The WSWS site has published on interesting article on the phony 'strike' currently being endlessly broadcast on North Amercian media channels, which purports to show disgruntled Venezuelans demanding that the Chavez government, which narrowly survived a military coup attempt this spring, submit itself to early elections (one can consider how for example, Washington would react, if protestors appeared in the streets to demand that Bush face the polls again in February, and to hell with that nonsense about 2004.) What is interesting about the WSWS article is that it indicates that the 'strike' is actually an employer lock out, and that those pouring into the streets are actually from the upper class neighbourhoods, something that struck me as being obvious when I was watching footage of the 'protests' last evening (boy, I thought, those Venezuelans are well heeled, and look a lot richer, not to mention well dressed (and white skinned), than I expected to see, given the high rates of poverty in Latin American countries. So to read this morning that the info that the 'strike' is actually an employer lockout, that it is in force only in the wealthy neighbourhoods, and that it is these rich people who are out 'striking' and 'protesting' for the benefit of western cameras doesn't surprise me this morning, since I was wondering about what I was seeing on the tube last night (something didn't look right).

This 'strike' and 'protest' march by the wealthy of Caracas (the same ones who failed to get rid of Chavez this spring) reminds me of the endlessly broadcast scenes of rejoicing supporters of the victorious Northern Alliance forces dancing in the streets of Kabul for Western Cameras (oh the joy of liberated Afghans!). I am also reminded of the twenty thousand paid off demonstrators whom the CIA hired to 'protest' for western film cameras during the engineered coup that installed the Shah over Iran, and rid the country of an elected left wing government. Once again we see 'constitutions' and nasty things like 'voting' being tossed to the wind, and bought off 'demonstrators' in the streets demanding that, to hell with the election, they want someone else, which of course they got in Iran, and with their performance for the cameras, hope to get in Venezuela. With the dancing Northern Alliance fresh in my memory, the memory of the 'coup demonstrators' of Iran, the similar staged events in Chile mentioned in the WSWS article, I do find myself, like the authors of the piece, wondering if we aren't seeing the ground work being laid for another Latin American coup attempt by Chavez, what with the country 'paralyzed by strikes' (actually paralyzed by employer lockouts, which, for some weird reason we are being told are 'strikes' in the news pieces I have been reading.) As well, although I have seen the wealthy (well dressed, very white looking, well heeled) wealthy of Caracas 'protesting' for the tv cameras last night, I have not seen the angry counter demonstrations from the poorer districts, nor have I heard about the angry of poor people who, after all having been 'locked out' thus being forced to 'go on strike' are starting to get hard up for money.

The whole thing strinks to high heaven, and when something smells as bad as this thing does, you kind of know that trouble is coming down the pipe. After all, there is more than one way to skin an oil producing cat, right - the Iraq way, and then there is the old standby, the demonstrators, demanding that, to hell with elections, put someone else in - the old ploy of the coup, and what coup has ever been complete without angered protestors 'demonstrating' in the streets and 'going on strike'. If that coup goes ahead and I keep hearing in the media about 'strikes' (rather than lockouts) and the protestors are presented on my tv screen as 'average Venezuelans' (who would have though they were so well off in Venezuela), in this case it will really be one of the worst things done (or rather not done) by the North American media in a long time in that they let such a shoddy and stupid scam go by without letting anyone in on the little secret. (While we are at it, what do you think media pundits would say about protestors in the streets demanding that Bush either go to the polls in February or face the threat of the coup. It really is a pile of crap those wealthy people are protesting about, and also a pile of crap to present as some sort of legitimate political demand all their illegal and unconstitutional whining about the fact that there aren't enough of them in the country and so they can't get their candidate to win in an election (in a country where the majority are poor, and thus likely to once again vote for Chavez, well unless he's out of there, which is what this lockout and so called 'protest movement' crap is really all about)...

Some quotes from the WSWS article this morning...
 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/dec2002/vene-d11.shtml

With a “strike” organized by Venezuela’s employers now entering its second week, there is every indication that the South American country is being subjected to a classic destabilization campaign organized in collaboration with US intelligence.

The “strike”—in reality an employers’ lockout—began on December 2. It is the joint creation of FEDECAMARAS—Venezuela’s big business association—and the CTV, or Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, a corrupt labor bureaucracy that is closely tied to the AFL-CIO in the US. The CTV is also a recipient of substantial funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, a US agency created to funnel funds to foreign organizations that had previously been financed directly by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The joint big business-CTV action has had its most visible effect on the wealthier neighborhoods and downtown shopping districts of Caracas, where well-heeled demonstrators—backed by thugs on motorcycles—have forced stores to close. In the working class areas and the impoverished shantytowns in the hills surrounding the capital, there has been little impact on daily activity.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators poured into the capital from these neighborhoods on Saturday in a demonstration “for democracy and in defense of the constitution” called by supporters of the government, a mobilization far larger than anything the organizers of the FEDECAMARAS-CTV action have been able to mount.

In a county in which 80 percent of the 26 million inhabitants live in poverty, it is hardly surprising that a “strike” organized by and for a wealthy oligarchy has failed to mobilize the masses. To make up for what it lacks in popular support, those leading the attempt to bring down Chavez have turned to terrorist violence, economic sabotage and a barrage of media propaganda that amounts to a psychological warfare campaign against the population.


The atmosphere of provocations and employer-organized economic sabotage recalls the CIA campaign to destabilize the Popular Unity government of Chile’s President Salvador Allende in 1973. It was subsequently revealed that US intelligence, working through both business associations and corrupt right-wing unions, funded a truckers’ strike that paralyzed the country.


Loyally echoing the position of the administration in Washington, the mass media in the US has deliberately distorted the nature of the events in Venezuela. The New York Times refers to it, for example, as a “national walkout,” when in reality relatively few Venezuelan workers have joined the anti-government actions, while most have been locked out by their employers. In some instances, workers have occupied shutdown plants in protest.

Similarly, the confrontation is presented as one between a democratic opposition demanding that Chavez submit to a national referendum on his presidency, and an authoritarian regime that is determined to prevent such a vote.


the Venezuelan oligarchy, however, are demanding that Chavez submit to an extra-constitutional vote on February 2.

Their unwillingness to wait seven months is bound up with concerns over pending legislation on land reform and the reorganization of the PDVSA, as well as fears within the Venezuelan “democratic” opposition that it cannot achieve the number of votes needed to oust Chavez in any case.


In Venezuela, outrage over the local media’s role as a propaganda arm for those seeking to topple the Chavez government led to mass demonstrations outside of television stations Monday night, with thousands of protesters chanting “Coup-mongers, tell the truth!” The five privately owned television networks have openly promoted anti-government actions, while broadcasting false stories to undermine the government. In Maracay, demonstrators occupied the station.

The protests were met with an angry condemnation from Organization of American States Secretary General César Gaviria, who condemned them as “intimidating actions” and demanded that the government “take action” to defend “freedom of the press and of expression.”

The comments exposed the bias of Gaviria, a former Colombian president, who is supposed to be mediating a settlement between Chavez and his opponents.