Contact: Alexis Stoumbelis, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
Phone: +011 503 7383-4944
E-mail: alexis@cispes.org

US unions join May Day March in El Salvador to reject US privatization push

May 3, 2013

SAN SALVADOR – An estimated 80,000 Salvadorans representing a wide array of labor organizations, university students, women’s organizations and anti-mining activists, among others, as well as the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) political party, took to the streets Wednesday for the largest May 1st march since the election of President Funes in 2009.

“We’re really happy to have had such a diverse and strong showing of the working class on May 1st,” said Vilma Vásquez, one of the leaders of the Salvadoran Union Front (Frente Sindical Salvadoreño, FSS). “It takes a lot of work to mobilize that many people but the working class and the popular movement in El Salvador have always carried out our struggle with love.”

A main theme of the march was opposition to a bill before the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly that could lead to the privatization of a broad array of economic sectors, including ports and airports, healthcare, education, and other government services. The Public-Private Partnership Law (Ley de Asocio Público Privado) was written with the assistance of the US Treasury Department under the framework of the US State Department’s Partnership for Growth initiative in El Salvador. The proposal, which creates lucrative incentives for large corporations to exploit the country’s resources, is widely recognized among Salvadoran social movements as a threat to wages and working conditions, as well as to the government’s ability to provide essential public services.

CISPES Labor Solidarity Delegates march on May 1 with banner: “US Workers in Struggle against Privatization!”

Fourteen  members of a recent labor delegation led by the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) marched with fellow workers from the Salvadoran Union Front. “Privatization and subcontracting are damaging to people’s rights wherever they’re imposed,” said Socrates Bravo, who works at Sea-Tac International Airport in Seattle, WA. “I have seen hundreds of fellow workers work in horrible conditions and have pay that barely covers the cost of living, while the airlines and companies are making billions of dollars in profit. Meanwhile, the state earns nothing.”

Members of the delegation recognized striking similarities between the attacks on Salvadoran and US workers and their right to organize, especially in the private sector. “What we see is that we’re dealing with multinational corporations so we have to in turn fight internationally. This is not about one country to the next, it’s about an international working class struggle.” said Jamie Thompson, from the Northern California airport division of SEIU United Service Workers West.

Representatives of the labor delegation met with John Barrett, economic counselor at the US Embassy in San Salvador to deliver letters from the AFL-CIO, the Utility Workers Union of America, United Electrical Workers and other US labor organizations denouncing US pressure on the Salvadoran government to adopt the law. US Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte has made multiple statements to the Salvadoran press indicating that privatization is a prerequisite for further US investment through the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

During the group’s press conference outside the Embassy, Julia Kann from the Washington DC Metro Labor Council said, “Our government has tried to argue that so-called ‘public-private partnerships’ will be beneficial for the Salvadoran people. But the people we have met with have been clear that this is a law that clearly favors transnational corporations and foreign companies at the expense of the Salvadoran people.”

The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador is a national grassroots organization that has been working to stop U.S. political, economic and military intervention in El Salvador since 1980.

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CISPES Labor Solidarity Delegates marching on May 1 with banner: “US Workers in Struggle against Privatization!”

Yesterday, the organized Salvadoran left came out in force in celebration of May 1, International Workers Day. Over 80,000 members of labor, student, peasant, LGBTQ, feminist, indigenous and environmental organizations, accompanied by the leftist FMLN party, took to the streets in a united rejection of the US-sponsored Public-Private Partnership Law. The law proposes a mechanism to privatize all state services and industries, including water, higher education, ports and healthcare. Additional demands from yesterday’s impressive demonstration of social movement unity included: increases in the private sector minimum wage and a rejection of the right-wing’s legal challenges to the new Medicine Law, which El Salvador’s Supreme Court is currently ruling on.

