Salvador Unions Protest Gov't War, Austerity
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U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger calls THE for death penalty for those convicted of spying - see editorial page 14. A SOCIALIST NEWSWEEKLY PUBLISHED IN THE INTERESTS OF WORKING PEOPLE VOL. 49/NO. 24 JUNE 21, 1985 75 CENTS Nicaragua: Salvador unions protest target of border gov't war, austerity provocations BY MARGARET JA YKO The monthlong strike by some 6,000 BY ELLEN KRATKA members of the social security workers MANAGUA, Nicaragua- In the wake union (STISSS) in El Salvador ended June of the successful Sandinista People's Army 6 in a victory for the union when the gov (EPS) offensive against U.S.-backed coun ernment was forced to free two jailed union terrevolutionaries operating from bases in leaders. Honduras and Costa Rica (see story, page The STISSS officials had been arrested 5), those two countries have created major on J.une 2 when military police and Na border provocations. tional Guardsmen stormed 5 hospitals and On May 31, a Costa Rican army patrol 20 clinics across the country in an attempt just across the border from an area where to crush the strike. The strike began on Sandinista units were operating was am May 6 and hospital personnel had occupied bushed. They suffered at least one dead their work places. and several wounded. At General Hospital in the capital city of The Costa Rican authorities immediately San Salvador. soldiers landed at 3 a.m. by accused Nicaragua of being responsible for helicopter on the hospital roof, while the attack, without presenting any proof. others stormed in through the emergency Nicaragua denied the charge, showing evi room and the basement. Troops totalled dence pointing to the CIA-financed and more than 100 in all . They raced through trained Democril tic Revolutionary Alliance the hospital, ordering patients, as well as (ARDE) as the perpetrators of the attack . doctors, nurses, and technicians, to lie Nicaragua also asked Costa Rica to per down on the floor with their hands behind mit an immediate investigation of the them . Many were then tied up. Eventually events by a joint Nicaraguan-Costa Rican all but four of the people were set free , with Union banner in El Salvador's May Day march says, "For a new society." Recent commission or by the Prevention and Con the two union leaders among those being strike victories by social security workers and waterworks employees, as well as May trol Commission of the Contadora coun detained. 1 march, point to new wave of struggles by Salvadoran labor. tries - Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, One patient died in the operating room and Mexico. during the raid, and four undercover cops Costa Rica refused, deciding instead to were shot to death in the emergency room their jobs while their other demands were stabilization, they lose their social function raise a stink in the Organization of Ameri ~ by their cohorts , in what was apparently an being negotiated. These include lifting the and their credibility with the people," he can States (OAS). After many hours of se accident. state of siege and an across-the-board pay said in his June 1 state of the nation ad cret negotiations, on June 7 the OAS de Two days after the raids, 2,000 workers raise of $75 per month. The current mini dress. cided to ask the Contadora nations to look and students marched in San Salvador to mum monthly wage is $125 . In 1984 real The proof that the unions are "infil into the incident, precisely as Nicaragua protest the attack and demand freedom for wages dropped by 65 percent and urban trated," according to government mouth had requested from the outset. As a face the arrested unionists. Cops carrying auto public workers have not had a wage in pieces, was that in addition to demanding a saving sop to Costa Rica, an OAS official matic weapons were at the scene of the pro crease since 1981 . wage increase, these workers - like will accompany the Contadora commis test, but didn't attack it, despite the gov The military brass praised the hospital thousands of others currently on strike in El sion. ernment's declaration that the march was and clinic raids , saying "We've tried to do Salvador - are demanding the govern Meanwhile, the Costa Rican capitalist illegal under the terms of that country's everything with the professionalism that ment resume negotiations with the class and its government is using the inci state of siege. This repressive legislation the armed forces now have achieved." Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front dent to whip up a war hysteria. has been in effect since 1980, and was ex and the Revolutionary Democratic Front There have been provocative demonstra tended once again by the Legislative As President Duarte threatens unions (FMLN-FDR), which are waging a popular tions in front of the Nicaraguan embassy in sembly on May 23. El Salvador's president, Jose Napoleon struggle against the U.S.