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NSCAG Youth Delegation, February 2008:
Report and findings
Photo shows members of the Maria Elena Cuadra womens' rights organisation
with the delegation participants: Jennifer Forbes, CWU, Heenal Rajani, UNISON, Daniel
Robertson, UNISON, Altaf Aris, UNITE Amicus and Daniel Carden, UNITE TGWU.
Contact details of main unions:
FNT
: National Federation of Workers
fnt@fnt.org.ni
www.fnt.org.ni
ANDEN
: Teachers Union anden@guegue.com.ni
ATC : Agricultural Workers Union
atcnic@ibw.com.ni
CST
: Industrial and Manufacturing Services Union including Construction
workers & the Free Trade Zones.
CTCP:
Informal Sector Union
FESC : Communication Workers
fesc@cablenet.com.ni
FETSALUD
: Health Workers Union
fnt@fnt.org.ni
www.fnt.org.ni
UNE : Public Sector Union
cocentrafemenino@xerox.com.ni
1) The FNT (National Workers' Front): structures and campaigns
The FNT currently has seven member trade union federations:
ANDEN, Teachers union, 17,000 affiliates
CST-JBE, Communications, maquillas and private sector workers: 25,000 affiliates
CTCP, Informal workers, 22,000 affiliates
FEPDES- ATD, 2,500 affiliates
FESITUN, University workers, 3,000 affiliates
FETSALUD, Health workers, 19,000 affiliates
UNE, Public sector workers: 25,000 affiliates
The General secretary of each of these trade union federations sits on the FNT
Executive Committee, along with a Women’s representative and Education
Coordinator. The FNT has a relatively centralized and vertical structure.
The FNT's main campaigns at a national level include:
Trade agreements
- Campaign against the proposed EU Association Agreement, making sure that trade
unions are include in the negotiation. The FNT states that it will not sign the
agreement under any terms even if the government decides to go ahead. If the
agreement is signed the FNT are supporting the proposal that the EU gives
Nicaragua $35 million to be spent on developing economic capacity. This campaign
is being carried out in collaboration with all trade union federations in
Nicaragua through the Nicaraguan Council of trade unions.
- Promotion of ALBA as an alternative to CAFTA
- Promotion of fair-trade and not free trade
Anti-privatisation and pro-nationalisation
- The enforcement of article 185 of the constitution on free health and
education
- Anti-privatisation of water
- Promotion of the nationalisation of electricity
- Campaign to make employers respect CBA´s in water and other privatised
institutions
Equality of rights, pay and work
- campaigning to limit discrimination due to gender, age and ethnic origin in
the workplace
- campaigning on particular issue of 25% disparity of pay for women in same work
roles
Budget campaigns
- Mobilization of workers to support reforms in the regressive tax system, for
example, raising the minimum salary for taxation (currently at $US 270 per month
when the basic cost of living is $US 350 per month).
- Campaign to reform government payment of internal debt by reducing payment of
CENIS bonds which accounted for 8 million cordobas of expenditure last year,
compared to 9 million received in social security payments
- Campaign to increase minimum wage by 16%, rather than government proposal of
12%, to be paid for by reform government payment of bank bond repayments
- Campaign to reinstate the public bank whilst also creating an FNT workers bank
to provide credit to workers to improve their conditions, eg, housing, small
businesses.
Health and Education
- FNT is supporting its union leaders to provide education in local communities
in collaboration with the FSLN literacy campaign
-FETSALUD are collaborating with the Sandinista doctors movement, working to
provide health care in local communities
Wage distribution
- All FNT union officials and unionists in the national assembly invest a
percentage of their earnings back into their trade unions and, in the case of
Gustavo Porras and unionists in national assembly, also work voluntarily for
their union.
As well as mobilizing the FNT membership, these campaigns are being supported
through collaboration with other national union federations and FNT
representation in the FSLN national assembly and the Sandinista Council by
Gustavo Porras.
2) The FNT Women’s Committee
The FNT has a Women’s committee that consists of the women’s secretary of each
of the 7 union federations. Of these, one also sits on the FNT Executive -
Miriam Reyes, who also coordinates the youth work.
40% of FNT members are women, 45% are in regional union positions but only 30%
in national positions. Within the FNT member unions the work with women is
strongest in the sectors of health and education and maquillas, as this
is where most women are employed. Andrea Morales, youth and women’s organizer
for CST-JBE is the youngest on the committee.
The women’s committee is working to:
- empower women and open up spaces in the FNT directive, with a goal of 50%
participation at all levels of the FNT.
