On the evening of June 19, the Peruvian government and labor representatives for mine workers struck a preliminary deal to end the strike, based on eight points that had not been disclosed at the time of this writing.
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Zenon Cuevas, the leader of the Front for the Defense of Monquegua, told reporters, “We’re going to invoke the population to lift the strike only as we hear our demands have been accepted in Lima.” Cuevas disclosed that most of the demands were for social projects to be built immediately in the poorest areas of the region to help the most vulnerable.
The strikers demand that the mining conglomerate Southern Copper give the workers a larger percentage of profits. The value of mining exports in Peru this year will reach over $15 billion, of which only $430 million will be given to the Peruvian state to help curtail the immeasurable environmental damage and assist education and health care systems.
Thousands of striking mine workers and community supporters marched in the southern Peruvian regions of Monquegua and Tacna on June 16. During clashes with the police, 14 people were wounded, including eight police officers.
Workers took more than 60 cops into custody, holding them at the local church until the strikers’ demands were heard. Peru’s right-wing media vilified the workers by labeling them kidnappers, but none other than Police General Alberto Jordan, one of the first to be released from custody, said, “I think that we are lacking a sense of connection with our people, because they have an extraordinary heart.”
The workers stopped traffic on the region’s major highways, including the Pan-American Highway—the vital traffic artery that connects Peru and Chile. Since June 12, workers have occupied the Pan-American Highway not allowing any commercial vehicles to enter or leave the region. The strikers have also stopped public transportation, closing down all the schools in the area. More than 20,000 workers took part in the strike actions around Monquegua and Tacna between June 12 and June 19.
The miners’ strike is but one manifestation of a larger struggle in Peru. On Jan. 8, the Peruvian Medical Federation went on strike demanding that the government increase funding for health care across the country. On Feb. 18, the National Convention of Agrarians—the largest peasant organization in the country—staged a national strike opposing the government’s neoliberal policies and their impact on the countryside. Government repression killed four strikers and left 73 in the hospital over the next two days.
The General Confederation of Peruvian Workers has called for a July 9 national strike, which is to include all the major sectors of the economy. Over half a million union delegates have said they will strike on that day.
Since taking office in 2006, President Alan Garcia has implemented new neoliberal policies while pushing back every major effort led by trade unions. He has squared off against health care workers, teachers, social workers, port workers, miners, peasants, judicial workers, and morgue workers, using the police apparatus to intimidate and force workers back to work.
Workers in Peru are standing up to the anti-labor offensive led by the Garcia government. Venezuela’s revolutionary government, at times propelled into action by militant workers’ struggles, has shown the alternative to unfettered neoliberal plunder and strengthened the desire of workers throughout Latin America to take back their country and natural resources.
