Peruvian General Strike

[SpikeyRed]

I posted a news report of a General strike and mass protests in Peru here (http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=68766) that seems to have been scarcely reported.

I don't know very much at all about Peru, except that it is yet another 'developing' country in South America brutally exploited by US imperialism.

Is this wave of protests and strikes a revolutionary opportunity?
What are peoples thoughts on the situation in Peru?

[Leo]

This has been posted "Worker Actions" forum under the thread "Americas".

Miners’ strike in Peru

http://en.internationalism.org/wr/305/miners-strike-peru

The miner’s strike in Peru is a fact. The miners that work for the Chinese company Shougang began their strike three weeks ago. The struggle has spread to all the mining centres in the country. Inevitably, for the moment, the unions have carried out their reactionary role, especially the union at the countries largest mine: Yanacocha (a gold mine in Cajaqmarca in the North of Peru, which generates $800 to $1000 million a year). This union held isolated discussions with the company and did not call a strike. Similarly, at Oroya the unions were denounced by the press for working. It clearly wanted to break the minimum unity since the Mining Federation had said that 33 union sites were on strike.

At Chimbote, where the peasant and unemployed struggle had been going for some weeks, the Sider Peru company was totally paralysed. Wives marched with the miners, along with much of the city’s population. In the city of Ilo streets were blockaded, in Cerro de Pasco 15 miners were arrested for stoning the local headquarters of the regional government.

The press carried out its reactionary role by saying that the strike was a failure. Acting as the mouthpiece of the state, the means of disinformation, along with the Minister of Mines (Pinilla) said that only 5,700 miners out of a total of 120,000 were on strike. The Mining Federation said that 22,000 were on strike.

At the Casapalca mine, on the Sierra de Lima, the miners detained the mining engineers who had threatened to sack them if they abandoned their posts. The Minister Pinilla declared the strike illegal because it had been called four days before it began, rather than the 5 that the law called for. There are a lot of temporary workers in the mines and the minister warned that those miners who did not return to work on the Thursday would be made unemployed.

Another aspect of this struggle was the involvement of the miners employed by sub-contracting companies. A miner employed directly by a company earns $23 a day, whilst a miner subcontracted to the mines, by one of these companies, earns $9 a day. An advertisement by a miner’s wife pointed out that President Alan García had promised in his election speeches to get rid of the sub-contractors.

On the other hand, a news programme showed a demoralised Shougang miner saying that three weeks had passed and he was not able to eat. The tears of the miner telling of his misery and that of his family which had to stay in the provinces could demoralise other miners on strike. Some students of the University of San Marcos in Lima showed solidarity with the miners and took some food for the ‘communal kitchens’, the latter is a common practice in all strikes (teachers, nurses, workers etc). Food is shared amongst families there, whilst exchanging experiences and evaluating the day’s struggle.

On the other hand, the government presented the privatisation of the Michiquillay mine in Cajamarca, whose initial price was $47 million but ended up being sold off for more than $400 million, as another demoralising blow.

This indefinite national strike, the first in 20 years, has not paralysed this sector.

[Avtomat_Icaro]

Originally posted by [email protected] 16, 2007 08:22 am
I posted a news report of a General strike and mass protests in Peru here (http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=68766) that seems to have been scarcely reported.

I don't know very much at all about Peru, except that it is yet another 'developing' country in South America brutally exploited by US imperialism.

Is this wave of protests and strikes a revolutionary opportunity?
What are peoples thoughts on the situation in Peru?
Problem with Peru is that it has had bad experiences with the left, mostly caused by the Sendero Luminoso (and I know we have some fanboys of those morons here) and their struggle for revolution which failed and left tens of thousands of people dead. And Peru has been eating out of the US' hand for ages now, Peru and Colombia have sort of been the beacon of pro US policy in the region. Ollanta actually lost the election because he was supported by Chavez, you can see that the Peruvians would rather pick a former thief and criminal than a person who is seen as "Chavez puppet".

As for the strikes, is it only this strike in the mines or is there stuff happening throughout Peru?

