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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2009
World in View
Puerto Rican strike
by Gerry Emmett
A one-day general strike gripped Puerto Rico on Oct. 14. Tens of thousands of workers rallied in San Juan protesting proposed layoffs of public sector workers in an economy that already sees 15.8% unemployment. (About a quarter of workers are in the public sector.) The governor has proposed laying off another 20,000 public workers.
The proposed new round of layoffs could raise unemployment to 17%. Protesters also pointed out that the cuts would fall heavily on the lowest paid workers, such as janitors and school counselors. One of the strike rally organizers, Bishop Juan Vera, declared: "Today we are declaring the state of peaceful insurrection of the Puerto Rican people."
The strike was organized and endorsed by the Frente Amplio de Solidaridad y Lucha (Broad Front for Solidarity and Struggle), a broad range of organizations. It had three major demands: 1) repeal of fiscal emergency laws and the restitution of all laid-off workers; 2) establishing taxes on multinational corporations, and eliminating benefits enjoyed by them under the U.S. Federal Internal Revenue Act; 3) halting evictions of working-class and immigrant squatter communities, halting expropriation of poor communities for development projects, ending political and military abuses to all, and recognition of the right to equal housing for all human beings.
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