USA targets Bolivia

by Theo Russell

Dr Dominguez warns about the US threat

As Bolivia prepares for presidential elections in October, the Trump administration has added Bolivia to its 'regime change' hit-list in its new drive to destroy every left or socialist government in Latin America.

A meeting last week at Unite’s London head office organised by the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign heard from Dan Carden, Labour’s Shadow International Development Secretary, that under Morales infant mortality had been halved and the numbers getting a primary education had doubled.

Carden said that the Labour Party is against “an international order based on resource extraction and military intervention by wealthy countries”, and said that “Jeremy Corbyn was right on Chile, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya”.

Dr Francisco Dominguez, Secretary of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, said that millions of Bolivians have benefited from improved public health, nutrition, education provision and a large public housing programme under Evo Morales.

“No other government in Bolivia's history has done more to restore the dignity to the majority indigenous population, including the recovery of land illegally appropriated by large landowners. Thirty-one indigenous languages have now been registered and there is now a TV channel in Quechua with Spanish subtitles,” he said.

Dominguez recalled the violent US-backed campaign for autonomy for Bolivia’s lowlands in 2008, in which anti-indigenous hatred was whipped up and many died, but, he said: “The right was defeated politically and eventually the lowlands were won over to the Movement for Socialism, Morales’ party.”

Now the corporate-backed warmongers in Washington have Morales in their sights and are seeking to capitalise on a 2016 referendum, later superseded by Bolivia’s supreme court, stopping Morales from standing for a new term.

Right-wing Bolivian MPs have written to president Trump asking him to activate the Inter-American Democratic Charter against Bolivia and the right-wing Cuban-US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has accused Morales of “consolidating his evil grip”.

A resolution adopted by the US Congress Foreign Affairs Committee says that Bolivia is “aligning itself with illegitimate and illegal regimes, including that of Maduro in Venezuela”.

All this is a familiar scenario, played out across Latin America in recent years, but follows a series of US government statements and articles in leading Washington newspapers setting the goals of restoring the Monroe Doctrine and eradicating all socialist-oriented governments in the western hemisphere.

Here in Britain we must support solidarity with all left governments in Latin America including Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, and demand that the UK government stops supporting the blatant interference and regime change policies of the reactionary Trump administration.

Below Stairs

By New Worker correspondent

 

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) made $816 million profit on a $27.4 billion turnover last year from its 5,656 hotels across the globe. These include chains such as Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, with which New Worker readers are doubtless well acquainted. It has been reported to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact by Unite the Union.

IHG signed up to the UN Global Compact in 2009, committing to uphold its 10 principles including the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining – a move that helped to secure its contract as the official hotel provider for the 2012 London Olympics.

 A new report from Unite shows that their signatures on the Compact do not amount to a row of beans. It records a decade of poor working practices and deliberate anti-trade union avoidance tactics across IHG’s UK hotel-estate, including housekeepers at a five star IHG-owned hotel being bullied, overworked and then denied the right to have their grievance heard collectively.

Unite is now urging the UN to step in after IHG management’s repeated backtracking on allowing Unite access to the group’s Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels in London to speak to workers, distribute union materials and represent members over nearly a decade of on–off negotiations.

Hospitality campaigners from Unite last Friday picketed shareholders arriving at the AGM at Intercontinental Park Lane Hotel, with a call for the hotel operator to pay its UK staff the real living wage of £9 per hour (£10.55 per hour in London) and to recognise the union. In contrast, the cheapest starter in the dining room is £11.

Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull said: “Hotel staff at IHG branded properties, including Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, are being bullied, overworked and underpaid. Their right to freedom of association and collective bargaining denied.

 “Unite wants to see the UN Global Compact step up and defend the integrity of its corporate sustainability initiative. Companies need to understand that promoting and protecting human rights at work is more than just a box ticking exercise.

“The UN Global Compact has got to mean something. It’s got to be genuine. If it’s not, or companies are allowed to get away with picking and choosing the bits that suit, then the whole thing is devalued.”

Going Down the Tube

By New Worker correspondent

London Underground (LU) workers belonging to the transport union RMT have voted by 9–1 in favour of three days of strike action in opposition to safety-critical cuts. The strike, scheduled for 17–20 May, involves over a thousand key LU maintenance and engineering staff who are opposing the drastic cutting of train preparation and inspection schedules, which RMT warns will have a devastating impact on both service reliability and public safety.

The planned action will also include the tube fleet maintenance teams who are imposing a ban on lone working, and a ban on working without valid licences and fire wardens being in place.

Earlier this year RMT warned LU of the problems over its intentions to extend the fleet train preparation schedules. London Underground refused to consult with RMT or to provide the union with full information on all safety aspects.

The union warns that what LU proposes will devastate inspection frequencies beyond all recognition. This will inevitably lead to more train failures in service, putting unacceptable pressure on members and leaving passengers at risk.

Mick Cash, RMT General Secretary, said: “The nine to one ballot result showed just how angry tube staff are at proposals London Underground are attempting to bulldoze through that would decimate the inspection and safety culture on the fleet. Despite that result tube bosses have ignored the workforce and are pressing ahead and it is that intransigence that has left us no option but to confirm industrial action today.”

 

May Day in London

by New Worker correspondent

 

Some 7,000 people took part in London’s traditional May Day march that began outside the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell Green and ended, as always, in a rally in Trafalgar Square. The labour day celebration began with an address by the Venezuelan ambassador on the steps of Marx House and then the march moved on through central London, headed by the Big Red Band and the May Day banner.

In Trafalgar Square the crowd heard a variety of speakers from the labour and peace movements, including Labour’s John McDonnell, the Number 2 in the Corbyn leadership, transport workers’ leader Mick Cash and a senior officer from the GMB union.