Down with the coupist pro-yankee strike
Cesar Gaviria out of Venezuela

Since last December 2nd, once again, the company managers, the trade union bourocracy of the CTV, and the media, have launched a bourgeois strike with the clear intention of reaching a call to elections on February 2nd and the ousting of Hugo Chavez from the presidency of the Republic. The same intention that drove them in April, unites them again to try to defeat the workers and the people and take away the democratic conquests obtained in the revolutionary process on course.
The bourgeois lockout, as on April 9th, did not win the conscious adherence of the workers and the majority of the population. Yet, today it reaches its ninth day, thanks to the oil boycott that the executives of the company carry forward from PDVSA. Taking advantage of the control they have over the most important company in the country, they have paralyzed the production and distribution of fuel, which added to the support of the several distributors in the main cities, makes the conditions difficult for the transit of vehicles and the mobility of people towards their workplaces. And to make it seem like the strike is successful, they haven't doubted to take hostage oil embarkations destined for exportation, sabotaging strategic services like the Caracas metro or closing definitively the bank service.
The destabilizing actions have developed taking advantage of the presence of the General Secretary of the O.A.E., Cesar Gaviria, who as expected, ended up joining the pressure and wants to impose a negotiation where the government accepts the electoral agenda proposed by the coupists. North American imperialism, under the modality of dialogues and negotiations wants to pressure the revolution, achieving this way what it didn't achieve with the counterrevolutionary strike of April 11th. The offensive of the opposition bourgeois and imperialism is because of the impunity that the coupists have for the their criminal actions of April 9th to the 13th, and for the continuous concessions that the Chavez government has given them, giving the opportunity for them to reorganize and intend a new challenge to the whole of the worker population.
The powerful mobilization of Saturday December 7th in Caracas where two million Venezuelans participated shows that the workers and the people are willing to defend their conquests. The actions of Sunday December 9th destined to stop the oil boycott in the main centers of production, and the concentrations in front of the coupist communication media to try to deactivate that infernal machine of disinformation and violence, are indications of where the actions should be headed during these hours to disarm and defeat the bourgeois lockout.
There is no going back, the central slogan is winning the streets and achieve through the mobilization the absolute control over PDVSA, the communication media at the service of the coupists, and make real the initiative of the trade union organizations for the workers to occupy and take control of all those companies who have shut their doors and support the bourgeois strike. It's this policy of struggle and mobilization that will permit the triumph. If to continue on the trail of negotiation and concessions to coupism, in which the government insists, the defeat is assured.
It's urgent for the workers of the oil sector to mobilize and occupy the oil digs, the refinery centers, the operations of national and international distribution and the PDVSA administration buildings. That the Bolivarian Force of the Workers -FBT-, orient the trade unions, discussing and planning a plan of occupations of companies and the buildings where the trade union bourocrats of the CTV work who don't represent anyone and only serve the company managers. That the Bolivarian Circles and the Popular Assemblies from the neighborhoods, continue their actions to guarantee free transit through the most important highways of the country and assure the control and distribution of fuel to all the service stations of the capital and the capitals of the states.
The activists and fighters of the Central University of Venezuela, together with the high school students and other schools of the country, must organize the reopening of the educative centers, realizing democratic assemblies and adopting plans of action to contain the fascist bands that operate from some university centers with the complicity of the rectors.
Cesar Gaviria out of Venezuela, emissary of North American imperialism and the puppet governments of Latin America. This is a central demand in these moments. Behind him, the coupist trample the population, develop mediatic shows, guarantee impunity, and use the most important natural resource of all of the Venezuelan people like oil. Gaviria condemns the concentrations in front of the coupist media communication centers but says nothing about the occupation of the Altamira Plaza, of the threats against the official television channel and applauds the closing of companies and the bank system. Gaviria is an agent of imperialism and the Venezuelan coupists. There can be no dialogue or negotiation, the revolution is not negotiated.
It's necessary for the workers organized in the FBT, the Bolivarian Circles, the popular assemblies, the student movement, the landless poor in the country, the alternative press, and all the fighters who defend the revolutionary process to gather in a great National Emergency Meeting, where soldiers of the National Armed Forces and the police who are not compromised with coupism could also send delegates, so that in a democratic and unitary manner, they discuss the next steps to follow and to define a national plan of struggle against the coupists, imperialism, and their fascist actions.
They will not pass, this must be the cry of millions of Venezuelans who are willing to give their lives, like they did on April 13th, to not allow the corrupt parties of the bourgeois, the trade union bourocrats of the CTV, and the company manager unions from returning to place the country under the absolute subordination of the government of the United States and the hunger and misery plans made by the IMF and the World Bank.
The International Workers Unity - Fourth International, UIT-CI, salutes and supports the revolutionary decision of the Venezuelan people and invites the democrats, activists of the anti-globalization movement, the left parties, and the revolutionaries of the whole world, to develop an international campaign of denounce against the intentions of imperialism and the coupists, and to send our pronounces of support, expressing our motivations to all the workers and people of Venezuela.

No to the pro-yankee bourgeois strike!
Mobilization, occupation, and control of PDVSA, the communication media and companies of the coupists!
For a National Emergency Meeting of workers, bolivarian circles, and popular sectors!
Worker and popular self-defense to confront the fascist bands!
The revolution is not to be negotiated... Gaviria, the OAE, the PNUD, and the Carter Foundation out of Venezuela!
Rupture with the IMF, non-payment of the foreign debt and opposition to FTAA!

International Secretariat
International Workers Unity - Fourth International

Buenos Aires, December 10th, 2002