By Socialist Proposal (PS), IWU-FI section in Panama
For a month now, the working people and the popular sectors of Panama have been carrying out large mobilisations, with strikes being carried out by teachers and educators, as well as by the powerful construction union, SUNTRACS (National Union of Workers of Construction and Similar Industries). In the provinces, the struggle is also growing, from the indigenous ‘comarcas‘, to the banana workers of Boca de Toro, together with the communities fighting in the River Indio basin. The youth has also joined in, with student protests in secondary schools and universities, and women held strong protests and organised themselves to fight, demonstrating once again that this fight doesn’t belong to one person or one sector; this fight belongs to everyone.
Popular mobilisation and strikes are the response of the working people to the attacks that the ‘gringo‘ government of José Raúl Mulino is carrying out, at the request of his ultra-right partner Donald Trump, US imperialism and the International Monetary Fund. On April 9th, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” with the government, which violates Panama’s sovereignty by allowing them to continue plundering its natural resources and granting preferential treatment to US commercial and military vessels, thus facilitating US military penetration. US imperialists like Donald Trump and his cabinet think that Panama and our Canal are theirs, and Mulino’s government accepts the surrender!
Mulino’s bosses’ government is completing the task of plundering that, as a result of the struggle of working people, indigenous peoples, women and youth, all previous governments have been unable to complete. He joins the wave of the far right to attack workers and the people head-on, in order to curtail trade union, economic, social and democratic rights, thus carrying out the orders of Trump and the IMF. To accomplish this task, Mulino is carrying out strong repression, persecuting and arresting SUNTRACS leaders, outlawing strikes and facilitating the sacking of the 5,000 striking Banana workers from ‘Chiquita‘ in Boca de Toro. Teachers’ salaries were also cut, to try and break the strike.
To win the freedom of the detainees, an end to the repression and the demands for the repeal of Law 462 (the privatisation of the Panamanian Social Security Fund), the annulment of the Mulino treaties with the Americans, and to defend the environment against the dam on the Indio River Dam and prevent the reopening of the First Quantum Minerals copper mine, we need a national meeting of fighters to vote on a general strike in the private and public sectors, and to continue the mobilisations at national level.
Repeal of Law 462, that privatises the CSS!
Pensions and the right to public health are a spoil of war that all governments – from Milei in Argentina to Macron in France – are trying to plunder, in the service of the profits of big business and the bankers. The aim of the government and the IMF is to impose a new pension system, like the one imposed by the Fujimori dictatorship in Peru, and Pinochet in Chile; a system of ‘individual capitalisation’ (a system where each member has a personal account into which their contributions are deposited and invested, and their pension is based on the accumulated amount in that account. This contrasts with a pay-as-you-go system where current workers’ contributions directly fund current retirees’ pensions. The individual capitalization accounts are typically managed by private institutions), which only provides miserable old-age pensions.
Pensions and the right to public health are a spoil of war that all governments – from Milei in Argentina to Macron in France – are trying to plunder, in the service of the profits of big business and the bankers. The aim of the government and the IMF is to impose a new pension system, like the one imposed by the Fujimori dictatorship in Peru, and Pinochet in Chile; a system of ‘individual capitalisation’ (a system where each member has a personal account into which their contributions are deposited and invested, and their pension is based on the accumulated amount in that account. This contrasts with a pay-as-you-go system where current workers’ contributions directly fund current retirees’ pensions. The individual capitalization accounts are typically managed by private institutions), which only provides miserable old-age pensions.
Mulino is seeking to liquidate conquered rights, such as workers’ right to a pension and decent healthcare, by privatising the Panamanian Social Security Fund (CSS – “Caja de Seguro Social” is a Panamanian public organisation responsible for managing the social security system and providing healthcare for workers and their families. Its functions combine aspects that are generally separated between social security, such as pensions, subsidies and government incentives, and the National Health Service, essentially medical care), to save the big financial capitalists, the banks and the insurance companies, in order to obtain money to pay off the growing, voluminous, illegal and illegitimate foreign debt, which already exceeds 54 billion dollars (or 61% of GDP!), and which by 2024 alone will amount to almost 7 billion dollars. This is the initial objective of the repudiated Law 462, which the National Assembly, complicit with the government and businessmen, approved last April.
Law 462 must be repealed now! Because it is stealing from workers by transferring resources to the financial system, violating CSS workers’ right to strike, and promising mass redundancies. It’s going to eliminate services, thus preparing the privatisation and outsourcing of healthcare and, with that, denying healthcare to workers, sick or injured people and 90% of the population who are treated at the CSS.
Down with the repression! Release the detained SUNTRACS leaders and end the persecution! Reinstatement of all the banana workers fired by Chiquita!
