Jesús Faría was born on June 27, 1910, in Borojó, Falcón, in conditions of extreme poverty. In his autobiography Mi línea no cambia, es hasta la muerte
(My line does not change, it is until death), he recalls his childhood
besieged by snakes and vermin. Since he was a child, he worked in
different informal activities to contribute to the sustenance of his
home: he was a fruit and firewood seller, bottle collector, limekiln
maker….
When he was 15 years old, he started working in an inn in the Mene de Mauroa oil field. He worked 16 hours a day, 30 days a month, for only 28 bolivars and the employees’ leftovers as food.
This was the reality of the nascent Venezuelan working class: overexploitation, disease and no rights of any kind. At that time, a handful of foreign companies owned the hydrocarbons of our country and it is in one of them, Lago Petroleum Corporation ─belonging to Rockefeller─ that Faría begins to witness the first isolated struggles of the oil workers.
In his autobiography, he relates that each oil field had prisons to lock up and torture workers who dared to “disrespect” their bosses. Workers were fined for any reason and subjected to humiliation: they were beaten with a flat iron; they were forced to sweep the streets and public squares, carrying signs that read “thug”, “dangerous”, “enemy of the government”.
Fights among the workers were also promoted through scabs and informers in the service of the bosses who “were deeply interested in preventing the development of a true proletarian solidarity.”
“There is only one place for communists.”
On December 24, 1935, Jesús Faría joined the ranks of the PCV thanks to the work of the militant Antonio Granados. At that time communist ideas were outlawed. It was a crime punishable by 20 years in prison, so that militancy was completely clandestine. Almost a century later, the PCV militancy has been outlawed again under a new strategy. In view of this, we can only recall some words of Faría: “It is not possible to be a communist outside the Communist Party; communists outside the Communist Party die like fish out of water. There is only one place for communists: the Communist Party. There are not two communist parties, nor can there be”.
In his first militant years, Jesús Faría was trained by comrades like Manuel Taborda, Max García, Rodolfo Quintero, Domingo Mariani and Rafael Contreras, who gave him the tools to understand the world in a scientific and revolutionary way.
In 1936, together with other comrades, he formed the Oil Workers and Employees Union (SOEP) in Cabimas [west Venezuela]. That same year important milestones for the Venezuelan working class would occur: unions were legalized; May Day was celebrated for the first time in Venezuela; the Zulia State Workers Union (first regional trade union center) was founded; and the Oil Trade Union of Venezuela (USP) was created. Jesús Faría, by an overwhelming majority, was elected its president.
But undoubtedly the most relevant event of 1936 was the First Great Oil Strike, which took place between December and January of the following year. Jesús Faría catalogued this combative event as “the most important event of the anti-imperialist struggle recorded in history so far” and described it as a “powerful unitary activity of the working class with all the other democratic and patriotic sectors of the anti-imperialist Venezuela”.
The first communist in the Senate
In 1937, Jesús Faría was elected as councilman for Cabimas. However, the National Government, seeing itself defeated by the left wing headed by the communists, decided to annul all the mandates of the state of Zulia. Also in 1937, Faría was one of the delegates to the First National Conference of the PCV, held in Maracay on August 8.
In the forties he initiated a broad work for the organization and leadership of the triumphant red unions; as well as the struggle for the organization of the labor-union movement through the Confederation of Latin American Workers (CTAL) and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). While within the PCV he assumed various responsibilities until he became a member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau.
In 1946 he was elected alternate constituent lawmaker for the state of Zulia and the following year, he became the first communist senator. In addition, in 1947 he was appointed member of the PCV Secretariat, together with Juan Bautista Fuenmayor and Gustavo Machado.
General Secretary in prison
In May 1950, he was responsible for organizing and directing the Great Oil Strike; a new fight against the transnationals, in view of the constant refusal to discuss the workers’ demands. This strike was a mass action that made the dictatorship tremble, however, it did not achieve its goal and the main leaders were persecuted and imprisoned; and the unions and political parties were outlawed. A reward was offered for the main leader of the strike, that is, Jesús Faría, who was finally imprisoned.
In 1951, the PCV appointed him General Secretary to safeguard his life. Jesús Faría was the political prisoner of the dictatorship who spent the longest time behind bars. For almost eight years, he was subjected to cruel tortures until, one day after the escape of the tyrant dictator, on January 24, 1958, he was released. That same year he was elected once again as senator for the state of Zulia.
On March 18, 1966, due to his poor health, as a result of the cruel prison conditions, he was exiled to Moscow. His departure was the result of a two-year international campaign for the freedom of Venezuelan political prisoners. In the Soviet Union, Faría was received as a hero. He returned in 1968 and obtained a deputation.
In 1985, during the celebration of the VII Congress of the PCV, by voluntary decision, Jesús Faría retired from the General Secretariat. His comrades then elected him President of the party; a position that had been vacant since 1983 when comrade Gustavo Machado died. In 1990, he resigned as President of the PCV.
His life and his militant legacy were always at the service of the working class and its vanguard; the Communist Party of Venezuela: “The PCV contributes to the great progressive union of our people with a high quota of work and personal sacrifices, including the freedom and life of our comrades. The PCV will continue to seek workers and popular unity, in all fields, as a guarantee of progress, peace and democratic victory”.
Angel Ostos / Tribuna Popular