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Tens Of Thousands On The Streets Of Peru In National Strike

January 20, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , ,
Tens of thousands of Peruvians from across the country arrived in the capital Lima to take part in a national strike called for today, January 19, to reject the legislative coup against former president Pedro Castillo and demand the immediate resignation of the de-facto president Dina Boluarte. Peasant and Indigenous communities together with members of numerous social organizations and trade unions from all regions of Peru traveled in caravans to reach Lima. The caravans were organized as a part of the second ‘Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos’ or ‘March from the Four Corners’ to bring the voices of the excluded masses of deep Peru to the seat of power. The organizations have called to hold marches from different parts of Lima to the center of the city against the Boluarte government under the banner of ‘Toma de Lima’ or ‘Taking of Lima.’

More Austerity In 2023 Will Fuel Protests

January 17, 2023 Isabel Ortiz, Inter Press Service News Agency. , ,
This week world leaders meet in Davos to discuss cooperation to address multiple crises, from COVID-19 and escalating inflation to slowing economic growth, debt distress and climate shocks. Only three months earlier, finance ministers had gathered in Washington DC for the same reason. The mood was grim. The need for ambitious actions could not be greater; however, there were no agreements, evidencing the fragility of multilateralism and international cooperation. Worse, policy makers -advised by the International Monetary Fund- are resorting to old, failed and regressive policies, such as austerity (now called “fiscal restraint” or “fiscal consolidation”), instead of much needed corporate/wealth taxation and debt reduction initiatives, to ensure an equitable recovery for all. A recent global report alerts of the dangers of a post-pandemic wave of austerity, far more premature and severe than the one that followed the global financial crisis a decade ago.

Peru: General Strike Enters Day Three

January 7, 2023 Kawsachun News. , , ,
The general strike against Peru’s coup regime has entered its third consecutive day. The strike is growing and social movements are now demanding the resignation of the unelected president, Dina Boluarte. Other demands include; the release of former President Pedro Castillo, the closure of Congress, early general elections, and a constituent assembly. According to the government, as of today, protesters have blocked off highways at 46 points across the country. This is up from 37 yesterday, and 25 the day before.  Mobilizations are stronger in the southern part of the country. Protests have taken place in the departments of Apurimac, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Puno, Cuzco, and Tacna, also in the Amazonian city of Pucallpa.

Peru: Overthrow Of President Castillo Exposes The Race And Class Divide

December 26, 2022 Francesca Emanuele, Council on Hemispheric Affairs. , , , ,
Unfulfilled campaign promises, accusations of corruption, and even an attempted self-coup cannot turn the many supporters of Peruvian President Pedro Castillo against him. The president has probably ceased to represent hopes for change,  but he still symbolizes —perhaps more now than ever— structural discrimination in Peru. In Lima, the political, economic, and intellectual elites are intrigued. They wonder why the majority of Peruvians in the streets are demanding Castillo’s release. They are even more disconcerted by the minority that insists he be reinstated. It is not surprising that the ruling class is disoriented. For decades they have been isolated from the rest of the country, moving about comfortably in Lima’s de facto Apartheid, perpetuating a dynamic that tends to dehumanize Indigenous, working-class Peruvians.

Peru: Congress To Advance Elections As Anti-Coup Protests Intensify

December 26, 2022 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
The decision to change the electoral calendar came following the call for further intensification of nationwide protests demanding the release and reinstatement of ousted left-wing President Pedro Castillo, the resignation of the de-facto President Dina Boluarte, the dissolution of the right-wing dominated unicameral Congress, fresh parliamentary elections, and the establishment of a Constituent Assembly to change the country’s 1993 Constitution. On Monday, December 19, several Indigenous, peasant, and social movements from Apurímac, Arequipa, Ayacucho, and Puno regions, among others, called on the citizens to strengthen strikes and reinforce roadblocks across the country, beginning December 20. The legislators of the left-wing Free Peru party, which sponsored Castillo’s presidential candidacy in 2021, voted against the bill and insisted on their demand to call for Constituent Assembly elections alongside the next general elections.

Peruvians Resist The Coup: ‘We Are Here To Support Our President’

December 21, 2022 Zoe Alexandra, People's Dispatch. , , ,
“You’re probably wondering who paid me to be here,” a man in his 40s, from the southern Andean province of Ica, said to me. “Well, no one paid me to be here. We are doing this because our hearts are with the homeland, because I want my Peru to change, because a government that was trying to do this was unjustly overthrown.” Luis Alberto (name changed) is one of hundreds of Peruvians who traveled to Peru’s capital, leaving behind his home and his employment, to protest the coup against Pedro Castillo as well as his detention, which took place on December 7, 2022. We met outside the Barbadillo Prison in the eastern part of Lima. This prison is where constitutional president Pedro Castillo is being held in pre-trial detention, which was just extended to 18 months by a judge on Thursday, December 15.

Peruvians Continue To Resist As Anti-Coup Protests Enter Second Week

December 15, 2022 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. , , ,
Since December 7, tens of thousands of citizens have been protesting in different parts of Peru against the ouster of democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo in a legislative coup carried out by the right-wing dominated unicameral Congress. For the last week, Peruvians have been on the streets demanding that the former President Castillo, who was illegally arrested following his removal from office, be immediately released and reinstated. They are also demanding the effective dissolution of the Congress which currently has an 11% approval rating. The citizens are also demanding that a Constituent Assembly be convened to draft a new constitution to replace the current neoliberal one, which favors the right-wing oligarchy.

