[olympiaworkers] 1st of May in Cascadia

Info from Cascadia in Anarchy!

Cascadia goes down in anarchy for May 1st...

Tacoma May Day
march/festival

Starting 3:00pm at Lincoln Park 37th & Thompson (near Lincoln
High School on east side)

Marching toward downtown Tacoma

Arriving at Tollefson Plaza

This will sound very Tacoma-centric since this is written from Tacoma. One
thing that people were saying after the recent black bloc actions in
Olympia in April was that there needs to be more communication to prevent
misunderstandings and unanticipated outcomes. if you want to participate
in a black bloc at Tacoma, the aim is to be a "social black bloc" from
those of us in Tacoma. The march is for us to get to know other people, to
share ideas, knowledge, etc. to exist in the open space. The entire event
is organized by anarchists, and is open for people from all the
neighborhoods (and other cities too of course) for participation. Come &
kick it with us.

If you have a distro to represent, there is space at Tollefson Plaza for
lots of that. But you'll have to bring your own table, etc. You could
also bring...

- banners that make the cops, media, and doucheoisie shit their pants

- an extra car battery for our sound system, OR bring another boom box

- drums & buckets, musical materials

- black flags REPRESENT

- fliers, Spanish ones too

- rage

- passion

Here is info about the other Cascadia May 1st festivals

The Seattle May Day

march & festival is organized by El Comite Pro-Reforma Migratoria Y
Justicia Social

Starting 12:00pm at Judkins Park

Marching down toward downtown Seattle (int'l district)

Arriving at Occidental Park (apprx 2:00pm) for rally

This march is usually pretty big and is organized as a "regional event".
Their message is "Stop the repression of immigrant community, we march for
an immigration reform with justice: Education, Healthcare and Jobs with
Dignity"

link:
http://seattlecispes.org/lang/en-us/archives/1075

Portland May Day

Portland May Day is kind of a hodge podge of different groups
doing lots of different shit. But this is the most interesting
invitation came across was:

R2S (Right 2 Survive) cordially invites you to our first *FESTIVAL OF
RESISTANCE* as we celebrate and prepare to take back our rights as a
community. We stand firm in our example to city council of how improvement
to our circumstances is possible without their greenbacks or
permissions.We celebrate skill shares that accommodate alternative
lifestyles and choices. We celebrate the right to sleep undisturbed, to
survive without legal
impediments, and we celebrate our right to not be criminalized for being
who we are: Unhoused, unfettered, and free.

When: May Day!
Saturday May 1st, 2010

Gathering at 5PM

Where: SE 12th and Stark
(Park in front of Washington High School)

What: Food, music, skill shares, conversation, fun 'n games. With
workshops by Rose City Cop Watch, Reclaim!, and Rosehip Medic Collective

Vancouver May Day

After Party (could not find info on a march)

Workers Control not Border Controls

Saturday May 1 @ 7:30 pm.
Free! Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway.
Performances and speakers, followed by DJs.

Join us this May Day, as we join with workers around the world in
celebrating the militant tradition of May 1 as a day to oppose the
exploitation of workers. Hard-won wages, benefits, and social services
continue to be eroded as Canada joins other imperialist countries in
forcing increased labour flexibility in the name of 'free trade' and the
capitalist neoliberal agenda. We are also continuing the courageous
struggle of immigrant and migrant workers across North America against
increasingly repressive and racist immigration controls, as we join
together to assert our dignity and affirm international solidarity.
Dedicated to the memory and revolutionary legacy of Hari P. Sharma.
Supported by Justicia for Migrant Workers, No One Is Illegal Vancouver,
Organizing Centre for Social and Economic Justice, Rhizome Cafe.

http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=1841

[olympiaworkers] Oakland Teachers Set to Strike April 29th After Board Imposes Contract

Indybay.org Apr 26th, 2010

Oakland teachers have worked over two years without a contract. In
order to push negotiations along, a three-person panel was convened to
resolve financial and other disputes between the Oakland Unified
School District and the Oakland Education Association. The panel
reviewed the budget and related issues and made recommendations that
included a 2% pay increase for teachers. The District Board and
Superintendent, however, chose to completely ignore the 28-page report
and scheduled an emergency hearing to vote on imposing their "last,
best, final offer" onto Oakland teachers which includes no pay raise,
claiming the district could not afford any increases. Teachers and
their allies packed the Board meeting on April 21st to object to any
imposition of a labor contract without the Oakland Educator
Association's consent. [Full audio below.]

