Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

marmar

(76,985 posts)
Tue Apr 23, 2013, 08:09 AM Apr 2013

Fighting the (U.S.-led) Shock Doctrine in El Salvador


from Dollars & Sense:


P3 Push in El Salvador
A cross-border fight erupts against a public-private partnership law.

BY HILARY GOODFRIEND | March/April 2013


Unions in El Salvador are on high alert, fighting a privatization scheme that has the full weight of the U.S. government behind it. Led by the Salvadoran Union Front, a militant coalition of public- and private-sector unions, workers are mobilizing against a proposed Public-Private Partnership (P3) Law, drafted by Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes’ office with U.S. Treasury Department assistance. The law is an initiative of the bilateral development agreement called the Partnership for Growth, which the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador calls a “signature effort of President Obama’s development policy.” With everything from ports, airports, and roads to municipal services and higher education on the auction block, the P3 law threatens public-sector workers with layoffs, wage cuts, and union busting. In the face of aggressive U.S. pressure for the law’s passage, Salvadoran workers are counting on international solidarity to protect their jobs and defend state services.

“For us,” says José Alberto Cartagena Tobias of the SITEAIES airport workers union, “a public-private partnership is nothing more than privatization.” Workers like him know firsthand the cost of privatization. After state banks, telecommunications, electricity, and pensions were sold off under the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) administrations of the 1990s, labor conditions plummeted. Five thousand workers were laid off at the telecommunications company, and those remaining saw salary reductions, the loss of seniority, and their union dissolved. Nearly 1,000 workers were laid off at the Acajutla port following privatizations in 2001; dock workers’ daily wages dropped by 90% and their union was dismantled. At the airport, security, cargo, and cleaning services were privatized that year; these workers now earn $240/month, while the unionized airport workers earn a minimum of $552/month.

Soaring utility rates and rising unemployment soon turned public opinion against privatization. In 2003, 150,000 Salvadorans took to the streets to shut down ARENA President Francisco Flores’ attempt to privatize the health-care system; little has been privatized since. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2013/0313goodfriend.html



4 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Fighting the (U.S.-led) Shock Doctrine in El Salvador (Original Post) marmar Apr 2013 OP
du rec. nt xchrom Apr 2013 #1
A preview on what's planned for America newfie11 Apr 2013 #2
Another Newest Reality Apr 2013 #3
As I said in the GD post...... socialist_n_TN Apr 2013 #4

newfie11

(8,159 posts)
2. A preview on what's planned for America
Tue Apr 23, 2013, 08:17 AM
Apr 2013

I hope El Salvador can keep this from happening.
I am not sure America can. So many people are oblivious to what is happening in this country.

Newest Reality

(12,712 posts)
3. Another
Tue Apr 23, 2013, 08:47 AM
Apr 2013

hole in the tattered gown that is the myth of American innocence.

When people say, "wake up!" this is a part of what they are referring to.

Significant, neoliberal "progress" has been made here and we do have to export the non-negotiable way of life that is American, pathological or not. It is cannibalistic though and that way does involve eating itself, eventually.

Screwing everyone else to stay on top of a pile of bodies is not going to be sustainable, in fact, it is quite the opposite of that.

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
4. As I said in the GD post......
Tue Apr 23, 2013, 09:05 AM
Apr 2013

Just more bullshit from the neo-liberal playbook. And Obama just goes right along with it.

Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»Socialist Progressives»Fighting the (U.S.-led) S...