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ILC INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER NO. 147
A dossier of weekly information published by the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
August 30, 2005
INTRODUCTION
Germany: The general elections that will take place on September
18 are a major crossroads for the workers of Europe. We publish an
interview with Eva Gürster, a SPD activist in Cologne.
Bolivia: Last week we published the final declaration of the
Continental Conference for the Nationalization of the Hydrocarbons. In
this issue, you will find excerpts from relevant articles which appeared
in the Bolivian press.
Mexico: "Out with Fox! The country is not for sale!"
This was the rallying cry of the workers and people of Mexico at the
demonstration in Mexico of over a million people last April. We publish
an Open Letter to Manuel Lopez Obrador, mayor of Mexico City and
presidential candidate in the July 2006 elections.
China: 74,000 "mass incidents" have taken place. The
Chinese working class resists superexploitation.
Ukraine: Our correspondents have sent us news about the strikes
currently taking place.
We also publish a text: the speech by François Chérèque, general
secretary of the CFDT (France) to the executive committee of the
European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), as well as a dossier on the
deregulation of the airline sector, which has resulted in accidents
resulting in hundreds of victims in recent weeks.
Send us your contributions and articles so that we can publish them for
all our readers!
Subscribe to the ILC International Newsletter!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pg. 1: Introduction
Pg. 2: Speech by F. Chérèque (CFDT, France) to the ETUC
Pg. 3: Germany: The September 18, 2005 elections, an interview with Eva
Guster
Pg. 4: Bolivia: Press review of the international conference
Pg. 5: Mexico: Open letter to Manuel Lopez Obrador, mayor of Mexico and
presidential candidate
Pg. 6: China: 74,000 "mass incidents" have taken place
Pg. 7: Dossier on the deregulation of the aerial sector
Pg. 8: Ukraine: Labor Strikes
********************
DOCUMENT
Speech by François Chérèque to the Executive Committee of the ETUC,
Brussels, June 14, 2005
At the World Conference of the ILC in Madrid last March, a debate
was begun concerning the dangers that threaten the workers' movement and
the independence of trade unions. The debate was continued at the ILC
Geneva conference and through the publication, in the ILC International
Newsletter, of Roger Sandri´s contribution. With the goal of enabling
each of us to make up our own minds, it seemed useful to us to publish
some documents. This week we publish the speech by François Chérèque
to the Executive Committee of the ETUC, in Brussels, on June 14, 2005.
Isn't this speech an attack on the right of national union federations
to freely decide their own orientations?
Labor activists throughout the world have celebrated the victory of the
"No" vote against the "European Constitution" on May
29, imposed by the workers and the people of France. Let us recall that
the ETUC led a campaign for the "Yes" vote. Doesn't this
"analysis of the French support" clarify the nature of the
ETUC and the CFDT?
----------
François Chérèque:
First of all, before saying a few words about the French situation
and before analyzing the vote, I would like to thank all the
organizations that have supported us in this campaign, and, of course,
particularly the ETUC and John [Monks] who helped us quite a bit.
Without your support we would have felt rather lonely.
Second point: In the future it will be necessary to pose the question of
the link of the ETUC with its affiliates. When the ETUC decides, after a
collective discussion, to support this or that text or this or that
action, what does this signify for each of our organizations?
Should each organization be able to defy the orientation of the ETUC in
their country and even oppose the ETUC´s wishes in a national debate?
Won't this create confusion?
Are we simply a friendship society that is content to chat each
trimester, without our discussions having consequences on each of us? Or
are we a real union confederation that is united and which makes
collective decisions?
These questions must be discussed in the upcoming months. The CFDT, for
its part, ever since the congress at Lille in 1998, has decided to make
its own the decisions taken by the ETUC, in the same manner that
decisions taken by the leadership of the CFDT and binding for its
affiliates.
Let us now analyze the French situation. Yes, the French vote was rooted
in the social situation in France. Many workers, particular the most
modest of them, no longer have confidence in the future. They feel that
Europe is not helping them and that it is too liberal. Add to this the
discontent felt in relation to the government and we have come closer to
explaining the results of the vote.
But to limit ourselves to this analysis would be too easy and, even,
simplistic. In France, we have lived through an anti-European campaign
with occasional nationalistic tinges rarely before seen in our country.
We have seen an anti-European vote, popularized by parties who have
historically been against all the steps of the European construction:
the National Front, sovereigntists of the right and the left, the
Communist Party, and Trotskyist parties.
