Dan and others My wife and I just gor back from a couple of weeks in Colorado and Utah and I am catching up on E-mail The May 22 story of what is happening in El Salvador is indeed tragic. As the world moves into the, what is proving to be a dog eat dog, 21st century there will be no doubt a lot more El Salvador's. However, the same can be said of the century just past. I am reading the latest book on Theodore Roosevelt. Early in the book the author makes the case that Roosevelt was not necessarily a friend of those who fought to preserve the union and then go on to create the United States "from sea to shining sea". Their generation had pronounced a "good enough" on the size of our country. There seemed to be no remorse on how we got that empire- a bit of which my wife and I recently visited. However, their values came into conflict with those veterans of the Spanish American war some of whom dreamed of an American empire which could rival the Brits. History shows that the younger generation prevailed. Lurking in the background was the importance of building the Panama Canal in solidifying this empire. And on to the scene came Teddy, and his big stick. Fast forewarding a century there is the debate over globalization and privitizing. Louisville, where I live just had a big labor rally.The Two issues were the loss of good paying jobs jobs outside the US and the low wages and poor working conditions under which those off shore workers were employed.
In a perfect world, those jobs, now being lost by the "western" nations would never have been created in the first case. Instead the factories, beginning with the l600's would have been set up in the countries from which the natural resources were being exported and then the finished goods could be sold around the world. However, that did not happen - so I guess someone could say that the playing field is now being leveled. However, If my job was being abolished, I would no doubt feel differently..
Somewhat the same thing could be said for the government downsizing. Maybe government took on too much when it tried to be the servant of the people. AT Capital Reef in Utah, one overlook over the canyon pointed out that three governmant agencies all share control over the lands.One deals with the preservation of the park, another the forests and the third the animals which lived there.(or something close to that)That is a lot of government and it no doubt takes a lot of duplication and coordination. Easily, that land could be sold to private investors who could do little more than keep it a place that people want to visit. However, a lot of people would lose their jobs.
None of this is meant to condone the El Salvador example including the firing of union workers. However, the bad news is that the situation there is probably just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what is happening around the world. There ought to be some way to get more humanness into the process. It will continue.. Our own privately owned electric company was sold first to the Brits.and now I believe to the Germans. Fortunately our elected officials are strong enough to keep rates in line. I wish the same could be said for cable and gasoline.
Coould this be a topic for the DC meeting. Don Ward
>From: Dan Bell
>Reply-To: EOpriv@cog.kent.edu
>To: eopriv@cog.kent.edu
>Subject: EOpriv: privatization problems in El Salvador
>Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 10:43:07 -0400
>
>Dear participants in the discussion on employee ownership and privatization:
>
>Here is some information on privatization-related matters in El Salvador.
>
>Dan
>
>ELECTRICAL SECTOR UNION (STSEL) UNDER ATTACK AS PART OF PRIVATIZATION PLAN
>
>Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (CIS) May 22, 2002
>
>
>
>From 19 March to 9 May, the State-run Hydroelectric Executive Commission
>of the River Lempa (CEL) fired 12 workers as part of a larger
>privatization campaign. Three of those fired have leadership roles in the
>union STSEL (translated into English as Electrical Workers Union).
>According to STSEL, the workers were fired without any justification, thus
>violating labor laws. On Tuesday, 14 May union leaders met with the
>Office for the Defense of Human Rights and the Work Commission of the
>Legislative Assembly in an attempt to open dialogue with CEL president
>(and ARENA member) Guillermo Sol Bang – who to this point has refused to
>negotiate with the union or justify the firings. Sol Bang was expected to
>arrive at the Work Commission of the Legislative Assembly on 14 May but
>did not make himself present.
>
>These firings come during a period of corporate and executive scandal.
>The guilty parties are not facing justice and meanwhile, union members are
>being fired as part of larger privatization plans. The ARENA government’s
>desire to privatize the electrical sector is well publized and its
>privitaztion plan is under way. On 26 February, La Prensa Grafica
>reported “The Technical Secretary to the President and the Minister of
>Finance (US Treasury), Juan José Daboub, confirmed that the government has
>programmed to inject private investment in the management of ETESAL and
>GESAL (generation plants).” In reference to the privatization plan, the
>Minister stated, “Personally, I would like to see things move faster.”
>The National Association of Private Enterprise has also publically stated
>its desire to privatize, “It is necessary to finish the chapter of the
>privatization of electric energy.”11 Ramos, Karla, “ANEP: ‘Es necesario
>terminar el capítulo’”, La Prensa Grafica, 27 Feb. 2002: 24.
