[Marxism] organising the unorganised in a financial crisis [Chile]--- LA Herald Tribune [26-4-09]

["michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@xxxxxx>]

Chileans Climb Down from Construction Crane

SANTIAGO -- The six Chilean homeowners who spent more than 20 hours 
perched on a construction crane in downtown Santiago to demand that 
their mortgage debt be written off finally agreed to climb down, police 
said, while the deputy interior minister announced criminal charges 
against the protest's leader.

The protest began at 10 p.m. Wednesday, when members of the Andha group 
representing low-income mortgage-holders staged a demonstration in front 
of the Housing Ministry in the capital.

Police briefly detained 42 people at the scene, but five women managed 
to flee to a nearby street and climb 25 meters (81 feet) to the top of 
the crane, located at a construction site just two blocks from the 
presidential palace.

About 2 a.m. Thursday, a man who scaled the crane to bring food to the 
protesters decided to remain there with the women.

The activists were finally persuaded to come down by the leader of 
Andha, Juana Silva.

"More than three years ago, the president (Michelle Bachelet) made a 
commitment to us, and she has not kept her word. It's the obstinacy of 
the government, which doesn't want to understand that there are families 
that really need help," the spokesperson for the protester, Roxana 
Miranda, told reporters from atop the crane.

"We've always said that this struggle is to the death and if it's 
necessary to do more extreme things, we're going to do them," she added.

Her remarks brought an angry response from Chile's deputy interior 
minister, who interpreted the comments as a threat to harm Bachelet.

"It seems quite absurd to us and very low that groups of this kind are 
threatening the president -- that's something we won't accept," Patricio 
Rosende said, adding that the government decided to file charges contra 
Roxana Miranda for public disorder and threats.

He said it was "unacceptable" to the government that people push "their 
demands by means of threats to others, specifically in this case against 
the president of the republic."

The Bachelet administration is proposing to write off 50 percent of the 
homeowners' debts and renegotiate the balance over a longer term so that 
the monthly payments will be lower, but the debtors are asking for their 
entire mortgage balances to be written off.

The roughly 80,000 families represented by Andha bought homes at prices 
subsidized by the state, but with mortgages from private banks that they 
can no longer afford.

Officials have promised to provide a solution for the Andha debtors, who 
have protested in front of Bachelet's home and heckled her at public 
events. EFE

-- 
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Director, Programme in 'Transformative Practice and Human Development'
Centro Internacional Miranda, P.H.
Residencias Anauco Suites, Parque Central, final Av. Bolivar
Caracas, Venezuela
fax: 0212 5768274/0212 5777231
www.centrointernacionalmiranda.gob.ve
mlebowit@xxxxxx


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