Call to Act Now!

End Repression of Social Movements in Honduras

Call and Write the Obama Administration and Congress to demand that until the brutal repression of social movements in Honduras ends, the United States Government:

• Suspend all aid to the Lobo administration

• Stop the U.S. State Department lobbying for recognition of the undemocratic government of Honduras.

• Recognize the Honduran people's demand for a Constituent Assembly to establish a functioning, participatory democracy.

Contacts

Contacts

Click here to contact Senators and Representatives.

To contact the State Department:
Fax: 202-647-8947, Voice: 202 647-8947, or Email:
Maria Otero, Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs; c/o Laura Pena, Assistant: PenaL@state.gov

Dr. Arturo Valenzuela: ValenzuelaAA@state.gov
Ambassador Craig Kelly, Principal Deputy Asst./ Secretary, Western

Office of Hemisphere Affairs:
KellyC@state.gov (Fax: 202-647-0834)

Dan Restrepo, Special Asst. to the President, Western Hemisphere Affairs, drestreop@nsc.eop.gov

Paul Monteiro, Office of Public Engagement, Darron_P._Monteiro@who.eop.gov

To contact White House:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact and White House Comment
Line 202-456-1414.

Sample Letter

Dear ____________,

Non-violent protests by striking teachers and democracy supporters in Honduras have been attacked in recent days by the military and police causing many injuries and detentions. On Aug. 26 and Aug. 27 the Honduran military and police attacked demonstrators gathered at the National Pedagogical University Francisco Morazan in Tegucigalpa firing many rounds of tear gas and live bullets. When those trapped in the university tried to escape the tear gas, they were beaten, including pregnant women and at least two journalists.

Until the brutal repression of social movements in Honduras ends, I demand that the United States Government:

• Suspend all aid to the Lobo administration

• Stop the U.S. State Department lobbying for recognition of the undemocratic government of Honduras.

• Recognize the Honduran people's demand for a Constituent Assembly to establish a functioning, participatory democracy.

Sincerely,
[name and address]

Background Information

A coalition of U.S. organizations today denounced the exercise of violent repression by Honduran military and police forces against members of a striking teacher's union at a university in Tegucigalpa. The Honduras Solidarity Network (HSN) declared that "the recent brutal attacks by government forces against non-violent protests show that there has been no reconciliation after last year's coup d'etat, and the U.S. government's policy of support for the current government must be changed. We call for an immediate end to the repression and human rights violations against the opposition movement".

The group referred to military and police attacks against members of the teacher's union, COPEMH (Colegio de Profesores de Educación Media de Honduras (Association of Secondary Teachers of Honduras)), and their supporters, which took place at The National Pedagogical University Francisco Morazan in Tegucigalpa on August 26 and 27. The union has been on strike since May, and is generally viewed as opposing the regime of Honduran President Porfirio Lobo. The HSN based its action on reports received from the human rights group COFADEH and the General Workers' Central Federation (CGT) labor organization, and corroborated by local news from Radio Globo and eyewitness accounts that report the following:

On Friday, Aug. 27, police and military troops surrounded the National Pedagogical University, responding to thousands of teachers and members of trade unions, peasant organizations and other organizations supportive of the teachers gathered on the university grounds. The police and military forces sprayed tear gas from trucks and beat protesters with truncheons before firing canisters of tear gas into the University grounds. As people were overcome by the gas and tried to leave, they were beaten and many detained. Among the injured were two well-known reporters from Radio Globo, one of the few independent radio stations in the country. Among those seriously affected by the gas were a number of children and pregnant women.

On Thursday, the police and military attacked the same group at a massive protest near the presidential residency in the capital city. Television stations aired video showing soldiers firing their rifles during the repressive action and police beating protesters. Four teachers from the teachers' union were seriously injured and, according to human rights organizations in Honduras, they were denied medical care at the main public hospital in Tegucigalpa. The teachers' union then took the men to a private medical facility.

