From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism
Subject: LABOR NEWS (Nicaragua; Brazil)
Date: 16 Oct 92 02:57:49 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

[Via misc.activism.progressive from PeaceNet's apc.labor]
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Topic 217       NNY:Nicaraguan Labor News 
hrcoord apc.labour      10:19 am  Oct 12, 1992 
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From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord> 
Subject: NNY:Nicaraguan Labor News 

/* Written  9:35 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny@igc.apc.org in igc:reg.nicaragua */ 

4. NICARAGUAN LABOR NEWS 
Oct. 6 marked the 31st day of a hunger strike by 11 workers of 
state telecommunications company (Telcor) who are demanding the 
reinstatement of their fired co-workers. Also on Oct. 6, Telcor 
Minister Pablo Vigil said the fired workers would not return to 
their jobs... Railroad workers blocked the main highway along 
Managua's lakeshore on Oct. 2 to protest the government's move to 
close down the state railway system.

Though the workers were dislodged violently by police, the protests
continued and spread on Oct. 7 to different areas of Nicaragua. The
government says it does not have the $20 million investment necessary
to make the railroad function.... Banana workers in Chinandega
province (in northwestern Nicaragua) are on strike to demand the
reinstatement of 236 fired workers and compliance with agreements
about privatization reached at the end of 1991 that promised 25%
shares to the workers... Workers at the San Antonio sugar mill--
Nicaragua's most important--began a strike just 15 days before the
sugar harvest is scheduled to begin, demanding implementation of a
wage scale reordering. The San Antonio mill was recently returned to
its former owner and all the workers were dismissed.  [CAHI Memo #247,
10/2-8/92 from Barricada]...


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Topic 218       NNY:Brazil Labor News 
hrcoord apc.labour      10:20 am  Oct 12, 1992 

From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord> 
Subject: NNY:Brazil Labor News 

/* Written  9:35 pm  Oct 11, 1992 by nicanetny@igc.apc.org in igc:reg.nicaragua */ 

6. BRAZIL: WORKERS PARTY GAINS AFTER COLLOR IMPEACHMENT 
Despite a high rate of voter abstention, the Workers Party (PT), 
Brazil's main leftist party, made important gains in the Oct. 3 
elections for 4,964 municipalities, forcing runoffs in four of 
the country's major cities. In Rio de Janeiro's mayoral race, 
preliminary returns showed the PT's Benedita da Silva, a black 
woman from a favela (shantytown), with 30% of the votes against 
18% for Cidinha Campos of the populist Democratic Labor Party 
(PDT). PT candidate Eduardo Suplicy won 26% in Sao Paulo, 
Brazil's largest city, with conservative Paulo Maluf from the 
Social Democratic Party (PDS) taking 40%. The PT will also 
compete in runoffs for Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte. 

The PT's new strength comes in part from its consistent 
opposition to Fernando Collor de Mello, the neo-liberal president 
impeached on corruption charges Sept. 29. The PDT lost much of 
its following in Rio because its leader, Rio governor Leonel 
Brizola, gave only tepid support to the impeachment drive, while 
Maluf lost votes in Sao Paulo when the PT plastered the city with 
photographs of the rightist candidate as best man at Collor's 
wedding. "Post-impeachment Brazil has a left to center-left 
face," Folha de Sao Paulo announced on Oct 5, as the city's stock 
market dropped another 5%. The runoffs will be held Nov. 15. [New 
York Times 10/6/92; Folha do Brasil, weekly supplement in El 
Diario-La Prensa (NY), 10/6/92; La Jornada (Mexico) 10/4/92 from 
Reuter, Ansa, AP, Xinhua, EFE, DPA and AFP] 

Meanwhile, the Federal police questioned Collor de Mello's first 
finance minister Zelia Cardoso de Mello for three hours on Oct. 8 
concerning irregularities in the privatization of Sao Paulo's 
state airline during the late 1980s; she has also been accused of 
taking $236,000 from an influence-peddling ring while she was in 
Collor's government. [ED-LP 10/9/92 from AFP] Cardoso de Mello, 
who is Collor's cousin, was the architect of the severe economic 
shock program Brazil went through in early 1990. 
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,alt.politics.elections