-backed govern- the Costa Rican capital of San Jose, forcing With the release of the two union leaders Duarte, had threatened the unions the day ment. · Nicaraguan authorities to demand that - Jorge Alberto Albeno and Guillermo before the raids. "When the unions are in On May 16, Duarte had invoked a de Continued on Page 5 Rojas - the workers agreed to return to filtrated and used at the altar of war and de- cree banning strikes by public employees. He also fired 49 leaders of SETANDA, the water workers union, whose 4,000 mem bers were on strike against the ANDA Calif. farm workers fight growers, gov't water and sewer works at the time. As Duarte was launching his attack on BY LYNDA JOYCE The four-hour-long march was led by go after us. I started working in the fields at the strikers, communiques were read over WATSONVILLE, Calif.- Waving red Cesar Chavez, president of the UFW. 14 years old when we still had child labor several San Salvador radio stations, signed and black United Farm Workers flags, 500 Along the way enthusiastic marchers called and were forced to use the short-handled by the government-linked death squads, farm workers and their supporters con out to their brothers and sisters to join the hoe . The United Farm Workers union ended accusing the strikers of being manipulated ducted a June 9 protest march that took action. One marcher, Robert Gutierrez, a those kinds of abuses," he said. by the FMLN. The rightist terrorists them eight miles past vast fields of straw Watsonville cauliflower cutter for West Many of the protesters were children and threatened that if the strikers did not return berries, lettuce, beans, cauliflower, and Coast Farms, succeeded in convincing youth. Twelve-year-old Guillermo Del to work, the death squads would begin to celery here in the Salinas Valley. many to join the protest. He explained that, gado and his seven-year-old sister, Marfa "bring them to justice." This march was one of a series of some "this march is a protest against injustice, Cruz, explained that they were marching This was no idle threat. In addition to a 30 marches being organized throughout speed-up, and discrimination on the job. because of the bad treatment their parents wage increase, a key issue in the California this spring and summer. They The government," he said, "is trying to received from the growers. Fifteen-year SET ANDA strike was the demand for a are protesting the attacks on farm workers take away our union and they also use the old Jose Arvizu, who remembers marching government investigation into the murders and the United Farm Workers (UFW) by fact that some of us are undocumented to Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 11 growers and the administrations of Reagan ; and George Deukmejian, the governor of California. Marches have already been held in the Napa Valley, Hollister, Parlier, Mass. ACTWU members stand up to boss attack Dinuba, San Ysidro, the Imperial Valley, and Orange County. These marches are BY RICHARD THOMAS holiday, and contract language that would counted. The 2,300 workers at Calvin building toward a three-day march to De NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - Four allow the companies much greater control Klein and Cliftex were on strike almost a lano September 6-8 to mark the anniver thousand members of the Amalgamated over setting piece rates for individual week. Calvin Klein employees went back sary of the first farm-workers march to that Clothing and Textile Workers Union workers. Most of the workers covered by tci work Friday, June 7, and Cliftex work city in 1965, At that time Delano was the (ACTWU) went on strike in three Mas the contracts are piece workers. Average ers were supposed to go back to work on center of historic strikes against vineyard sachusetts cities on June I when their con wages under the old contract were $6.64 Monday, June 10. growers in the San Joaquin Valley. These tracts expired . Some were part of the na per hour. Ed Clark, Joint Board manager for the strikes were the beginning of a five-year tional contract between the union and the In other cities, workers covered by the New Bedford-Fall River region, told the battle to win union contracts for farm Clothing Manufacturers Association. national contract stayed on the job while Militant in a telephone interview that by workers. Others were covered by independent con they voted to extend the national contract staying out until the contract-extension vote Jose Luis Hernandez, an unemployed tracts that expired on the same date. All for four months.