The CISPES Labor Solidarity Delegation also took to the streets, marching with domestic workers and sex workers – two new worker organizing campaigns of  long-time CISPES labor allies, the Salvadoran Union Front (FSS). Delegates and  readers of the major Salvadoran daily, La Prensa Grafica,  kicked off the day’s celebration of international working class power by reading a full-page statement signed by 20 US unions and labor organizations, condemning the US push for the Public-Private Partnership Law.

Check out more pictures of the lively, multi-sector May Day march in San Salvador below and more on facebook!

Keep up the pressure against the US push for privatization in El Salvador here!

¡Que viva la clase trabajadora! ¡Que viva la solidaridad internacional, sindical!

Long live the working class!  Long live international labor solidarity!

]]> http://www.cispes.org/blog/solidarity-delegates-accompany-80000-strong-san-salvador-may-day-march/feed/ 0 http://www.cispes.org/topcontent/may-day-action-alert/ http://www.cispes.org/topcontent/may-day-action-alert/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 02:31:32 +0000 lisa http://www.cispes.org/?p=5557 Join US Labor and Take Action against Anti-Worker, Anti-Union, Pro-Privatization Legislation in El Salvador! 

While thousands of people take to the streets for immigrant and workers’ rights in the US, 70,000+ Salvadorans and CISPES delegates are marching in honor of May Day, International Workers Day, to stop Washington’s latest economic disaster from plowing through the Salvadoran legislature. The sweeping privatization legislation known as the Public-Private Partnership Law (“P3 Law”) – vigorously pushed by the US Ambassador to El Salvador  - proposes to sell off the country’s public water, healthcare, education, ports and highways to the highest transnational bidder. 

TAKE ACTION TODAY! Raise your voice alongside the US labor movement to broadcast the message loud and clear: Stop pushing the P3 Law on El Salvador! 

Sample Phone Script

John Kerry, Latin America is NOT the  United States Government’s “Backyard”

President Maduro after taking the presidential oath on April 19.

In the name of REAL democracy and national sovereignty, we denounce the position of the United States government, currently standing in complete political isolation in its belligerent refusal to recognize the legitimate presidency of Nicolás Maduro, member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and the democratically-elected head of state following the untimely death of President Hugo Chávez.

Click here!!! Take action today and demand that the US government recognize President Maduro! Thanks to SOA Watch for the action text.

Latin American nations spanning the political spectrum – from Mexico to Colombia to Cuba –  and nations around the globe have congratulated the Venezuelan people on exercising their political voice in the April 14 democratic election of President Nicolás Maduro,  sworn in last Friday, April 19. The Obama Administration is THE ONLY COUNTRY to continue to question the April 14 election results. Venezuela’s electoral system has been lauded by former president Jimmy Carter as “the best in the world”. The current baseless US position has created the political space for Venezuela’s right-wing to protest the election results, led by opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, which resulted in violent attacks around the country and the tragic deaths of 9 civilians and dozens more injured.

The Obama Administration’s refusal to recognize President Maduro is a clear attempt to undermine the Venezuelan people’s right to choose their president, for the simple reason that Maduro, like Chávez, will not allow the United States to dictate Venezuela’s economic, political and social agenda. US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed as much is his recent comments when he referred to Latin America as the “backyard” of the United States. This reprehensible and aggressive posture is the very same rationale behind the interventionist US policies that funded the death squads, dictatorships and military regimes that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people throughout Latin America in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile and many other countries.

This continuation of US political intervention in elections in Latin America is significant, given the upcoming elections in Honduras and El Salvador. It’s clear the United States government does not respect the will of the peoples of Latin America and that the role of international solidarity to defend the right to self-determination remains an important battle.

More background on the US position and Venezuela’s elections here:

Right-Wing Post-Electoral Violence Leaves 7 Dead In Venezuela, Arena Legislator Implicated In Destabilization

The United States Shows its Contempt for Venezuelan Democracy 

More stories on http://venezuelanalysis.com/

Marchers heading towards the US Embassy. Photo: R.Q.