All these parties -- some without shame, like the extreme right, others
hidden behind the slogan "for another Europe," which only
tricks the most naïve -- have always rejected the European
construction.
What is new is that a sector of the Socialist Party has joined them,
using inadmissible arguments such as the rejection of the Polish workers
entering into France, the rejection of Turkey, a scandalous
interpretation of the text which puts into question the right to
abortion and divorce and which allows young Muslims to wear the veil in
school and, for the young boys, to pray in the school corridors.
Sixty-seven percent of the people who voted "No" did so, they
say, because there are too many foreigners in France. Do not ever forget
this vote. For the first time since the Liberation, the extreme right is
victorious in France. Even after the war in Algeria this wasn't the
case!
I'm not saying that everybody who voted "No" were xenophobes.
But we must point the finger at the politicians, especially on the left,
who used this fear for their personal ends.
We must stop saying that the elites were for the yes vote and the people
for the no. The CFDT considers itself to be as representative of the
people as other organizations. It is a part of the elites of the left
and the extreme right who have just tricked a people who are in despair
due to the social situation. They went so far as to occasionally insult
the unionists of the ETUC.
Now, as John [Monks] wrote in a French newspaper, Tony Blair has come
out the winner. He has the upper hand in relation to the governments who
supported the text but who lost in the referendums, as well as in
relation to those governments who adopted it.
We are clearly seeing that there is no Plan B and the rejection favors
immobility, which then gives new wind to the more liberal forces. Today,
the ETUC must continue to support the Draft Constitutional Treaty and,
in this context, the draft declaration which we have proposed is not
clear enough. We cannot vote for a text whic that gives the impression
of taking away the right to take a stand. The Spanish "Yes"
vote, as well as the countries who voted through their parliaments, have
as much worth as the French "No."
Thus, the idea of a "grand conversation between the peoples"
proposed in the text is ambiguous. We cannot give the impression that we
are counterposing direct democracy -- the peoples -- to representative
democracy, which is the basis of the unions, the ETUC, and national
parliaments.
I don't like how that could be viewed. I therefore propose that the text
be modified to include:
- Our regrets concerning the "No" votes in two countries, and
our felicitations concerning the results in the other 10 countries,
- Our demand that the other countries take positions,
- Our demand that the heads of states and governments, without waiting
for the end of the ratification process, relaunch social and economic
policies in Europe to respond to the worries of the workers, as
expressed in all countries, regardless of the results of the vote.
As you know, in each country we can be in favor of the draft
constitution at the same time as we are conscious of social difficulties
and at the same time as we are in favor of finding solutions as soon as
possible. The debate on the budget of Europe is a good occasion to
strongly state what the ETUC wants, without waiting for the end of the
ratification process. I thank you for your attention.
********************
GERMANY
September 18 Elections: A major crossroads for the workers of Europe
"Do no let Schroder trap us"
Eva Guster, SPD activist in Cologne
Q: Eva Gurster, you are a SPD militant in Cologne. You participated on
January 22, 2005, with other German comrades, in the national gathering
organized in Paris for the "No" vote in the referendum on the
European "Constitution." We are on the eve of the September 18
elections. These elections will have considerable consequences for the
workers and people of Germany, as well as the workers and people of
Europe. Can you tell us your position in the face of these elections?
A: I would like to explain the reasons why I have called on the
workers, the social-democrats, and the unionists not to let themselves
be trapped by Schroder, and why to vote SPD. I have nothing to retract
from the public statements I made when I presented myself as a candidate
inside the structures of the SPD, a candidature that these structures
did not deem necessary to register.
I repeat: It is Schroder who is completely responsible for the dramatic
situation that we find ourselves in. His policies of
"reforms," directly dictated by the European Union, have
provoked the legitimate rejection of the workers of the country. In
presenting himself once again as a candidate and in forcefully imposing
the implementation of the 2010 Agenda as his electoral program, he has
laid a terrible trap for the German working class.
Schroder has led [rightwingers] Merkel-Stoiber to the verge of power;
their program is the continuation and deepening of the Schroder
"reforms" which aim at the complete deregulation of work and
the creation of the unlimited right of the bosses to lay off workers.
