Las Heras, Santa Cruz - April 6, 2019
Open letter to all Workers' Organizations of Argentina and the World
From Las Heras-Santa Cruz, south of Patagonia Argentina, to the workers of Jasic Technology and all workers in struggle in China:
The Government and the bosses unite to attack our gains and persecute, imprison and repress those who fight for their rights.
LET'S SET UP A NATIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE TO FREE ALL OUR COMRADES IN PRISON, FOR THE DROPPING OF ALL CHARGES AGAINST ALL FIGHTERS AND FOR JUSTICE TO OUR MARTYRS
We write this letter from the south of Patagonia to stand up and unite to face the attack we are suffering. We are oil workers convicted to life imprisonment and years in jail because in 2006 we fought against labor flexibility and against income tax on our wages. Although Justice condemned us, we are still free, since the struggle for our acquittal has been taken up by hundreds of workers' and human rights’ organizations in our country and worldwide.
Today, before the deepening of the persecution and the attack on our gains, we make a call to organize a unified struggle. We need to unite urgently to fight, because if we keep fighting divided we will be defeated one by one.
Macri's Government and the Justice are servants of the businessmen and the IMF. While different parties seem to be fighting for votes and part of the businesses, they all agree that we, the workers and the exploited masses, should pay for the crisis they generated.
So the labor flexibility advances. They seek to impose it all over the world. Those of us who try to confront it are persecuted, imprisoned and killed.
On Tuesday, April 3, we knew that four comrades of the East Line (buses) of La Plata city were arrested for the fight they waged in 2017. Comrades Sebastian Mac Dougall, Emanuel Lazzaro, Pablo Varriano and Luciano Fiocchi, were imprisoned. The police raided their houses and took them even without any type of court order or warrant. Unconditional freedom to the comrades of the East Line!
These bus drivers comrades are another example of what happens with all of us who rise up to fight for what belongs to us.
The same thing happens with comrade Daniel Ruiz, former oil delegate of Chubut, who has been in Marcos Paz prison for almost seven months for fighting against the damned Pension Reform, while Sebastian Romero is still being persecuted.
Comrade Facundo Jones Huala was extradited to Chile by the justice of our country and convicted to 9 years in prison by Chilean Pinochet judges, in a trial that was a farce, a kangaroo court to punish the struggle of the Mapuches and all of us who struggle for our demands.
The workers of Rio Santiago Shipyard in La Plata, who were an example for the entire Argentinean labor movement, have also been suffering the persecution of the bosses' justice. Comrade Alejandro Villarruel and five other comrades are being prosecuted for the "crime" of fighting in defense of their workplace and against the closure of the shipyard.
On Monday, April 15, in the criminal courthouse of Caleta Olivia (Santa Cruz) a new farce will be carried out against the oil workers of our province. The comrades Armoa, Vibares and Oñate, will go to trial for having fought in 2014 against layoffs IN Baccsa Company, Las Heras. They were in jail for more than three months, tortured and humiliated by the police of the province and now they will face a trial that aims to impose a new punishing lesson for the oil workers and the whole workers movement. EVERYBODY TO CALETA OLIVIA ON APRIL 15 IN SOLIDARITY WITH OUR COMRADES!
There are more than 7500 persecuted for fighting, but we also have to bear that every time we come out to fight, our lives are in danger. We saw that recently with comrade Santiago Maldonado, whose death is unpunished by the justice in the service of Benetton and the oil companies; and even the gendarmes who repressed that protest on the highway were promoted. Comrade Rafael Nahuel was shot by the Naval Prefecture in Villa Mascardi (Río Negro). Those who killed him are still free and, on the contrary, comrade Fausto Jones Huala and Lautaro González, who took Rafa's dying body to the hospital, are being prosecuted.
We call the relatives of the drivers of the East Line and their comrades; we also call the comrades of Rio Santiago Shipyard, the relatives and comrades of Facundo Jones Huala, Daniel Ruiz and Sebastián Romero, Santiago Maldonado and Rafael Nahuel, the relatives and comrades of Kostequi and Santillán and those of all our martyrs so that together WE SET UP A NATIONAL CORDINATING COMMITTEEE FOR THE FREEDOM OF ALL FIGHTERS, FOR THE CHARGES ON THEM TO BE DROPPED AND FOR JUSTICE FOR ALL OUR MARTYRS.
We cannot continue a second more fighting sector by sector.
An injury to one is an injury to all! One class, one fight!
Commission of Convicted Workers, Relatives and Friends of Las Heras.