Case of jailed union leader in Venezuela draws condemnation from human rights groups

[naaman fletcher]

CARACAS, Venezuela — Union leader Ruben Gonzalez once admired and supported President Hugo Chavez. Nowadays, he is jailed in a police station in eastern Venezuela, and says his yearlong imprisonment shows the government's intolerance for labour protests.

Gonzalez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his cell on Thursday that he is confident "divine justice will prevail" and he will eventually be freed. He is being prosecuted on charges stemming from a strike he helped organize that temporarily paralyzed the country's state-run iron mining company in 2009, and his case is drawing condemnation from international labour and human rights organizations.

"The government is criminalizing protests," Gonzalez said by cellphone, which he is allowed to use in the jail.

Gonzalez was scheduled to appear in court Friday, the one-year anniversary of his imprisonment. But he said he does not expect the judge to reach a verdict anytime soon, noting that he has already appeared in court more than a dozen times over the past 15 months, and that hearings have also repeatedly been postponed.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ieILNmq_T6csMAiVBboO6mi8Wvtg?docId=5715159

"progressives" who support a government that jails union leaders for organizing protests. it boggles the mind.

[social_critic]

1. The individual's freedom must be put to the party's service

In a communist society there's no need for independent unions or wildcat strikes. The Party is the vehicle taking society towards the glorious communist future, in which people consume what they need while working in comunal fashion to provide for goods and services. Citizens will learn to be happy with the goods and services provided by their fellow workers. Some of these goods will be shoddy, or non-existent, and services will tend to be poor, but this is what happens when people are no longer enslaved by profit motives. Human nature will be bent to the needs of comunal society, and those who seek to profit or gain an advantage will be shunned and/or punished.

Party and the Politburo (or whatever you want to call the senior party leadership) provide for the adequate balance between the demands of workers and the needs of society. Why would society allow for independent union leaders or other actors who stray from Party directives? Unions must therefore follow the party leadership, and become social clubs which can be used for workers to meet and commit to perform volunteer labor, and/or praise the Party leadership. The media, of course, must be ready to respond to the party.

Leading Party cadres, senior military leaders, and senior members of the security apparatus will of course be rewarded for their sacrifices, and will live in the larger mansions and be driven in the larger cars. Their children and relatives will be entitled to "upper" status. The people will of course worship the supreme leader, who will prove his military capabilities reviewing military parades on a suitable date, and give society direction via speeches using the most modern communications technology.

Anybody who opposes the one party state and its leadership will be jailed or executed, as needed.

[social_critic]

2. Viva Chavez!!

Just kidding. I was wondering if any chavistas would like to discuss the case. :-)