Posted on 10/12/2009 12:27:16 PM PDT by rrstar96
A coalition of labor groups will aim to paralyze economic activity around Plaza las Américas [Mall] as part of the general strike convened for Thursday to protest the Fortuño administration’s dismissal of more than 16,000 government workers.
The protest by the Coordinadora Sindical and the Frente Amplio de Solidaridad y Lucha aims to bring the commercial hub around the Caribbean’s largest shopping center to a halt.
Luis Pedraza Leduc, spokesman for the Coordinadora Sindical, confirmed that the aim of the protest is to cripple business. The demonstration is apparently separate from the protests being organized by the Coalición Todo Puerto Rico por Puerto Rico, a collection of labor, religious and civic organizations.
“There will not be any economic activity there and that is what we are going to make happen,” Pedraza Leduc said in a press conference.
He said protesters are going to gather at 9 a.m. Thursday outside busy retail outlets including Kmart, Office Max, Toys R Us and others.
Pedraza Leduc said the Fonalledas family, which owns Plaza las Américas, and Banco Popular President Richard Carrión, who was a member of Gov. Luis Fortuño’s Fiscal & Economic Reconstruction Advisory Council, must be made to feel the claims of the fired government workers.
Protesters were expected to march from the [University of Puerto Rico] in Río Piedras and through the Golden Mile financial district in Hato Rey before converging on Plaza las Américas.
The commercial hub would serve as ground zero for the demonstrations as the Coalitición Todo Puerto Rico por Puerto Rico was expected to rally outside the adjacent Hiram Bithorn Stadium.
ping
Unions gone wild!
Chavistas come to Puerto Rico.
coming to a California near you....
although people who’ve been there tell me that gringo-owned retail outlets are a perennial target anyhow.
Not true.
Stay tuned. A talk show host will in a minute reveal a scheme where he supposedly demonstrates how Chavez is financing these protests and is expecting a report from organizers.
Frente Amplio de Solidaridad y Lucha (FASyL) is closely aligned with El Frente Socialista. Sorpresa!
Huh! Just like the Zelaya affair in Honduras!
Interesting how people who publicly denounce the greedy, money-grabbing capitalist system have a lot of money themselves to throw around.
On September 24, Chavez calls for the independence of Puerto Rico.
He invites union leaders in the United States to join in that “struggle”.
The date of the protests was set for October 15 because there’s a reunion of ALBA (Alianza Bolivariana de las Americas) on October 16 and 17 and Chavez wants to see the results before commiting more money to the Puerto Rico independentistas. Turnout is key for the funds and the local marxists are piggybacking on the government layoff protests.
Another source of confusion for me is that, when democracies take a dictatorship to task, the latter accuses the former of “meddling in its internal affairs”. Ah, but let the dictatorship work towards subverting democratic regimes, and that is called “internationalism”!
What's it like these days, cll?
About the same. Although the statehooders trounced the status quo’ers in the last election.
Thank you for your service.
the conventional wisdom is that the status-preference breakdown is still around 49-49-2, but it should be noted that two separate polls taken in 2008 placed support for statehood at around 57%, and that gubernatorial candidate Luis Fortuño of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (who’s also a National Committeeman for the Republican Party) got 53% (the highest percentage for any gubernatorial candidate since 1964) despite a marked lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy from supporters of former Gov. Pedro Rosselló (whom Fortuño defeated in an acrimonious primary).
Talked to my Dad, (who lives on the island), this past weekend.
He tells me that there have been over 200,000 layoffs (some one please correct this if it’s wrong) in the private sector and not a peep from the newspapers or TV news, but try and layoff 16,000 government workers and there is a reporting frenzy.
http://vocero.com/noticia-32905-cierra_plaza_las_amricas.html
“Gracias” for the link.
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