On Aug. 20, four leaders of the teachers' union were badly injured when police attacked them during a union march. The men were detained at a police station for 12 hours during which time they were denied medical care and human rights observers were refused entry to the jail to verify their condition.

Throughout the month of August the level of conflict and the human rights crisis in Honduras has deepened. Non-violent protesters in Choloma were beaten, and three members of peasant organizations in Aguan were killed. Another journalist, critical of the regime, was murdered bringing to ten the total of journalists murdered since Lobo took over in January.

Vicki Cervantes, a spokesperson for the Honduras Solidarity Network said, "The United States government continues its support for the oligarchy and Lobo in the form of aid and pressure on other governments in the hemisphere to accept the illegitimate Lobo administration."

Meanwhile, on the ground in Honduras the opposition of the majority of Hondurans to the coup and the subsequent regimes, including Lobo's, is growing. For the first time since 1954, Honduran trade union federations have all agreed to prepare for a general strike and nearly a million Honduran eligible voters have signed letters demanding the convocation of a constituent constitutional assembly with the peoples' participation and leadership.

The Honduras Solidarity Network, a nationwide coalition of non-profit, human rights and educational organizations, and the Honduran Front for National Resistance (FRNP) call for:

• an end to police and military repression of the teachers and the protesters at the university;

• resumption of negotiations between the government and the Teacher's Union;

• payment of back wages and an investigation into the violation of the teachers' human rights.

Special Alert in support of Independent Trade Unionists in Mexico!

In what appears to be a breakthrough, the SME has lifted its hunger strike based on the government's commitment to engage in negotiations. The union sat down for the first time on Monday, July 26. On July 27 there was an assembly which resulted in a plan to send a caravan to Cananea in solidarity with the third anniversary of that strike on Friday, July 30.

SME has requested that we make our concern clear to the Mexican government.

In an unprecedented show of solidarity, the UE, CEP, USW, ICEM and IMF all agreed to co-sponsor a LabourStart campaign to encourage the Mexican government to honor its commitment to negotiate and to resolve the conflicts with SME and with the miners at Cananea.

We Are Now Asking You to Do Three Things:

1) Help us generate a flood of letters by joining the LabourStart campaign.

This will take less than a minute -- simply click here!

2) If you belong to an organization, send a letter on behalf of your organization as soon as possible. The letter prepared by the UE appears below, so that you can use or modify the text.

3) Get this information out and circulating! Pass this alert on to your co-workers, family and friends. If you have access to a web site, please post this information.

A Brief History of the Recent Struggles of the SME and Cananea Miners

Following the Mexican presidential election in 2006 of Felipe Calderón, the attack on workers’ rights escalated sharply, especially against independent unions that have taken a strong stand against its attempts to pursue the neo-liberal policies of privatization and labor law "reform."

Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME)

On the night of October 10, President Calderón ordered 6,000 federal police to seize the power plants operated by the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), while simultaneously liquidating the second largest state-owned Light and Power Company (Luz y Fuerza del Centro), and firing the entire workforce of approximately 44,000 employees. Five days earlier, the government refused to accord legal recognition to the democratically elected president of the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union, Martín Esparza, although this should have been a routine matter.

The union responded in a variety of ways – through mobilizations, legal cases on the domestic and international levels, political pressure and a hunger strike. Two recent developments make it appear that a resolution may be possible. First, earlier this month the Mexican Supreme Court ruled on two issues. Although the court upheld the President’s Constitutional right to liquidate the company it also ruled that SME is the legitimate representative of the workers and that it may continue to represent those workers before government courts, labor boards and other agencies. The SME continues to demand that the Federal Electrical Commission (CFE), another state-owned company that absorbed the Light and Power company, be recognized as the successor employer and fulfill the union contract, rehiring the fired workers. The Federal Labor Board (JFCA) returns from its summer vacation next week.

Meanwhile, the union had engaged in a hunger strike which has increasingly gained public attention. Going on 90 days, pressure increased on the government as several workers neared death.

