Venezuela president Hugo Chavez has nationalised steel maker Sidor

wangwei
Posts: 230 Joined: 20-09-06
Submitted by wangwei on 13 May, 2008 - 18:30.
Quote:
Venezuela president Hugo Chavez has nationalised steel maker Sidor
Raul Gallegos | May 13, 2008

VENEZUELA'S President Hugo Chavez said today that he will create a state-owned corporation to oversee steel production.

Shortly after he announced the expropriation of steel company Sidor in a televised address, Mr Chavez said the state conglomerate will run the newly seized Sidor.

Furthermore, state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, PdVSA, will invest in Sidor, the president said. "PdVSA must sign in the coming months a deal with Sidor...PdVSA can well invest some resources here, and Sidor can pay that back with (steel) pipes," said Mr Chavez.

The president suggested PdVSA will need all the help it can get as it has begun to look offshore for oil.

Mr Chavez made no mention of how much this deal would be worth. He didn't give further details of the new steel corporation he plans to create.

After a number of publicly voiced threats, Mr Chavez signed off on the takeover of Sidor. The company was owned by Ternium, a unit of Argentine-Italian conglomerate Techint.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23689972-5005200,00.html

This is interesting. Chavez has nationalized a key industry, one that allegedly produces the raw materials for the US military.

This is also interesting because as of this date, May 13, 2008 and at 2:24 pm, this is on absolutely NO US news sources. None. Not CNN not any of them. The US ruling class is attempting to block this and is hiding behind the tragic earthquake in China.

What do you guys think?

I posted the whole article because it was so short. Truncate it if necessary.

Sean Siberio
Posts: 107 Joined: 03-04-08
13 May, 2008 - 20:16

I don't think theres any conscious attempt to "Suppress" this story; in fact, it'd be fantastic for the news to spint his as an example of that devious Chavez being a commie. They don't cover it, mostly because they're lazy, stupid, and entirely ignorant of anything that goes on the world. Its why I have a beef with most analysis' of media power; it presumes a kind of malicious consciousness and level of intelligence I really don't think is there.

navindra "Anarcho-Muppet"
Posts: 117 Joined: 22-01-07
14 May, 2008 - 18:37
wangwei wrote:
This is also interesting because as of this date, May 13, 2008 and at 2:24 pm, this is on absolutely NO US news sources. None. Not CNN not any of them. The US ruling class is attempting to block this and is hiding behind the tragic earthquake in China.

What do you guys think?

CNN April 30th: Venezuela nationalizes steel industry

Just about every major US new outlet has been carrying the AP and Reuters stories for the past 2 1/2 weeks.

Alf "Fraternisation across all boundaries"
Posts: 1435 Joined: 06-07-05
15 May, 2008 - 08:13

The Chavez government will present this as a victory for the workers who have recently been out on strike and found themselves up against the 'Bolivarian' cops. http://libcom.org/news/steel-workers-strike-venezuela-attacked-chavez-state-02042008

The government line is that the steelworkers' problems all result from the company being owned by foreign/private bosses.

David in Atlanta ""crude reductionist version of marxism""
Posts: 1729 Joined: 21-04-06
16 May, 2008 - 12:49

Well, nationalization was one of the workers demands. We'll see how they do with their wage and pension demands, no better, I'd wager.