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Kraft labor solidarityChicago--A group of us held an action Sept. 17 in solidarity with Kraft-Terrabusi workers in Argentina. We raised a banner and passed out flyers to workers leaving the Kraft plant at Kedzie and 73rd. A video was made of solidarity messages from a group of African-American women workers from the plant and Gerry Emmett of News and Letters Committees (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKcml8J2w2g). In General Pacheco, Argentina, workers held a series of assemblies in June to demand a pay increase. Because of the H1N1 flu epidemic, on July 3 they picketed to demand better sanitary conditions. Calling the picket a "violent takeover," the company fired 160 workers without severance pay. In response, workers stopped production, occupying the plant for more than five weeks, and blocking the Pan-American Highway six times. At times students and workers set up solidarity roadblocks in Buenos Aires and other cities. The day after our action here, the company stopped paying the 2,600 workers still employed. Their message was to stop the blockade if they wanted to feed their families. Workers rejected this attempt to divide them. After a Sept. 21 roadblock by 250 workers, the Labor Ministry ordered the company to pay the wages owed. Kraft declared it would not pay, and called 300 police to storm the factory, shooting tear gas and rubber bullets at occupiers and their supporters rallying outside, including children. They detained 65 people within the factory and wounded four. On Sept. 28 an enormous march was held in Buenos Aires and roadblocks were set up in several provinces in support of the workers. Subway workers held three work stoppages, and protesters tied up traffic in Buenos Aires with roadblocks three days in a row. Rank-and-file workers denounced the heads of the CGT labor federation and the food and beverage workers union, Moyano and Daer respectively, who called the Kraft workers "ultraleftists" and in effect supported the repression. Solidarity actions have also taken place in Brazil and Colombia, and more will follow in Chicago. We hope the determination of the Kraft-Terrabusi workers will be a rallying point for international solidarity, as well as for the struggle of workers in Argentina to take control of their workplaces--a struggle ongoing since the economic crisis of 2000 sparked occupations, roadblocks, and neighborhood and worker assemblies. There are now dozens of plants under worker control, with ominous maneuvers by the capitalists to use the state's repressive forces to end them. |
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