Q: But has the last word been said? Does the German working
class have to accept the questioning of all its conquests and guarantees
that have been won since the war? Do the workers have any option other
than to see themselves hand-tied by a Schroder, for whom nothing can be
excluded, including the formation of a grand coalition government
between the rightwing parties and the SPD?
A: No, the future is not set in stone. What the workers of West
Rhenany-Westphalia said on May 22 was unmistakable. They demanded the
cancellation of the Hartz law, the return to the system of workers
solidarity founded on parity in health insurance, unemployment
insurance, and retirements. They demanded the return to the system of
collective conventions.
The question is therefore: How, in this context, to create a framework
to reconquer these rights? Of course, the workers cannot expect anything
from the CDU-CSU. Is it possible to escape from Schroder´s trap through
abstaining? I don't think so; I think, to the contrary, this is exactly
what Schroder is trying to bring about, through all means possible.
Concerning the Linkspartei-PDS [Left Party, read the article on the
program of this new party in the previous issue of the ILC International
Newsletter-ed.], I believe in what I am about to say.
A part of the leadership of the SPD in Cologne-Buchforst just announced
its decision to leave the SPD to join the Linkspartei. However, when I
presented my candidacy in the structures of the SPD on the line "To
find a solution it is necessary to kick out Schroder" these leaders
fought against me. They lined up, in fact, on the side of Schroder.
For them, it was not necessary to say that the SPD, to save the
conquests upon which the SPD has rested since the war, must kick out
Schroder.
For them, it was necessary to throw in the towel. And today, they
announce to us that they will vote with the PDS, which, in the
government in Berlin, in Mecklembourg, etc. loyally implements Schroder´s
policies of privatizing the public services.
Q: Anything to add ...
A: The solution is not to be found in the salami tactics and
dispersion wanted by Schroder, in the destruction of the SPD; to which
until today all our conquests were linked. This is why, to create a
framework to reconquer our gains, I call on my colleagues, the workers,
the social-democrats, the unionists, to escape from Schroder´s trap.
Because it is necessary to kick out Schroder, I call on everybody to
defeat his plan on September 18 and to vote SPD!
********************
BOLIVIA
Press Review: International Conference for the Nationalization of the
Hydrocarbons
We have written, in the last issue of the ILC International Newsletter,
about the continental conference which met in La Paz (Bolivia) for the
nationalization without compensation of the hydrocarbons, organized
jointly by the Bolivian Workers Confederation (COB), the Bolivian miner´s
federation, and the ILC. This week we publish excerpts from articles on
this event that appeared in the Bolivian media.
"A march by the miners preceded the conference"
"It was with a march in the town of El Alto that the miner´s
federation of Bolivia inaugurated the "Continental Conference for
the Nationalization of the Hydrocarbons in Bolivia, Against
Privatizations, and In Defense of the National Sovereignty of Our
Peoples" with the participation of delegations from numerous
countries. Š This conference was organized jointly by the COB, the COR
(El Alto), the COD (La Paz) and the International Liaison Committee of
Workers and Peoples (ILC)."
"La Jornada" (August 12)
"Bolivia as the center of the nationalization process"
"Delegations from more than 10 countries proposed yesterday to
make Bolivia the center for developing the nationalization process on an
international level and to begin a united struggle to end
privatizations. All the representatives of various union and political
organizations were in agreement that privatizations have created more
poverty and have reduced the rights of workers. Š
Sabino Hube Fajardo, a leader of the Workers Confederation of Ecuador,
informed us that, in his country, everybody attentively followed the
situation in Bolivia, to the point that a coordinating committee was
created to shoulderthe union organizations in Bolivia that have led the
struggle for nationalization. "We think that all Latin America must
be in solidarity with our Bolivian comrades so that the natural
resources can return to the Bolivians and be taken out of the hands of
the multinationals," he argued.
Luis Gonzales, leader of a union in the health sector in Spain,
considered that this conference would allow for the adoption of
practical resolutions, so that common actions could be taken to stop
privatizations.
Carlos Rodriguez, a union leader in Oaxaca (Mexico), noted that in his
country there is a threat of the privatization of the natural resources
and that he supported all actions that would put a break on these
policies.
The leader of the Regional Workers Center (COR) of El Alto, Edgar Patana,
thanked organizations from different countries for the support they gave
to the struggle underway in Bolivia. The union leader Miguel Zubieta
signaled that the workers decided to lead the struggle for the
recuperation of the natural resources. The main leader of the COB, Jaime
Solares, indicated that only unity and the struggle of the international
proletariat could bring about the end of the current system of
oppression.
