Tuesday, September 25, 2007

If corporatists had their way, this would happen every day

The Solidarity Center condemns the brutal execution-style murder of Marco Tulio Ramirez Portela, Secretary of Culture and Sports of the Guatemalan Banana Workers Union of Izabal, SITRABI. Ramirez, brother of SITRABI General Secretary Noé Antonio Ramirez Portela, was gunned down by masked assailants at 5:45 a.m. on Sunday, September 23, while leaving his home for work on a banana plantation.

Ramirez's murder is the most recent in a series of threats and attacks against SITRABI and its leaders. In 1999, the union was the object of a devastating attack by armed individuals. In November 2006, attackers stoned and then shot at a SITRABI-owned vehicle driven by an elected union officer. In late July of this year, Army officers conducted a threatening interrogation of union leaders at SITRABI's headquarters in Morales. The assassination of Ramirez came just three days after SITRABI learned that military officers had been disciplined by the Ministry of Defense in response to SITRABI complaints about the unlawful entry.

SITRABI considers the military’s recent acts of intimidation to be retaliation for the union’s significant role in worker rights training and support for workers on banana plantations in the Izabal and Southern Coast regions. This education project, which brings much-needed information to otherwise isolated banana plantation workers, is supported by the Solidarity Center.

"The Solidarity Center joins the global labor movement in calling on the Guatemalan government to investigate Marco Tulio Ramirez Portela's murder and bring those responsible to justice," said Solidarity Center Executive Director Ellie Larson. "The systematic attacks on SITRABI constitute backsliding on worker rights enforcement in Guatemala. No worker should lose his life for exercising a fundamental right to participate in a union. Together we must break down the wall of impunity and rebuild respect for worker and human rights."
Money. It's all about the money. Big piles of it. Expensive cars. Massive houses that could be mistaken for palaces. Corporations don't care what type of government is in power as long as they're making money. In countries like Guatemala, the government uses the military to protect corporate interests.

To those who call themselves capitalists, labor unions are the root of all evil. Most of the world regards union membership as a human right. Capitalists have tried to destroy them, and they've done a good job of it.

For the first time in three decades, General Motors workers have gone on strike. Good for them. Corporations have dominated the scene for too long now - it's time to swing the pendulum back to the people. It ain't called democracy for nothing!
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