Carlos Ortega, CTV/AD Venezuela

[Nathan Newman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
"The amount of money allotted to ACILS for work in Venezuela is
relatively small and could be dismissed as insignificant. And the
AFL-CIO statement about ACILS work in Venezuela states that all the
funds were used only for "printing of election materials, the
training of CTV election committees, and the sponsoring of forums
which brought labor, business, human rights and religious leaders
together in defense of freedom of association." Further, the
statement "unequivocally condemned the coup attempt of April 12th."
(34)"

Much hand waving before and after this paragraph, but the basic reality,
undisputed by any other report, is that's what the AFL-CIO was doing--
helping in making the internal CTV elections more democratic.

And yep, there is a bias against Chavez in the US labor movement as there is
globally, since Chavez has been condemned by union federations around the
world.  See these reports from the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions (and remember that ICFTU includes unions ranging from COSATU to the
Sandinista unions):

http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991216868&Language=EN

http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991215658&Language=EN

Why shouldn't the unions be supporting the CTV as an institution, if not its
specific leaders, against government repression, as it does in countries
around the world?

The AFL-CIO is also doing work, actually far more, in defending leftwing
unions in Columbia against conservative government and rightwing
paramilitary assaults.

-- Nathan Newman