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Unemployed Workers in Chile on Hunger Strike

by El Nuevo Topo
Due to the cut off of emergency jobs in the town of San Pedro de la Paz,
Tuesday February 17th at 2 PM six women and two men have begun a hunger strike
to demand their jobs back.
Due to the cut off of emergency jobs in the town of San Pedro de la Paz,
Tuesday February 17th at 2 PM six women and two men have begun a hunger strike
to demand their jobs back. Last week they blocked the main street in
Concepcion and were beaten and 9 were arrested by the police. They also
occupied the municipal buildings in San Pedro de la Paz. They are attempting
to coordinate their struggle with the unemployed movement in Talcahuano, located
a few miles away.

The government claims unemploment has gone down to single digits, so emergency
work programs are no longer necessary.
The following is the statement of the hunger strikers:

"Today February 17th a group of unemployed belong to the Sindicato de
Trabajadores Eventuales Transitorios y de Servicios (Casual and Transitory
Service Workers Union), NEHUENCHE, of San Pedro de la Paz, have started a HUNGER
STRIKE, which we will not end until the government has given a satisfactory
answer to the demand of giving our jobs back.

We are women and men who are heads of families, human beings, we only ask for
work so that we can earn with dignity our bread, this bread which is denied us
by a government and a social system that is centered on money rather than b eing
human.
Our HUNGER STRIKE is a desperate call, a demand on the conscience of the
authorities to listen to us and give us back the jobs they took away.
Unemployment is our town is dramatic and higher than the official figures the
government has played with.
We have exhausted all possibilities of dialogue with the authorities and when we
went into the streets the policie brutally repressed us. You do no doubt saw it
in the press or Tv when the police treated us like animals and they do not
respect women and children, they arrest even when we are in sidewalks and beat
with any compassion.

Our only motivation is to obtain dignified work, which every human being
deserves, And we are going to continue although the system and the government
continues to respond with repression and the threat to apply the Law of Internal
Security, which is a shame because it shows how little this country has
changed, which according to them is growing with equality.

It is precisely the Chilean state that affects deeply our security and denies us
the right to work and represses us and treats us like animals.

It is probably that in our mobilizations we may have committed some mistake, but
that is the effect and not the cause of the problem. The cause is the result of
economic terrorism which is being applied implacably by a social system that
puts money before humanity. We call upon those who have work and the
unemployed, community leaders, poor people to solidiarize themselves with our
movement in whatever form they can. We are issuing daily information through
our web page: http://www.laotramiradadesan pedro.cl. Solididarity statements can be
sent to: huelgadehambrecesantes [at] yahoo.es /
or pinchel [at] chile.com
NEHUENCHE MARRICHIHUENO; WITH THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE WE WILL WIN A THOUSAND
TIMES!"

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