The defence of the CCS and the energetic fight against Law 462 have been taken up by all the workers’ and popular organisations in the country. To counter those who are fighting, the Mulino government is attacking democratic rights and, with increasing authoritarianism, is trying to repress and intimidate the organisations that are standing up to its policies.
The defence of the CCS and the energetic fight against Law 462 have been taken up by all the workers’ and popular organisations in the country. To counter those who are fighting, the Mulino government is attacking democratic rights and, with increasing authoritarianism, is trying to repress and intimidate the organisations that are standing up to its policies.
Mulino learnt to repress when he was Minister of Security in the Martinelli government (President of Panama between 2009 and 2014) and in 2010, 2011 and 2012 he was responsible for the brutal repression against the banana workers of Boca de Toro, Colón, and the indigenous peoples. From the so-called ‘National Civic Crusade‘ (a broad coalition of civic, businesses and religious organisations that emerged in 1987 to challenge Manuel Noriega’s military dictatorship), he demonstrated his servility to the interests of big business, as a representative of APEDE (Panamanian Association of Business Executives) and CONEP (National Council of Private Enterprise), savagely look after the interests of big business.
Today, with political power in his hands, he uses the judiciary, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (which is deliberately run by his personal lawyer), the police, and other repressive forces, to silence those who struggle. His formula is to apply more repression, thus destroying the democratic rights to freely organise, assemble, mobilise and strike.
The government intimidates workers in the banana sector and has agreed with the bosses of ‘Chiquita Panama‘ to lay off 5,000 workers by banning strikes through the Ministry of Labour. It cuts the salaries of striking teachers, uses the judicial system to persecute and imprison union leaders, and harshly represses indigenous communities defending their territories.
While former president Martinelli – sentenced in 2024 to ten years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering related to the use of public money to buy several Panamanian media outlets in 2010 – travels the continent with impunity, shuttling between Nicaragua and Colombia, the Mulino-controlled Public Prosecutor’s Office has imprisoned SUNTRACS leader Jaime Caballero in a maximum security prison. It has raided SUNTRACS‘ offices, outlawed its cooperative, cancelled and annulled the union’s bank accounts to prevent it from operating on a daily basis, and now general secretary Saúl Méndez is seeking political refuge in the Bolivian embassy, denouncing that his life is in danger.
From Socialist Proposal (IWU-FI section in Panama), we repudiate the government’s political persecution and the crude judicial manoeuvring against the union leaders, and we demand their immediate release and an end to the persecution. The only way to defend the social and democratic rights of the working people is along the same path that defeated the dictatorship and the Yankee invasions, with mobilisation, organisation, struggle and a united strike.
In defence of the environment against capitalist plundering
Mulino’s project is a sinister one. Not only does it aim to attack workers’ social, democratic, economic and political rights, but it also seeks to deepen the capitalist and imperialist plunder that is destroying our natural resources. That’s why, at a press conference on March 13th, he announced his initiative to reopen the open-pit copper mine owned by the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals, which, following a huge fight by the working people, had its contract declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, for violating 25 articles of the Constitution.
Mulino’s project is a sinister one. Not only does it aim to attack workers’ social, democratic, economic and political rights, but it also seeks to deepen the capitalist and imperialist plunder that is destroying our natural resources. That’s why, at a press conference on March 13th, he announced his initiative to reopen the open-pit copper mine owned by the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals, which, following a huge fight by the working people, had its contract declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, for violating 25 articles of the Constitution.
Mulino intends to hand over a deposit with 3,000 million tonnes of reserves, at the expense of the environment and health, in order to collect another 5% of GDP, and allocate this money, not to the people, but to the IMF, which already took the money from pensions. The copper plundering multinational congratulated Mulino and, on March 31st, suspended its request for international arbitration against Panama, as a supposed ‘gesture of willingness’ to resume negotiations relative to the future of the ‘Cobre’ Mine.
The level of colonialism that Mulino wants to achieve is unprecedented. Along with the reopening of the copper mine, he wants to impose a new dam in the Indio River basin, flooding 8% of its territory and leaving the habitat and resources of more than 500 peasant families living there underwater, in order to deliver millions of litres of water to the Panama Canal, with the aim of guaranteeing continuous, and greater, maritime traffic in future droughts. A real folly! Climate change is a product of capitalist exploitation and the only goal of investment is profit and super-profits. The construction of the dam will further destroy the environment and the labour and dignity of those who live there, in the service of the logistics of global goods at the request of the United States. We cannot allow this.
The memory of the Panamanian people is strong and fresh. They remember the triumph of having defeated First Quantum Minerals, and are preparing to resume the struggle in defence of the territory and the environment, together with the struggle of the workers and the peoples.
For a workers’ and popular emergency plan so that the capitalists pay for the crisis and not the workers.
