Latin America

International Worker / Issue 06 Tuesday 4 Apr 2006

Uruguay-Argentina, the center-left contaminates
The controversy for the installation of two paper pulp plants, to produce raw material for the paper industry, has become a political crisis of some magnitude. The Chilean “socialist” Lagos, who is about to pass the presidency over to Michelle Bachelet, has called for a “summit meeting” with the Argentine president, Nestor Kirchner and his Uruguayan peer, Tabaré Vázquez.  T he plants at the center of the conflict belong, precisely, to two gigantic conglomerates of the capitalist paper industry, Ence (Spanish) and Botnia (Finnish) that would produce 1,5 million tons of paper pulp and would be a kind of “enclave economy” for their products export. The right-wing Uruguayan governments that had negotiated the agreements wi… Read more

International Worker / Issue 06 Tuesday 4 Apr 2006

Haiti, after the insurrection
The popular rebellion unleashed in Haiti, in repudiation of the electoral fraud, not only made the UN nervous, but also the winning candidate himself. “In his first encounter with the press, on February 22, the new chief of State confessed that he is afraid (!) at seeing the passion excited by the presidential campaign, the election of a president and the hopes that the population has placed in this president” (Alter Presse, 25 February). In A crucial point refers to the military occupation. Preval “believes that the UN forces of occupation should stay as long as necessary,” something which enters into a collision course with the recent demands of Lavalas (the party of Aristide, which is the biggest political organization in the country, supported by the organized armed groups in the neighborhoods which were the protagonists of the popular uprising). Actually, Preval broke with … Read more

International Worker / Issue 05 Sunday 22 Jan 2006

VENEZUELA
A new partnership with the oil conglomerates
C havez' government is on the point of culminating the renegotiation of contracts with the oil companies, already signed by the previous administration, in the decade of the nineties, when international prices were a third or a quarter of where they stand presently. Chavez threated the companies with the loss of their concessions —a daily production of 500,000 barrels of oil— if the failed to accept the changes before December 31. Of the 32 … Read more

International Worker / Issue 05 Sunday 22 Jan 2006

CHILE
National Strike at Codelco
28 thousand workers contracted by Codelco began a strike December 29. They are demanding a compensatory bonus of 500,000 pesos (972 dollars). Chile, principal producer of copper worldwide, receives the benefits of profits in the millions as a result of the extremely high price of the metal (2 dollars a pound). The workers at the plant received a bonus of 1,600,000 pesos and the supervisors 2,600,000. The wage differences between a full-time worker at the … Read more

International Worker / Issue 05 Sunday 22 Jan 2006

ELECTIONS IN CHILE
The Concertation is disintegrating
Socialist Michelle Bachelet won the first round of the presidential elections in Chile, with 46 percent of the votes. The Concertacion got, moreover, 52 percent of the votes in the parliamentary elections, most of them belonging to the Socialist Party. The Christian Democrats (another party belonging to the Concertacion) only got six seats. Within the political limits of the Chilean process it can be said that the electorate was leaning to the left. … Read more

International Worker / Issue 04 Friday 16 Dec 2005

The "other summit"
The center-left has made it routine to accompany the “summits” with an “other summit.” In Mar del Plata the organizer of both was the same: the Kirchner government. The supporters of Kirchner contributed their main figures and contingents to the “other summit” and the government the money and the officials of confidence in order to control its development. But whoever pays the orchestra gets to choose the music. The &… Read more

International Worker / Issue 04 Friday 16 Dec 2005

MAR DEL PLATA
The Summit of Crisis
I s it true that the Summit of American presidents, held in Mar del Plata, was a political defeat for Bush (“a disastrous visit,” said The New York Times ) or a rebirth for Latin American nationalism? From the point of view of the continent's exploited, nothing changed. In spite of the “rebirth of Latin American nationalism” the policies of falling wages and salaries, flexibilization, payment of the foreign debts, and the atta… Read more

International Worker / Issue 04 Friday 16 Dec 2005

The mobilization against the "summit"
K irchner had two failures at the Mar del Plata “summit”, not one. The first was that he did not achieve the Bush's “backing” in the negotiations with the IMF; the second was that he could not rid from the streets of Mar del Plata the denunciation of his policies of compromise with imperialism. The demonstration called by the piqueteros movement and by the combative expressions of the trade union and student movements gathered 9,0… Read more

International Worker / Issue 04 Friday 16 Dec 2005

Venezuela: 21st Century Socialism?
T he oil boom does not immunizes Venezuela against convulsions and crisis. Nor are the actions that Chavez´ government take the result of any established ideological plan. The bosses’ lock-out of 2002/3 has signified the bankruptcy of social relations that worsens as time goes by. One of the epicenters of this crisis takes place in the agricultural sector. The parasitic nature of Venezuelan capitalism could be measured by the fact, with Ven… Read more

International Worker / Issue 04 Friday 16 Dec 2005

Brazil: The crisis is over, it is just the beginning
A series of facts seem to reveal the consummation of a political agreement to rescue the capitalist government presided over by Lula: Ricardo Berzoini's victory (candidate of the “Lulaist” party leadership) at the PT internal elections; Aldo Rebelo's election (PC do B, Lula's Agent) to the presidency of the Congress; the melancholic burial of the CPI's (Parliamentary Commission of Investigation) dedicated to investigating the corruption sc… Read more

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Latin America