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Over 200 arrested in Chilean general
strike
Aug. 14— The first general strike in Chile since the restoration
of democracy was deemed a success Wednesday, Aug. 13 by labor unions,
although the government labeled it a failure.
At least 200 people were arrested, two people were injured, and serious
damage to public and private property resulted from the day’s confrontations.
Protests were held in Santiago, Arica, Iquique, Talca, Valparaiso, Concepcion,
Temuco and Valdivia, where serious confrontations with police occurred,
authorities said. Strikers protesting the government’s economic
model and demanding greater respect for labor rights blocked streets
and damaged some commercial centers.
The day’s activities began early with attacks and minor incidents
that intensified after midday, when downtown Santiago became the scene
of a half dozen demonstrations infiltrated by groups of hooded protesters
who clashed with police.
As of mid-afternoon, more than 100 people had been arrested in Santiago
and other cities, according to police officials.
President Ricardo Lagos said he was concerned about the incidents and
the damage his country’s image had suffered worldwide.
“They say the cities are functioning normally, that people and
cars can move freely on the streets, but you can see that’s not
so. Movement of pedestrians and vehicles was down by 80 percent,”
said Martinez, who like Lagos and Insulza belongs to the Socialist Party.
The strike was supported by the Catholic Church, whose workers’
vicar, Ignacio Muñoz, said social discontent “is undeniable,”
mainly because of long-standing unemployment, which is at 9.1 percent,
“and profound instability in the job market.” United Workers
Central (CUT) organized the general strike — the first since 1986
during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet — to protest the existing
free-market economic model and demand respect for workers’ rights.
According to union leaders, the strike was heeded by all public school
teachers and civil service employees, 90-95 percent of health workers
and 92 percent of municipal employees.
Authorities said government services, as well as medical care offered
at public hospitals and clinics, were unaffected by the nationwide strike.
Education Minister Sergio Bitar estimated that 68 percent of teachers
and 23 percent of students attended school on the day of the strike.
According to the results of a survey of members of the Association of
Manufacturing Exporters, absenteeism in the private sector totaled 13
percent.
Early Wednesday morning, strikers blocked some streets leading to downtown
Santiago, and in the provinces barred access to large copper mines.
Source: Mercosur
Ten million unemployed: The forgotten
issue in Iraq
By E.A. Khammas
Aug. 10-- Under the burning sun of August, the Iraqi unemployed
have continued their demonstrations and sit-in protest in front of the
US Occupation Administration headquarters in Baghdad for the last two
weeks running.
The 24-hour-a-day continuous protest, organized by The Union of Unemployed
in Iraq (UUI), demands jobs or social insurance of no less than $100
per month to every unemployed worker; the rehabilitation of private
and public factories; and immediate restoration of public services.
This is the eighth unemployment demonstration since early May 2003.
The demonstrations have not, thus far, achieved any real progress.
Some of the protesters were arrested and jailed for 24 hours twice during
these 11 days. They were accused of violating the night curfew. The
first time they numbered 19, the second there were 56 of them. They
were maltreated, deprived of water and food and some of them talk of
sexual harassment and the deliberate use of persistent noise as a tool
of sleep deprivation. They were released after a UN representative,
who demanded that his name would not be mentioned, intervened.
In fact, the American soldiers were on edge during the demonstration,
holding their bayonettes with their safety buttons removed. Some of
them used obscene and racist words against the protesters, according
to the international organizations supporting the demonstration. The
soldiers were very sensitive to the media present. In one incident they
asked The International Occupation Watch Center cameraman to erase parts
of the tape which show their behavior. Some of the soldiers, however,
were more sympathetic with the protesters and encouraged them to continue
their protest.
Qasim Hadi, the head of the UUI, says that the negotiations with the
civil authority representatives, which began May 22, did not result
in anything but evasion and unfulfilled promises.
“They are talking about programs like what they call ‘household
work’ and ‘military work’ of which we have seen nothing.
They tell us to go to the local councils which have no authority at
all, no finance, they can not even furnish their offices; how are they
going to solve the problem of the unemployed?”
Hadi also thinks that the governing council does not represent the poor
or the unemployed, and that it has no authority.
“We can not wait until the local and foreign companies start to
operate; this will take time because of the insecurity and the absence
of services. Some of the people who are protesting here do not have
money to return home, some of them walked 12 kilometers to get here.”
The Iraqi Media Net announced that each Iraqi would be given a certain
amount of money. The protesters, however, stated that they would not
accept this unless an American official announces it, mentioning a fixed
date and publicly stated rules of distribution.
Slogans and chants reveal different political aspects of the problem:
“This country will not be rebuilt only with Iraqi hands,”
“Where is freedom?” “Where are the promises?”
