Bolivia | General Strike | Web Reports

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 FI-press-l                                    Fourth International
Press-List
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 Date: 03/05/01
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 Please Distribute Widely

 BREAKING NEWS...

 Dear Colleagues,

 The Bolivian Central Union (COB) has just decided to begin a NationalGeneral
 Strike tomorrow, Tuesday, May 1st, and to continue the workstoppage in all
 industries indefinitely until the Banzer regime meets the15 demands of coca-
 growers and other sectors including urban workers,farmers and retirees.

 The National Strike comes on the Seventh Day of a blockade in which coca
 growers - protesting U.S.-imposed drug policies - have stopped traffic
 on the nation's major highway. And it comes on the heels of
 dictator-turned-president Hugo Banzer's recent trip to Washington where
 he  met with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and other officials.

 If the Banzer regime does not meet the 15 demands by tomorrow morning,
 this  will be the first-ever national labor strike against the drug laws
 in the  history of the world. It will have profound consequences for the
 drug war not only in Bolivia, but Peru and other Latin American nations,
 and particularly for Plan Colombia.

 Mayday mobilizations are also planned for tomorrow in Bogota, Colombia
 and  throughout Mexico (by the Indigenous National Congress). Full
 reports coming  tomorrow with Issue #11 of Narco News.

 Narco News has just translated the French Press Agency report on the
 General Strike plans in Bolivia to English, once again breaking the
 information blockade....

 http://www.narconews.com/generalstrike.html

 We will be following the events closely and covering them so that the
 efforts of the Bolivian people will not be buried any more in a wall of
 silence and censorship.

 Developing...

 Al Giordano
 Publisher
 The Narco News Bulletin
 http://www.narconews.com/
 narconews@hotmail.com

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