Information letter: Powerful nationwide strike of the miners in Peru prevails against massive state repression

Dear comrades,

On Tuesday, 10 September, a nationwide and unlimited strike of the miners in Peru began, called up by FNTMMSP, the trade union umbrella organization of the miners and metal workers. The strike had been prepared for months. The ICOR Latin America conference had already called up for solidarity in April and obliged itself to contribute to the cross-border coordination of the struggle. With the current intensification and polarization of the struggle, this is all the more on the agenda!

I am therefore sending you this short information. The repressive state apparatus is being massively deployed against the strike: a brutal police operation in Lima on 12 September under the pretext that the miners were supposedly storming and demolishing the labor administration. This was demented by the trade union. The miners actually did enter the ministry in order to protest against the strike having been declared as being illegal and the rejection of the mining companies to conduct any negotiations whatsoever. 17 trade union representatives, miners and supporters, including women, were arrested by the police! The strike demands our international solidarity! For the immediate release of the arrested miners and activists! For the right to strike – against the illegalization of the strike and the obstruction of the miners who wanted to go to Lima, the blocking of the cell-phone and Internet communication of the striking workers, etc.

The struggle is not only a Peruvian issue. It stands in close connection with the international miners coordination. Close ties and exchange have developed since the 1st Miners Conference in Arequipa. Andreas Tadysiak, the Main Coordinator of the International Miners Coordination, traveled to Peru during the first days of the strike in order to develop international solidarity and cooperation. A declaration of the IMC is just being worked out (information at www.minersconference.org). The Peruvian miners demand fundamental trade-union rights, especially the right of a united representation at wage negotiations, against the division in the single mining companies. They stand in for the unity of permanently employed workers and temporary/contract workers. They also uphold the unity of the struggle for jobs in mining and the struggle against the overexploitation of the natural environment in their program and are joining in practice with the struggles of the communities in the mining regions against the devastation of the country. They do not put up with state suppression. Today their struggle is in the international focus, making it possible to take a big step forward in building up the international miners coordination and strengthening international working-class unity – even through solidarity actions and strikes. This calls upon all of us in the ICOR to make this struggle known in all countries and to promote international solidarity and militant action, especially in mining companies and regions and in the respective trade-union and other mass organizations. The miners are a core troop of the international industrial proletariat. In various countries, such as shortly also in the USA, hard struggles are developing. This can develop significant attraction in the worldwide progressive change of mood and the struggle against the rightward development. This is a great opportunity to combine internationally organized working-class unity with the construction of the ICOR and the anchoring of a revolutionary perspective. Send in declarations, photos, etc. of international solidarity to the ICOR in order to publish them.

We are awaiting proposals of the Peruvian ICOR organizations in order to be able to distribute a resolution of the ICOR for signing in short.

With sincere and militant greetings,

Monika Gärtner-Engel

Attachment:

Addresses for solidarity declarations:

Trade union league of the mining, metal and steelworkers in Peru FNTMMSP

Email: fntmmsp@hotmail.com Fax: ++51 1 534832

To the International Miners Coordination: info@minersconference.org