Solidarity with struggles in Latin America

The following are excerpts from a talk at the Oct. 8-9 Workers World Party National Conference in New York City given by Philadelphia WWP organizer Berta Joubert-Ceci.

I want to pay tribute to the peoples in Latin America who for several years now have been rising up against neoliberalism, that new, criminal face of imperialism. And who were the models for the awesome wave of protests that extended to Tunisia and Egypt. And that have continued with the demonstrations and occupations against capitalism all over the world, including here in the belly of the beast. And I purposely say against capitalism even though many of them are not clearly defined, but it is capitalism and imperialism that made them happen.

I want to call attention to two struggles in particular — Chile and Honduras. In Chile, where the corporate interests of the United States assassinated democratically elected President Salvador Allende in 1973, a September 11 date that this country chooses to forget. And then they carried out a bloody repression, installing a criminal dictator, Augusto Pinochet. Thousands of people were tortured and massacred; many had to leave the country in exile.

In fact, we have here in this city a compañero, Victor Toro, in exile, who is facing deportation. We should keep his case in everybody’s mind, in every agenda of struggle.

The privatization of education, part of that anti-people neoliberal agenda, has woken up a glorious movement in Chile. It has the most privatized system of education in the Americas. The government of Sebastian Piñera, remember him? The one who used the rescue of the miners a year ago as an international propaganda for his government? Piñera is a product of the Pinochet regime and of course, a good friend of the U.S. But he is being challenged; the students have risen up and are demanding quality and free education for all.

And how has the government responded? With the force of the Carabineros, the same police force like in the time of Pinochet. One of the main leaders of this movement is a young woman, president of the Students Federation of Chile, Camila Vallejo. She is the second woman president in the federation’s 104-year history. What is even more relevant is the class consciousness that her leadership brings, because she is a communist.

Then we have another friend of the U.S.A., Jose “Pepe” Lobo, the so-called president of Honduras. Lobo is just the continuation of the coup regime of Roberto Micheletti who kidnapped — again — a democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, on June 28, 2009. Again, the U.S. was and is still involved, for its own corporate interests, in the repression against the people.

But the courageous National Front of Popular Resistance has continued mobilizing and organizing to conquer the government. Widespread repression and violence against members of the Front, journalists and campesinos, particularly in the region of the Aguan, continue. And the U.S. continues defending the government. We must continue our support for the Resistance and demand the U.S. government cease its support for the Lobo regime.

Latin America and the Caribbean continue to be an inspiration of struggle. The progressive governments of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have made enormous advances on behalf of the people, in health care, education, housing, with new constitutions, for the integration of the countries of the South, for associations based on solidarity. Most of all, they are thoroughly anti-imperialist. And that is not forgiven by the empire, the U.S.A. There is always a constant threat against those governments and movements. We must continue to be steadfast in our support of those struggles against imperialism.

Vivan the students of Chile! Viva the Resistance in Honduras! Viva Cuba! Vivan the movements in Latin America and the Caribbean! U.S. out of Haiti and Puerto Rico!