Last Saturday, March 15th, a representative meeting of trade unions, and popular and youth organisations took place in Panama City against Law 163, passed during the third debate in the National Assembly, and promoted by the ultra-right and pro-imperialist government of José Raúl Mulino.
The aim of this instrument is to privatise the Social Security Fund, within the framework of the anti-worker and anti-popular adjustment that the Mulino government intends to carry out.
The meeting was convened by the Alianza Pueblo Unido, and was held at the University of Panama. It was attended by Suntracs, the banana union of Bocas del Toro, teachers‘ unions, the Panama Canal workers’ union, National Council of Organised Workers (Conato), Conusi, peasant organisations of Río Indio, student and youth organisations such as Juventudes Revolucionarias and FER29. Propuesta Socialista was alro present, represented through our comrade Priscilla Vásquez, among other trade unions and popular organisations.
Those present decided to continue the days of leafleting and picketing from Monday, until the march on Tuesday, which will be part of a national day that will be expressed through rallies and mobilisations in other cities such as Darien, Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, among others.
The participants in the meeting were emphatic in stating that they will defeat Law 163 in the streets, as well as the government’s intention to reopen the mine, in the hands of the transnational First Quantum, despite a ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice that ordered its closure at the end of 2023.
