the Hondurian unions, through bitter experience well aware of what a rightwing regime can do to their country, have been out in force against the coup from the start. Now they’re calling for a general strike, as deposed president Zelaya has sworn to return soon:
The CUTH represents 250,000 workers in both urban and rural areas.
Previous protests against coup leader Roberto Micheletti have been confronted by large numbers of armed soldiers and police.
Mr Salinas told the Morning Star that opposition to the coup is gathering strength. “We have been in the streets for 22 days and our movement is becoming stronger and stronger.
“Our aim is to stop production, trade and transport,” he said.
Despite the resistance of the oligarchy, Mr Zelaya’s government had doubled the minimum wage and the trade unions predict that unless the coup regime is removed from power, it will attempt to reverse this and other progressive measures.
So far the coupists seem to have kept somewhat of a low profile: repressive, intransigent, but just standard issue repression rather than football stadiums full of dissidents being tortured and shot. They seem to be playing for time, establishing the facts on the ground and count on the “international community” to lose interest. They’ve been trying to spin the coup as an emergency measure to prevent the constitution from Zelaya’s supposed depravity, urged on them by the people. If they can keep Honduras quiet without too much visible repression, this old trick might just work. Hence the importance of a general strike as a very visible show of support for Zelaya.
By the way, it would be a mistake to think that this is just about Zelaya and his return. Until he came in office he was your fairly establishment candidate, who was half pushed into taking some measures to better the existence of the majority of Hondurians. He isn’t a socialist or populist reformer like Chavez, but hopefully if he does return, he will be radicalised like Chavez was, rather than cowed as happened to Ariste in Haiti. More important than Zelaya’s fate however is what this struggle is doing for the working classes in Honduras: if they win it’s a huge boost; if they lose they know everything that was achieved during Zelaya will be taken away again.