Workers' Liberty

Brazil
By Michael Löwy
Brazil is one of the countries with the highest level of social inequality in the world. The country has been described as a sort of “Swiss India”, where the rich live as though in Switzerland, while the lives of the poor are similar to those of their counterparts in India.
The electoral victory of Lula, the candidate of the Workers’ Party (PT), in 2001, raised immense popular hopes that this condition of “social apartheid” would change and that that a new orientation towards the needs and aspirations of the poor would be implemented. These hopes were, to a large extent, disappointed as the government formed by Lula continued to implement the same neo-liberal economic policies as the previous right-wing presidents.
One of the first neo-liberal reforms introduced by Lula was a change in the Brazilian pensions system, dismantling previous social benefits accorded to workers. When PT senator Heloisa Helena and a few other PT members of parliament opposed this reform… they were excluded from the PT in spite of wide protests both in Brazil and internationally.
A statement signed by well known figures of the left across the world called on the PT leadership not to expel her, but to no avail.
Heloisa Helena and her friends, with the support of hundreds of other ex-PT activists, decided to create a new party, the PSOL, Party of Socialism and Liberty. Two years later, after a serious corruption scandal involving some of the main leaders of the PT, an important section of the party’s left… decided to join the new party.
Heloisa Helena, the candidate of the PSOL for the coming presidential elections in Brazil (October 2006) was born in Alagoas, one of the poorest states of Brazil. A nurse by profession, she was elected senator and soon became a leading figure in the PT's left, before her exclusion. She is.. Christian Marxist, she does not hide her commitment to socialism, to anti-imperialism and to the struggle of the Brazilian workers and peasants for social liberation.
While Lula and Alckmin — the candidate of the conservative right-wing coalition — were expected to monopolise the presidential election, the presence of Heloisa Helena introduced a new and unexpected dimension in the political debate. She has received the support of a large spectrum of socialists, trade unionists, leftist intellectuals and Christian liberationists, and she currently stands at 12% in the opinion polls.
The elections in Brazil concern socialists and radicals everywhere. This is the reason why many people, after having protested against Heloisa Helena's expulsion from the PT, have now issued a world-wide call to support her.

(other report by Pablo Velasco)

Argentina

The Argentina Solidarity Campaign is circulating this appeal for solidarity:
“We are workers of The Value Brand (TVB), a soap and cleaning products factory in San Justo, Buenos Aires province. TVB is an investment acquisition by the Swiss-American company, Southern Cross. We have set up a web site where you can learn about our struggle (www.obrerostvb.org.ar).
Southern Cross has not only carried out repeated anti-trade unions activities against us; the oil company that it owns in Ecuador, CGC, has been involved in a series of violations of the human rights of a local indigenous community.
Thirty-eight of us have been illegally dismissed. The company refuses to reinstate us or pay their salaries despite having accepted the terms of the compulsory arbitration ordered by the Ministry of Labour of Buenos Aires province. Moreover it has made significant deductions from the salaries of workers who have not been dismissed but who have been carrying out solidarity actions.
They want to break our struggle by starving our families. For this reason we have set up a strike fund in order to be able to cover our basic needs. We are asking you for any kind of assistance that you can give us, including messages of solidarity.”
More info: www.argentinasc.org.uk

Venezuela
The Venezuelan National Guard has repressed a group of striking workers belonging to the UNT in Carabobo state, according to reports on the Aporrea website.
Workers at Alfarería Internacional (International Pottery) had their three-week-old strike broken up on 10 August by the National Guard. Two days before, seven members of the union’s executive were arrested.
Workers are members of the Unión de Trabajadores Procesadores de la Arcilla, Similares y Conexos del Estado Carabobo (Utpasca), part of the National Union of Workers (UNT), the new independent union federation in Venezuela.
The company had introduced 30 scabs to try to break the strike.
Although information is sketchy, it is at least clear that the Venezuelan military has used force to back employers against unionised and militant workers. The UNT in Carabobo is calling for solidarity.
Perhaps Chávez should heed the warning of his hero Simón Bolívar – damned is the soldier that uses force against the people.

Chile
A magnificent strike at the world's largest privately-owned copper mine in Chile has reached its fourth week without any sign of resolution.
Around 2,000 workers at the Escondida mine want a 10% pay rise, from the massive $10 billion (£5.5 billion) profits made by the parent company BHP Billiton last year. The mine itself turned a profit of $3 billion (£1.5 billion) in the first six months of this year.
The mine, which produces about 8% of the world's copper, has seen production cut by two-thirds and world copper prices rise as the strike has bitten.
According to the Sindicato Escondida (Escondida Union), this is the first real strike in the company's history. Workers began the strike on 7 August and have resisted vicious anti-union activity by the firm.
The multinational has tried to draft in scabs and written to workers, telling them they are "free to negotiate individually with the firm", at the same as threatening mass dismissals. The government has ruled out mediating in he dispute, as strikers have demanded.