It’s clear that Panama is an extremely rich country with a huge and powerful working class, but it has been plundered by imperialism, the local capitalists and all the corporate governments. Decades of this policy have increased labour informality, which affects half the population, more than 30% of whom are heavily indebted to cover their needs due to low wages. Various studies show that the wage bill in wealth production has fallen from 50% of GDP to less than 30% in 20 years. Wealth is growing rapidly: The richest 10% receive 37.3% of national income, or almost 13 times more than that of the poorest 40%.
It’s clear that Panama is an extremely rich country with a huge and powerful working class, but it has been plundered by imperialism, the local capitalists and all the corporate governments. Decades of this policy have increased labour informality, which affects half the population, more than 30% of whom are heavily indebted to cover their needs due to low wages. Various studies show that the wage bill in wealth production has fallen from 50% of GDP to less than 30% in 20 years. Wealth is growing rapidly: The richest 10% receive 37.3% of national income, or almost 13 times more than that of the poorest 40%.
Mulino claims that the economy is growing steadily and that in April 2025, GDP grew by 7.8%. But he hides the fact that tax collection in 2024 totalled just 6.6% of GDP, the lowest figure in the entire Latin American region, and half that of 2022. So GDP grows, but the state collects less and less, because the capitalists keep the money in tax breaks, with tax evasion accounting for 4% of GDP. More than 35 billion dollars have been evaded in the last 10 years.
Today’s legitimate struggles – and those of the past – are seeking a response to the economic, social and political crisis imposed by all the governments in power. Mulino is seeking to impose more repression as his only mechanism to contain discontent with MPs, with the justice system and with the bosses’ parties. Faced with this calamitous social and political situation, it is urgent to take concrete measures to strengthen the sovereignty and well-being of the people.
From Socialist Proposal, we believe that it is fundamental to fight, to impose a workers’ and people’s plan, so that the crisis is paid for by the capitalists and not by the workers and the people. It is urgent to take fundamental measures.
The immediate cancellation and annulment of all treaties, memoranda and agreements with imperialism that undermine sovereignty; the immediate recovery and nationalisation of the ports of Cristobal and Balboa, and the annulment of the electricity, telecommunications and transport concessions; keeping the airports under state administration and not handing them over to French companies, as Mulino is negotiating behind the backs of the people. With these measures, we can guarantee that national resources benefit the working people, and not foreign interests and environmental destruction.
To put an end to the looting, it is necessary to renege on and default on the illegitimate and fraudulent foreign debt to the IMF, cancel all the tax exemptions and exemptions for the big capitalists, nationalise the banks and foreign trade and promote a tax reform so that those who have more, pay more, thus putting an end to capital flight and hunger for the people forever.
A public works plan to guarantee drinking water for the entire Panamanian population, putting an end to the privileging of a few over a fundamental right; the construction of affordable housing to put an end to the barbaric property speculation that builds luxury buildings that remain empty, while thousands have no decent housing; The repair and massive construction of public roads and the building of public hospitals, to dignify the conditions of mobility and development throughout the country, so that peasants in the countryside can move the food they produce to the cities to feed the people and guarantee food sovereignty, promoting national production and reducing dependence on imports, which only enrich the transnationals.
The country’s resources must go back to the people! An increase in the budget for health and education, wage rises for all workers, an urgent financial injection into the Social Security Fund, the strengthening of a solidarity system that protects the working class and the most vulnerable sectors. All these necessary measures are not utopian. They are the urgent measures that working people need to get out of the crisis. Mobilising, organising and fighting for a workers’ government will make them a reality. Join the Socialist Proposal and fight to win them!
Urgent General Strike
Faced with attacks, persecution, trials and repression, and after a hard month of mobilisations and struggles, many comrades are asking themselves: how can we continue to organise to defeat Mulino? From the Socialist Proposal, we offer some reflections for democratic debate among the fighters and our organisations, in order to build unity to fight.
Faced with attacks, persecution, trials and repression, and after a hard month of mobilisations and struggles, many comrades are asking themselves: how can we continue to organise to defeat Mulino? From the Socialist Proposal, we offer some reflections for democratic debate among the fighters and our organisations, in order to build unity to fight.
We believe that the open struggle against the government requires the maximum effort of unity. We think it’s important that the rest of the national centrals, confederations, federations, and unions join the national strike of the teachers, SUNTRACS, the banana workers, the indigenous peoples, students, women, and popular sectors. We cannot abandon them in this fight.
Down with repression! Free the detained SUNTRACS leaders and end the persecution! Reinstatement of all banana workers fired by Chiquita!
In defence of sovereignty! Annulment of the treaties and memorandum of the Mulino government with the Yankees!
Repeal of Law 462 that privatises the CSS!
No to the dam in the Indio River basin! Out with First Quantum Minerals! No to polluting and unconstitutional mega mining!