Over 45 teachers and their allies in the community took turns voicing
concerns and expressing dissent about imposition of a contract. One lone
speaker praised the growing number of anti-union charter schools in
Oakland. After everyone who had filled out a speaker card had their time
at the microphone, members of the Oakland Unified School District Board
took turns justifying the vote they would soon take to impose a contract,
several of whom strangely spoke of future unity and collaboration with
Oakland's teachers, which their bad faith vote would do absolutely nothing
to help foster. In what appeared to be a pre-determined show of strength
by the Board, the vote was unanimous to impose a contract that denies
raises, increases class sizes, and lays off teachers. Those who had filled
the room to defend Oakland teachers then stormed out of the building and
immediately began to organize for the city-wide strike coming this
Thursday.

Oakland teachers are asking all citizens of Oakland to stand with them in
solidarity on April 29th -- and beyond as the struggle for a fair labor
contract will undoubtedly continue.

http://oaklandteachers.wordpress.com

http://indybay.org/education

[olympiaworkers] Political Artists From Vancouver at Northern

Hi Olympia Workers,

Just wanted to let you know about an art exhibit opening this Saturday, May 1 in Olympia. It features a large 3 panel painting by me that is a tribute to the Industrial Workers of the World. The painting is called The Lynching of Wesley Everest. Hope you can make the opening. Cheers, David Lester

David Lester and Jean Smith of the rock duo Mecca Normal co-curate a month-long, group art exhibit at Northern: The Olympia All Ages Project

The Black Dot Museum: Political Artists From Vancouver -- art by David Lester, Jean Smith, Brian Roche and Gord Hill.

Exhibition:
Saturday, May 1 - Friday, May 28, 2010
Northern: The Olympia All Ages Project
321 4th Ave, Olympia, WA

May 1, 2010 -- Free opening Night Performance by Mecca Normal at 7 pm. Free. Opening reception: 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Gallery Hours: most Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. or by appointment gallery@NorthernOlympia.org

The Black Dot Museum of Political Art functions online with touring exhibits focused on political art and music.

The Black Dot Museum of Political Art on FaceBook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Black-Dot-Museum/10150141919340195

EVENT on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Black-Dot -Museum/10150141919340195?v=app_2344061033&ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=104921492874972&index=1

Northern Gallery
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Olympia-All-Ages-Project/119818901101

Mecca Normal on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mecca-Normal/49770142508< /FONT>

Mecca Normal on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/meccanormal

[olympiaworkers] Taiwanese workers protest dismissals

Libcom.org Apr 25 2010

Workers at Young Fast Optoelectronics (YFO) in Taiwan have urgently
requested solidarity actions for their struggle to defend their union and
basic labor rights against the company's union-busting actions and the
Taiwanese government's negligence of the law.

YFO is a Taiwan-based producer of touch-sensor used on high-end mobile
phones such as iPhone. It is a major supplier to brand names such as
Samsung, LG, HTC, Qualcomm and so on. Google is to become the major buyer
of YFO products through subcontracting the manufacturing of Google Phone
to HTC and Qualcomm. YFO has three plants in Guangdong, China, one in
Hanoi, Vietnam, and one in Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, and a combined workforce of
more than 10 thousand.

Working conditions for the 1,300 workers at YFO Taoyuan Plant is worse
than most people expected. Aside from low wages, high work intensity,
forced overtime without pay, and poor health and safety conditions that is
becoming rampant in the so-called high-tech industries today, YFO also
hired 200 migrant workers and 400 high school "interns" (some of them are
below the age of 16, which is the legal criteria of child labor in Taiwan)
and pay them less than the legal minimum wage. And this happened despite
the fact that YFO has posted a record-high profit last year.

Workers duly organized a trade union, Young Fast Optoelectronics Trade
Union, or YFOTU, in December 2009 to address their problems. The
management promptly dismissed five union officers and more than ten active
union members in March 2010, under the pretense that their production line
will be moved to China. Trade unionists in Taiwan believe that this is a
deliberate union-busting action and gross violation of the Labor Union
Law.

Workers in the YFOTU and National Federation of Independent Trade Unions
(NAFITU), which YFOTU is affiliated with, have waged a campaign since the
illegal dismissal. Aside from the negligence of government in enforcing
labor laws in Taiwan, YFOTU and NAFITU especially stress the negligence of
the brand name companies in enforcing their Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) standards. HTC, the fast expanding Taiwan brand name,
is especially under fierce protest.

