General strike of workers and peasants
International Viewpoint #147 • September 19, 1988
PERU mum encouragement to export crops, at the expense of food growing. It ceased long ago to be self-sufficient in food.
• Finally, a 50% wage increase for the public sector. When you look at the inflation figures, you see how insufficient this is.
against economic
On July 19-20, in reaction to the plan, almost all of the workers' and people's organizations called for a general strike.
July 19 has a special significance for the catastrophe
Peruvian people. On that date in 1977, a massive illegal strike took place. It was a general strike that challenged the government and put an end to the military dictatorship of Francisco Morales Bermudez, opening the way for the period of very rela-
IN ITS FIRST PHASE, the government of Alan Garcia — the candidate of the APRA (American People's Alliance, originally a populist movement) who was elected to the presidency in
April 1985 — could boast of slowing down the rate of inflation, in contrast with the situation that developed at the end of
Belaunde Terry's government.' But this did not last.
Officially, for the first six months of 1988, the rise in prices was 115.3%. For the month of July alone, it was 30%. For the year as a whole, all the estimates see a price rise of the order of 400%, with the most pessimistic projections going as high as 600%.
Shoppers simply notice that they can buy less and less necessities every day. Some 65% of Peruvians who are lucky enough to have a job earn 7,000 intis a month, or about $402, while the cost of the family "basic basket" is equivalent to
$250. In reaction to this increase in the cost of living and the government's announcement in mid-June of an austerity plan, many workers' organizations called a general strike for July
19-20. It was a major success.
HUGO BLANCO
INCE THE beginning of the year,
S there has been a constant succession of strikes involving hundreds of thousands of workers. In May alone, 132 strikes were registered in the private sector. In June, 15,000 building workers stopped work for two weeks, followed by 18,000 telecommunications and transport workers. In mid-July, the miners went into action, demanding an end to the repression, wage increases and a lowering of the retirement age in an industry where appalling working conditions result in a very high mortality rate.
Mining products occupy a important place in Peruvian exports. This is why Alan
García's government had to yield partially to the miners' demands in August, offering a reduction of the retirement age. Against this background of working-class agitation, in June Premier Armando Villanueva announced an austerity plan designed to bring
16 national Mone tary goond
Peru back into the good graces of the inter-
The days of Alan García's big talk, when he pledged not to give in to the dictates of the international credit organizations and to allot only 10% of export receipts to debt repayment, have been quite forgotten.
The most important measures in the austerity plan are the following:
• A 58% rise in the prices of petroleum products. Already the energy and mines minister, Abel Solinas, has warned that a new rise will go into effect in September.
• An increase in indirect taxes on consu-
• Giveaways to foreign investors. In this context, free-trade zones will be created whose entire production will be for export, and where, of course, the tax laws and labor code in force in the rest of the country will be not be applied. Finally, what is produced in these zones will not be subject to price control.
• Preferential exchange rates for imports of food products and medicines. Like many third-world countries, Peru has given maxitive democracy in which the country has been living since.
### Peruvian workers remember 1977 strike
In that year, the banned general strike threw a government that had expected to hold on for ten more years into retreat. The result was the calling of a constituent assembly, the promise of general elections, the end of the state of siege and the return of the exiles.
Such dates are disdainfully ignored by the international press, which likes only the spectacular. But they are recalled by the Peruvian workers, who retain the memory of their collective struggles.
It was in memory of July 19, 1977, and encouraged by its success that the two-day general strike was called this year by the Peru General Confederation of Workers (CGTP), the main labor confederation, and the National People's Assembly (ANP). The latter includes, along with the CGTP, the Peasant Confederation (CCP); the United Union of Teachers (SUTEP); the Interoccupational Union of Government Workers; the Bank Workers' Federation (FEB), the Student Federation (FEP); the street vendors, a sector that has been growing constantly in a country where the unemployed do not get a penny from the state; and the slum dwellers, inhabitants of regions neglected by a hyper-centralized administration.
In addition, the Peru Workers' Confederation (CT), the union confederation led by APRA, joined in the mobilization, as did the owner-drivers in the public sector. The drivers' pro-government leadership was obliged to leave it up to them whether to join in the mobilization or not.
The strike was a success throughout the country, despite a big campaign by the government and the extreme right against it and 1. First excluded from power by General Velasco Alvarado's coup d'etat, Belaunde Terry became president of the republic in 1980 at the head of the right-wing Popular Action (AP) party after the fall of General Morales, who drove out Alvarado in 1975. 2. The official exchange rate is $1=33 intis, but it is equivalent to 75 intis for financial transactions and 173 intis on the black market.
September 19, 1988 • #147 International Viewpoint despite the fact that the government ordered huge payments to those who did not join in the strike.
