2 parts, ecuadoran teachers

[bon moun <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

These two stories appeared two days apart.  The detention of Aracely Moreno
and her fellow union leaders occured first, and the hunger strike to
protest it is the story that follows.  That story was posted today.  We
might watch Ecuador very closely.  The crises there have already brought
down one leader, and the government there is living on borrowed time.  Ms.
Moreno and her colleagues need our support.  That means the authorities
need a clear message that they are being watched.

Thanks all.

Stan


NATIONAL PRESIDENT OF UNE [National Teachers Union of Ecuador] HAS BEEN
IMPRISONED

Today, Wednesday, June 21, 2000, the teachers of Ecuador, who totally
stopped their activities for six weeks, held a large national march for
several hours in the center of the city of Quito and, at about 8 o'clock at
night, their national president, Professor Aracely Moreno Silva was
arrested in an operation in which dozens of heavily-armed police took part,
belonging to the elite groups of the Public Order, such as the Special
Operations Group (GOE). The GOE invaded the offices of the National
Teachers Union (UNE). The operation, supported by several vehicles, was
carried out with extreme violence, damaging cars near the offices, damaging
the installation, throwing tear gas inside and attacking teachers who had
concluded the National Council of UNE.



The strike of the Ecuadorian teachers is being carried out on a platform
that includes two points:



-         raising the basic teaching salary to levels existing at the
beginning of 1999, with a basic salary of $100 US (the present average
monthly income of a teacher is $53 US, while the poverty level for a family
is $120 US)



-         the suspension of the approval of the new education law, which in
a concealed manner privatizes education and directly eliminates the
stability of teachers and other trade union rights. The UNE earlier
presented a Law drawn up with massive participation of teachers, parents
and students throughout the country, which calls for a democratization of
the educational system and mechanisms to force the government to comply
with the constitutional mandate to spend 30% of the budget on education
(the present government this year spent about 7%).



-         The arrest of Aracely Moreno violates various constitutional
guarantees and besides ignores Prof. Morenos parliamentary immunity as an
alternate representative to the National Congress. Moreover, her
imprisonment is in addition to other similarly unconstitutional arrests of
other leaders of UNE such as Ernesto Castillo (President of UNE in Guayas),
Carlos Medina (a former national president) and several others.



-         Moreover, the repressive action of the regime is being carried
out in opposition to its statements of willingness to engage in dialogue.
President Noboa has added to this contradiction with insults and threats to
the teachers; with a big campaign managed by the media belonging to the big
economic groups in which they are telling lies about schools in which they
claim that the teachers have returned to work and many other lies. The
President in person and in a press conference lied in saying that Aracely
Moreno was a candidate in the last elections, they artificially inflated
their wage offer and they are concealing the true intentions of the
privatization Law.



-         The repression will not succeed in frightening the Ecuadorian
teachers who are completely united and tomorrow will begin hunger strikes
in all the provincial capitals of the country.



-         The imprisonment of Aracely Moreno should be opposed by all who
believe in justice within democratic norms, by all who know that education
is not a business but a human right and by all who reject authoritarian
actions of dictatorships. We therefore request that you send on this
mailing to everyone you know and to send e-mails opposing this detention,
demanding the immediate, unconditional freedom for the detained leaders of
UNE, to the following addresses:

 -         Dr. Gustavo Noboa, President of Ecuador. E-mail:
(vpre@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx).

 -         National Teachers Union. E-mail:  (une@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx).

 -         We thank you greatly and we promise to achieve victory for the
good of the education of the children and adolescents of Ecuador.
Privatization and neo-liberal repression will not pass.

NATIONAL TEACHERS UNION OF ECUADOR  UNE



Hunger Strikes Throughout Ecuador

The Ecuadorian teachers have begun hunger strikes in all the provinces of
the country to achieve the fulfillment of their platform of struggle and
for the freedom of their 12 detained leaders, among them Aracely Moreno,
their national president. In total, more than 300 teachers, parents and
students are on hunger strikes throughout the country and the number is
growing with new people joining in. In Quito, the teachers took over the
Provincial Council to carry out the strike, which includes more than 40
people in that city.

President Noboa has said that "while they are on strike that woman (Aracely
Moreno) will not be set free", which is an acceptance of the fact that her
arrest is political and has no legal basis, nor does it correspond to the
decisions of the Court. Even the Judge of the Third Court states that "he
received orders" without making clear from where and he admits that not he
cannot charge Aracely for libel since she has parliamentary immunity. The
supposed libels are accusations by Aracely Moreno referring to the fact
that approval of the so-called Tole Law will directly benefit brothers of
the President of the Republic.

 International solidarity is necessary to defend the life of the teachers
on hunger strike.

 NATIONAL TEACHERS UNION -UNE


"If insurrection is an art, its main content is to know how to give the
struggle the form appropriate to the political situation."

			-Vo Nguyen Giap



"Rather than seeking comparabilities in statistical terms among what are
all too often superficial features of different situations, comparabilities
must be sought at the level of determinate mechanisms, at the level of
processes that are generally hidden from easy view."

			-Eleanor Burke Leacock



"Every day one has to struggle that this love to a living humanity
transform itself into concrete acts, in acts that serve as examples, as
motivation."

			-Ernesto "Che" Guevara