The Americas

Cathy Nugent reviews “Cocaine”, Channel Four, and “If… drugs were legal”, 12 January, BBC2 In the Peruvian Andes, a young woman dances in a seedy night club. Little by little she is slipping towards becoming a sex worker. Her father is a coca farmer, but lately his precious leaves have been damaged by US-financed crop-sprayers. He can no longer afford to pay for his daughter’s education. She must find money where she can. The pink fungus spray that kills the coca crop also sometimes kills children. And damages the “alternative” crops, avocados and bananas, that the farmers have been told to...

A round-up of international class struggle news China About 3,000 workers protested over wages and conditions outside the Computime factory in Shenzhen last month, blocking traffic for four hours. The workers’ monthly basic pay is around 230 Yuan — well below the 574 Yuan monthly minimum wage set by the Guangdong provincial government. Shenzhen is one of the richest cities on the mainland, and the cost of living there is considerably higher than in the rest of the country. One protester said: “We have to work 14 hours a day, seven days a week. The compensation for overtime is only 2 yuan an...

Washington Orellana, leader of the new port workers' association at Puerto Bolívar in Southern Ecuador, has been sentenced by a corrupt local judge to four months in prison. His crime? To have been quoted in a local press article denouncing the unfair treatment by contracting companies in the port which failed to pay benefits due to workers! Washington, with support from lawyers at FENACLE (the trade union federation leading the organising campaign in Ecuador's banana industry), lodged an appeal against the sentence at the end of November. But neither Washington nor FENACLE has the funds...

On 11 September 1973 a bloody military coup in Chile ousted the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende. Allende was killed defending the Presidential Palace during the coup. Workers in the factories attempted to defend themselves against the military attacks - but they were not sufficiently organised or sufficiently armed. They went down to defeat. As the new military regime of General Pinochet attempted to establish itself, hundreds of thousands of working-class militants and political activists were tortured and killed. The football stadium in the capital city, Santiago, was...

South Korea: a summer of discontent Free Brazilian landless workers! General strike in Chile Support locked-out Indonesian workers Protests at WTO Cancun, Mexico South Korea: a summer of discontent Korea's two union umbrella organisations have agreed to step up their fight against the government's controversial five-day working week bill under discussion in the National Assembly (parliament). The independent Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and the traditionally pro-government Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) say they will be holding more protests against the bill. Sit-ins...

People's United Opposition Party launched in Indonesia Guatemalaen maquila workers' victory Victory in the Hyundai strike Sri Lankan trade unionists under attack Yao Fuxin and Xio Yunliang moved to labour camp Brazil pension reform sparks workers protest People's United Opposition Party launched in Indonesia The left in Indonesia has launched a new political party, in preparation for the 2004 election. At the end of July around 300 representatives from more than 50 organisations founded the People's United Opposition Party (Partai Persatuan Oposisi Rakyat, or Popor). Dita Sari was elected the...

by Pablo Velasco Peruvian unions defy state of emergency Zimbabwe opposition strikes Lula gets backing from right Class struggle in Israel Indonesian socialists to contest elections Peruvian unions defy state of emergency Thousands of trade unionists in Peru marched through the capital Lima last week in defiance of the government's state of emergency. In Arequipa, the second largest city, local leaders called a general strike to support the protest. There were protests in other major cities. On 27 May President Toledo imposed the state of emergency in the midst of a rising wave of discontent...

The BJ&B factory in the Dominican Republic makes caps for Nike and Reebok and for colleges like Penn State and the University of North Carolina. The factory, north of the capital, Santo Domingo and employing 1,600 people, has been a major focus for US students' campaigns against sweatshop labour. It is probably the largest factory among the free-trade zones of the Caribbean, Central America or Mexico to have been unionised. The new union has now negotiated a contract that provides pay rises, scholarships and other benefits that are unheard of among the Dominican Republic's 500 foreign-owned...

Soyapa Melgar and Maria Luisa Regalado of the Honduran Women’s Collective, CODEMUH, will visit Britain in March. Until 1992 Soyapa worked in a maquila—garment for export—factory. Since 2000 she has been involved in the Honduran Independent Monitoring Group, monitoring factories in northern Honduras that supply GAP. Maria Luisa co-ordinates women’s campaigning. More details from the Central American Women’s Network: cawn@gn.apc.org