Costa Rican union triumphs over dirty tricks to snatch election victory

[Judi Lynn]

Costa Rican union triumphs over dirty tricks to snatch election victory
25 January 2011

The leadership of Costa Rica’s SINTRAJAP dockers’ union has gained a large mandate to represent workers at the country’s major ports, Puerto Limón and Puerto Moin – despite apparent attempts to replace and break it. Sixty-five percent of those voting in an election last week backed Ronaldo Blear as SINTRAJAP general secretary, a year after he and the ITF-affiliated union’s executive board were illegally removed in a move seen as an attempt to oust opponents to privatisation of the ports.

Douglas Brenes, who was supported by ex-President Arias and who helped lead the attempts to take over SINTRAJAP, was defeated in the election, which was held after the National Court ruled that the unlawfully removed leadership should be reinstated. Election observers included the nation’s ombudsman, public institutions, the country’s media, the ITF and trade unions.

Ronaldo Blear commented: “There cannot be the slightest doubt about the highly democratic and representative election. Nobody can deny that this was the will of the workers, in spite of the propaganda campaign orchestrated by the government against the union. We call on President Laura Chinchilla to carry out her commitment to respect the results and discuss seriously the future of the docks and their modernisation, to benefit the people of Limón and our country."

The ITF and its affiliates launched a solidarity campaign to defend SINTRAJAP following the attempted overthrow of its elected leadership, which included a police-backed attempt to take over its headquarters that was blocked by the workers.

More:
http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/5577?frmSessionLanguage=ENG

[Peace Patriot]

1. K&R! Someone unrec'd this. Net rec = 0. They don't want readers to know about this?

They want people NOT to know that real labor leaders (anti-privatisation) won this election? They want people like me--who used to have illusions Oscar Arias--NOT to find out what a shit he actually is? WHY would anyone go to all the trouble to open this thread about a labor victory in Costa Rica and unrecommend it?

This labor victory is Costa Rica is very good news for any real Democrat in the U.S. and democrats everywhere. Not only did one of the Arias-Chinchilla government's dirty rotten Global Ruler schemes get defeated, but it establishes that Costa Rica workers have the ability to mobilize and get out the vote and win a critically important election--a good omen for the eventual ousting of the corrupt Arias-Chinchilla regime and restoration of Costa Rica's sovereignty, peaceful stance in the world and commitment to social justice.

To name just a few of the horrible Arias-Chinchilla policies:

Strong-arming, lies, dirty tricks and propaganda, and possibly compromising of Costa Rica's election integrity, by Arias, to force the Bush Junta's CAFTA ("free trade for the rich") on Costa Rica. This was, above all, a union-busting campaign by Arias. Multinational corporations can't have the example of Costa Rica's decent wages, benefits and other favorable labor conditions prompting other workers in the region to resist becoming slave labor. The unions had to be busted. Arias is their man.

Inviting the Pentagon to play war games in Costa Rica--which has traditionally been a demilitarized country. Who are they playing war games against? Drug lords? Ha-ha-ha. Forty years and trillions and trillions of our tax dollars and other peoples' tax dollars into the U.S. "war on drugs" and the drug trade couldn't be bigger. That ain't it. What is it, I wonder?

Arias was a real dirty player in the U.S. destruction of Honduras' democracy. He was the one who put his filthy "Nobel Prize" cover over the legitimization of the rightwing military coup, to bludgeon yet another country to remain in the U.S. multinational corporate/war profiteer dominion.

-------------------

About a decade ago, I bought the corpo-fascist 'news' monopoly crapola about Oscar Arias. I remember reading one of their crap 'news' articles about how Arias would walk across the street from the presidential residence to have a cup of coffee with ordinary folks. I thought how wonderful. That is what democracy should look like. That is what our Founders envisioned. What's wrong with our country that that is impossible here? Why do so many people want to kill the president of the U.S.? Why is he now encased in impenetrable security, completely insulated from the people who supposedly elected him? Why is the U.S. president, in truth, a monarch, an emperor?

So I got a good IMPRESSION of Oscar Arias and Costa Rica's democracy. That is how the corpo-fascist press works--through IMPRESSIONS--not facts, context, history, analysis--IMPRESSIONS. Little did I know that the plan was to destroy Costa Rica's democracy and turn it into yet another dangerous, militarized, fascist-run client state of the Empire, like Colombia, Honduras, Panama and some others--and, alas, with Mexico being "turned" as we speak.

I've since learned about the TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan villagers who were slaughtered in Guatemala during Reagan's reign of terror in Latin America, and about Arias' role in the 'truth and reconciliation" process that covered this up and provided immunity for the perps--how Arias won his "Nobel Prize." That was all about immunizing Reagan.

Arias may have been a honest leader at one time but he got bought and paid for by the multinational corporations and war profiteers who are running things here and are attempting to dominate the world by hijacking our military, among other things. All this taught me a lesson about the corpo-fascist press--not only to resist their IMPRESSIONS and to research things for myself, where possible, but to understand that the impression they are trying to give us is a LIE, and that the opposite--or sometimes near opposite--is the truth.

Beware, beware, beware of corporate media IMPRESSIONS--whether they want you to favor a particular leader or country, or whether they are demonizing a particular leader or country. And that also goes for leaders and political ideas and movements HERE.

The corporate press is a monolith--despite the IMPRESSION that it is divided into rival parts--and it is up to no good. They all have the same viewpoint and promulgate the same "talking points." Most of what they promulgate is crap--lies, propaganda--and how they promulgate it is with IMPRESSIONS that snuggle into the most comfortable parts of your mind and undermine your ability to THINK--to require facts, to exercise reason, to analyze.

And I most certainly suspect that operatives of this corporate 'news' monolith are crawling this board unrec'ing news items like this, about a labor victory, and also posting, rec'ing and promoting corporate 'news' articles, not to analyze and criticize, but to dumb down the discussion.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Its about time

unrec'ing ceased to be anonymous.

[naaman fletcher]

3. great post about Arias

I always sort of assumed he was a fraud but could never quite put my finger on it. The having coffee with the people bit is a common scam played by corrupt politicians.

[roody]

4. I thought unreccing was going to be ended.