escuela de Sociologï¿½a de la Universidad Central de
Venezuela; Frente Unido de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras por la Vida, la
Salud y el Empleo (FUTRAVISEM); Sismely Carrillo, Secretario General de
SINUTRASUFAR; Juan Caracas, Secretario de Seguridad y Vigilancia de
SIMBOTRAS BAN HEEL; Lisandro Noguera, Secretario de Finanzas de
SINTRACORSUCA; Hï¿½ctor Rï¿½os, Secretario de SINTRASELVA; Josï¿½ Salcedo,
Secretario de Organizaciï¿½n de SINUTRAFORJARAGUA; ï¿½lvaro Ramos,
Secretario de SINUTRAFORJARAGUA; Roberto Bolï¿½var, Secretario de Reclamos
de SINTRAEMPROQUI; Hï¿½ctor Bolï¿½var y Andrï¿½s Arriaza, Secretarios del
Sindicato ï¿½nico de LA GIRALDA; Pedro Garrido. Secretario de Organizaciï¿½n
del Sindicato de ALUCENCA; David Hernï¿½ndez, Secretario General del
Sindicato VASOS VENEZOLANOS; Josï¿½ Contreras, Secretario de Actas del
Sindicato de VASOS SELVA; Luis Jimï¿½nez. Secretario de Organizaciï¿½n de
SUNTRACALIPEIMA; Luis Hernï¿½ndez. Secretario de Organizaciï¿½n de
TONOROGAS; Rafael Figueroa, Secretario de SINTRASOBIA; Simï¿½n Mollejï¿½n,
Secretario General de SINCROSOMA, Rafael Correa, Vocal de SINCROSOMA;
Luis Torrealba, Delegado de Trabajadores de CATIVEN (Anzoï¿½tegui);
Periï¿½dico PROCESO; Asociaciï¿½n Latinoamericana de Economistas Marxistas
(ALEM); Patricio Silva, Coordinador Regional de Misiï¿½n Sucre, estado
Aragua; Radio Comunitaria ECOS 93.9 FM (Mï¿½rida), Colectivo Editor de El
Libertario; ... (more signatures)

Send your signature to v.contrarep...@yahoo.com with your name,
the name of your organization (labor, student, political, human rights,
community, artist, intellectual etc.) if you belong to any, your city
and country.

For more info - in Spanish, English & other languages - about Venezuelan
situation, see
http://www.nodo50.org/ellibertario.
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
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--
Dan Clore

My collected fiction, _The Unspeakable and Others_:
(Wait for the new edition: http://hplmythos.com/ )
Lord Weï¿½rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

Strange pleasures are known to him who flaunts the
immarcescible purple of poetry before the color-blind.
-- Clark Ashton Smith, "Epigrams and Apothegms"

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