Chileans March Remembers Massacre

by via Portland Indymedia

Mon, Sep 3, 2007 7:35AM

Yesterday [August 29] in Chile, people gathered in most all the major cities of the country to recall the 100th anniversary of the Massacre of the School of Santa Maria of Iquique and to protest current labor practices and economic conditions stemming from the application of the free trade model to their country.

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In 1907, during a strike against the deplorable working conditions of saltpeter mines in northern Chile local government authorized the elimination of the strikers and their families who were occupying a school in the city of Iquique. As a result more than 360 miners and their families were killed.

Today the massacre is seen as a symbol, a turning point, from which the government was forced to take action to improve labor laws and social programs. For this reason the Unitary Center for workers (Centro Unitario de Trabajadores, CUT) chose to remember the incident in their protests yesterday demanding an increase in the minimum wage, quality education,"pensions with dignity," and solutions to a variety of other economic and labor issues in the country.

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For more information: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/3...

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