Workers Of The World roundup

Submitted by Anon on 17 June, 2004 - 6:31
  • Support Colombian oil workers' strike
  • Free Mario Bango!

Support Colombian oil workers' strike

The Colombian government is attempting to used military force to break the month-long strike at Ecopetrol, the national oil company.

According to the ICEM, the international federation of chemical, energy and mine workers, Colombian troops have now been placed in and around Ecopetrol's petroleum facilities. The Uribe government declared the 22 April strike illegal, citing petroleum refining as an "essential service" in Colombia.

To date, a hundred members of the oil workers' trade union, Unión Sindical Obrera de la Industria Del Petróleo (known as USO) have been sacked for participating in the strike. Amnesty International reports arrests, death threats and other forms of harassment against USO trade unionists and supporters.

The strike against Ecopetrol is over the government's restructuring of oil reserves and production in which rewritten contracts have been awarded to several of the oil multinationals creating more favourable terms. The union contends such policies will rob Colombia of the wealth from its natural resources and is the initial move toward selling off Ecopetrol. USO is also seeking a new collective wage agreement through the strike, something the government and company have ignored.

Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist. Amnesty International reiterated its fears for the safety of trade unionists in this country, following the recent shooting of three family members of Coca-Cola union leader Efrain Guerrero by gunmen linked to security forces.

The Colombian oil workers need solidarity from the international labour movement. Send messages to Colombian President Uribe against the repression via the Labour Start website, www.labourstart.org.

Free Mario Bango!

Mario Bango is a 21 year old Roma living in Slovakia. Since March 2001 he has been locked up in prison after defending his younger brother Edo from attack by a neo-Nazi. Not long before the attack, Edo had been hospitalised by a neo-Nazi and Mario himself had been injured.

The neo-Nazi died from injuries sustained during the incident. Bango was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment in November. More than 20 Roma have been killed in similar attacks in the last 15 years and hundreds more have been injured and intimidated. Attacks by racist thugs are a fact of life for so many Roma that most are forced to carry weapons for self-defence.

The Roma have been an oppressed minority in Europe for centuries. One and a half million Roma died in the Nazi death camps. They were persecuted in the Stalinist states, denied the right to use their language and to be seen as a separate ethnic group.

Today, the Roma remain the poorest section of the population in the countries in which they live. In Slovakia, the official unemployment among the Roma is 80%. The Roma people live in crowded shanty towns on the outskirts of the larger centres, often with no electricity and no heating. In Slovakia, life expectancy for Roma men is 55, for women it is 59. This means that they die, on average, 12 and 15 years earlier than the majority of the Slovak people. Between a third and a half of all the unemployed in Slovakia are Roma. According to the World Bank, Roma form less than 9% of the population, but a make up third of those who live below the poverty line.

In school, Romanes is not used and, therefore, the educational development of most Roma children is restricted. Many Roma still have to go to so-called "special schools" - schools for children with learning difficulties. In the Czech Republic, there are around 3% Roma in the whole population, but they constitute three-quarters of all children in special schools.

Mario Bango's case also highlights the racism facing the Roma. Nationalist politicians, the press, and the growing fascist movement in Slovakia have targeted the Roma people. Mario's case has been turned into a racist cause celebre against the Roma, with a media campaign condemning the "gypsy" Mario and sympathising with the deceased "patriotic and honourable citizen".

Mario has not received justice from the Slovakian state. With the avenues for appeal within Slovakia exhausted, an international campaign to build solidarity for Mario and to work for his freedom. For more information go to www.freemario.org

(Abridged from Green Left Weekly, May 18 2004)

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