The initiative was also attended ─ remotely─ by leaders of the World Federation of Trade Unions, the International Union of Trade Unions of Retired and Pensioned Persons, the World Federation of Teachers' Trade Unions, as well as central, federations, unions and fronts of workers and workers of the Canary Islands, Colombia, Ecuador, United States, Morocco, Mexico, Niger and Uruguay.
Also in attendance were communist youth from Brazil, Ecuador, Spain, Paraguay, Mexico and Palestine; activists from women's movements in Latin America and journalists from the US and German media.
The master conference was in charge of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the PCV, Oscar Figuera, who presented an analysis of the political crisis Venezuela is going through after the presidential elections of last July 28.
First of all, Figuera addressed the situation of the working class in the country: “The mandate of Nicolás Maduro has been characterized by the imposition of a policy of economic adjustment at the service of capital which has among its fundamental axes the redesign of labor relations in the country, with the aim of creating a paradise for private investment at the expense of the sacrifice of the working class and popular sectors”.
The Secretary General specified that during the last six years a program has been imposed “based on the destruction of wages and social benefits; the elimination of collective bargaining agreements; the extreme cheapening of layoffs and, in general, in the dismantling of rights and conquests of the working class, accompanied by a growing authoritarianism”.
Figuera explained that the most recent National Conference of the PCV concluded that “the authoritarian drift of the leadership of the Government-PSUV, the destruction of the living conditions of the Venezuelan people, the dismantling of the rule of law, the systematic violation of human rights, the judicialization of struggles” had configured “a new situation in which the recovery of the democratic rights guaranteed in the Constitution becomes a task of the first order”.
Finally, in view of the decision to participate in the presidential elections, the National Conference agreed that it was necessary to “build a political-electoral agreement with political sectors beyond the left” to “defeat the pretensions of the Government to establish a tyranny disguised as a false democracy”. Such agreement should be based on a minimum program which would have at its center the restitution of political and social rights taken away by the government elite.
The leader of the PCV presented the details of the irregularities committed by the National Electoral Council (CNE) during the elections and the uncertainty that motivated thousands of inhabitants of popular sectors to take to the streets to reject the results presented by the Electoral Power.
“During July 29 and 30, a brutal repression was unleashed against popular protests ─mostly peaceful─ that rejected the results presented by the CNE. President Maduro himself reported more than 2 thousand detainees whom he presented as terrorists,” recounted Figuera.
“The Government also unleashed an escalation of raids and arrests without warrants in numerous popular neighborhoods. In addition, the PSUV ordered its base structures to inform on neighbors who had demonstrated. From the top, a propaganda campaign was set up to present the right to protest as a crime”, he added.
Figuera warned that Maduro's government “does not show any intention to reestablish the kidnapped liberties and democratic rights” and that, on the other side, “the political forces of the traditional right wing are betting again on the agenda of international interference, pressures and sanctions, as a strategy to defeat the authoritarian government”.
The Secretary General reiterated that the PCV “defends the legitimate claim of the Venezuelan people for the National Electoral Council to publish the results broken down by tables and voting centers, and if necessary, to make a public count of the votes deposited in the electoral boxes, as has already been done on other occasions”.
“With this position, we are not defending the interests of any candidate, but the recovery of the democratic liberties of the country; a minimum condition for the working class to be able to organize itself and fight against its class enemies”, he explained.
Read here the complete intervention of comrade Oscar Figuera
List of participants:
- German Communist Party (DKP)
- Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
- Lebanese Communist Party
- French Communist Party
- Communist Party of the Russian Federation
- Brazilian Communist Party
- Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
- The Workers' Party of Ireland
- Communist of Serbia
- Revolutionary Communist Party of France
- Communist Party of Sweden
- Communist Workers Platform USA
- Communist Party of Swaziland
- Communist Party of the Workers of Spain
- Communist Party of México
- Communist Party of Ecuador
- Argentine Communist Party
- Paraguayan Communist Party
- Colombian Communist Party
- Communist Party of Canadá
- Pole of Communist Renaissance in France
- Tudeh Party of Irán
- Revolutionary Brazilian Communist Party
- New Communist Party of the Netherlands
- Revolutionary Communist Party (France)
- Communist Front - Italy
- Syrian Communist Party
- Communist Party of Turkey
- Bangladesh Communist Party
- Palestinian Communist Party
- Iraqi Communist Party
- The Hungarian Workers' Party
- Communist Party of Britain
- Communist Party (Germany)
- Peruvian Communist Party
- Romanian Socialist Party
- Communist Party of Denmark
- Communist Party of Ireland
- Japanese Communist Party
- Sudanese Communist Party
- Communist Party of Zimbabwe
- Communist Party Bohemia and Moravia
- Lao People’s Revolutionary Party
- Austrian Labour Party
- Marxism-Leninism Today
Organizations of the international trade union movement:
- International Union of Trade Unions of Retired and Pensioned Workers of the WFTU (UISP y J)
- National Union of Trade Unions of Niger, Member of the WFTU Presidential Council.
- FEDEUSCTRAB Human Rights- Colombia
- SUTCRA- Uruguay, Member of the WFTU Presidential Council.
- Confederation of Workers of Ecuador (CTE)
- United Union of Roofers- USA.
- World Federation of Teachers' Unions affiliated to WFTU (FISE)
- FISE in West Africa.
- Member of the WFTU Presidential , México.
- Pensioners' Movement of Spain
- Labor Union Front of the Canary Islands.