HTC itself, on the other hand, has commercial cooperation with many
well-known telecom corporations which sell its mobile phones: Vodafone,
Verizon, Chunghwa Telecom, and Taiwan Mobile are just among the top of
them.

The demands of YFOTU and NAFITU are:
1. Reinstate the illegally-dismissed union officers and members;
2. Resolve labor dispute through dialogue with YFOTU and NAFITU;
3. The government shall form a joint-committee from different ministries
and take thorough investigation about the working conditions and labor
rights abuses, and prevent repetition of labor rights abuse in YFO.

What you can do to help:
1. Sign our petition and send back to us.
2. Sign the on-line campaign on LabourStart
3. Write to the management of Samsung, LG, HTC, Google, Qualcomm,
Vodafone, Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Mobile to pressure, telling them to
set up code of conducts for their suppliers (if they don't have it at all)
according to the International Core Labor Standards advocated by ILO, and
to monitor and demand YFO to reinstate the union officers and members, to
obey the suppliers' code of conducts (if they have it) and the local laws;
4. Write to the Taiwan government to protest and demand a thorough
investigation on YFO and enforce the law[1];
5. Distribute this mail to your affiliates, members and friends, encourage
them to write to pressure;
6. Cooperate with us in our future actions that might need your solidarity
and assistance;
7. Any other ways that could help us for this campaign.

For more information on how to support these workers, see the China Worker
website.

[olympiaworkers] Wildcat strike in Diyarbakır ends with victory

Libcom.org Apr 22 2010

Wildcat strike of brick workers in Turkey wins pay increase.

Brick workers in several factories in Diyarbak&#305;r (the biggest city in
the southeast Kurdish region of Turkey) went on a wildcat strike in a
dispute over wages.

Working for a fixed wage for 4 years (around 350 euros and 16 hours of
work in a day) without any pay rise, workers of the 11 brick factories in
the city went on an unofficial strike on 16 April. It seems that the
strike expanded "spontaeously".
Negotiations between workers' delegates and bosses under the supervision
of jandarme general ended when the bosses proposed a 7.5% wage increase.
The workers threatened to march towards the governorship 19 April if their
demands were not met. Apparently after getting a 28% increase workers went
back to work on April 21.

[olympiaworkers] Update: back to work Teamsters Sanitation Workers

OWLS is an open, multiracial, multicultural group of labor activists
formed to forge solidarity across union lines, and to promote the
unionization of all workers, especially the lowest paid.

For more information: www.organizedworkers.org

From: owls@riseup.net
Date: Fri, April 23, 2010

APRIL 23, 2010

Dear friend,

You have probably already read or heard on the news that Teamsters 174
members who work at Waste Management are back on their jobs after a short
strike action. This means OWLS will not be picketing with Teamsters this
Saturday as it won't be necessary! But do stay tuned and we will continue
to post updates.

Apparently, WMI has promised to come back to the table to negotiate after
failing to ram through a "last and final" contract offer. Clearly, the
community/labor support and power of the sanitation workers to withhold
their labor has made WMI blink. We will all be watching as the next round
of negotiations begins. Until a fair contract is signed and ratified by
the sanitation workers we will remain vigilant and ready to support them
in their efforts to win fair wages and benefits, and safe conditions.

Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity will STILL HOLD OUR MONTHLY
MEETING, TUES. APRIL 27, 7PM AT SEATTLE LABOR TEMPLE (2800 First Ave,
Seattle). Join us for discussion on the Teamsters and efforts by grad
students to win a fair contract, as well as why privatization of public
services is a ripoff of public wealth.

Also, while Teamsters may be back at work, there are still ways to support
them -- and prepare your neighbors and co-workers should they ultimately
have to go on strike again or face a lockout.

In struggle,
Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity
www.organizedworkers.org
OWLS@riseup.net

MESSAGE FROM TEAMSTERS:

Support Teamsters Local 174 in their battle with Waste Management to get a
fair contract! The following are things you can do to support area
sanitation workers:

1. Join the Neighborhood Trash Watch program by visiting
www.seattletrashwatch.com.

2. All concerned citizens should call 1-800-976-0071 (set up by the
Teamsters). Upon calling the number, you will get patched through to your
local elected officials where you can deliver the message: "We need to get
the issue with Waste Management and the Teamsters resolved quickly."
Demand that Waste Management bargain in good faith, return to the table,
and offer a fair contract to its workers.