In what appears to be a breakthrough, the SME has lifted its hunger strike based on the government's commitment to engage in negotiations. They met for the first time on Monday. On Tuesday there was an assembly which resulted in a plan to send a caravan to Cananea in solidarity with the third anniversary of that strike.

Los Mineros Strike in Cananea

The Mexican Miners and Metal Workers Union (SNTMMRM) launched the strike in 2007 and occupied the mine to protest the company’s refusal to remedy extreme safety hazards. In February 2010, a Mexican appellate court gave the green light to the Calderón government to terminate 1,200 copper miners and to break a three-year old strike at Grupo Mexico’s Cananea mine in northern Mexico. The court’s decision threatens to effectively eliminate the right to strike in Mexico. It also set the stage for the government’s recent invasion of Cananea, dislodging the striking workers, attacking them in their local union headquarters and closing it down. As if that weren’t enough, they also dislodged families of 65 miners killed several years ago at the Pasta de Conchas mine, where an explosion took their lives and Grupo Mexico and the government have yet to recover the bodies. The families had been camped out by the mine demanding that the federal government and Grupo Mexico return their husbands' bodies for burial.

Sample organizational letter:

Please support SME and the Cananea miners by sending letters. This is the letter sent by the national officers of the United Electrical, radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). Feel free to use it as a model or draft your own!

July 29, 2010
Felipe Calderón Hinojosa
President of Mexico
Los Pinos
Mexico D.F.

Dear President Calderón:

We are writing to you on behalf of the tens of thousands of U.S. workers who are members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). It is with grave concern that we have been following the developments regarding the discharge of some 44,000 members of the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) and of the1,200 copper miners in the three-year old strike at Grupo Mexico’s Cananea mine. Indeed, the escalating attack on workers’ rights is one of the topics that most frequently appear in the news regarding Mexico. We were therefore very pleased to learn that your government has entered into a written commitment to engage in negotiations and that in return the SME has lifted its hunger strike.

We trust that such negotiations will move forward in good faith and stress the critical importance of a resolution that includes the reinstatement of the thousands of fired workers as required under Mexican law pursuant to the doctrine of substitute employer; that recognition (toma de nota) be accorded to the 26 members of the legally elected leadership of SME; and that all arrest warrants that have been issued against workers involved in this dispute be withdrawn.

Similarly, we are aware that the SME has sent a Caravan to Cananea, the site of another egregious violation of workers’ rights. Unions in the United States, Canada, and throughout the globe stand in solidarity with the demand of the Cananea strikers for reinstatement and resolution of that dispute.

Our union and other organizations around the world will be closely monitoring your government’s actions in the coming period, and look forward to learning of the successful resolution of these matters which have severely tarnished the image of your government.

Sincerely,



Bruce J. Klipple John H. Hovis,Jr Robert B. Kingsley
General secretary Treasurer General President Director of Organization

cc: SECRETARIA DE GOBERNACIÓN Lic. Francisco Blake Mora
SECRETARIA DEL TRABAJO Y PREVENCIÓN SOCIAL Lic. Javier Lozano Alarcon
Martín Esparza, Secretario General, Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME)
Carlos Esquer, Comite Nacional desde de la Sección 65, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros,Metalúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana
Benedicto Martínez, Coodinación Nacional, Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT), Vicepresidente, Union Nacional de Trabajadores (UNT)

Please email your letters to:

felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx, contacto@segob.gob.mx, pp_mdo@yahoo.com.mx, FAT@laneta.apc.org

President Obama: Open Travel to Cuba!

The Obama Administration has unnecessarily prolonged most of George Bush’s punitive restrictions on travel to Cuba imposed in 2004.

Bush justified his action as a response to Cuba’s 2003 Black Spring arrests. Cuba’s release of the 54 still imprisoned from that time creates a reasonable expectation for the US to undo related travel restrictions.

In any case, it is inexcusable that the White House gives higher priority to appeasing a small group of self-interested politicians and campaign donors in Florida and New Jersey than to implementing its own pro-dialogue values and the pro-travel views of two thirds of Americans.

