Venezuelan Labor Day Rally Attracts Hundreds of Thousands, Wages Raised by
30%
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3407

May 2nd 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, May 2 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Waving red flags and
pro-revolution banners "against imperialism" and for "socialism and peace"
more than 300,000 workers marched in Caracas on Thursday to celebrate May
1, the International Day of Workers Struggle. The rally also celebrated a
decree by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez increasing the minimum wage by
30% giving Venezuela the highest minimum wage in Latin America.

A day earlier, at a special ceremony to swear in the new Minister of Labor
Roberto Hernandez at the Teresa Carreño Theatre, Chavez announced a 30%
salary increase in the minimum wage from Bs.F 615 (US$286) to Bs.F. 799
(US$371.6) per month, to take effect from May 1.

If the Cesta ticket (food subsidy) is included, minimum monthly earnings
reach Bs.F. 1.199 or US$557; more than double the Latin American average
the president added. The measure directly affects 5 million workers or
approximately 20% of the population.

In addition to the increase in the minimum wage, Chavez also decreed a 30%
wage increase for all public sector workers. The government expects the
measure to spark demands for wage increases in the private sector.

To offset inflationary pressures from the wage increase Chavez said the
government would issue 'Worker's Bonds' with high interest returns in
order to encourage saving and soak up excess liquidity in the economy. The
government is also considering other anti-inflationary policies, but not
at the expense of workers he said.

The president also signed a decree formalizing the nationalization of
SIDOR, Venezuela's largest steel plant previously controlled by
Argentine-Italian consortium, the Techint group. Chavez first announced
the nationalization of SIDOR on April 9 after a long worker's struggle
there.

"With this law, Venezuela recuperates SIDOR. Congratulations to our
workers, to our unions!" he said.

Addressing approximately 2,000 specially invited union leaders,
representing the major currents in the National Union of Workers (UNT) -
including Stalin Perez Borges, Orlando Chirino, Marcela Maspero, Orlando
Castillo, and Osvaldo Vera - as well as a contingent of workers from the
SIDOR steel plant, Chavez declared, "The working class is essential for
the construction of socialism."

In the context of a recent call by one faction of the UNT - the Bolivarian
Socialist Worker's Force (FSBT) - for unions to disaffiliate from the UNT
and form a separate national federation, he also emphasized that "The
unity of the Venezuelan working class is imperative...It is fundamental in
this historic moment."

Union leaders must leave their personal differences aside and have the
"necessary humility to unite," he added.

However, the president clarified, the working class must be autonomous in
its decisions and its capacity to choose its own leaders.

"Now the PSUV [United Socialist Party of Venezuela] is being born, it must
contribute to the unity and struggle of the working class, the struggle of
the campesinos, the youth, the students, and the women's movement. But the
party should never aim to take the reigns of the worker's movement. It
should never aim to supervise or subordinate it. Long live the working
class, the workers movement!" he declared to a standing ovation.

The new labor minister who spoke at the May Day rally also emphasized the
need for unity, otherwise "imperialism wins," he said.

Despite their differences, this emphasis on unity was also reflected on
the platform by UNT national coordinators Marcela Maspero and Stalin Perez
Borges and FSBT coordinator Orlando Vera, who all agreed on the need to
strengthen the worker's movement.

Perez Borges spoke of the need to defend the UNT and Maspero argued that
workers should take over control of production.

Omar Rangel, from the National Bolivarian Union of Education Workers said
that the salary increase was an act of justice for the working class. "The
salary increase will help the workers a lot to improve their living
conditions."

Others argued for the reduction of the work day from 8 to 6 hours,
initially proposed in President Chavez's constitutional reforms last year,
as a way of allowing for increased worker participation in the political
affairs of the country.

The rally also heard from John Cleary from the Electrical Trades Union in
Australia, visiting Venezuela as part of a May Day delegation organized by
the Australia Venezuela Solidarity Network.

"The struggle of Venezuelan workers to build socialism is inspiring
workers in Australia and around the world," Cleary told the crowd.

International solidarity also featured prominently in the rally with
banners and placards opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as
U.S. interference in Haiti, Cuba, and Bolivia.

Thousands of workers also joined pro-revolution May Day rallies in the
regional cities of Valencia, Maracaibo, and Ciudad Guayana, where workers
celebrated the nationalization of the SIDOR steel plant.

The opposition aligned Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), largely
discredited for its role in the April 2002 military coup against the
Chavez government, held a significantly smaller demonstration of around
1,000 people across town, opposing the presidential decree increasing the
minimum wage saying it would contribute to inflation.

In a document delivered to National Assembly deputies from the opposition
party PODEMOS, the CTV argued, "In 2007 inflation reached 22.5% and in the
food sector it reached 33%, everything indicates in 2008 these figures
will be surpassed."

Journalist Vanessa Davies from state television station VTV commented that
the CTV march "curiously" had nothing to do with worker's demands.

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