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Freteco Film Screening in Salt Lake City


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On Friday April 10th the new film  “Freteco” was shown at the Mestizo Cafe in Salt Lake.  Freteco is an organization of workers’ delegates from occupied factories throughout Venezuela (Revolutionary Front of Workers in Factories Occupied and Under Workers’ Control). An interested group of over fifteen people came out to see the film. The audience included older and younger people and not necessarily the “usual suspects” of the local left.

John Peterson, National Secretary of Hands of Venezuela, spoke for about 45 minutes about the Venezuelan Revolution, Latin America, and workers occupations around the world including the occupation of the Republic Windows factory in Chicago. A heightened militancy has taken place in places as diverse as the Ukraine, Canada, Ireland, Iran, etc.  A trend that is bound to continue as workers continue to pay in every conceivable way for the current crisis of capitalism.

The film illustrates that not only is workers’ control a good idea in the abstract, but also points out the practical aspects of workers’ control of industry. After all, those who sell their labor power in any given industry have a better idea of how their workplace functions than a boss or capitalist, who produce nothing. This concept is understandable to most workers whether they consider themselves revolutionary socialists or not.

We also see in the film the importance that the Freteco members place on politically educating their fellow workers.  Workers from the nationalized valve company Inveval make links with Mitsubishi workers to learn from each other. We see the women of the Gotcha T-shirt factory continue production on a democratic basis after their boss shut down the factory due to union activity. Stress is given to the linking up of the workers’ organizations and the communal councils in the working class neighborhoods.

Freteco as an organization is committed to full expropriation of the commanding heights of the Venezuelan economy, to be owned by the state and run under the control, and in the interest of the workers themselves. This isn’t some radical daydream, but real events that are happening now, and it is inspirational to behold. See the film, or better yet, screen it somewhere near you! Visit www.wellredusa.com to get a copy and support HOV.