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Panama: General Strike Against Killings

On July 2, 4500 mostly indigenous workers belonging to the powerful Banana workers union (Sitribana) began a strike at the Bocas Fruit Company in the province of Bocas del Toro.

Workers from nearby farms quickly joined the strike. Other workers set up road blockades and occupied the airport. Employees on the project to widen and deepen the Panama Canal also downed tools.

In response, the government mobilised 1500 police to brutally repress protesters.

The deadly repression left at least 11 people dead and more than 200 injured. The National Front for the Defence of Economic and Social Rights (Frenadeso) said on July 16 that, “following the clashes, corpses were found in rivers and farms”.

“There is talk of at least two children dying due to respiratory problems caused by the large amount of tear gas canisters fired. In the Changuinola morgue, it is still unclear whether some of the corpses there are of citizens who died during the protests.”

The repression continued with the arrest of 30 construction unionists, as well as Professor Juan Jovane, a key left-wing leader.

Protesting students at the University of Panama (UoP) also faced repression, with 157 students detained.

Last week's rain storm which destroyed - yet again - hundreds of people's homes should serve as a wake-up call. According to CNN, only 2% of the $5.3 billion in aid that was promised for the next 18 months at the March 31st UN Donors Conference (see www.refondation.ht for pledges) has actually materialized. Most other reports say 10% - but there is not, to my knowledge or internet access, a site that details the actual disbursement of pledges. Such a site would be welcome and go far to alleviate tension and rumors. France, for example, hasn't paid up - and it vehemently denied a prank that it would pay restitution for the 90 million gold francs Haiti paid its former colonizer from 1825 to 1947 as indemnity. The U.S. has still to pay its $1.15 billion in pledged aid.

Making matters worse, the foreign-led Haiti Interim Reconstruction Commission, co-chaired by UN Special Envoy Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Max Bellerive, is replacing Haiti's elected government now that Parliament has expired, and it postponed its second meeting scheduled for Jul. 22 by a month.

Haiti had some very promising opportunities following the earthquake. First was general goodwill and unity. In the days immediately following the quake, people worked across extreme class and political divisions to survive. And they did. As the urgency wore off, the old divisions came back with a vengeance.

For example, on Jul. 21, the Provisional Electoral Commission (CEP) reiterated its 2009 decision to exclude Fanmi Lavalas, the party of exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from this year's legislative and presidential elections postponed from Feb. 28 to Nov. 28, 2010. The UN has proclaimed April and June 2009 partial Senate elections, in which almost no one voted because Fanmi Lavalas was excluded, a success.