[SpikeyRed]

According to the reports, there is actually a general strike, started not by the miners but the teachers. Miners, Construction workers, Farmers, Teachers are all on strike, possibly others, and there are nationwide mass protests that have 'shut down' the country (read: Bourgeois economy)

[SpikeyRed]

According to the reports, there is actually a general strike, started not by the miners but the teachers. Miners, Construction workers, Farmers, Teachers are all on strike, possibly others, and there are nationwide mass protests that have 'shut down' the country (read: Bourgeois economy)

[Guest1]

Peru’s National Day of Struggle – the Beginning of the End for Alan Garcia? (http://www.marxist.com/peru-protests-end-alan-garcia.htm)
By Jorge Martin
Thursday, 12 July 2007

On Wednesday July 11, Perú was paralised by a National Day of Struggle called by the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP). Some 50,000 people gathered in the San Martí square in the centre of Lima, where the general secretary of the CGTP, Mario Huaman threatened to call a general strike if the government does not give in to the demands of the movement. This was the largest demonstration since the fall of the Fujimori dictatorship and the mood was very radical.

The national day of action is the highest point so far in a growing movement of protest against the policies of the Alan Garcia government, which was only narrowly elected a year ago. On Thursday, July 5th, the powerful and militant Peruvian United Education Workers Union (SUTEP) called an all-out strike of the 300,000 teachers that it organises throughout the country. This strike is against a new law dealing with the status of teachers in state education, which the union considers an attack on their conditions and a form of back door privatisation. There have been daily militant demonstrations of the teachers all over Perú, and on July 11, at the beginning of the national day of struggle, 5,000 teachers took over the installations of the international airport of Juliaca, the capital of the department of Puno, and destroyed its installations.

A whole number of southern regions had called a 48 hour general strike and some (Tacna, Moquegua and Puno) have now declared an indefinite general strike, linking up the demand of the workers and local population. Amongst them is Arequipa and some other regions which already witnessed mass uprisings against the privatisation of water in 2002 (http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/peru_arequipa.html).

The national peasant organisations had also called for a 48 hour “agrarian strike” against the signing of the Free Trade Agreement which was widely followed with road blockades throughout the country.

The Miners and Metal Workers Federation has also joined the protests with a 48 hour strike, after copper miners have been mobilising for more than a month in a bitter dispute that has left several miners dead in clashes with the police. They are demanding wage increases and better safety conditions in the mines, taking advantage of a situation in which the price of copper on the world market has risen sharply.

The mood of rage of workers and peasants has been increased by the provocative statements of president Alan Garcia of the APRA party. He has insisted that, “the foundations of the country are solid, these are only a small minority of fanatics who want to defend their privileges.”

Furthermore, he accused Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez of being the force behind the protests, accusing Venezuela of interfering in the internal affairs of Peru.

There has been tension between Alan Garcia and Hugo Chávez since the elections one year ago, when Chávez accused Alan Garcia of fraud and did not recognise his victory over nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala. Many advanced workers and peasants in Perú sympathise with the Venezuelan revolution. In the last few weeks, the Peruvian media organised a demonstration of less than a hundred people outside the Venezuelan embassy in Lima to protest at the Venezuelan government’s decision not to renew the licence to RCTV. This demonstration was protected by anti-riot police, and police snipers were positioned on rooftops near the embassy in what was a virtual siege of the embassy. A much larger demonstration of about 2,000 people in support of the Bolivarian revolution was kept away by ani-riot police. (For pics and a report click here (http://www.aporrea.org/venezuelaexterior/n97109.html))

But the real reason for this mass wave of protests is the fact that Alan García has broken all of his election promises. He was elected on the basis of left wing demagogy - the only way he could fight Ollanta Humala in the second round of the election - only to carry out right-wing, pro-imperialist policies. In less than one year he has been thoroughly exposed. As we explained in an article by Anibal Montoya (http://www.marxist.com/balance-elections-peru-colombia150606-4.htm) one year ago:

“A large part of the vote that went to Garcia’s APRA party was because of his left speeches and the rejection of what the masses interpret as being ‘neoliberalism’; that is the politics of hunger and submission to Peruvian capitalism. But Alan Garcia, a corrupt agent of the bourgeoisie and US imperialism, will have no option but to carry out the dirty work of his bosses in order to safeguard their interests (carrying on with privatisations, signing the FTAA, deepening the misery and poverty that will be extended to more and more sections of the population). And all of this will lead to a rapid rise in his unpopularity amongst the general population.”

