Vol. 72/No. 17      April 28, 2008

The general rate of inflation has grown over the last year worldwide. But prices for food and fuel have risen at a particularly fast pace. Global food prices have risen 83 percent over the last three years, according to the World Bank estimates. Prices of basic staples such as corn, rice, and wheat have shot up by more than double within a one year span.

In Haiti, protests spread across the country in early April against high prices and the UN occupation force there. (see article on page 3)

At least 10,000 workers demonstrated April 5 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to demand higher wages to deal with rising prices faced by more than 30 million workers across Europe. The demonstration, organized by the European Trade Union Confederation, took place as European central bankers met there to discuss inflation and other economic problems. Their solution: freeze workers’ wages to keep down labor costs.

“We only want higher wages, the inflation we can’t stop,” said Elmer Zubrovic, a worker from Ljubljana at the protest.

Days earlier German public-sector workers wrested a nearly 8 percent wage increase. In March, 93,000 steelworkers in Germany won a 5.2 percent raise; train drivers got an 8 percent increase over 2 years.

“It would be an enormous mistake to imitate Germany,” European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said following the bankers’ meeting in Ljubljana.

“We condemn the threats of the politicians, ministers, and employers that the wage rise would cause further inflation, while they keep the real reasons to themselves,” said the president of the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia, Dusan Semonlic.

Three days after the Ljubljana demonstration, workers in Burkina Faso began a two-day general strike to demand a 25 percent pay raise for public-sector workers and a lowering of food and fuel taxes. Most everything shut down in Ouagadougou, the capital, and Bobo-Dioulasso, the country’s second-largest city, a UN news agency reported.

The government of Burkina Faso had previously suspended taxes on basic staples and increased subsidies for water and electricity in response to the crisis. The country’s finance minister said the government would not raise wages because it would fuel inflation. Prime Minister Tertius Zongo said, “The people can march and march but nothing will change.” The unions responded in a joint declaration: “We will march, march until the situation does change.”

Many workers heeded a call for a general strike in Egypt where average household expenses rose 50 percent in the last four months. Cairo’s normally traffic-jammed streets were relatively quiet, reported al-Ahram online.

Some 23,000 workers at Egypt Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahala al-Kubra had threatened to strike April 6 unless the company met their demands for higher wages and improved conditions. The company gave in April 5, but the planned action had already grown to a nationwide general strike through word of mouth, phone text messages, and the Internet. Demands included relief from high prices, housing aid, and an end to police torture.

Thousands displayed their anger that day in Mahala al-Kubra as government buildings and rail lines were damaged and two schools were burned. Police shot people with rubber bullets and tear gas. The protests spread to nearby villages the following day where police killed a 15-year-old boy and injured 111.

More than 20,000 workers at a Nike factory in Vietnam ended a two-day strike April 1 after the company agreed to a 10 percent pay raise. Averages consumer prices there have increased by nearly 20 percent in the last year.

The government in Cameroon raised public-sector wages by 15 percent and canceled taxes on basic foods in March after mass protest actions there in which police killed more than 100 and arrested more than 1,600. The governments of Niger, Ivory Coast, and Indonesia also recently suspended food taxes in response to protests in those countries.

About 10,000 textile workers near Dhaka, Bangladesh, battled police April 12, demanding pay raises to keep up with rising food prices. Recent protests against rising prices were reported in other countries including Cambodia, Somalia, Philippines, and Senegal.
 
 
Related articles:
Haitian workers, peasants protest high cost of food
Profit system is behind food crisis  
 
 
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