Peru Teacher Face Army

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were back at the devious games of diplomacy-a more bracing form of bourgeois hypocrisy than Christian piety.

There are now two new draft constitutions before the Tories' conference to gain an imperialist settlement of the war.

Hard line

The Patriotic Front has put forward the latest 'hardline' proposals, which make no provision for reserved 'white' seats in the new parliament, and rule out any 'blocking powers' (effectively, a built-in power for removing the 'unacceptable' aspects of the existing "internal settlement'.

In an ambitious bid to unite all the delegations behind a paper agreement, and so isolate the militant forces within the Patriotic Front, Carrington has produced a "moderate' proposal to fit the tone of the conference.

The Tories document refines away the grosser 'anomalies' of the SmithMuzorewa constitution to leave a capitalist parliamentary democracy, with specific guarantees to preserve the interests of the white settlers. Is been attached as yet to these bizarre arrangements.

Jockey

The conference has of course already proved itself to be an occasion where delegates proclaim unyielding principles in fiery speeches while they negotiate amongst themselves and jockey for position.

Nkomo and Mugabe have so far preserved a common front, and it is the Salisbury delegation which has been struck by divisions:

On the one hand, Smith and the white settlers have professed outrage at the proposals from the Patriotic Front, and even alarm at some of the Tories' suggestions.

One of the major difficulties with which Carrington has to deal is the problem of persuading the Tories' racist The strike of the Peruvian teachers union SUTEP has now entered its fourth month and in the last ten days intensified action has thrown the military government of Gen. Morales Bermudez into crisis.

This strike, which began on 4. June, is the second in 18 months by SUTEP, which, With 120,000 members is the largest union in Peru.

In May last year the teachers came out for 81 days in demand of substantial pay rises and the immediate release of members jailed for political activity.

Killed Now nearly 1,000 members have been jailed, at least 5,000 sacked, and two teachers killed in demonstrations.* Since the Peruvian economy entered severe crisis in late 1975 real wages of teachers have fallen by 44% and a teacher who has worked for 15 years earns an average £50 a month.

Over this period some workers have suffered a fall of up to 70% in their pay, a situation that has been greatly aggravated by the terms imposed by the IMF for financial relief to the beleagured regime.

Public sector borrowing has been slashed and now only 45% of the economically active population is fully employed.

Naturally the cutbacks were particularly severe in education with class sizes rising to around 55 children and some 60,000 teachers permanently out of work.

The rapid growth and militancy of SUTEP has been met with outright repression.

The government has refused to recognise the union unless all local and national leaders are approved by the Ministry of Education and funds are controlled by the government itself.

Teachers are deprived of social security benefits and have no job security whatsoever.

Furthermore, both last year and this SUTEP demonstrations have been viciously attacked by the police and army. At least 50 teachers are now in hospital as a result.

Thirty-three educational establishments have been closed and over 20 headteachers fined. The issue for Hunger striker Hugo Blanco SUTEP is now. just as much the freeing and reinstatement of its members as the original wage claim.

No funds This is a particularly difficult struggle because the union has no strike fund at all and is entirely reliant on financial and political solidarity of the union movement and the left parties.

SUTEP itself is greatly influenced by the Patria Roja Maoist group but geographical dispersion and the rise of the left in recent years has meant that no single political party is properly dominant.

This is clear from last week's hunger strike in support of SUTEP which was joined by the aged Communist Party leader Jorge del Prado as well as Hugo Blanco, member of the Constituent Assembly and leader of the "Trotskyist' FOCEP front.

Militancy

It is clear that the organisational strength and mass support for the teachers has