LIMA PROTEST: July 2009

On July 8th the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), in conjunction with the National Front for Life and Sovereignty (Frente Nacional por la Vida y la Soberania) of which it is a part, called for a Day of Struggle, with a rally in downtown Lima and marches and rallies in other cities. This came in conjunction with a 72-hr ground transport strike which curtailed movement to a significant degree in Lima and other cities, and totally paralyzed Ayacucho on the 7th, and with 72-hr Andean and Amazonian strike.

Of course, most people were still compelled to go to work, and the government was quick to seize on that to call the mobilization a "failure" although being forced by the obvious to admit that transport was severely curtailed, despite it's own attempts to split the transport unions and its mobilization of state-owned buses and trains to move people.

The Demands:

- Return to Peru of Alberto Pizango
- End to criminilization of social protest and to persecution of popular, social, and political leaders
- End to Legislative Decrees 982, 983, 988, and 989.
- Reinstatement of 7 suspended Nationalist Party congressmembers
- Force of law for International Labor Organization Convention 169 and for the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples
- Immediate resignation of the Cabinet
- End to the neoliberal and primary resource export-oriented economic policy
- End to the Public Education Career Law
- Solution to the demands of the transport unions
- Price controls on public services. Reduction in electrical fees.
- Increase in budget for social services, health, and education

On the Stage

Third from L (in blue jacket): Mario Huaman, head of the CGTP.
Second from R (in pink shirt): Javier Diez Canseco, of the Socialist Party (est. 2006),
formerly of the PartidoUnificado Mariateguista (PUM)

At left, in hat: Miguel Palacín, General Coordinator of the Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations (Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indigenas, CAOI); Third from left, front row: Mario Palacios Panez, President of the National Confederation of Peruvian Communities Affected by Mining (Confederacion Nacional de Comunidades del Peru Afectadas por la Minería, CONACAMI); At the mike: Antolín Huascar, Chair of the Confederacion Nacional Agraria, CNA.

In the crowd

National Confederation of Micro- and Small Business Guilds

"Alfa & Omega" Association of Revolutionary Christians

National teachers' union (SUTEP)

This group, the Movimiento Cumbre de los Pueblos, tried to split the demo. They parked their truck near the stage and kept up a constant stream of chatter over loudspeakers and calls for "mobilization" down Ave. Nicolas de Pierola, toward the Palace and Congress, arguing that "struggle is from the streets, not from balconies!" Eventually they got a minority of the crowd to follow them down the street, I'm sure much to the relief of many in the plaza who were clearly annoyed by them.

Socialist Workers Party

This trio of middle-aged guys amused me. They're holding banners of the Communist Party "Unidad"'s youth league, the Juventud Comunista del Peru.

Supporter of PCP-Patra Roja, a "Pekinese" splinter of the Communist Party, long influential in the teacher's union (SUTEP) and today the largest, most influential communist organization in Peru.