For his part, the peasant leader Gaulberto Choque received a lot of
attention for his speech, in which he went so far as to propose the
formation of an army to bring about a real liberation of the
exploited."
"La Jornada" (August 13)
"This is why the Bolivian people must take back their natural
resources"
"The working and living conditions for the exploited and the
unemployed in the country ever since 1985, with the closure of the mines
and the spread of the free-trade economy, have worsened. The rich are
richer and the poor poorer," says Miguel Zubieta.
"In 1985, the percentage of people without full employment is 50%,
today it is 70%. Full unemployment has risen to 13% for the
active population and poverty affects 70% of the Bolivian population.
This is why the Bolivian people must take back their natural resources,
such as the hydrocarbons," affirmed Zubieta, in the presence of
delegates from throughout the world, who are in solidarity with the
cause of the Bolivian workers and peoples.
"El Diaro"
********************
MEXICO
On April 24, 2004, more than a million workers and peasants from
throughout the country converged on the Zocalo (the central plaza of
Mexico City) in response to the appeal of the mayor of the capital, Andrès
Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was threatened by the Fox government with
ineligibility in the July 2006 presidential elections.
A million people mobilized for the defense of democratic rights and for
the right of the mayor to run in the elections. Beyond that, the
following profound sentiment was expressed through banners "Out
with Fox! We will not let the country be dismantled. The country is not
for sale!"
In this context, activists and union and political leaders took the
initiative to write an Open Letter to Manuel Lopez Obrador, excerpts of
which we are reprinting below from El Trabajo, July 2005.
-----
Open Letter to Manuel Lopez Obrador
We the undersigned consider that the march on April 24, 2005,
constituted an essential moment in the history of our country. This
march expressed the will of the Mexican nation to kick out the corrupt
Fox government. Š
Mr. Lopez Obrador, today, in the face of the upcoming elections, we call
upon you, as a pre-candidate for next year's election, to respond to the
aspirations of the 1,200,000 people who mobilized in the historic center
of the capital and the country. These aspirations were summarized in the
banner which read: "We will prevent the continued dismantling of
the nation."
For the past three years, in the mass political protests, the following
demands were raised:
- The peasants demand the end to the destruction of agriculture
developed in the framework of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) and that they be given low-cost credits. The peasants demand the
protection of the communal lands, and, consequently, the abrogation of
the Salinas counter-reform. Š
- The workers in the energy sector mobilized to the stop the
privatization of the public companies, which are the material base of
our sovereignty. They demand: No to the privatization of the
electricity! End multiple service contracts! Š
- The education workers struck in defense of the national system of
education and against the decentralization-regionalization of the
national educational system. Š
- The youth aspire to the full right to an education and to a job with
workers´ rights and with a decent wage. The counter-reform that Fox
wants to implement denies basic rights such as collective bargaining and
the right to join a union. It is an attack on all workers, in
particular, the future workers, the youth. Š
- The workers of public institutions linked to health care, Social
Security (IMSS, ISSSTE, SSA) and all the families of the workers have
the right to, and have fought for, the defense of the collective
retirement, health, and maternity systems. They all want to see
well-equipped hospitals, with sufficient medicine and equipment. ..
- All the population demands the end of the organized violence of the
bands of narco-traffickers
- All the population demands a policy in defense of national sovereignty
and in defense of the immigrant populations, who are everyday subjected
to imperialist violence. Š
- The Mexican people want to take control of their destiny. This is why,
during the protests, the cries grew louder and louder for, "Out
with Fox! Out with Salazar Mendiguchia [the governor of the state of
Chiapas! Out with all the corrupt politicians who have sold us
out!"
Mr. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,
We address ourselves to you: To respond to the aspirations of the
Mexican people, are you prepared to put the country's resources at the
service of the development of industry and agriculture, to the benefit
of public services and companies? This is contrary to the current
policies of giving the resources to the imperialist banks, through the
payment of an unjust and unpayable debt, a debt that the people are not
responsible for and that the people have never benefited from.
Are you prepared to cancel this unjust public debt? Are you prepared to
break with these policies imposed by the international financial
institutions?
Are you prepared to abrogate NAFTA, a project which aims to destroy
national agriculture and the national economy? Are you prepared to break
with the new" Alliance for Progress and Security in North
America" or "NAFTA-plus," the plan the Fox government
signed with the presidents of the USA and Canada and, if it is
implemented, would completely put into question our energy resources and
would put our territorial sovereignty into the hands of troops and
politicians of the United States?