>
>The involvment of private hands in the electrical sector has caused
>serious hardships for the majority of Salvadorans. In the electric energy
>process there are three primary phases: generation; transmission; and
>distribution. Energy distribution has already been privatized, which has
>had seriously negative impacts. Electric bills have increased sevenfold,
>which has forced the rural population, particularly women, to search for
>alternative energy sources. This has resulted in a 20-30% increase in
>domestic work.22 "Las políticas de ajuste estuctural en las raizes de la
>crisis económica y la pobreza", SAPRIN, November 2001. Furthermore, the
>first experience between the ARENA- managed CEL and the private sector,
>regarding electricty generation (which is now one of the two phases to be
>privatized), demonstrated the real interests of the private sector and
>ARENA: private profit at public expense. In 1994, CEL, facing presumed
>generation shortages, entered into a contract of a fradulent nature with
>the U.S. Coastal energy company (now El Paso). The onerous agreements in
>the contract included paying Coastal double what Guatemala currently pays
>for electricity generation. CEL, no longer able to afford such corporate
>welfare, will have to pay $95 million to break the contract. All in all,
>the contrat has cost the people of El Salvador $235 million dollars
>(losses plus contract annulment fine) while making the corporate energy
>giant that much richer. US $235 million is a significant amount of money
>for El Salvador - to give an idea, the government will spend less money on
> health care during the entire year. Shamelessly, in 2000, CEL entered
>into another agreement, this time with U.S.-based Duke Energy. This
>agreement stipulated buying energy at US $100 dollars per megawatt/hour
>when the current market price is between US $60-$80 dollars. By
>deliberately mismanaging CEL, the ARENA administration, along with its
>corporate partners, intends to throw CEL into both bankrupcy (while
>pleasing private interests) and into a state of disfunction, thus forcing
>the privatization of this profitable sector. The public has overwhelming
>rejected such privatization plans. Even in a poll conducted by the
>right-wing La Prensa Grafica, all the participants rejected the idea of
>privatizing the generation of electricity.33 “El pais no está preparado
>para esas políticas”, La Pensa Grafica, 27 Feb. 2002: 28.
>
>The goal of privatization is to transfer (then maintain) wealth to private
>hands through a new unprecedented style of interventionism. Clauses in
>loans from the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank assure
>that privatization is carried out – such has been the case in El Salvador
>with the health, education, water, and electricity sectors, among others.
>The idea is to create a world where private capital owns the most
>profitable sectors of the economy and where the corporations themselves
>make the laws and rules to the global game (superceding national and local
>laws) through institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the
>international financial institutions as well as through the use of “free
>trade agreements”.
>
>The ARENA strategy is to privatize, as soon as possible, the remaining
>public services in order to assure private control of profitable sectors in
> case of an FMLN victory in 2003/2004. Similarly, the Flores
>administration is looking for an accelerated free trade agreement with the
>United States so as to lock the country into neoliberalism (for the benefit
> of the elite) through international agreements. Consequently, if a new
>government were not to hold to such agreements, it would face a severe
>economic stranglehold.
>
>The problem is the neoliberal economic system, with privatization as a
>principal base, does not work. Regressive tax systems, public debt, mass
>firings, freezing salaries, dollarization, "free" trade, and
>privatization, all of which are prevalent in El Salvador, all form the
>neoliberal recipe followed by Argentina, which caused the great crisis of
>that country. Such crises have been documented in growing unemployment,
>poverty, starvation, etc. The next Salvadoran government will inheret a
>debt that will equal more than a third of the budget, in addition to being
>stuck without any State sectors with which to generate income.
>Furthermore, this reality will be locked in by international agreements
>that, given the current global economic order, will largely supercede
>national laws. Thus if they are broken, the country will be subject to
>severe retaliations.
>
>Due to the devastating immediate and long term affects of this
>privatiztaion plan,, it extremely urgent to take preventative action now.
>This historic juncture requires the participation of all those sympathetic
>to democracy and social justice.
>
>The neoliberal logic is: in order to continue with privatization plans in
>the electrical sector, STCEL must be broke. That is the reason for
>firings. The workers, who make low wages, are forced into a desperate
>situation in which they will accept severance pay, thus justifying the
>firings and destroying the union. Therefore STCEL is asking raising funds
>to supply the fired workers with basic food goods so they will not be
>forced to accept the severance pay, thus keeping the anti- privatization
>struggle alive and consequently, the future possibility of new, more just
>social-economic model as well.
>
>For more information, contact cis@netcomsa.com
>--
>Dan Bell
>International Program Coordinator
>Ohio Employee Ownership Center
>Kent State University
>Kent, OH 44242
>(330) 672-0333 << Direct number!
>(330) 672-3028 general office number
>(330) 672-4063 fax
>dbell@kent.edu
>http://www.kent.edu/oeoc/
>http://cog.kent.edu