Samir Adil, political bureau member of the Workers Communist Party,
says that the issue is certainly political.
“The American coordinator of labor issues, Stephen Spiers, told
me that he refused to give the unemployed one dollar, because this means
officially recognizing them, and that next they will ask to be part
of the governing council. Why not?” Adil wonders, “no party
in the governing council has this number of members.”
The American authorities distributed a poster saying that while all
Iraqi voices are heard through peaceful protest, freedom is responsibility,
and that any violence will not be tolerated and will be dealt with firmly.
This is seen by many to be sheer propaganda.
“The demonstration is completely peaceful, we prevented the demonstrators
from holding even a small stone. In fact, we asked the Iraqi police
and the American soldiers to protect the demo, but they refused,”
Hadi said.
There are 150,000 unemployed workers registered in the UUI, but the
number of the unemployed all over Iraq is estimated to be 10 million.
Many of them are ex-soldiers, ex-prisoners of war, or ex-employees or
workers in different Iraqi sectors that were dissolved or stopped after
the war for different reasons, most importantly and predominantly due
to social insecurity.
These unemployed face many economic, social, and psychological problems
now. They can not afford to pay rent or to support their families. Their
families are disintegrating, and many of them speak of their wives asking
for divorce, or deserting their houses.
“It is her right to do that, I am not providing her, or her two
children, with anything,” said Yahia Ismael, an ex-soldier who
was shot in his left shoulder in Nasiryia on Mar. 27 of this year, and
due to his injuries is now handicapped.
Source: International Occupation Watch
Center
Zambia public workers’ strike
shrinks revenue base
By Zarina Geloo
Lusaka, Zambia, Aug. 15 (IPS)— Like dominos, sectors of
the Zambian public workers have gone on strike one after the other,
since March, costing the government over $10 million a week in revenue
collection.
Revenue collection departments like Zambia Revenue Authority lost $2
million a day when its workers went on strike last month. The Road Traffic
Commission lost about $20,500 during the three-day strike this week.
These are only two out of the ten such departments that collect levies.
Government is also losing about $1.03 million a week in man-hours during
the pickets.
Zambia’s 120,000 civil servants are demanding wage increments and
housing allowances as agreed and budgeted for in the 2003 conditions
of service. After protracted negotiations with union leaders in April,
when the Zambia Congress of trade Union (ZCTU) threatened indefinite
strikes, the government agreed to $123 for the lowest and $220 to the
highest paid worker.
The ZCTU had demanded a $300 raise across the board. Housing allowances
were also to be paid backdated to April last year. Currently, the average
public sector salary is about $60 a month.
But the government was forced to renege on the pay agreement when the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) demanded that it tackle a projected
budget overrun of about $124 million and withheld over $100 million
in aid. Government insists that wage increments and worker’s perks
caused the overrun on the budget. When cornered by the striking judicial
workers, it paid out half of the housing allowances for a few workers
and begged for more time from the trade unions. But patience has run
out.
In the latest round of pickets, public sector workers on Aug. 11 began
a three day-strike that would lead to a week-long work stoppage until
demands were met.
“If they don’t act on our demands, we shall go on strike for
a week and after that, if they still do not give us what we want, the
strike will be indefinite and operations of the government will suffer,”
said Secretary General of the Civil Servants Union of Zambia, Darrison
Chaala.
The workers have ignored appeals from president Levy Mwanawasa and his
new finance minister Ngandu Magande to find other ways of resolving
the matter. The two have also called for sacrifices from the workers.
This has angered union leaders as Mwanawasa recently increased the salaries
of legislators and politically appointed district administrators and
hiked the perks of judges.
Chaala says it is the government that should sacrifice as workers with
their meager salaries were already sacrificing. He referred to the Jesuit
Centre for Theological Reflection that collects monthly cost-of-living
statistics, which estimated that a household of six needs to spend up
to $160 on basics alone.
“We have given government solutions to the budget overrun and also
where to find money for our salaries,” says Chaala.
He says the government should trim its 66-member cabinet, freeze expensive
ministerial perks like cell phones, free fuel and expensive vehicles
and also stop expensive foreign trips. It should also trim down the
42-member Constitutional Review Commission which civil society has rejected
because of the cost of maintaining it.
Magande said the increments awarded to public service workers had to
be revisited if economic targets were to be met. He also added that
the government “erred” in signing the collective agreement
with the unions.
Magande said the government is in an awkward situation because the IMF,
the World Bank and the bilateral western donors fund almost half of
Zambia’s national budget. To access aid and debt relief, the government
is expected to cut spending. Zambia has already failed to attain the
Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) floating completion point to qualify
for debt cancellation by December.