3. Report missed garbage pickups to 1-800-976-0071. It is important to
report missed pickups; Waste Management will get fined for these service
failures. This reporting of missed pickups will increase pressure on Waste
Management to return to the table.

4. Put up a yard sign up expressing support and advertising the 800 number
to your neighbors. Talk to others about the strike and ask them to report
missed pickups and sign up as a supporter on the website. To request a
yard sign, call 206-441-6060.

Community pressure is the best weapon to help these workers get a fair
contract. Do your part to help resolve the strike today by signing up
online and calling 1-800-976-0071.

Please distribute this email to your networks. Thank you for your support!

Paul Zilly, Communications Coordinator

Teamsters Local Union No. 117

14675 Interurban Avenue South, Suite 307

Tukwila, WA 98168

Office: (206) 441-4860 Ext. 1269

Toll Free: (888) 872-3489 Ext. 1269

Fax: (206) 441-3153

Paul.Zilly@Teamsters117.org

For Teamsters 117 news, visit our website at www.teamsters117.org

[olympiaworkers] Support striking sanitation workers

OWLS is an open, multiracial, multicultural group of labor activists
formed to forge solidarity across union lines, and to promote the
unionization of all workers, especially the lowest paid.

For more information: www.organizedworkers.org

From: owls@riseup.net
Date: Thu, April 22, 2010

April 22, 2010

Dear Friend,

Teamsters 174 members are striking Waste Management, affecting about
one million customers in the region. No one wanted to strike, just as
no one wants to have their garbage sitting on the curb for weeks on
end. This crisis is a crisis of the private sector system. Workers are
expected to produce more and more for less and less in order to drive
profits up. Waste Management pulls in $1 billion in PROFIT (that's
after payroll, after taxes, after expenses) and expects their drivers,
the people who generate all that profit, to sacrifice the health care
of current drivers and retirees so they can make more profit. That is
SICKENING.

Thank goodness the Teamsters have the courage to stand up to this
assault and defend what they've earned on the job, what they've fought
for at the bargaining table, and what other drivers are getting for the
same work. Waste Management isn't just attacking their workers-- they
are attacking all of us. They are attacking everyone with employer paid
health care (63% of Americans), everyone who faces hazards on the job,
everyone who has to work for a living. The Teamsters need our support.
We aren't protecting their benefits-- we are protecting our own, and
fighting for a future where all people have a living wage and health
care not only while working, but after retiring.

Please join OWLS on the picket line on Saturday, April 24, at noon, at
8605 1st Avenue South. We stand with the Teamsters, with working
people, and against corporate greed. We will also be sending along
other ways you can help and support the Teamsters.

And please plan to attend our April meeting. On Tuesday, April 27, at
7pm, we'll gather to discuss what's happening with the Teamsters'
strike, and how we can all support it. We'll also get a report from
OWLS members about the dangers of privatization. As the Teamsters'
fight with Waste Management illustrates very clearly, when companies
weigh the health of their workers again the bottom line, the workers
always lose unless they fight back. We meet at the Seattle Labor Temple
at 2800 First Ave in hall 6. We hope to see you!

Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity
www.organizedworkers.org
Owls@riseup.net

[olympiaworkers] Solidarity Action with Sanitation Workers

OWLS is an open, multiracial, multicultural group of labor activists
formed to forge solidarity across union lines, and to promote the
unionization of all workers, especially the lowest paid.

For more information: www.organizedworkers.org

From: Owls@riseup.net
Date: Thu, April 15, 2010

Dear friends,

We know you support the efforts of sanitation workers in King County to
gain a fair contract with Waste Management. Below is an event to show your
support and help out if you can. If you can't make it (or even if you
can!) please also help spread the word.

You can also learn updates and actions at trashwatch.com, teamsters117.org
or teamsters174.org. OWLS will also continue to send updates and post them
on our website. If you want to get a call in the event picket lines are
needed, just send us an email at owls@riseup.net or call Linda at 819-2279
or Mike at 354-8753. Also let us know if you can help make calls!
In solidarity
OWLS
www.organizedworkers.org

MESSAGE FROM TEAMSTERS:
Yard Sign Solidarity Action Day

Last Sunday, we made thousands of yard signs that say, "Tell Waste
Management to Stop Trashing our Community." Now we need your help to put
yard signs up in the front yards of thousands of residents of King County
and southern Snohomish County. Volunteer to put up yard signs this Sunday.