Only Congress can enable complete freedom to travel and normal tourism. But the President has the power to set an example. With the stroke of a pen Barack Obama can open the window for tens of thousands of Americans who seriously want to build contact and mutual understanding through people-to-people exchanges.

Logically his next step should be to open the door by providing support for legislation to end all travel restrictions in conformity with his campaign pledge.


It is extremely important to quickly generate signatures and the resulting immediate direct messages to the White House on non-tourist travel. We must counteract another hostile intervention by Sen. Menendez.

Please sign today and spread the word!

News stories on travel to Cuba

The news stories below suggest that we are getting closer to a White House announcement on people to people travel.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/05/AR2010080506768.html?nav=emailpage

"look for Obama administration action, after Congress leaves town, to loosen travel restrictions."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-06/obama-said-to-consider-easing-embargo-on-u-s-educational-travel-to-cuba.html

Obama Said to Consider Easing Educational Travel to Cuba
By Jens Erik Gould and Nicole Gaouette - Aug 6, 2010
Bloomberg

President Barack Obama may ease travel restrictions on Cuba, allowing more Americans to visit the island on educational and cultural trips, said a U.S. official who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak on the subject.

Obama first loosened travel rules on Cuba last year, making it easier for Cuban-Americans to visit and send money to relatives on the Caribbean island in a bid to help "promote the freer flow of information," according to a White House statement. The official didn’t give additional details on what the changes would be.

Current rules allow Americans to travel to Cuba on educational and cultural trips if they are students or employees at qualifying universities and meet a set of additional requirements, such as doing research toward a graduate degree. All Cuba travel must be approved by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Asked if the administration is considering easing the travel rules, Michael Hammer, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in an e-mail: "We will continue to pursue policies that advance the U.S. national interest and support the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their country’s future."

A move to allow increased educational travel may encourage lawmakers to repeal a wider ban forbidding American travel to Cuba if Obama signals his support for the measure, said Ted Piccone, a Latin American specialist at the Brookings Institute, a policy research organization in Washington. Co-sponsors of bills in both houses of Congress to end the 47-year ban say legislation may pass this year.

White House Support

"The Democrats need cover from the White House," said Piccone. "If they can’t do it now they’re never going to do it."

If Obama remains silent on whether he would welcome such legislation, lawmakers may not be willing to take the political risk to pass a bill repealing the travel ban, Piccone said.

Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said in a March 25 interview that 1 million U.S. tourists may visit the island annually if the ban on travel is ended.

Travel and trade restrictions on Cuba have been adjusted by nearly every U.S. administration since then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower established trade limits in 1960, following Fidel Castro’s revolution against the U.S.-backed Batista regime. Former President George W. Bush banned some educational exchanges not directly related to academic coursework in 2003, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.

Fidel Castro, 83, handed formal power to his brother Raul, 79, in 2008.

Pending Legislation

Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said in July that a bill he is co-sponsoring with Wyoming Republican Mike Enzi to repeal the travel ban may move to the Senate floor by next month. The House Agriculture Committee approved a bill in June that would end the travel ban and simplify rules governing cash transactions with Cuba.

The U.S. exported $532 million worth of goods to Cuba last year, most of it wheat, corn, meat and other farm goods. That total could be higher if rules governing cash payments were made simpler, U.S. farm groups say.

Groups such as the United States Tour Operators Association and the National Foreign Trade Council, a Washington-based organization of companies and trade associations, have called for a repeal of the ban, which is designed to isolate the Castro regime and keep hard currency out of the country.

Dorgan and Enzi’s bill on the travel ban is S. 428.

Support, Sustain and Join the International Committee!

SUPPORT THE NLG INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE - DONATE ONLINE TODAY!

From delegations around the world, to active involvement in support of popular movements around the world, the National Lawyers Guild's International Committee has played a visible, proactive and critical role in producing information, providing legal support, and educating lawyers, law students and the public about peoples' struggles for justice.