The latest opinion polls show the rate of approval for Alan García dropping below 50 percent for the first time, a sharp fall of more than 10 points from the previous month. His approval rating amongst the poorest sections of the population in Lima is only 29%. Faced with the massive character of the protests, the government has now decided to bring the Army into the streets for 30 days. There are also news of dozens of trade union leaders being arrested, mainly from the teachers' union. This include the General Secretary, Vice-General Secretary and Secretary of Organisation of the SUTEP teachers' union and the Organisation Secretary of the CGTP. These repressive measures once the masses are already in the streets can backfire and provocke and even wider mobilisation.

The slogans at the demonstration of Lima were a forewarning of what is to come: "here we are, we fear no more", "he will fall, he will fall, crazy horse will fall" (referring to Alan Garcia), and "the people united will never be defeated". These protests could mean the beginning of the end for the Alan García government, which could be overthrown by the mass movement, just as other governments in Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina have been overthrown in recent years, as part of the revolutionary wave that is engulfing Latin America.

[catch]

http://libcom.org/news/general-strike-spre...s-peru-17072007 (http://libcom.org/news/general-strike-spreads-across-peru-17072007)


As an indefinite teachers strike continues into its 12th day, farmers, miners and construction workers joined the protests, with one farmer shot dead by police.

The latest death brings the reported death toll to 4 over the last week in what has been described by some media as a general strike. The strike began when the teachers union struck against a new law requiring all teachers to sit regular competency exams (libcom.org coverge here). This was the catalyst for wider discontent to erupt, and miners, construction workers and campesinos (peasant farmers) joined the demonstrations.

With thousands taking to the streets in every major town and city, police have made mass arrests of around 100 union leaders and others whom the government labels “left-wing radicals.” In total over 300 arrests have been made since the start of the teachers strike on July 5th. Much of the anger has been directed at the President Alan Garcia, whose social democratic Aprista party won a narrow victory over the populist/nationalist Ollanta Humala in elections last summer. Humala has voiced support for the protests in a move seen by many as an attempt to re-ignite his own presidential ambitions.

The indefinite teachers strike has been bolstered by a 2-day strike by the Campesino Confederation of Peru (CCP) in protest at a free-trade accord with the US which was ratified by the Peruvian congress last summer but has yet to come into force. Against a backdrop of widespread poverty – half of Peru’s 27m people live on less than $1 a day - there is anger that the government is pursuing the free-trade deal whilst reneging on promises to ensure that workers and campesinos benefit from the country’s annual 8% economic growth. Despite this growth promised improvements to electricity, water and food provision have not materialised and President Garcia’s approval rating has plummeted to 35%, down from 60% when he was elected, although it is unclear whether Humala’s nationalist opposition has made any gains.

libcom round up:
In Lima, up to 30,000 protesters filled the Plaza San Martin in what one analyst described as one of the largest mobilisations in Lima in 30 years

While in the northern city of Piura 15,000 protesters gathered

In northern Trujillo – President Garcia’s heartland – striking teachers attempted to pelt him with eggs and clashed with his supporters

In the Amazonian city of Iquitos roads were blocked, while on the coast the Pan-American highway was blocked at multiple locations

The airport in the tourist centre of Cuzco was closed while nearby protesters blocked railway tracks of the train to Machu Picchu, recently declared one of the seven wonders of the world, and pelted a train with stones

In southern Juliaca violence flared as 5,000 protesters occupied the airport and blocked runways, causing flights to be cancelled

In nearby Puno roads were blocked, as they were in Arequipa, while an angry crowd of 1,000 took 9 police officers hostage for several hours demanding a swap for arrested demonstrators

In highland Andahuaylas around a thousand Quechua Andeans blocked roads and clashed with police

[Guest1]

Strike's over, deal struck with teachers' union.

[SpikeyRed]

Well thats slightly disappointing, however, I'm sure such action has done wonders for consciousness and solidarity!