What: Deliver Waste Management Yard Signs to Residents
Where: Teamster Union Hall
14675 Interurban Avenue South
Tukwila, WA 98168
Date: Sunday, April 18, 2010
Time: 9:00 a.m.

[olympiaworkers] Where Shopping is Oppression: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers take on Publix

Written by Dawn Nadiye
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
upsidedownworld.org

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a grassroots, Florida-based
farmworker group, largely comprised of Mexican, Guatemalan and Haitian
immigrants. In recent years, by way of high-profile consumer campaigns,
the CIW has compelled the world's four largest fast food companies, among
others, to concede to demands for better pay and unprecedented labor
rights. This time, beloved Sunshine State darling Publix Supermarkets is
in the tomato pickers' sights.

Why? Here are 5 secrets Publix does not want you to know:

+ AIN'T NO MOM AND POP

Despite its sterling rep as your charming neighborhood grocer, Publix is
massive, ruthless and powerful. Forbes Magazine, capitalism's trusted
scorekeeper, weighs Publix in as the 9th largest private corporation in
the United States. Publix exudes family-friendliness exquisitely. But
when presented with the opportunity to more fairly compensate desperately
impovershed farmworker families at minimal cost to its profit line, they
reacted like any other modern for-profit pulling in $24 billion a year
would...

+ IT'S NOT THE PENNY, ITS THE PRINCIPLE

The CIW is demanding that Publix join Whole Foods, Burger King,
McDonald's, Taco Bell and other major retailers in paying a penny more per
pound for its tomatoes to directly increase farmworker wages.

Tomato picker wages in Florida have remained stagnant since 1978 -- more
than 3 decades of an essentially unchanged pay rate: 40 to 50 cents per
32-lb bucket of tomatoes. To make just the equivalent of minimum wage in
a typical 10-hour day, a worker must harvest 2.5 tons of tomatoes, one by
one.

Say Publix is selling a pound of tomatoes for $2.49; not even 2 cents for
that full pound goes to the laborer who actually harvested and hauled it.
The extra penny for workers won't break Publix's bank: indeed, the roots
of opposition aren't economic but ideological. Publix fears organized
labor, it shrinks from the prospect of future accountability for the cheap
cost of the products they sell.

+ ESPIONAGE: ET TU, PUBLIX?

When facing heat from the CIW about the need to sign an accord for better
wages and working conditions for tomato pickers, Burger King hired a spy
to infiltrate teleconferences of the Student/Farmworker Alliance, a key
ally group to the CIW. Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser outed the
espionage on the pages of the New York Times, and BK was forced to
immediately fire a complicit vice president and give in to all of the
CIW's demands. A lesson to others, perhaps?

Apparently not everyone. An unknown man with camera in tow attended the
CIW's first Publix picket -- Oct. 17th in Naples, FL -- and told several
present that he was "an old hippie" making a documentary about social
movements. Asked multiple times by multiple people (including a Lutheran
minister), he insisted he did not work for Publix.

In Naples, and other SW Florida towns playing host to CIW pickets that
weekend, he closely filmed protesting farmworkers without saying a word to
them. He did, however, periodically chat with Publix management posted in
front of the grocery entrances. These well-dressed men -- a PR team
dispatched from corporate headquarters to nearly all Publix pickets to
date -- communicated directly to picketers that no one could film on
Publix's premises. The "old hippie" nonetheless always did, unperturbed by
the suits.

Sketchy? You bet, thought Andrea Ortiz, a New College student. Andrea
asked the cameraman for his and his film company's name, as well as his
phone number. "Tom" he answered, scrawling out his digits and "Southeast
Productions."

A senior reporter for the Ft. Myers News-Press investigated further: no
film company is registered under that name. The number belongs to Thomas
McGuigan of Tampa -- none other than an employee of Publix's video
division. The reporter called McGuigan who affirmed that he filmed the
protests. From the News-Press article:

Asked why he didn't tell the coalition he works for Publix and if he was
filming at the company's behest, the call was disconnected. Repeated calls
weren't returned.

After months of absence following the front-page expose, Tom the hippie
returned to a picket in St. Pete – this time sporting an "I (heart)
Publix" button on his chest.

