U.S. Trade Unionist Reports from Honduras
Wednesday,
August 12, 2009
Dear
Sisters and Brothers,
Over
the past two days, I have had the opportunity to talk a number of times over
the phone with Allan Fisher, our Bay Area labor delegate in Honduras. Allan
sent me a short written report on Tuesday evening via internet [see below], but
he also gave me phone reports later in the evening and earlier this morning.
These introductory comments are based on our follow-up conversations:
As
many of you may know, yesterday (Tuesday, August 11) was a big day of
mobilization, as tens of thousands of people converged from all corners of the
country into Honduras’ two main cities — Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.
Most
of the participants in this National March of Popular Resistance had left their
villages and towns on August 6, the day that the unlimited general strike
began, in response to the call from the National Front Against
the Coup. Most of the marchers pledged to remain in these two cities throughout
the week to participate in the planned demonstrations, roadblocks and
plant/campus occupations.
Allan
met and got taped testimonies from many of these marchers. One elderly woman,
Allan told me, had come all the way from the coast by foot — a five day trek —
to send her message to the powers-that-be that the resistance movement’s three
central demands must be heeded — and NOW!: Honduras’ legitimate president, Mel Zelaya, must be reinstated immediately and
unconditionally; the Constituent Assembly must be convened post-haste to
draft a new Constitution; and the perpetrators of the coup, who are responsible
for at least four deaths and hundreds of detained activists, many seriously
tortured and possibly mangled for life, must be brought
to justice for their crimes.
Allan
spoke about how the large turnout on August 11 — with union banners displayed
prominently — had buoyed people’s determination to continue the struggle. One
of the chants throughout the march was, “No Somos Cuatro Gatos!” — or, we are not just a small handful of
people (literally we are not four cats) — a reply to the Micheletti
media machine, which keeps trying to convince the world that 45 days after the
coup things have “returned to normal,” with only a handful of discontents —
four cats — stirring up trouble.
Allan
has participated in numerous demonstrations over the past few days, the largest
of which he describes below in his note. As you will read, Allan and Andres Conteris from Democracy Now and Global Exchange were able
to address the main rally in Tegucigalpa. After writing this note, Allan
learned that the police had, in fact, fired at the motor-bike security team of
the demonstration just as the action was winding down and people were
dispersing. One activist was seriously injured.
This
police violence provoked a response from the crowd — which was likely
infiltrated by police agents — who threw rocks at Popeye’s restaurant and
burned buses. It all appeared staged. Allan noted, for example, that it took
the firefighters more than one hour to get to the scene of the fires — time to
keep all the media cameras rolling. He also said that all night and all morning
the only media story in the mainstream press was the “violence and terrorism”
perpetrated by Zelaya’s “handful of goons.”
There
was nothing in the media, Allan noted, about the mass march of tens of
thousands of people at which Xiomara Zelaya, the president’s wife, and their daughter spoke. The
police violence was carefully choreographed to discredit a peaceful yet
determined movement whose legitimate demands are being shunned daily by the
perpetrators of the coup — and by all their supporters, open or disguised, in
Washington.
Meanwhile
the general strike continues. Up till this week, there had been three two-day
strikes (all on Thursdays and Fridays) called by the three main trade union
federations in Honduras, all of which are part of the National Front Against
the Coup. The recent Delegates’ Assembly of the Front, held at the hall of the
Beverage Industry Workers’ Union, voted to maintain the strike throughout the
week of August 10–14 — with the possibility of extending the strike at their
regular Sunday meeting on August 16.
This
Delegates’ Assembly of the Front has become the nerve center and coordinating
body of the resistance movement. (In his previous note, Allan described the
Delegates’ Assembly and reported that he was able to address the 800 delegates
in attendance.)
The
strike this week has been more widely followed than the previous two-day
strikes. In addition to the teachers and State office workers, the workers and
students at the National Autonomous University of Honduras hit the bricks, as
did the workers at the National Agrarian Institute, the electrical workers of
the Empresa Nacional de Energía, some private-sector workers, and the workers at
the National Weather Service.
Over
the weekend, as was announced widely in the Latin American press, U.S.
Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens met with the
leadership of the National Front Against the Coup. Llorens told the leaders of the resistance movement that
their support for the San Jose Treaty — that is, the mediation agreement
drafted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and read by Costan
Rican President Oscar Arias — was “essential if there was to be peace in
Honduras” (aporrea.org).
This
San Jose treaty, imposed by the U.S. government, asks that Zelaya
and the people of Honduras agree that Zelaya could
return to Honduras BUT only if he agrees to power-sharing with the perpetrators
of the coup, if he renounces his effort to promote a Constituent Assembly and a
new Constitution, and if he renounces the call for the army high command to be
tried for organizing the June 28 coup.
The
reply by the leadership of the National Front Against
the Coup was unequivocal — and it was public.
A
Declaration (No. 19) of the Front was read at the mass rallies in Tegucigalpa
and San Pedro Sula to welcome the marchers. The
declaration reaffirmed its earlier document in opposition to the Arias
mediation plan and went on to state:
“The
National Front Against the Coup, on the forty-fifth
day of resistance, informs the national and international community that it
repudiates the tactics of the coup perpetrators aimed at delaying the return of
Constitutional order in our country. ...
“If,
in the coming days, the coup clique does not reinstate Manuel Zelaya Rosales as the legitimate president of Honduras, the
National Front Against the Coup will increase and
deepen its actions of resistance all across the nation.” And the declaration
concluded, “Welcome sisters and brothers to this National March of Popular
Resistance, which represents the road toward the National Constituent Assembly
that will draft and approve a new Political Constitution for Honduras!”
This
is all for now. More later.
In
solidarity,
Alan Benjamin,
Member, Executive Committee
San Francisco Labor Council
[Letter
sent by Allan Fisher on Tuesday evening, August 11]
Alan,
Last
night we had the privilege of hearing this wonderful courageous priest, Father
Andres Tamayo, give mass and an electric class-conscious sermon. He has been
marching for days with the people mostly from his district of Olancho. The
people were fed and stayed overnight in the school there on the outskirts of
Tegucigalpa. This morning we joined them, already marching for an hour, at 8
pm. We followed the road through working class/poor districts about 6 miles to
the center of Tegucigalpa.
Along
the way many more people joined us, and we linked up with other contingents so
there were at least 20,000 as we gathered in front of the Clarion Hotel. There
we heard Mrs. Zelaya and her daughter give rousing
speeches in favor of dignity for the working people and expressing their pride
of being associated with the people and their movement.
Later
Andres [Conteris of Global Exchange and Democracy
Now] and I also had the opportunity to climb the truck and speak to the crowd
amid rousing cheers. It was a thrilling afternoon.
Unfortunately,
it was marred by a riot that occurred later in the late afternoon; some youths
and the police got into it and a bus was burned as well as a Popeye’s
restaurant. Tear gas was used in and around the shopping center and some people were injured and arrested. One wonders if
this wasn’t planned by the government. The evening news is all about the
burning of the bus, etc. — and nothing about the great rally and Mrs Zelaya.
Thanks
for your great work.
Allan