Workers around the world
By Andy McInerney
ECUADOR
Teachers declare
victory
Teachers across Ecuador returned to work June 30 after
winning concessions from the government. Three million
students had gone for seven weeks without classes as their
teachers fought for better salaries and against
privatization of education.
The National Union of Educators (UNE) won a basic salary
of $29 per month. The government also agreed not to
privatize the public school system and to maintain the
funding levels for education. Other government changes in
education policy would be subject to debate with the full
involvement of the country.
Ecuador is suffering an economic depression. The effect
of this depression is magnified by the government's
pro-International Monetary Fund policies of austerity and
privatization. President Gustavo Noboa has introduced the
"dollarization" of the economy, making the U.S. dollar the
national currency.
Two presidents have lost their positions in the last
three years due to popular uprisings against this
IMF-imposed economic misery. In January, a popular
government led by Indigenous people and progressive
military officers was cut short after the intervention of
the U.S. government and Ecuador's military high
command.
The teachers' strike took place at a time when bosses
and politicians were jittery about their fates, as the
capitalist class tried a third time to impose the
neoliberal economic policies. This was reflected in the
repression that the teachers faced.
On June 21, elite police units stormed the UNE offices
in Quito and arrested UNE President Aracely Moreno. Eleven
other union leaders were also arrested in a major
sweep.
In the face of this repression, 200 teachers and their
supporters launched a hunger strike to demand the
unionists' release. The leaders were released as part of
the strike settlement.
SOUTH KOREA
Riot police attack
strikes
South Korea's government unleashed its notorious riot
police on striking workers June 29. Over 2,000 riot police
stormed the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, where workers had been on
strike for three weeks. Over 1,100 workers were
arrested.
The workers were fighting to win full-time status at the
hotel. The number of workers employed in part-time
positions has soared since the 1998 financial crisis in
south Korea. Workers were also asking to raise the
compulsory retirement age so that older workers could
continue to provide money for their families.
Days after the attack at the Lotte Hotel, the government
again mobilized riot police to attack strikers at the
National Health Insurance Corporation in Seoul. The workers
struck on June 28 for better wages and to get the company
to hire more workers.
On June 30, the 2,000 workers detained the NHIC's
chairperson, offering to release him when their demands
were met. Instead, the government mobilized 3,000 riot
police for an assault on the corporation's
headquarters.
Cops poured through the front doors as well as through
seventh-story windows in the July 1 operation. Sixteen
hundred workers were arrested in that assault.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions staged several
protests against the brutal police assaults. A KCTU
statement blamed the attacks on the U.S.-backed south
Korean government's need to make a show of force on two
fronts: "an effort to create a semblance of social unity"
in talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and
against the south's working class.
Doctors recently won a weeklong strike, prompting
criticism from bosses and bankers against capitulation in
the face of the workers' demands.
Bosses are clearly worried by a new round of workers'
protests. Bank workers have threatened to strike on July
11. Strikes have increased by nearly 30 percent this year,
according to the south's Ministry of Labor, and both the
KCTU and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions have
threatened general strikes in the coming months.
BRAZIL
Massive gay pride
demonstration
At least 120,000 people joined the Gay Pride Parade in
Sao Paolo, Brazil, on June 25, according to independent
journalist Rex Wockner. Slogans called for an end to hate
crimes.
"We are going to march so that people see how many of us
there are, how different we are from each other, and how
we're just like the rest of the world," according to a
parade pamphlet.
EUROPE
Lesbian, gay, bi,
trans pride
Huge demonstrations of gay pride across Europe pushed
for extending democratic rights for lesbian, gay, bi and
trans people.
A June 24 rally of 400,000 marched in Berlin's
Christopher Street Day Parade. The main demand, according
to independent journalist Rex Wockner, was passage of a
comprehensive registered partnership law.
In France, where partnership laws are already on the
books, 200,000 marchers in Paris raised their voices to win
adoption rights for lesbian and gay couples. Marchers also
called for laws to ban anti-gay discrimination.
SOUTH
AFRICA
Sit-in vs. privatization
Seventy municipal workers from the South African
Municipal Workers Union and their allies occupied the city
manager's and executive committee chair's offices of
Johannesburg's City Council on June 22. The workers were
protesting the council's privatization plans.
After 24 hours, the sit-in declared victory. The City
Council signed a written agreement declaring a moratorium
on implementing the plan.
On June 28, 10,000 union workers held a victory
celebration in downtown Johannesburg.
Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions
and the South African Communist Party also participated in
the occupation.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME :: U.S. NEWS :: WORLD NEWS :: EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page