Five Killed By Police During Anti-Coup Protests In Peru

December 13, 2022 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
Since December 7, tens of thousands of Peruvians have been protesting in different parts of the country in rejection of the parliamentary coup that took democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo out of office and led to his arrest. On December 7, Peru’s right-wing dominated unicameral Congress approved the third vacancy (impeachment) motion against Castillo. Hours following his removal from office, he was arrested and charged with allegedly “breaching constitutional order” for having tried to dissolve the Congress before the vote on the motion. For the past five days, the protesters have been organizing peaceful mobilizations and roadblocks across the national territory demanding that former President Castillo be immediately released and reinstated as the president of the country.

Haitian Women Mobilize On November 25 Against Political Violence

November 25, 2022 Jackson Jean, People's Dispatch. , , ,
On the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, peasant women, political activists, social activists, feminists, from across Haitian territory, will unite their voices on the streets. In their mobilizations to be held on November 25, they seek to publicly and internationally denounce the political violence against them, the repression and silencing of women of the working class sectors by paramilitary forces and instruments of the Haitian government. Following in the footsteps of the three Dominican Mirabal sisters, whose brutal assassination in 1960 inspired the commemoration on the November 25, they will denounce the racist, anti-Haitian and xenophobic violence against Haitian refugee women by the Dominican government and its public policies so similar to those of the former dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina.

Stubborn Resistance Will Confront Foreign Intervention In Haiti

November 13, 2022 G. Dunkel, Workers World. , , ,
In the past when the U.S. intervened in Haiti, U.S. forces and its imperialist allies had the guns, and Haitians had machetes — and the guns won. Over the past few years, Haitians have acquired hundreds of thousands of guns, some of them high-powered, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Over 200 armed groups are operating in Haiti. Some of them are engaged in kidnapping and extortion, while others are defending their neighborhoods and providing some security, something the state does not do. Road blockades are common. Official United Nations resolutions, official U.S. statements and the worldwide bourgeois media refer to these groups as “gangs,” which is a racist smear.

#Britainisbroken: Trade Unions And Social Movements Rally

November 7, 2022 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
On Saturday, November 5, over 15,000 people marched in London to protest the policies of the Tory government that have failed to tackle the soaring cost of living crisis and its attack on working class sections and social movements. The protest demonstration was called by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, trade unions, including the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), National Education Union (NEU), Communication Workers Union (CWU), Unite the Union, Trade Union Congress, and ASLEF, and groups such as Stand Up To Racism, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion, and Keep Our NHS Public. Political parties including the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), Young Communist League (YCL-Britain), and MPs from the Labour Party also participated in the protest.

Three Years Since 2019 Protests In Iraq, Most Demands Remain Unfulfilled

October 31, 2022 People's Dispatch. , , ,
This October marks the third anniversary of the 2019 popular protests in Iraq. On Tuesday, October 25, a large number of people gathered in the Tahrir square in capital Baghdad and paid homage to the people who were killed in the protests. They raised slogans in support of what has been termed by the protesters as the Tishreen movement. The countrywide protests in 2019, rooted in the long-term grievances of people against successive governments, went on for months. Before the global COVID-19 outbreak forced them to end, the protests were successful in forcing the then government led by Adil Abdul Mahdi to resign, putting the ruling classes on the defensive and pressing for reforms.

French Workers Resist Increasing Exploitation

October 22, 2022 G. Dunkel , Workers World. , , ,
The pay of oil company executives has jumped 52%, but the bosses bitterly resist raising production worker salaries by 10%. While many European countries have had strikes and protests, France is where hundreds of thousands of workers have taken to the streets. The oil refinery strikes began Sept. 27 and are now in their third week. The strikes have closed about a third of all French gas stations, when these ran out of fuel, and created hours-long waits at the open ones. Workers in at least one refinery have been “requisitioned” — legally forced by the government to go back to work — but gasoline and diesel are still scarce. Workers at the largest nuclear power plant in France have reduced their output by a third in solidarity with the refinery workers.

Haiti Mobilizes For Sovereignty And Against Imperialist Intervention

October 17, 2022 People's Dispatch. , , ,
A new wave of protests broke out in Haiti on October 10 after acting President Ariel Henry called for foreign military intervention. Hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti have been protesting against the government for several weeks because of the ongoing humanitarian crisis. One of their demands is the resignation of the unelected president. Activist and journalist Jackson Jean spoke to Peoples Dispatch about the current situation in the country and the history of crises caused by foreign military interventions.

Haitians Protest Threat Of Foreign Military Intervention In The Country

October 12, 2022 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. , , ,
On Monday October 10, under the banner of “Down with Ariel Henry, Down with the Foreign Occupation,” hundreds of thousands of Haitians took to the streets across the country against a resolution passed by de-facto Prime Minister and acting President Ariel Henry, requesting the international community to send armed help to resolve gang-related crisis in Haiti. In the capital Port-au-Prince, thousands of citizens gathered in the Cité-Soleil commune and marched towards the Pétion-Ville commune via the Delmas commune, demanding Henry’s unconditional resignation and an end to all kinds of foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs. Protesters raised slogans such as “the United States is the problem, it cannot be the solution.” At the Delmas 40 B crossroads, the protesters were brutally repressed by the police.
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