Original article written by Gerson Chávez and published in Diario El Mundo.

A hundred unionists marched to the US Embassy in Santa Elena yesterday to demand that US Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte cease pressuring for the passage of the Public-Private Partnership Law.

According to Wilfredo Berríos, coordinator of the Salvadoran Union Front (FSS), approval of this law would prompt the privatization of health care, water and other public services. He also said that it would generate lay-offs on a grand scale. Yesterday, President Funes’ Chief of Staff  denied that the law would result in the privatization of public services. However, the FMLN [leftist political party, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front] has since requested that the public health care, education and security services be excluded from the public-private partnerships that will be permitted under the law.

This demand by the FSS was accompanied by North American representatives of US-based organizations in El Salvador, including the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES).

“We are very concerned that the US Ambassador is vigorously pressuring El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly to approve the Public-Private Partnership law, even to the extent that she has threatened the approval of a second Millennium Challenge Corporation project if the Legislative Assembly doesn’t approve this law”, said Rosemary Ramsey, one of the organizational representatives.

The members of these US-based organizations also publicly called on the diplomat not to use international aid funding to manipulate processes in El Salvador.

On hundred people participated in the protest and no disturbances were recorded.

Read more Salvadoran media coverage on this action (Spanish language):

News Millenium: Sindicalistas se manifestan ante la ley de asocio público-privado

VerdadDigital.com: Organizaciones sindicales rechazan Asocio Público-Privado

Contrapunto: Se aviva debate por asocios público-privado

Diario CoLatino: Ejecutivo asegura que Asocios Públicos-Privados serán un fomento a la inversión

For decades, the US organizations the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), US-El Salvador Sister Cities, the Joining Hands Network, Voices on the Border and the SHARE Foundation have accompanied the Salvadoran social movement in its efforts to construct a country with social and economic justice, free of interference from foreign governments, especially the US government.

This morning, we are here in front of our government’s Embassy, representing the members of our respective organizations, having just presented a petition signed by more than 1,000 US citizens and residents denouncing the our government and our Ambassador Mari Carmen Aponte’s intervention in direct violation of the Salvadoran people’s sovereignty.

Currently, El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly is debating a Public-Private Partnership law. This proposed law was written by the Salvadoran government and advisors from the US Treasury Department as an initiative of the Partnership for Growth, a bilateral economic agreement between the US and El Salvador.

The Public-Private Partnership law faces a strong opposition from El Salvador’s unions and social movements who claim it is a new form of privatization that would offer everything – from the ports, airports, highways and generation of electricity to municipal services, water, prisons and the National University – for auction to private sector bidders, favoring transnational and US companies. In addition to questioning it for possible violations of El Salvador’s Constitution, Salvadoran workers know from past privatizations and concessions that this proposed law would be harmful for public sector workers and would cause increases in the costs of basic services for the Salvadoran people.

We are very concerned that the US Ambassador, Ms. Mari Carmen Aponte, is vigorously pressuring El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly to approve the Public-Private Partnership law in spite of the outcry of Salvadoran civil society, which opposes the law. The Ambassador has even threatened the approval of a second Millennium Challenge Corporation project, a development aid project financed with the tax-dollars of US citizens and residents, if the Legislative Assembly doesn’t approve this law.

Ms. Aponte’s pressure and threats represent a clear violation of the sovereign democratic processes of El Salvador. The legislators in the Legislative Assembly should respond only to the interests of the Salvadoran people and El Salvador’s Constitution, and not have to make decisions out of fear of US government reprisals. Furthermore, we are outraged that the Ambassador would use funds that come from our tax-dollars to manipulate the internal processes and decisions of the Salvadoran government.

Throughout the United States, workers, unions, community organizations, labor councils and congressional representatives have learned of the Ambassador’s interventionist actions, and are sending letters and making phone calls to her to demand that she stop interfering in a sovereign nation’s internal affairs.

