The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-04-28
VENEZUELA UNIONIST
PLEADS FOR US HELP

Wdihru HibO your UNION Office To-
morrow morning, took away the
furniture and files, confscated al
union funds in the bank, and threw
the officers in Jail. Sounds pretty
far fetched, doesn't it? Well, that
exactly what has happened in Ven
ezuela, one Of our good neigh.
bors" to the south.
Augusta Malave Villalba, gener.
al secretary Of the Venezuelan Con.
federation Of Labor (CTV), &
quiet, understandably worrie e d.
looking man, told US part Of the
story here in Washington last
week. AL exile in Cuba, Villalba il
up here seeking AFL cooperation
in the fight for trade union free
dom in his country.
They had an election in Vene
zuela last year, same as we did
Labor really turned out the vot,
in that election. The Democrat,
Action Party got 500 of the votes
in a country with only 100000
population, 100000 votes were
lcast for President Romulo Gal
legos, a well-known author affec
tionately called Maestro" by the
people.
A couple of months after Gal
legos took office, the parliament
had already passed a land reform
law and an education bill. All of Z
sudden, the Military Govt tool
over by force, suspended applica.
tion of the reform measures, dis.
solved the Natl Federation Of
Labor and the Industrial Fedora
tion (which are the state fedora
tions).
The locals are still permitted tc
function-if you can call it trade
union functioning. They can meet
only with permission of the mill.
tary and a military delegate must
be present at the meeting. They
have no permission to make wage
demands. In fact, the only thing
the agenda can contain is change
of leadership-and it has to con.
tain that. Everyone has 80 days in
which to change the leadership.
Most industry is privately own
ed" Villalba pointed out, "and the
government hasn't told them who
will be their officers" The Vene-
zuelan labor leader also wants to
know why not single Communist
has been disturbed while all the
Democrats have been Jailed.
There are two communist groups
in the country; the official Com
intern and an autonomous group.
The official Comintern didn't say
a word about the dissolution of the
labor movement or about the gov
ernment breaking the printers
strike. They did protest when
Venezuela recognized Franco. The
autonomous group didn't even pro-
test that.
The biggest industry in Vene-
zuela is oil. Creole Petroleum
Corp, owned by Standard Oil of
this country, is the biggest oil COM
pany in the world. The oil workers
union is the strongest union and
the Communists have 1919 of it's
membership. The workers are so
detected that production has gone
down and the government is get
ting less royalties. According to
the effects of all this on
the oil industry should not be un-
The military government doesn't
like the United States, since they
oppose all Democratic forces. While
our State Dept has recognized the
President Truman sent a
letter to Gallegos saying he re-
gretted the need for such official
recognition. The Democrats in
Venezuela are pro-US. But if they
ion't get moral support they will
De- disillusioned.
American unions should:
Support the move of demo-
,ratic Venezuelan leaders now in
exile to have the dictatorship there
condemned. Demand an investiga-
ion by the Human Rights Com
of United Nations.
2-Give all moral and material
support necessary in the future for
IN investigation by the Int'l Labor
Office. Venezula is an lilo member
md must receive representatives of
he organization. Violation of trade
lnion rights is already on the June
agenda of lilo.
3-Protest the Venezuelan gov
The national AFL, the
ntI Association of Machinists and
he Railway l. bor Executives
ASSN have already protested. Send
elegrams or letters to: Military
Government Committee, Caracas,
l.