Solidarity 074, 2 June 2005

David Broder reviews Machuca Machuca is a Chilean film, on limited release in the UK, therefore I’ll depart with convention and tell you what happens at the end. But you know already, because this film depicts the 1973 downfall of Salvador Allende’s leftist government. Told from the perspective of an upper-middle class boy, Gonzalo, who attends a Catholic school in Santiago, it portrays a society riven by a class division, between those who live in the capital’s shanty towns and the middle class who fiercely resist Allende’s social reforms. The film begins with the introduction of working...

By Les Hearn Opposition to nuclear power has become a shibboleth to some on the left, its birth tainted by the original sin of the atom bomb. But the idea of nuclear power to help cut emissions of “greenhouse” gases has recently gained more support, including from a few environmentalists. It is certainly true that something has to be done about future energy supplies. Fossil fuels will eventually run out and, even if they didn’t, nearly all serious climate scientists accept that their combustion will lead to some degree of global warming, with disruption to the world’s climate systems and to...

More than 2,000 Indonesian garment workers have staged a strike to protest at their ill-treatment and unpaid overtime fees. The workers of Katexindo Citra Mandiri have been on strike since 14 May 14, according to the National Front for Indonesian Workers Struggle (FNPBI). FNPBI leader Dita Sari has said that the factory had forced the mostly female workers to work for more than eight hours a day. Katexindo is an Indonesian-owned garment factory producing for Gap, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Dita Sari said: “Workers are being used as milking cows. They will not return to work until their...

By Mike Rowley Very early on 4 May a group of activists from Oxford went down to Southampton Airport. Not, alas, to catch the 6.30 flight to Paris but to prevent an asylum seeker from being forced onto it against his will. That asylum seeker is a young man who fled to Britain from Congo-Brazzaville when close relatives were murdered by state forces. Once here, he was locked up in Campsfield House, a former young offenders’ institution north of Oxford. As a YOI, Campsfield was relatively nice, with sports facilities and views over the fields. Now it houses people who have committed no crime...

Thousands of Nicaraguan rural workers have been camping in front of the National Assembly for over two months to demand job security and justice for the victims of the pesticide Nemagon. At least one thousand Nicaraguans have died and over 100,000 suffer from the effects of Nemagon, including dermatitis, reproductive disorders and cancer. Workers are committed to maintaining their encampment until the government takes action to compensate workers. Multinationals Dole and chemical companies Dow and Shell owe compensation but have failed to pay a penny. Tens of thousands of plantation workers...

Strikes, road blockades, marches and mass demonstrations have once again swept across Bolivia, sparked off by the government’s controversial hydrocarbons law. The law increases taxes on multinational companies but falls short of the demand agreed in last year’s referendum of 50% royalties on gas and oil extraction. Business-backed president Carlos Mesa has refused to sign the law, obliging the speaker Hormando Vaca Diez, to authorise it. The latest wave of struggle began on 16 May when 100,000 people from El Alto demonstrated outside parliament demanding Mesa’s resignation. The next day the El...

Around 25 lesbian and gay activists went to the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London on 17 May to protest at the arrests and punishment of 105 men in the country, after allegedly attending a gay wedding in March this year. The protest, organised jointly by Outrage and the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association. It was one of hundreds that took place in more than 40 countries to mark the first International Day Against Homophobia. Thirty-five of the men have been sentenced to floggings. Some are being punished with up to 2000 lashes, which can be fatal. All 105 men have been sentenced to a year's jail...

Unions at the BBC have warned Director General Mark Thompson that they consider the dispute over the corporations proposed job cuts “still on”. Following strike action by thousands of workers on Tuesday 24 April which crippled the BBC’s services and won widespread public attention and support, the BBC’s management has softened its proposals by suggesting a one year “moratorium” on compulsory redundancies and various other concessions. Unfortunately, as a result, Amicus, BECTU and the NUJ called off their plans for a two-day follow-up strike on Monday Tuesday 31 May and Wednesday 1 June...

Campaigners in Nottingham have stopped a local school becoming the fourth Muslim state primary in the country. The independent Islamia School in Hyson Green had applied to become a voluntary-aided state school, which would entitle it to Government funding. But the school's application was turned down by Nottingham’s School Organisation Committee, which is made up of city councillors, governors and church leaders. The opposition was concerned about the impact on surplus places in the city, admissions policy and special education needs provision. And the decision was welcomed by people from...