[Educationforall] spam con huevos labor news, views and concerns, 2.28.12-II

Wed Feb 29 07:41:59 UTC 2012

Venezuela: worker-president of ALCASA removed‏  
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
http://www.marxist.com/elio-sayago-alcasa-dismissed.htm
Venezuela: worker-president of ALCASA removedWritten by In Defence of Marxism Tuesday, 28 February 2012 
On Saturday, February 25, Venezuelan vice-president announced the dismissal of Elio Sayago, worker-president of the state-owned aluminum smelter ALCASA, and his replacement by Angel Marcano. This decision represents an assault of the bureaucracy within the Bolivarian revolution against workers' control and has caused outrage amongst revolutionary activists in Guayana and throughout Venezuela.Elio Sayago, a long standing revolutionary activist, had been appointed as worker-president of ALCASA in May 2010, as part of a plan to introduce elements of workers' control and management in all the companies of the state-owned CVG complex of basic industries in the state of Guayana. This was the second attempt to introduce workers' control in ALCASA. An earlier attempt led by Carlos Lanz, who had been appointed by president Chavez, was defeated due to a combination of bureaucratic pressures and sabotage and also mistakes made in the way the experience was run. The different companies which make up CVG Guayana (Venalum, Sidor, ALCASA, etc) had become a battle field between revolution and bureaucracy. Those groups of revolutionary activists advocating workers' control and management were facing a powerful network of interests linking up the right wing of the Bolivarian movement, bureaucratic "Bolivarian" trade union leaders, opposition-aligned adeco trade unionists, private businesses and multinationals as we described in detail in July last year (see Workers' control vs bureaucrats, Mafia and multinationals in Bolivar). In an interview with the Marxist paper Lucha de Clases, Elio Sayago explained the conspiracy against workers' control at ALCASA, and warned how this had the support of elements right at the top of the state bureaucracy and the national government (see:  Workers’ Control, Challenges and the Revolutionary Government: An Interview with Elio Sayago, President of CVG Alcasa)An article in Venezuelanalysis describes how "on hearing the news, workers quickly organised in defence of their president, calling an assembly at the factory and issuing a statement strongly rejecting the government’s “disastrous” decision."The Coordination of groups and nucleous of peoples' power in Guayana, representing a wide range of left wing, rank and file, Bolivarian revolutionary organisations has issued a call "to struggle to defeat this strategy which goes against the interests of workers and of the Bolivarian revolution led by president Chavez". Elio Sayago rejected the dismissal, as he explained that he had not been officially notified, and had only found out about it on the TV news. “It is my responsibility to alert you all that this is not a person taking control in Alcasa, but rather a political and economic group... a group that for practically two years has tried to obstruct efforts to consolidate workers’ control, they used violence and sowed terror in the industry,” explained Sayago.It is not by chance that this decision has been taken just as president Chavez, who appointed Elio Sayago as worker-president of ALCASA, had left the country for Cuba for medical reasons. Once again, the only way to defend the revolution is for the workers to take power and defeat the "Bolivarian" bureaucracy which is nothing more than the fifth column of the capitalists and imperialists within the revolutionary movement. 
Dismissal of Worker-President in Alcasa, Venezuela, Provokes OutrageFeb 27th 2012, by Rachael BoothroydWorker-president of CVG Alcasa, Elio Sayago (Agencies)Caracas, February 27th 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – A government decision to dismiss Elias Sayago from his post as worker-president at the state aluminium company, CVG Alcasa, has been met with widespread rejection from workers and social movements alike.As president of the worker-controlled factory since May 2010, Sayago enjoyed substantial support from employees, who have qualified the move as an “attack” against their workers’ control project at the plant.The news was made public in an unexpected announcement on Saturday by Vice-president Elias Jaua, who revealed that Sayago would be replaced by Angel Marcano immediately.Making the announcement just two days after President Chavez left the country to undergo an abdominal operation in Cuba, Jaua also disclosed government plans to invest over US$90 million in the company in a bid to increase production.Alcasa was nationalised in 2009 after workers fought to keep the factory open when its owners left. Considered vital for the development of workers’ control within the revolution, the company forms part of Socialist Plan Guayana, a government project aimed at shifting the predominant “mode of production” towards a socialist orientation.On hearing the news, workers quickly organised in defence of their president, calling an assembly at the factory and issuing a statement strongly rejecting the government’s “disastrous” decision. In a letter published by Venezuelan alternative news site Aporrea, workers charged the government with trying to implement a policy which favours the Venezuelan oligarchy and vowed to oppose the attempts to replace Sayago.“We have decided to call on the people of Guayana, its organisations, communal councils, nuclei and collectives to fight against and defeat this disastrous strategy” reads the statement.Alcasa employees have also accused the upper echelons of the government of engineering a “coup” to replace Sayago with Marcano, who they view as a reformist and a favourite of Bolivar state governor, Rangel Gomez. According to the workers, Marcano was also one of the leaders of a lockout at the factory last year, which saw the state company closed for 34 days in an attempt to remove Sayago from his post.“It’s a state coup against workers’ control,” said Denny Sucre, a member of the Workers Socialist Front at the factory. “That group, the M-21 and the FBT (Bolivarian Workers Front), union branches connected to Governor Rangel Gomez’s political group, have failed throughout the past two years, even though they used every trick in the book to destroy Elio Sayago’s management”.Sucre’s comments echo other criticisms, with various worker collectives adding their voices to the protest throughout yesterday and today. Despite the news however, workers are adamant that the battle is not lost.“This is a battle that we all have to fight... (we must) build unity for the struggle, which will only become meaningful with the conscious and democratic participation of the workers in the taking of their decisions, this is the only way to save Socialist Plan Guayana,” said workers from the Socialist Tide collective within Chavez’s United Socialist Party (PSUV).In a press conference yesterday morning, Sayago confirmed that he had not been informed of the decision to dismiss him prior to it being announced on state television.“I had not been previously notified, as I still haven’t. As such, I will keep working until I receive official information,” he said.Citing Marcano’s role in the lockout, Sayago went on to describe the new president’s appointment as a “contradiction in terms”.“It is my responsibility to alert you all that this is not a person taking control in Alcasa, but rather a political and economic group...a group that for practically two years has tried to obstruct efforts to consolidate workers’ control, they used violence and sowed terror in the industry,” explained Sayago.The Venezuelan Communist Party has also opposed the move and is expected to release an official statement shortly. Source URL (retrieved on 28/02/2012 - 7:01am): http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6833@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 
Material appearing here is distributed without profit or monitory gain to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the material for research and educational purposes. This is in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. section 107..
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

Listen to Native Voice One http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/nv1/ppr/index.shtml

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/educationforall/attachments/20120228/8dbdb6b3/attachment.html>