The strikes have far from ended in the wake of the general strike. For example, on August 2, 30,000 FEB stopped work again, and "international experts" looked forward with disquiet to a second half of the year likely to be "hot, not to say violent, on the labor front." 3
Everyone was waiting the annual speech to parliament by the president on July 28, Peru's independence day and a major national holiday. Last year, it was on that date that Alan García dropped his political bombshell, announcing the nationalization
That declaration impelled the most important sections of capital to break with the government, and led to the reappearance of an extreme right, led this time by the writer Mario Vargas Llosa.* These waged such a campaign against the president's scheme that he was forced to backtrack. So today, there is virtually nothing left of the nationalization of the banks, and its only result has been the strengthening of this extreme
Garcia's speech applauded by the right
Consequently, this year the weeks preceding July 28 were marked by an intense campaign by the sectors linked to big capital and the political far right demanding that the government not announce any disagreeable surprises.
During the speech, the national employers' leaders gathered in the headquarters of the Confederation of Private Employers'
Institutions (CONFIEP) to listen to it over
TV. When it was over, they came out congratulating themselves and expressing loud approval of the speech, which was also hailed by the extreme right.
The bulk of the speech was devoted to promising tougher legislation against "subversion." Henceforth not only participation in terrorist acts would be punished, but also membership in "subversive organizations."
The concept of "intellectual responsibility"
for terrorism was introduced. People can be convicted even they are not accused of any concrete action.
From now on, the police and not judges will be in charge of all investigations. The police have got into the habit of planting weapons in the homes of those that they accusé. It will now be possible to convict people on the basis of such "evidence."
"Incitement to violence" will be a crime. In
Latin America, this is a very venerable means of suppressing freedom of the press.
All of these promises were accompanied by expressions of sympathy for the small number of butchers, murders and torturers belonging to the repressive forces that have been brought before the courts. Peruvians,
Alan García said, "must have confidence in their armed forces and police who are risking their lives in the mountains...and taking direct charge of the struggle [against In another part of his speech, he referred to the Peruvian Institute of Social Insurance (IPSS). The latter is a state body whose funds come from contributions by the workers and employers. It is responsible for paying for medical and pensions for the workers. The corruption that exists within it has led it into crisis.
The employers are not paying in the money that they are supposed to, according to the terms of the law, and the very little money that there is in these funds is being diverted into the pockets of the administrators, who belong to the government party.
On numerous occasions, both the insured workers and the IPSS clerks themselves have denounced these swindles. Unfortunately, the only remedy envisaged for such evils is a gradual privatization of this service. This privatization will be extended to other public enterprises that have been bled dry by APRA's corruption, in the same way as the IPSS.
So it is understandable that the bosses have many reasons to be happy.
### Extreme right resort to death squad terrorism
Osman Morote, regarded as the second most important leader of Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) after Abimael Guzman,
"Chairman Gonzalo," was captured in the late summer. Five prosecutions were set in motion against him. In one, the court could not prove his guilt, and he was acquitted.
Needless to say, he has remained in prison.
But this acquittal was enough to set off the extreme right. It has raised a furore, accusing the court of dastardliness and saying that the Sendero Luminoso guerrillas are being allowed to operate
The president of the republic has added his voice to the chorus of the right. It was partly for that reason that a large chunk of his speech was devoted to repression.
Morote's lawyer, Manuel Febres, was a very prominent professor. He also took part in the team of lawyers who conducted the
PERU civil suit initiated at the time of the massacre of eight journalists in Ucharaccay under the government of Belaunde Terry.® Febres was murdered a few hours before the president's speech. He left his home, and a few hours later his body was found in a quiet street. It bore the marks of torture.
Subsequently, the papers and radio stations received a communique from the "Rodrigo Franco Democratic Commandos" claiming responsibility for the crime. Rodrigo Franco was an APRA functionary killed by Sendero Luminoso a few months
It seems, therefore, that the Peruvian extreme right or sections of APRA have begun to resort to the death squad methods seen at work in Argentina and Central America. It is possible that this group is made up of police led by military officers, operating outside the law but without being disowned by the official apparatus.
In their communique, the Rodrigo Franco Commandos say that they have decided to act because they are "tired of the government's incompetence and the indecisiveness of the forces of order." They go on to say that "for every mayor, soldier or policeman assassinated, a leader of Sendero Luminoso or the groups that protect it or support it will die."
We already know that, in the language of the extreme right, this means the left in general. It depends on mass mobilizations in
Peru and international solidarity to keep
Peru from becoming like Argentina under the military dictatorship. *
3. Latin America Weekly Report, July 14, 1988.
4. Mario Vargas Llosa, who led the right's campaign against the nationalizations in the name of "freedom from totalitarianism", has announced that he may be a candidate in the next presidential elections to be held in
5. First appearing in May 1980 in the Andean province 1990.
of Ayacucho, this guemilla movement rapidly grew and spread to the rest of Peru. See also /V 108, November
6. On January 26, 1983, eight journalists were assassi- 10, 1986.
nated by the special repressive forces — the sinchis - in Ayacucho province. The international impact of this event was to force the government to set up a commission of enquiry presided over by Vargas Llosa. This was to be Llosa's first big occasion to play a disgusting political role in trying to whitewash the military and pot the blame for the massacre at the door of Sendero 17/
Luminoso.
International Viewpoint #147 • September 19, 1988