We demand that the role of our government and our Embassy in El Salvador be one of respect and support for the Salvadoran people, and not a prepotent role that puts the interests of US and transnational companies over the rights of Salvadoran workers and families.

Therefore, this morning we have presented a petition signed by more than 1,000 US citizens and residents that demands that the Ambassador:

1. Stop using international aid money to manipulate El Salvador’s sovereign democratic process, and
2. Stop pressuring the Salvadoran government to pass the Public-Private Partnership law.

Click here for information about our recent Salvadoran Labor Leader Tour  & read on for more about the upcoming May Day Labor Delegation to El Salvador.

Today, Salvadoran workers are fighting hard against sweeping US-backed, privatization legislation called the Public-Private Partnership Law, or P3, which would put all El Salvador’s public infrastructure, services and utilities on the corporate chopping block (more on the P3 here). Salvadoran unions and social movements have united against this law, calling it “privatization in disguise.” They  have made it their highest priority to defend public sector workers, unions, services and industries from the P3 law, which is currently under debate in El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly.

US Ambassador to El Salvador, Mari Carmen Aponte.

The US Ambassador to El Salvador, Mari Carmen Aponte, has been vigorously pushing the Salvadoran government to pass this law, even threatening to block $368 million in Millennium Challenge Corporation development aid to El Salvador if the P3 law is not passed. 

Our labor allies in El Salvador are calling on unionists, labor activists and progressives in the US to condemn this blatant act of US intervention! Sign this online petition today to denounce the US strong-arm tactics to force the P3 in El Salvador. 

► Join the May Day Labor Solidarity Delegation to El Salvador!

Application deadline: April 1

Download a flyer, infosheet and application // Email alexis@cispes.org for more information.

Dates: April 27 – May 4, 2013.

Who is invited: Union members and officers, labor activists and allies, and EVERYONE interested in supporting El Salvador’s rank-and-file, progressive labor movement.

What you will do:

• Share strategies to defend the public sector and union jobs with Salvadoran union leaders.
• Speak out against US economic and political intervention.
• Learn about labor organizing and building popular power under the country’s FIRST leftist government.
• Take to the streets with over 75,000 workers on International Workers’ Day!

In El Salvador and in the United States unions and public services are UNDER ATTACK. But in both countries, workers are fighting back!

From February 3 to 13, 2013, two leaders of El Salvador’s organized labor movement will tour the East and West Coasts of the United States to share experiences, perspectives and strategies in the transnational fight for workers’ rights and dignity. They will detail the movement’s campaign against the US-sponsored Public-Private Partnership Law currently under debate in the Salvadoran legislature, which threatens to put the last of El Salvador’s public services and industries on the corporate chopping block.

• The East Coast tour with Jaime Rivera, a leader in the Electrical Sector Workers Union (STSEL), will be visiting Washington, DC; New York City; and Boston.
• The West Coast tour with Alex Gomez, a leader in the National Lottery Workers Union (SITRALONB), will be visiting: Seattle; Olympia, WA; Portland, OR; Santa Cruz, CA; San Francisco; and Los Angeles.

If you are interested in helping plan events in your city or would like to invite one of the tour guests to meet with your union or organization, please contact the CISPES committee in your city.

To get updates as we post more information about events as they are planned,
follow the Labor Solidarity Tour on Twitter or Facebook.

Follow @CISPESLaborTour

Today, Salvadoran workers are fighting hard against sweeping US-backed, privatization legislation called the Public-Private Partnership Law, while US workers are fighting the corporate welfare state here in the US. In this critical moment to support workers’ rights, union jobs and public services around the globe, CISPES is working hard to reinforce historic Salvadoran-US labor relationships and build new ones. Cross-border solidarity is essential to push back against the US government-transnational corporate alliance seeking to sell the workers, residents and resources of both our countries down the river.

