English

* This text, which appeared in El Libertario # 58, March-April 2010, critically examines what has been meaning the government of Hugo Chavez from an environmental point of view, highlighting the clear separation between the rhetoric speeches that are emitted from power and the specific facts being promoted and implemented.

[The author is Professor and Researcher at the Simon Bolivar University in Caracas. This contribution is the revised excerpt from a longer article appeared in Spanish in the Journal of Economics and Social Sciences (FACES-UCV) entitled "XXI Century Eco-socialism and Bolivarian Development Model: the myths of environmental sustainability and participatory democracy in Venezuela ", 2009, vol. 15, No. 1, pp.187-223 (Available on http://www.scielo.org.ve/pdf/rvecs/v15n1/art10.pdf), where quoted references are marked with appropriate details. Not included here for space reasons.]

Venezuela is a country of mining and extractive industry economy, whose model development has been based on the exploitation of oil and other non renewable natural resources that causes strong impacts on the environment. More than a decade, some researchers (Garcia Guadilla et al, 1997) strongly questioned the sustainability of development models in the nineties under the presidencies of C. A. Perez and R. Caldera. In the decade 1999-2009 the government has blamed the "savage capitalism and neoliberal policies” and consequently, property and private exploitation of resources for the environmental problems, despite that current exploitation of these resources and the design of economic policies that support the so-called Bolivarian Development Model reproduce these practices labelled as "neoliberal or savage capitalism", causing negative environmental impacts same strong or higher than in the past.

9 April, ZSP made a picket at the Warsaw office of temporary work agency Start People. This was part of international day of action called by CNT Zaragosa, whose member had rights violated, was illegally dismissed and demands return to work.

Workers from Start People came to talk to ZSP about the reasons for the protest. People coming in and going out of agency received new issue of ZSP paper Zaplata which contains many articles about temporary work, including information about rights of temp workers and examples of actions made when there were problems at work.

This action is first in series about temporary work which will be made in Warsaw this month.

A couple of weeks ago, tenants blocked Warsaw City Council, demanding special session devoted to housing problem. This session took place April 8. Over 200 people came to session. Members of ZSP in Warsaw are in Tenants Defense Committee and prepared large report on administrative corruption and violation of rights of tenants and housing laws. Our comrade from spoke a long time on this subject with expose of problems and made demand that housing be out of control of politicians and into more direct control of people with transparency, accountability and recallability.

www.lokatorzy.info.pl

TV Interviews (in Polish)

A CALL FOR SOLIDARITY

Dear Comrades!

We are an Independent Student Union, “Priama Dija” (“Direct Action”) and we ask for your support.

The case is that for over the last six months, the union has been under unprecedented pressure. Everything started with our series of successful actions (together with other youth organizations) against the establishment of fees for previously free services in the universities, against cutting funds for scholars and against the plans to suspend scholarships for students who received even a single grade of “3”- (C). Ever since then, the intelligence services, together with the administration of the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev, are carrying out a whole campaign of pressure against the union's activists. All available measures are used against them, including intimidation and repression.

During this period:

1) pressure was used against the activists by threatening to sack their parents from work;
2) activists were expelled from the university;
3) intimidation and face-to-face "talks" were held with anyone who somehow helped us;
4) deterrence was made by the intelligence services.

The wave of suicides at France Telecom last year made headlines around the world. But in Poland, the suicide attempts of two workers in one month at TP S.A. (Polish Communications, owned by France Telecom) is being hushed over, as are complaints by the workers. They have also written an open letter, again repressed by the mainstream media (but published here).

On March 8, a 38-year old woman jumped out of a third floor window at the Poznan TP S.A. office. Although he broke her spine and sustained injuries to the brain, she miraculously survived.

On the 25th of April of 2007, an anti-authoritarian demonstration against fascism and capitalism took place in downtown Lisbon, protesting against the growing influence of fascist groups in Portugal and the attempt to rehabilitate the figure of the former dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar. Several books about Salazar came out back then and a Museum was to be opened in Santa Comba Dão, the place where the dictator was born. A television contest, designed to boost nationalistic and chauvinistic attitudes among the Portuguese people, actually managed to elect Salazar as “the greatest Portuguese of all times”. Besides that, PNR, an ultra right-wing party, involved with nazi skinhead groups, started to show signs of great activity, with a large-scale campaign to increase xenophobia and several street demonstrations, one of which taking place, provocatively, in a known immigrants' quarter downtown Lisbon.

For the benefit of those who find themselves surprised or disconcerted by the generalised decline of conditions in Venezuela, as well as the increase in popular struggle (2,893 street demonstrations between October 2008-September 2009; compared with 1,763 in the same period in 2007-08) – either because they are unaware of the situation here, they are based abroad, or because they always accept the official version of events – we expound below on some factors which contribute to social conflicts here.

(The majority of the statistics quoted can be verified in the Informe Provea 2008-09 [the annual report of a Venezuelan human rights NGO – trans.] at http://www.derechos.org.ve [Spanish], where the original sources are detailed. The rest of the data has been pulled from the national press and is easy to check online.)

I.

The collapse of the food crop is demonstrated by the increase in imports within the sector, from US$1.6bn in 1999 to $7.4bn in 2008. Last year, the government was forced to purchase abroad some 57.9% of the foodstuffs required for its subsidy programmes. The cost of imported food per head per annum has risen from $75 in the 1990s to $267 today.

However, there’s more to it than us solely having become more dependent on abroad for our food. We also suffer from the constant inflation of food prices: 46.7% in 2008, and more than 36% in 2009. This escalation is nowhere near compensated for; neither by the nominal raises in the minimum wage, nor by the distribution of subsidised food via Mercal, which currently finds itself in a state of veritable agony due to underfunding and corruption.