- include a gender focus in the work and agenda of the FNT, promoting the
discussion of specific issues for women workers at the FNT level (for example
the impact of the EU AA on women workers, as researched by the CST-JBE).
- carry out training for both women and men around gender and empowerment
issues.
- develop training in sexual reproduction and health, with particular focus on
problems of HIVAIDS and STD´s
- strengthen FNT campaigns on femicide and anti-violence against women
- promote the PSI maternity campaign
The obstacles to this work include:
- a lack of financial resources to carry out women focused activities and women
orientated structures at local and regional level (the current FNT budget allows
for only 3 workshops per year for the women’s committee)
- the women’s committee do not have their own office, computer or equipment.
- men are aware of the issues and talk the talk but do not do anything when it
comes to taking actions in defense of women’s rights and empowerment
(An interesting report has been published by the Central American union
federation on the obstacles faced by women in CA trade unions)
Key issues for women workers
- Nationally, women earn 25% less than men in the same jobs, compared to 15% in
the UK
- Women do not have places to leave children during work hours (the FSLN have
committed to develop day care centres)
- Many women workers, especially in the maquillas, are single mothers and
are therefore especially fearful of organising and loosing their jobs.
- Women do not yet have the confidence to take the leading roles within the
trade unions, especially when their male counterparts want these posts as well
3) The FNT Youth Programme
The FNT Ad-hoc youth Committee is 2 years old and was initiated and set up by
the Women’s Committee, who still coordinate the youth work. The FNT Ad-hoc youth
committee consists of Miriam Reyes (Coordinator of the FNT youth and women’s
committee), Carlos Tinoco (FNT Youth coordinator and UNE/ FETRAJUN), Freddy
Fritoria (FNT Youth secretary and FESITUN), plus input from Armando (CST-JBE
Youth Secretary) and Vidal Luiz (FETSALUD Youth secretary) and Walter Espinoza (CTCP
Youth secretary). ANDEN and FEPDES-ATD are not represented as they do not yet
have active youth structures within their own federations. UNE appears to be the
strongest of the federations in terms of youth work and are pushing this
development throughout the FNT.
The aim of the FNT is to set up a permanent Youth Committee consisting of youth
leaders from each of the seven member trade union federations. It was agreed at
the FNT extraordinary Congress on February 16th 2008 that this permanent youth
committee would be agreed upon at the FNT Congress 2009. This delay will give
the FNT time to develop the youth work in all their member unions to ensure that
all seven federations have an active youth committee that can be represented by
a youth secretary at the FNT level. One of these youth leaders will then be
elected to sit on the FNT Executive committee.
At Congress it was also decided to split the youth and women’s committees and
Maritza Espinoza was therefore elected as new youth coordinator, replacing
Miriam (Maritza is the General Secretary of FESITUN, on the FNT Womens Committee
and the FNT Exec. as Education Coordinator).
When the young delegates from the UK spoke at the FNT extraordinary Congress
they supported this decision to formalise the FNT youth structures and ensure
their representation on the FNT Executive, making reference to the contribution
this can and has made to the development of youth participation within British
trade unions.
The first stage of the FNT youth programme has been to map the young members,
get them organized and in positions within their unions and develop youth
structures within the individual unions and federations. This has been achieved
through 7 national conferences for each federation (with 25 participants each
plus more where the unions themselves funded young member participants) plus one
national FNT Youth Assembly. The idea is that these youth will then train other
young members within their unions. Using the demands and ideas of the youth that
participated in this assembly in November 2007, the future youth work has been
outlined in the FNT Strategic plan. The FNT have also mentioned that they aim to
have a youth coordinator in each of the 28 municipalities.
Now the funds have been transferred from UNISON, the FNT are ready to start the
next stage of the youth project, implementing their strategic plan and carrying
out the next round of workshops at federation and national level. The final
report of these activities will be produced in August.
Some obstacles to youth organizing and participation:
- Apathy:The last 16 years of right wing rule has broken down structures for
youth participation, the governments doing nothing to promote youth or womens
participation, just promoting consumerism rather than values and activism.
Strategies are needed to re-engage youth and bring back the youth commitment of
the 80´s. The right wing media also continues to attack trade union freedom and
activism
- Youth unemployment is high so many people don’t start work until they are 30.
Once people have a job they want to stay in this position so few spaces open up
for young people.
- Young people often go to the private sector for work as they get better roles,
e.g, managerial roles, although this work is not better paid. Unions have a lot
less influence in the private sector
4) The FNT and the FSLN (Sandinista Party, currently in power)
* The FNT state that they will not abandon their Sandinista flag and feel that
the FSLN is more dynamic with FNT participation. They need to remain in the
structure to influence it and will maintain their opinions and voice in the
assembly.
