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newsAlso in this section: Continuing protests against the Seguro Social reforms photos by Eric Jackson
To FRENADESSO, the umbrella group that's coordinating the strikes and protests against the Seguro Social reforms, the subject of their wrath is the "Death Law." The photos on this page were taken at a June 16 protest march from Parque Porras to Plaza Catedral.
At the heart of the protest movement is the militant SUNTRACS construction workers' union. On this day they began to take a collection for the families of their members, as their strike fund had run out.
The public health care system's striking specialized MDs, ¡Presente! In the days after this rally, doctors set up collection points around the country to gather food for SUNTRACS members and their families.
Former Seguro Social director Dr. Juan Jované, an economist whose most recent book is a popular little polemic against what he describes as the fundamentalist dogma of neo-liberal economics, has been one of the protest leaders from the start.
The religious left is also a founding faction of the protest movement and the CARITAS Catholic social ministry in particular is the source of much of the research for the strikers' literature.
What? They'd crucify Barbie along with the rest of the people? That seems to be the argument that his teacher is making with his latter-day icon.
Well, OK. If one wants to sell raspados to marching strikers, it might help to fly their union's banner. But the Seguro Social reforms will make pushcart vendors pay 11.4 percent, then 13 percent, of their gross receipts to the CSS and many of these people say that this would put them out of business. Thus, like a lot of the rest of the Panamanian lower middle class, these micro-entrepreneurs tend to support the protests.
President Torrijos has tried to play senior citizens who in many cases will not be much affected by the reforms, against younger workers who in many cases will as a practical right lose their right to retire. The president has had limited success with this generational wedge.
"People who believe the PRD --- IGNORANT PEOPLE!" So say these striking schoolteachers.
If one carries a broom when protesting against the government, does that imply that there's some dirt to be cleaned out of Panamanian politics? If you listen to what the lady with the microphone says, there's nothing implicit about the allegation: that's very explicitly what she's saying.
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