+ SLAVERY, FOR REAL

The CIW has helped to successfully prosecute 6 separate slavery cases in
Florida agriculture in the last dozen years. The most recent case
involved tomato pickers in Immokalee who were locked in a cargo truck by
night and taken to work in tomato fields by day. For punishment,
crewleaders slit the belly of one worker with a knife and chained others
to a pole. In Dec 2008, the crewleaders pled guilty on slavery charges in
federal court.

The fields where the enslaved workers harvested tomatoes belong to two
large tomato growers: Six L's and Pacific. Both are major suppliers to
Publix.

Publix competitor Whole Foods also bought tomatoes from Six L's and
Pacific. Upon learning of the slavery conviction, Whole Foods was
obligated to honor the code of conduct jointly drafted with CIW which
outlines zero-tolerance for slavery-tainted growers in its tomato supply
chain. Accordingly, Whole Foods cut their purchases.

Publix, however, refuses -- apparently seeing no cause for concern with
buying from growers corrupted by proven slave labor in their fields.

+ SERIOUS ACTIONS NIGH:

FARMWORKER FREEDOM MARCH: APRIL 16-18

The CIW has announced a major march -- three days, 22-miles -- between
Tampa and Lakeland, home of Publix Headquarters, under the banner: Freedom
from Forced Labor, Freedom from Abuse, Freedom from Poverty and
Degradation.

(For a sense of some of the political climate near where Publix decision
makers live, consider Lakeland's neighbor 30 miles southeast, Lake Wales.
In 2008, John Paul Rogers -- longtime grand dragon of the United Klans of
Florida, a KKK faction -- was elected to its city council.)

CIW SLAVERY MUSEUM

To show precisely the nature of growers' operations where Publix
unblinkingly buys its tomatoes, the CIW has developed a museum focused on
the evolving history of slavery in Florida agriculture: its roots, the
reason it persists and its solutions. The museum aims to relay the
following: Slavery does not occur in a vacuum; it flourishes in industries
where workers are dramatically poor and powerless, and farmworkers have
always been among the poorest, least powerful laborers in Florida.

The museum consists of a cargo truck outfitted as a replica of the one in
which tomato pickers in Immokalee were enslaved during the most recent
case. The truck's design is based on the expertise of the men actually
locked inside it, whom are now CIW members and active participants in
Publix actions. Educational displays supplement the recreation of the
crime scene that served as the men's quarters, the combined scholarship of
leading academics in the study of slavery and Florida's farm labor
history.

For the six weeks preceding the Farmworker Freedom March, the CIW will
have toured the museum across the state.

The museum will accompany the Farmworker Freedom March until its arrival
at Munn Park in downtown Lakeland. There Publix executives, along with
their family, friends and neighbors, will have the chance to see firsthand
the living conditions of those forced to work in their tomato suppliers'
fields.

[olympiaworkers] Six killed in Peru miners strike clashes

Libcom.org Apr 12 2010

Six people were killed on April 5 when police attacked a roadblock set up
by miners on a wildcat strike.

Officials claimed that the workers were protesting at the government's
push to impose environmental controls on them, although one observer
commented that it was more likely that the government was motivated by
financial interests than saving the planet.

Reuters reported that violence broke out on Sunday in the southern
province of Arequipa, injuring 20 protesters and nine police near Chala,
600km (372 miles) south of the capital, Lima.

Two of the dead were bystanders, including a taxi driver struck by a stray
bullet and a woman who suffered a heart attack.

Peru miners lift roadblock for talks after clashes

April 7, 2010

LIMA, Peru (AP)– Independent miners agreed Wednesday to end road blockades
that led to clashes with police and the deaths of six miners, responding
to a government promise to form a joint commission to study the dispute,
an official said.

Emerging from three hours of talks between miner leaders and officials,
Cabinet Chief Javier Velasquez said the new panel will include miners in
its effort to develop a national plan for regularizing wildcat mining.

The clashes began after the government moved to impose rules on
unregulated gold mining that it says is ruining the environment in Peru's
Amazon jungle.

Miners began the highway blockade Sunday, stranding more than 1,000
vehicles in southeastern Peru. Attempts by police to force the protesters
off the road sparked clashes in which six miners were shot to death.

Velasquez said the formation of the comission will ensure that miners will
be heard.

"This strengthens democracy. There are no winners or losers," he said.