The following text was written by the Slovak section of the IWA, Priama Akcia.

26th February 2010

In mid-January the media informed that a disgruntled employee of the company Yura Corporation Slovakia Ltd. in Hnúšťa had slapped the boss as a reaction to locking the employees in the company in order to work overtime. There are various opinions on this action. On one hand, the employees are thrilled that someone finally expressed their dissatisfaction with the horrible working conditions. On the other hand, there is a lot of fear that the company will simply pack up and move to somewhere "more profitable“.

The Yura plants in Lednické Rovne, Hlohovec, Rimavská Sobota and Hnúšťa currently employ around 3 700 workers. Most of the employees in Rimavská Sobota and Hnúšťa have elementary education and are from socially weaker families, travelling to work from neighbouring villages and towns. The unemployment rate in this region has reached almost 30%, so the employers (not only in Yura) can treat the employees practically as they wish.

CORE PROBLEMS IN YURA

Forced overtime. In Yura, it is a duty to work overtime. For example, if you want to get employed in Rimavská Sobota, you cannot avoid the question, if you are willing to work a large amount of 12-hour workdays. If you refuse, thes chance that you will get the job drop to zero. Many employees have confirmed that they work more overtime than is allowed under the Labour Code. Problems also arise with the issue of rest after 12-hour shifts and payment for the overtime.

There was a huge victory for the Tenants Defense Committee, which members of ZSP Warsaw are active in .At the end of last year, we caught the Ministry of the Economy trying to sneak through legistlation that would be extremely unfavourable for tenants. The legislation would have allowed landlords to be able to raise rents every month and would have facilitated eviction and other means of forcing people out of public housing.

The legal analysis and social assessment we prepared was introduced in Parliament for discussion and protests were sent. We are happy to say that the bill is now dead and politicians have openly stated that it is because of what we prepared.

Sofia, Bulgaria - On March 20, 2010 to the "Home for the temporary accommodation of foreigners" in the quarter Busmanci from 11 am to 13 pm held a peaceful protest rally against arbitrariness and repression against immigrants and in defense of their human rights.

Gathered about 40 people to protest against this antihumanno place for the immediate release of people in general and against the state policy against people detained there. The protest was organized by the Civil Initiative Committee and the Federation of Anarchists in Bulgaria. Anarohsaprotiva attended by activists, lawyers, friends of the detainees at the center, bloggers, and citizens.

*This article was originally published in El Libertario #58, March-April 2010. Although originally based on the actual experiences of Venezuela’s social struggles, it deals with situations and facts of interest to activists anywhere.

For some time now the Venezuelan government has made systematic advances in the reorganization of the national police intelligence system, with the intention of discovering and neutralizing autonomous social movements that appear in the country. The Intelligence and Counterintelligence Law (temporarily suspended) and the new Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN in Spanish) are but two examples of this. In order to promote the necessary knowledge on this issue among activists, we give an informative recap of the different tactics used by the State to break up the antagonistic social fabric and criminalize its followers.

On March 15, protest actions took place at Green Way restaurants in Wroclaw, Warsaw, Olsztyn and Lodz. At the Wroclaw restaurant, the local Food Not Bombs collective joined ZSP and, with the slogan "Free Work, Free Food", the activists gave out free food at the entrance to the blocked restaurant. The idea was that, since the restaurant does not want to pay workers, why not go one step further - and not charge people for eating?

At the Wroclaw action, former employees cheated by the restaurant took part and when the boss came out to complain about the free food, demanded their salaries.

By all accounts, the free food was much better than the frozen fast food crap at the vegetarian McDonalds.

The owner of the restaurant called the police but open arriving, they went into the restaurant and then went away, refusing to do anything about the action.

In June 2009, the Polish Ministry of Education started the process of so-called “social consultations” about the proposed changes to the law which would introduce most of the reforms required in the framework of the Bologna Process. As usual, the government's proposals are shrouded in secrecy and hardly anyone in society knows anything about those "social consultations" (certainly not the students themselves). The only exception - of course – are business lobbyinsts, who are always well informed about any upcoming changes in the laws. The laws are scheduled to enter into effect by October 1st 2010.

In a 80 page document, the Ministry of Education describes the ideological foundations on which the Bologna Process is based. It reads as follows: “The policy of the state towards the universities should be to prepare an elite of managers who would be in charge of the universities. They need to take control of the enterprise that is called the university. This enterprise produces human capital. This new model of management is not always to be reconciled with democracy! Democracy is based on academic merit and the experience of the past. But now, we need universities that are ruled with vision and the ability to look into the future". This, supposedly, can't work in a democratic way.

Today's show, as usual agenda, then...
Main subject would be tragic eviction and cutting the Lappersfort Forrest in Brugg, in Belgium. The interviews would be played the relations would be rided.Beside we would mobilise for Global Day of Solidarity with accused for protesting during COP 15 which will happened in 16 of march. Beside we will also play some interviews from Climate Justice Conference Europe what was held in Amsterdam one week ago. Further in the show we will continue with "Do It Yourself"(A handbook for changing our world) This time we will educate ourself and You about eko technology what we can use in our daily life.

A new addition to the list of outrageous attempts to repress social movements is the Green Way case, where the lawyer for the restaurant, Anna Grzegorska, has written a threatening letter to our colleague A. A. refused to waive her right to get salary turning her training / trial period at the Wroclaw restaurant. In fact, even if she had waived it, it doesn't matter: such work should still be paid. A. demanded her salary for that period.

The lawyer for Greenway threatens to bring criminal charges against A., for "crimes" such as blackmail, posing a risk to business and slander. Together these crimes could carry as much as 14 years in jail.

Just to add insult to injury, Grzegorska informs that should A. not cease in her campaign to get her wages, her university will be informed of her "anarchist activity".