Mitsubishi, the Japanese multinational has launched a bosses' lockout in an attempt to smash the workers' union. The Venezuelan government must expropriate the company to be run under workers' and community control! The PSUV must mobilize for the nationalization of MMC!
On August 24th, the multinational automaker Mitsubishi Motor Company (MMC) issued a statement announcing the "suspension of operations" at its factory in Barcelona, Venezuela (in the state of Anzoátegui). The excuse for this move by the multinational is "the very low efficiency of our operation is due to the high level of absenteeism, indiscipline, lawlessness and aggression in a group of workers." These slanders against these workers represent a new attack on workers and their families and are part of the campaign to break the resistance of workers and destroy the Singetram union, organized mainly by workers from the plant, which has fought tirelessly to defend the interests of the workers against exploitation by the multinational.
As in April 2002 during the coup, the management of the multinational is trying to criminalize workers and deceive the people. Just as the bourgeois tried to blame President Chavez for the instability in the country, they are now trying to blame the union Singetram for the factory closure. As noted by the newspaper El Tiempo de Anzoategui in a recent edition: "For now it is proposed to negotiate while they warn that the only way for the resumption of activities is to ensure the safety of all workers in an atmosphere of peace and to achieve optimal levels of productivity. They emphasize that they are not willing to negotiate with the current union president Felix Martinez, but directly with the Minister of Labor, as provided by law.”
This lockout is a new attempt to destroy the Singetram union for defending the claims of workers and enforcing the constitution. The entire socialist Bolivarian revolutionary movement cannot allow this lockout against the workers of MMC, which is a threat to the movement of workers throughout Anzoátegui and all of Venezuela.
On January 9th of this year, auto workers at MMC took over the Barcelona plant in response to the attempted dismissal of the 137 contract workers from Induservis and to improve working conditions and other employment benefits. In response to the occupation, Anzoátegui state police, along with “escualido” judges acting in cahoots with the company, tried to evict the workers violently. Only through the heroic resistance of the workers, who withstood the police onslaught of tear gas, gunfire and bullets which killed comrades Pedro Suarez and Jose Marcano, the occupation was not defeated by the employers. After sixty days of occupation, the workers decided to return control of the factory to the bosses after a deal brokered by the Labor Ministry, in which most of the workers' demands were recognized.
However, these agreements, as evidenced by this new aggression against the workers, were merely the prelude to a new attack against them. It also shows, as the CMR noted at the time, that attempts by the Ministry of Labor to reconcile the interests of employers and workers at MMC can only embolden the bosses renew their attacks on the workers. It is impossible to reconcile the conflicting class interests and much less so in the middle of a revolution. Attempts by reformists in this direction will be resounding failures and can only serve to weaken the confidence of workers and the people in their own strength and their faith in the revolutionary government led by President Chavez. This closure is part of the campaign that both the national and international bourgeoisie have launched against the Venezuelan people and government and seeks to destroy the revolutionary organizations and undermine the progress of the revolution. That’s why they kill union leaders and peasants, and strike back at a collective that has been at the forefront of dealing with their plans and defending the revolution such as the workers of MMC.
This closure, like many other companies such as Vivex, INAF, Gotcha and thousands of others which have closed during the years of the revolutionary government, shows how the bourgeoisie, both domestic and foreign, has no interest in the endogenous development of the country, and that all it seeks is to exploit and plunder the workers and the people, especially when the people and the working class are organized, not willing to be exploited without a fight, as in the case of the employees of CMM.
The “facts” that the company is spreading through the media to justify the closure, accusing the workers of not wanting to produce, are false. MMC workers have repeatedly denounced the practice of the employers in the automotive industry, including Mitsubishi, to demand dividends from CADIVI to allegedly import raw materials and components when in fact, as they did in many cases, was to bring the already assembled cars in from Colombia at great expense to the Venezuelan state and the workers themselves. Now that the industry is in crisis throughout the world, and with the closure of borders with Colombia, the company wants an excuse with which to justify a closure or a reduction in output and employment. At the same time, as we have already explained, they aim to break a union organizing model that has organized the vast majority of the factory staff and has not allowed the bosses to apply the same policies of enslavement and outsourcing attempted by all businessmen.
The working class, along with the popular sectors, farmers and the poor are the only ones interested in developing industry and the enormous wealth that our country has, which within the narrow framework of capitalism and private ownership of banking, industry and the land cannot be developed. The way to struggle against the closure of MMC and for the defense of the revolutionary organization of workers, in this case the Singetram union, an obstacle to the exploitation of the labor force, is to fight for socialism and the defense of the laws enshrined in the national constitution.
Against this, workers throughout Venezuela and the revolutionary trade union movement must stand in solidarity with the workers of MMC. It is necessary to conduct a national campaign for the nationalization of MMC. The automotive company must be managed by its workers along with the national government. This is the only way to defend jobs and fight against exploitative and imperialist policies of multinationals.
At the same time, the PSUV battalions and patrols should be organized in a campaign calling for President Chavez's revolutionary government to the nationalize the company against the continuous legal violations of this multinational. In order to defend their jobs and their future, MMC workers cannot allow the multinational’s management to achieve its ends and break their will to fight. The rest of the class struggle Anzoategui unions and the Workers' Front of the PSUV, Community Councils, and the battalions and patrols of the PSUV should support the struggle of workers and the Singetram union to organize a massive struggle in defense of , and support these workers to organize a new occupation of the company and demand its nationalization under workers' control. We must convert into action the words of President Chavez: “A factory closed is a factory occupied!"
The MMC workers, with the support of the revolutionary labor movement of Anzoategui and the organized communities, should occupy the plant to ensure that there is no attempt to remove the machinery, and put it under workers' control, as was done in January and February. At the same time as the occupation of the factory complex is organized, it is necessary to get the full support of the revolutionary rank and file, community councils and student unions, etc. across Venezuela, and the support of President Chavez to expropriate MMC automotive company and end the nightmare of capitalism in which the workers find themselves.