► National Labor Solidarity Tour

In February, two leaders of El Salvador’s organized labor movement will tour the US to share experiences and strategies in the transnational fight for workers’ rights. They will discuss their current campaign against the US-sponsored Public-Private Partnership Law (P3), which threatens to put the last of El Salvador’s public services and industries on the corporate chopping block. Get more background on the P3 with this video and factsheet. Follow the tour on Twitter and Facebook!

Jaime Rivera, leader of the historic Electrical Utility Workers Union, (STSEL) will tour the East Coast. Click here for a speaker’s bio and updated tour event info.

• DC – February 3-5
• New York City – February 6-7
• Boston – February 8-9
• Philadelphia – February 11

Alex Gomez, Treasurer of the Federation of Public Sector Workers (FESTRASPES), will tour the West Coast. Click here for a speaker’s bio and updated tour event info.

• Seattle – February 3-4
• Olympia, WA – February 5
• Portland, OR – February 6
• Santa Cruz, CA – February 7-8
• San Francisco – February 9-11
• Los Angeles – February 12-13

Email alexis@cispes.org or jacob@cispes.org if your union or labor organization is interested in solidarity action with Salvadoran unions. Several unions and labor councils have already passed resolutions to support Salvadoran labor movement mobilizing against the P3. These are first of many more labor solidarity commitments to come out of February’s Labor Tour!

► Sign on to stand with Salvadoran workers against Washington’s privatization push!

Sign this online petition today to denounce the US strong-arm tactics to force the P3 or Public-Private Partnership Law in El Salvador.  We made a splash when we delivered the first 1,000 names to the US Embassy in El Salvador- help us get to 2,000 in time for the May Day delegation!

Jaime Rivera, a long-time leader in El Salvador’s union movement and a member of the Electrical Sector Workers Union (STSEL) Executive Board, will be touring cities on the East Coast of the United States from February 3-9, 2013 as part of CISPES’ Labor Solidarity Tour.

During his visit, Mr. Rivera hopes to forge new solidarity ties with US labor groups and activists to share experiences, perspectives and strategies in the transnational fight for workers’ rights and dignity as his union and its allies prepare to face off against a proposed Public-Private Partnership law.

Click here to download a bio of Jaime Rivera with information about the STSEL union.

The CISPES Labor Solidarity Tour and Mr. Rivera will be visiting these cities on the East Coast:

• Washington DC -February 3-5
  • Feb 4 – 12:30-1:30 PM, Lunch with labor leaders at AFL-CIO offices, RSVP: mark.langevin@world-psi.org
  • Feb 5 – 7-9 PM, Public Event at St. Stephen’s Church, 1525 Newton St. NW, Washington DC
• New York City - February 6-7
  • February 6, 6:30 PM, Basement Cafeteria of 1199, 310 W. 43rd St., Manhattan, A,C,E,1,2,3,7,N,R,Q,S trains to Times Sq. 42nd St.
  • February 7, 12 noon-2 PM, Cornell ILR Conference Center, 16 East 34th St, 6th floor, New York, NY (between 5th and Madison Avenues)
• Boston - February 8-9
  • February 8, 3-5 PM, Special Student Briefing at Tufts University (Braker Hall 001) in Medford, (Davis T and free Tufts campus shuttle), sponsored by the Tufts Labor Coalition with the help of CISPES
  • February 9, 5:30-7:30 PM, Public Event, Capuano School, 150 Glen St., Somerville, MA 02145 (Orange Line Sullivan T, the school is located between Sullivan Station and Union Square)
• Philadelphia - February 11
  • February 11, 7 PM, Public Event, Offices of Media Mobilizing Project, 4233 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104

If you are interested in helping plan events in your city or would like to invite Mr. Rivera to meet with your union or organization, please contact the CISPES committee in your city.

To get updates as events are planned,
follow the Labor Solidarity Tour on Twitter or Facebook.

Follow @CISPESLaborTour