[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3120055233630014320&ei=-Iv5SaecMI-wwgPy7fy0CA&q=%22freteco%22&hl=en&client=safari]
Produced by Vive TV in Venezuela, this new documentary on FRETECO explores the movement of occupied factories and workers’ control in Venezuela. From the Mitsubishi auto plant to the Inveval valve plant; from the Gotcha T-Shirt factory to the INAF hardware factory, workers young and old, male and female, tell their stories and explain why they came to the realization that demanding nationalization under workers’ control is the only way forward. With examples explaining how factory and workers’ councils function, the role of the communal councils, and the movement for “trade unionism of a new type,” this video provides a living, breathing look at a crucial aspect of the Venezuelan Revolutionary process.
Subtitles courtesy of Hands Off Venezuela.
Wake up.
Venezuela’s interest rates are at 28.6%. Industrial production is down 25.4%, gdp is projected to decline by 5% in 2010 and 5.4% in 2011. They produce less oil under nationalization (they sell oil for less than the cost of production).
This video is fanciful and misguided, just like the Workers party.
//They produce less oil under nationalization (they sell oil for less than the cost of production).//
Um, what? That would mean no profit at all, but they’ve experienced a boom under Chavez. As far as oil goes, the biggest difference with Chavez is the enormous dividends he’s collected since 2004, meaning that the GDP per capita has increased exponentially.
Agreed though, the Venezuelan economic strategy is imperfect – they’ve controlled foreign exchange to subsidise imports and to get more out of their oil. This means high inflation and dependance on oil. State intervention and “priming the pump” is not an ideal long-term strategy, and in some ways mirrors neoliberal dependance on finance markets; both are overaccumulation strategies. However, despite the limitations of regulated capitalism, the Bolivarian movement has made significant gains by reinvesting the surplus generated by oil into workers’ organisations.