The NLG International Committee (IC) supports legal work around the world "to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests." As lawyers, law students, and legal activists, we seek to change U.S. foreign policy that threatens, rather than engages, or is based on a model of domination rather than respect. The Guild provides assistance and solidarity to movements in the United States and abroad that work for social justice in this increasingly interconnected world.

Throughout the last year, the NLG International Committee has continued its mandate to work with progressive legal organizations abroad, and both to change US foreign policy and to bring international law and international recognized human rights home to the US.

The strength and backbone of our Committee resides in the subcommittees. The Haiti Subcommittee has been instrumental in establishing the Lawyers Emergency Response Network providing legal help to the Haitian people. The Philippines subcommittee sent a delegation of election observers for the national elections in May, and will be issuing a report this month. The Free Palestine Subcommittee has been busy advising grassroots efforts in the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement as well as providing educational and legal support for the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. We held the annual International Committee retreat in Puerto Rico this year, resulting in the formation of the Puerto Rico subcommittee in response to the many issues that continue to face one of our country's last remaining colonies. The International Committee also supported the international delegation to Turkey interviewing Iranian refugees fleeing the post-election crackdown in Iran. This month, Jan Susler presented a report to the UN Decolonization Committee on Puerto Rican colonialism for the IC, and in April, International Committee members drafted reports for the UN Human Rights Council's upcoming Universal Periodic Review of the US on three topics: US Foreign Policy, US Failure to Ratify and Implement Human Rights Treaties, and US Violation of the Right to Organize.

This is only a sampling of the work being done within the International Committee, just in the past few months. Last year, we sent delegations to Gaza shortly after the assault, El Salvador for the groundbreaking FMLN election, and two delegations to Honduras in the months following the coup. We participated in the IADL's US tour of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange after attending the IADL Congress in Hanoi last June. For our reports on our delegations and a further sampling of our work, see our website: www.nlginternational.org/.

In order to continue this important work, your donations, dues and support are needed. Guild members can become members of the International Committee with a $25 dues payment. Please submit your dues and renewals to our treasurer, Ollie Jefferson, by check or through PayPal at the International Committee's website. If you are able to make more than the $25 minimum dues payment, you are welcome to earmark your donation for a specific purpose.

We also welcome contributions from non-members of the Guild and other supporters of the International Committee's work! Donate online today or use the information below to send a check to keep these delegations, reports and other valuable work a reality.

Please make checks payable to the NLG International Committee with "Dues" or "Donation" in the memo section, and mail them to: Ollie Jefferson, 212 S. Mesquite Street, Suite #2-F, Arlington, TX 76010. If you'd like to make a tax deductible donation make your check out to the NLG Foundation and write "International Committee" on the memo line and send your check to the National Office.:

132 Nassau Street, Rm. 922
New York, NY 10038

We are in the process of organizing a library of online lectures and workshops to serve as a resource for attorneys, students, and legal workers interested in a variety of subjects related to international work. We will be looking for attorneys and law students or legal workers to host brown bag lunch programs at law schools and local venues as organizing and outreach events. Please keep an eye out for this, and be thinking about what you can offer to further this program.

Here's what we can do with your dues and donations:

o Fund a part-time Organizer and Web Designer
o Assist in bringing international speakers to the Convention
o Host the annual International Committee Reception at the Convention
o Assist students to attend international delegations
o Continue as an organizational member of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers

Also please note: the 2010 NLG Law for the People Convention will be in New Orleans this year from September 22nd to 26th. Our annual International Committee meeting will be on Thursday and subcommittee meetings will occur throughout the convention period (we will have a schedule on our website when it is finalized). As always there will be a plethora of useful and inspiring workshops and programs, many organized and led by IC members and subcommittees. For the basic convention brochure see: nlg.org/convention/.

Thank you again for your time and your work.


In Solidarity,

Jeanne Mirer,

Susan Scott

Azadeh Shahshahani

NLG International Committee Co-Chairs