Are you prepared to end the "structural counter-reforms" and
annul Š the laws such as the Salinas law which privatized the communal
territories and the 1992 law which opened up the electricity to the
multinationals? Š
A candidate that stands on the terrain of the defense of the sovereignty
and the unity of the nation must deal with these questions.
Mr. Lopez Obrador, we will support all mobilizations, all actions (for
example, mobilizations like the march of a million or, as the union
leaders have proposed, a general strike) which respond to the sentiments
of the nation.
Mr. Lopez Obrador, for our part, we are prepared to support the
candidate who responds to these aspirations.
In the last few years, millions and millions of Mexicans have said:
"Out with Fox! Out with all the corrupt politicians and parties
that have sold us out! Stop the structural counter-reforms! The country
is not for sale! The country must be defended!"
********************
CHINA
China: 74,000 "mass incidents" have taken place. The
Chinese working class resists super-exploitation.
Not a day passes without the media expressing its amazement and concerns
in relation to the "rising power" of the Chinese economy. The
textile crisis, delocalizations, the rise in cost of raw materials ...
every single problem of the world economy seems to be the fault of
China. To think that the Chinese economy is linked to a miracle and
could even dominate the world! We propose to re-establish the facts in a
series of articles.
***
The social and political life of China is, above all, marked by the
resistance of the workers and peasants. In China, not a day passes
without marches and strikes taking place, events which the authorities
classify as "incidents."
The International Herald Tribune, on August 23, titled an article on the
situation in China: "A growing sense of unease in China after
months marked by increasingly audacious protests."
The article informs the reader that the government was creating new
special riot-police units and, at the same time, an order was issued to
ban the police from "personal encounters" with the authors of
"protest petitions" to discuss with them.
The International Herald Tribune wrote: "What has most worried the
authorities is that the minister of public security, Zhou Yongkang,
admitted in an interview with the Reuters agency that over 74,000 ´mass
incidents´ took place in the year 2004, while there had only been
58,000 the year before, and 10,000 ten years before."
These "incidents" take place in the cities: They are strikes
and protests of workers who have been fired or who have been threatened
with lay-offs; marches of retired workers when the pensions have not
been paid; protests of residents who refuse to leave their homes, which
are threatened with bulldozers in the name of housing development; and
even, in the most recent period, mobilizations of army veterans
demanding their pensions. These "incidents" are spreading more
and more to the countryside, where the peasants denounce the corruption
of local leaders or take back their land, and often through veritable
uprisings against speculators seeking to remove them from their
properties.
The International Herald Tribune cites the example of Shanghai and
comments:
"In the past two weeks, protests have struck Shanghai, a
"model city," where police control is stricter. Š The cries
of the discontent citizens could be heard as far as the center, near the
exposition palace, where the city government was meeting. During one of
the protests, elderly residents brought back the demands of their youth,
during the "cultural revolution", to denounce the arbitrary
expulsions motivated by urban development. Š Another day, a group of
elderly renters also protested against the expulsions. They yelled
"Chen Liangyu (the party secretary in the city) must go!"
Nearby, a mother of a family that was not able to find a spot for its
children in the school near to their home, held a sign which read
"We shouldn't have to pay for the incompetence of the
government." Moreover, the workers of a restaurant converged to
protest against their forced eviction by hired goons so as to permit the
hiring of lower-paid workers. The taxi drivers, faced with a brutal rise
in the price of gasoline, discussed organizing a strike on September
1."
Amongst these tens of thousands "incidents" we will we report
on one which took place in Inner-Mongolia.
In Baotou, the unemployed constantly mobilize
Over a year ago, in Baotou, a Chinese province of Inner-Mongolia,
laid-off workers picketed in front of their factory. Misled and abused,
they have demanded for the past six years that they be given back their
jobs or that they be paid what was due to them. Baotou is a big city in
the province of Inner-Mongolia, in the north of the country. There
exists a city inside a city: the former Number Two mechanical factory,
with its 30,000 workers its maternities, its schools, its hospitals,
etc. but which, today is called the Society of Heavy Industry of
Inner-Mongolia, a subsidiary branch of the biggest state enterprise,
Norinco. In 1998, Norinco decided to liquidate seven thousands positions
in order to adjust to the norms of the "market." They proposed
to the workers a suspension of their work contracts, that is, a lay-off
without the possibility to obtain unemployment insurance!
on propose aux ouvriers soit une suspension de contrat de travail, soit
un licenciement excluant la pos-sibilité de s'inscrire au chômage !
