WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD
By Andy
McInerney
INDIA
Millions strike against
privatization
An estimated 8 million workers walked
off the job July 25 to protest government plans to downsize
the national budget and privatize some state enterprises.
Federal and state government workers brought services to a
halt throughout the daylong action.
“The response to the strike was
good,” R.G. Karnik, chair of the All India State
Government Employees Federation, told Agence France Presse.
“The strike is total. As far as the central government
is concerned, all departments, except railways and defense,
are on strike.”
“Our strike is aimed at not only
downsizing, but also privatization, abolition of posts, and a
freeze on recruitments,” said Confederation of Central
Government Employees and Workers Secretary K.K.N. Kutty.
Kutty warned that there would be future job actions involving
all unions representing government workers.
CHILE
Workers target
Rio Group summit
Echoing the growing international
calls for an end to imperialist globalization, close to
10,000 workers took to the streets of Santiago, Chile, on
Aug. 17 to demonstrate against the Rio Group summit. The Rio
Group includes 19 heads of state from Central and South
America.
The protests, organized by the Chilean
United Workers’ Federation (CUT), demanded an end to
unemployment and more protection for workers. The workers set
up bonfires throughout the main streets of Santiago and
clashed with riot police protecting the summit.
While the CUT expressed support for
the unity of Latin American states, it warned, “This
show of brotherhood and democracy by our people must have the
workers behind it. Our natural resources and our work have
gone to consolidate the gap between rich and poor
nations.”
CUT President Arturo Martinez said
that Chile is “at a crossroads of becoming a country of
dignity and solidarity, or a paradise for commercialism and
selfishness.”
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos hosted
the Rio Group summit. Lagos was elected as a social democrat.
But he has failed to check the IMF-backed neoliberal policies
that have been in place in Chile since the days of dictator
Augusto Pinochet. These policies demand that nationalized
industries be privatized, social services be reduced, foreign
capital and goods be allowed unfettered entry, and owners be
free to lay off workers.
COLOMBIA
Farmers, transport workers
protest
Thousands of Colombian peasant farmers
clashed with police at roadblocks throughout northern
Colombia in late July and early August. They were demanding
price controls, reduced imports, and debt forgiveness. The
actions began on July 31. They ended one week later after the
government agreed to serious talks with the
farmers.
The protesters included small coffee
growers as well as wheat, banana and potato farmers. Coffee
growers have been hit particularly hard by a slump in world
coffee prices and increased foreign imports. Colombia, known
around the world for its coffee, currently imports more
coffee than it exports.
Roadblocks became sites of pitched
battles between peasants and police units trying to dislodge
them. Raul Reyes, a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia–People’s Army (FARC-EP), issued a
statement supporting the coffee farmers’ demands. There
were some reports of FARC units intervening on the side of
peasants when police attacked.
In the capital city of Bogotá,
a growing conflict between transport workers and the mayor
has caused several city-wide transportation strikes. For
example, on Aug. 2, hundreds of taxi drivers set up
roadblocks throughout the capital city.
The strike came after an arbitrary
measure restricting the days that taxis and buses could
operate—supposedly as an anti-pollution measure. Hector
Fajardo, general secretary of the United Workers’
Federation (CUT), summed up the level of solidarity with the
transport workers: “We will take to the streets to back
Bogotá drivers and protest the government’s
neoliberal policies,” he said on Aug. 6.
While a truce was declared on Aug. 8,
there were new signs of protests on Aug. 14 when transport
union leaders called for a complete strike on Aug.
23.
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