If the government is to honor its promise to the workers it may have
to borrow from the open market by selling Treasury Bills, increasing
interest rates, and possibly creating instability in the national currency,
the Kwacha, according to economist Ignatius Chicha.
But the unions are adamant about getting their money and have targeted
workers in the government revenue department, encouraging them to remain
defiant until demands are met.
“We want to hit them where it hurts most — that is in revenue
collection. We see how much money is coming in, so we know that what
we want is not far fetched. We are going for the jugular because obviously
softly, softly does not help,” said Chaala.
Donors have expressed concern about the apparent stand off between the
unions and government and have encouraged a quick resolution. But Magande
says there cannot be a resolution fast or slow, if government has no
money.
“If the IMF can help, then we will be able to resolve this issue.
But the IMF is not willing so we cannot do anything,” he argued.
Swaziland: King unmoved after three days
of protest
Mbabane, Swaziland, Aug. 15 (IRIN)— King Mswati
III asserted on Aug. 15 that the rule of law was observed in Swaziland,
despite a police decision to defy a court order permitting protesting
workers to deliver a petition to delegates at a Commonwealth heads of
state summit.
The key complaint in the workers’ petition was Mswati’s defiance
of court rulings that run counter to royal interests. A three-day labor-led
protest, coinciding the with Global Smart Partnership International Dialogue
Summit, has tried to push the government towards democratic reforms.
“Your court order does not matter, because the bottom line is you
are not going there,” police regional commander of the northern Hhohho
region, Sabelo Hlope, was reported to have told union leaders on Aug.
14, hours after they had been granted court permission to march to the
summit in Ezulwini, 10 km from the capital, Mbabane. “You cannot
be allowed to go there because you are a security risk.”
Industrial Court presiding judge Nderi Nduma granted a union motion to
prevent police from blocking the delivery of the worker’s petition
to summit delegates. He ruled that this week’s national strike and
protest action, in which unionists had been beaten by police on Aug. 13,
was legal under Section 40 of the Industrial Relations Act.
After the court ruling, a justice ministry official told IRIN: “We’ve
done what we could do here, now it’s up to the police.”
Jan Sithole, secretary general for the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions
(SFTU), was among 50 union leaders and supporters detained for three hours
on the night of Aug. 14. Returning from Mbabane after the court ruling,
the unionists’ bus was stopped by police and its occupants searched
and interrogated.
“This was pure harassment,” Sithole told the press. “They
were trying to link us to an activist arrested with explosives.”
Also on the night of Aug. 14, Roland Rudd, a journalist whose criticisms
of the royal government appeared in a local newspaper column, was arrested
when four petrol bombs were reportedly found in his car.
Last month, a petrol bomb exploded at a police barracks in Mbabane. There
were no injuries. “The Swaziland Solidarity Network [an organization
of activists and banned political parties] claimed responsibility for
that bombing,” Foreign Minister Roy Fanourakis told IRIN. “We
will find the perpetrators, and we will nail them.”
As it entered Ezulwini, the highway leading to the summit venue was blocked
on Friday, Aug. 15 by the police, who offloaded and questioned bus passengers
and multiple occupants of private vehicles. Only local residents and people
accredited to the summit were permitted to continue, ensuring that demonstrators
would be kept away from heads of state including Zimbabwe’s Robert
Mugabe, Botswana’s Festus Mogae, and Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohamad.
The final day of the national protest action focused on a demonstration
at the Oshoek border crossing in western Swaziland on Friday. The border
post is the busiest in the kingdom, linking Swaziland with South Africa’s
commercial capital, Johannesburg. Up to 200 Swazi labor federation workers
intermittently blocked traffic, with the assistance of the Congress of
South African Trade Unions, whose members picketed on their side of the
crossing.
Union officials were satisfied they were able to draw international attention
this week to what they described as Mswati’s intolerance towards
dissent.
“We paid the price in the blood of our brothers and sisters, but
the world is realizing that when the king says ‘rule of law’
he means ‘my law’,” said Mfanasibili Nkhambule, a shop
steward and SFTU member. At least 12 workers were injured by baton-wielding
police in Mbabane on Wednesday.
SFTU’s Sithole told IRIN: “We have been protesting the breakdown
of rule of law since November, when Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini said
government would ignore Court of Appeal rulings. This led to the entire
Appeal Court bench resigning in protest, and we have not had our highest
court since.”
The appeal court had overturned Mswati’s power to rule by decree,
and ordered the jailing of the police commissioner for obstruction of
justice.
At a press conference in Ezulwini on Friday, Mswati told reporters: “We
have rule of law in Swaziland. Everything is normal here.” Mswati
is expected to decree a palace-authored constitution that will give him
absolute governing power, including authority over the court system.
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