The majority thus chose the suspension of their work contract. The
authorities then fired them for "un-authorized absence from
work." Since then, the workers in Baotou have not ceased to fight:
they have written petitions to all levels, to the municipal and
provincial governments; they have sent delegations of 30 workers to
Pekin; they have organized pickets of 500 people in front of the
factory. On July 5, more than 300 workers assembled in front of the
factory gates; among them were unemployed workers but also workers who
still had their jobs, who were demanding the payment of their still
unpaid salaries since 1998 and 1999.
Hundreds of police violently intervened to disperse the peaceful
gathering. A delegate, as well as two workers, was injured and sent to
the hospital. The next day, July 6, 300 workers assembled in the same
spot, yelling "Punish the bullies who attacked us!" and then
marched on city hall to demand the support of the municipality. The
police drove back the protesters. On July 7, there was a new gathering
in front of the factory to demand: 1) the convening of negotiation with
the leadership of the factory 2) sanctions against the perpetrators of
the attacks on July 5 3) the payment of the un-paid wages.
Again, the police intervened and made over 15 arrests.
********************
DOSSIER: Deregulation in the Airline Sector
The airline catastrophes have resulted in hundreds of victims. For
example, a airplane of the Cypriot company Helios crashed, taking the
lives of 121 people. The press reported one of the anguished cries of a
parent of one the victims: "If you knew that not all the airplanes
were in good shape, why did you let them fly?" Later, an airplane
of West Caribbean (Colombia) crashed with 160 people on board.
Isn't the main cause of these completely foreseeable
"accidents," which take place one after another, the
deregulation of the air transport sector which, in the name of cost
reductions, is putting into question the security of passengers and
workers?
We are publishing a press review published in Informations ouvrières
(Labor News), the weekly newspaper of the Workers Party of France.
***
"Martinique: the charter line was a flying dumpster" ("Le
Figaro")
West Caribbean was condemned on 14 points for security infractions
Last week, our press was dedicated to the air disaster which saw a
airplane from Helios crash, costing the lives of 121 people. We
published the anguished cry of a parent of the victims: ""If
you knew that not all the airplanes were in good shape, why did you let
them fly?" At the same moment, we were informed that an airplane of
West Caribbean (Colombia) crashed with 160 people on board. Isn't the
main cause of these completely foreseeable "accidents," which
take place one after another, the deregulation of the air transport
sector which, in the name of cost reductions, is putting into question
the security of passengers and workers? Let us see what the press itself
says.
Le Parisien (August 18) notes that this company had already been
cited on 14 points for security infractions. Returning to the possible
technical causes which may have caused the tragedy, the newspaper notes:
"The investigations are going to also focus on the Colombian
company, whose methods seem more and more contestable. The company,
which had been cited on 14 points for security infractions, notably had
been fined for having dissimulé the flight schedule. This is a
technique used by the "pirate" companies to delay the
mainentance schedules and to mask the aging of the equipment."
These infractions were corroborated the same day by Le Figaro: "It
was at the end of a one day marathon that the twin-jet aircraft MD 82
tragically finished its journey Tuesday in Venezuela. It was its twelfth
flight in less than 24 hours: a tired airplane, an overworked crew, and
a co-pilot of only 21 years of age; it was an airline on the brink of
bankruptcy and with serious security problems."
The newspaper continues: "The doubts concerning the reliability of
West Caribbean, a young Colombian company based in Medellin, were
growing, which gives yesterday's disaster a cruel aura of foreseeable
tragedy." The daily in Bogota, El Tiempo, indicates that "the
pilots announced over radio, on the eve of the accident, their worries
concerning the state of the equipment. But because the French
authorities had checked MD 82 twice in Martinique, the charter flight Panama-Fort-de-France
WCA 707was authorized."
