BY JIM MCILROY
& ROBYN MARSHALL
LIMA The entire cabinet of Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo resigned on June 25, amid rising social tensions which threaten to bring down Toledo himself. This follows the refusal of his party, the Peru Possible movement, to approve a tax increase to finance a pay rise agreement with the country's school teachers recently unanimously endorsed by cabinet.
Peru's 280,000 teachers had earlier ended a month-long strike for higher wages and other issues on June 12, after their union, SUTEP, finally accepted a deal negotiated with the government. Under the terms of the agreement, teachers would get a US$30 increase in their monthly salaries, with further rises and improved working conditions to follow.
The government crisis culminates a rising tide of strikes and other protest actions over many weeks, which has shaken Peruvian society to the core.
On June 3, thousands of workers marched through the streets of Lima and other Peruvian cities in protest against the declaration of a 30-day state of emergency by Toledo, and to support the demands of the striking teachers and other unionists.
An estimated 20,000 teachers and other workers, unemployed, sacked and retired employees and students rallied and marched to the centre of the city. Police used tear gas in an attack on the marchers, who had defied official attempts to ban the protest.
The march, which was called by the CGTP trade-union federation, paralysed the city with a five-hour occupation of the streets. The mobilisation was called exactly a week after Toledo's declaration of martial law, and follows an upsurge of protest which parallels that which rocked the last years of the previous government of president Alberto Fujimori. Fujimori fled the country in disgrace in the face of corruption scandals and a political crisis.
Rallies and marches were held all across Peru on June 3, including in major cities such at Cuzco, Arequipa, Chimbote and Puno.
The state of emergency was imposed by Toledo after small farmers, who have also been involved in the growing protest movement, blocked highways with their trucks, so buses and other transport could not get through. A student was shot and killed in Puno during protests following the declaration of the emergency.
The June 3 protest demanded the immediate lifting of the state of emergency, a major change in the economic policies of the government, a cabinet shake-up, and a solution to the demands of the striking teachers and other public servants who have been in the forefront of the escalating struggle.
In addition to the immediate wage demands of teachers and other unionists, workers and small farmers have refused to accept the neoliberal economic model being imposed by the Toledo government. In particular, they want to prevent implementation of a new tax system favouring business owners over working people.
The unions also wanted to stop a regressive restructuring of the foreign debt, and demanded the abolition of repressive anti-labour laws introduced under Fujimori. They also demanded the installation of a new cabinet which would implement a radically different direction in overall government policy.
A source of great anger to the Peruvian people has been that Toledo collects the equivalent of around $12,000 per month, while a teacher receives a wage of only about $200 per month. While the government had agreed in principle to restructure the salaries of the president and other senior government officials, workers and their unions want a radical reduction in government leaders' incomes and significant increases in wages, not only of teachers, but of other sections of the working class.
From Green Left Weekly, July 2, 2003.
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