Le Figaro (August 18) concludes: "Today, several testimonies have
reported on mysterious repairs, long hours of waiting, and repeated
technical problems. Š Numerous members of the crew even advised the
passengers to complain to the Aeronautico Civil, the Colombian
aerial authority. Already, in March, a precedent could have served to
sound the alarm. A LET 410 of West Caribbean crashed into a mountain
soon after takeoff, resulting in 8 deaths. In January, the Colombian
aerial authority sanctioned West Caribbean for violating 14 regulation
norms. Twenty pilots were accused of going over the authorized amount of
hours of flight. The Colombian press, was shocked by the indulgence
of the Aeronautico Civil which, despite everything, let this company
continue to operate." (Our emphasis)
On August 17, in El Tiempo, the president of West Caribbean dared to
declare that " the economic crisis has not affected the
security" of the company's airplanes. "These incidents are
normal. It is like when you drive a car. One day, it breaks down because
of the tires. Another day, for another reason."
This intolerable cynicism on the part of profiteers who prosper due to
deregulation, takes root in all breaches in the security of the
passengers and workers.
But it is a fact that not a single media outlet has mentioned the
destructive role of the institutions such as the IMF or the European
Union, which for years have organized the privatizations of public
transport, drained the budgets of the states and created, through these
policies, the conditions ripe for disaster. We have also recently seen
this in relation to the British railroads.
No media outlet has established the relation between the privatization
decree of Aéroports de Paris (ADP) passed by the government in order to
implement the decisions of Brussels. They have not mentioned the
considerable risks that this decree will create in the air sector - not
to mention, the decree's effect on the workers of ADP.
The Director of Control and Security at the Direction générale de
l'aviation civile française (DGAC), in an interview with Liberation on
August 19, indicates: "Fifteen countries are in the collimator -
evidently in many poor countries there are priorities other than aerial
transport."
Concerning the inspections which took place in a random fashion:
"We are left off the hook by the administrations. We spend between
half an hour and 90 minutes on this task. We check the licenses of the
pilots, the booklets maintenance, and the flight authorizations."
A leader of the National Pilots Union (SNPL) specifies: "It is a
verification of documents. But we don't know in what way the pilot's
license was validated or by whom.
-----
Excerpt from a text by the National Pilots Union (SNPL)
"Raise your hand if you accept this work contract"
Vueling Airlines (Spain), early 2005: In a room in Barcelona, over
forty candidates from all over Europe, pilots qualified to fly the
Airbus 320, responded to the employment offer at a new "low
cost" company. A young woman enters; after a brief salutation, she
heads over to a table to write in the conditions of work: 5,000
Euros total, social security contributions, loss of license insurance,
retirement contributions, stopover expenses. (??? What is the relation
of the 5000 to this list?
5 000 euros net, cotisations sociales, assurance perte de license,
cotisations de retraite, défraiements d'escale.
""Raise your hand if you accept this work contract" announces
the young woman, who notes that all hands have been raised.
She then erases "the loss of license insurance" and repeats
the question. One pilot doesn't raise his hand. The woman tells him:
"You can leave, thank you for having come." She continues on
to the "retirement contributions." The process continues,
until there only rests the net salary on the table, in front of the eyes
of the 30-odd candidates who remain. The proposed salary then continues
to decrease, and, by the end, only 13 pilots remain: they are hired for
A 320 for 1,800 net Euros a month.
********************
UKRAINE
The dock-workers union versus Ukrtransconter
The workers´ collective on the commercial maritime port Illitch, on the
north sea, is protesting against the transfer of the control of the
container terminal to the Ukrtranscontener company for 30 years. The
union's conference, on August 5, 2005, noted that the transfer contract
contains no guarantee that the workers would be paid by this
corporation, which was founded in March 2005 and which belongs to the
Transcargo corporation of Great-Britain. The union committee already has
sent a protest letter to the president of Ukraine and to the Prime
Minister. A strike in the beginning of December is being considered.
Hunger strike by the disabled miners from the Barakov mine
On July 9, five disabled miners from the Barakov mine who are on a
hunger strike were sent to the toxin ward of the regional hospital. They
have been on a hunger strike since May 24. Their main -in fact, their
only-- demand is the payment of compensation for the loss of their
ability to work.
Strike by the peasant milk producers in the Poltava region
The protest actions on the part of the peasants in the Poltava region
(to the south-east of Kiev) have gone on for a week: they refuse to sell
their milk to intermediaries.
The discontent stems from the price of milk, which is now at 75 kopecks
per liter (around 10 cents in Euros), a price considered
"ridiculous" by the peasants. The peasants, organized in their
"rural soviets," are demanding a rise in the selling-price of
milk.
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