* The FNT support the government but are against the economic models in place in
the country, if the government decides to accept capitalist pressure then the
FNT will be in contradiction to the government. The FNT very much see it as the
role of the workers to highlight and problems within the government and push the
changes away from neo-liberalism.
* They feel that the FSLN is the best alliance for workers but the issue is that
some ministers are not being coherent with the government policy and the FNT
will continue to support the marginalized and not the attitudes of corrupt
officials.
* The ministry of labour is now far more in favour of workers issues and there
is much less corruption, improving relations with the unions. The FNT state that
they do however remain autonomous from the FSLN and have already organized two
strikes in government institutions of the ministry of labour and the Supreme
Court of Justice..
Many member unions of the FNT believe that the FSLN used a number of strategies,
such as the abortion ban and signing of CAFTA to get into power, but now that
they are in power they have the power to consider alternatives, for example by
promoting ALBA. However, the government is not able to appeal CAFTA agreement as
they would suffer sever penalties if they went back in the agreement, eg,
Nicaragua has to pay the loss of earnings to nay companies that would loose out
if CAFTA was appealed.
5) Meetings with FNT member unions, per sector
a. Informal sector workers
(see photo)
The CTCP (Confederacion de Trabajadores de Cuenta Propia)
was founded in 2002 and initially worked with workers at the traffic lights.
These workers were accused of killing an Executive member of the police and 364
of the workers were detained. The union fought for the release of the workers
and from then on worked to organize and improve conditions.
The informal sector represents 75% of employment in Nicaragua, 78% of these
workers are women. Most informal workers live and work in Managua. 60% of cash
flow in Nicaragua passes through the informal sector. Informal workers don’t
receive social security but contribute 60% to the national economy. CTCP want
the government to recognise this contribution and incorporate the demands of the
informal sector into the budget.
Workers are harrassed, often sexually (for example bus drivers will insist they
get to touch up the worker if she wants to be let on the bus to sell produce),
suffer violence and are constantly moved on by police although informal work is
legal police can use laws such as obstruction of right of way (workers are often
detained for days at a time impacting greatly on worker income that week).
Health is also a big issue due to long work hours in conditions of pollution,
dust, strong sun etc. Daily humiliation is another key issue. Many female
workers are also single mothers. The average age is $80 per month but this can
vary greatly
The main aim of the CTCP is to get people off the street and out of indecent
work into decent work with safe and secure environment. The CTCP main areas of
work are training, access to health care, work stability, supporting primary,
secondary and higher education (incl. 16 workers who have been sent to study
medicine in Cuba), providing infrastructure such as stalls and supporting
workers to set up formal shops and small businesses to improve conditions and
stability of work, encouraging participation in national policy and trying to
get protection for informal workers built into national law.
The CTCP consists of 5 unions, 87 union branches and 32, 986 members. They are
affiliated to and on the EC of Street Net International and they founded SEICAP
(Central American network of informal and unemployed workers)
CTCP stated that they have no political affiliation and work regularly with all
political parties, they want to be self-sufficient and not dependant on party
affiliation.
Youth- the CTCP now have youth secretary (walter espinoiza) and ad-hoc
youth committee of 3 elected young members and aim to formalize youth structure
to enable participation at FNT level. Over 15 young members turned up at the
meeting from the age of 12 to 25. Some of the youth were involved in other
networks such as the Sandanista youth front and the Genesis cooperative of 40
informal workers, 32 women (a Jubilee house, Quaker funded project to set up a
worker owned organic thread factory in cuidad sandina), who requested help to
cover their living costs whilst they set up the business, education support and
training on gender issues.
The CTCP separate their youth work into those over 16, as this is when you can
get an identity card, and those under 16. They also separate youth in terms of
those who want to be organized and improve conditions and those who don’t, ie,
those who are involve in crime and drugs. They work with these separately giving
moral education and support to get out of their lives on the street. They also
arrange sporting activities as many young workers get no opportunities to do
recreational activities, as well as supporting youth with education grants.
b. Maquilla workers
UNE, September 11th union (the day they signed
their CBA): organizing in a Korean clothing factory in the free trade zone in
Carazo. Conditions used to be very poor with major union repression, wage cuts
and not permitting workers to go to the toilet. The Korean owner would
continually threat that they would relocate if union pressures increase. Unions
now exist but workers are told that if they want to work with the union they
have to make up for the lost work hours in the evening or at weekends.
CST-JBE, Che Guevara union. The assistant secretary, Fidas Humberto, is an
active young member, definitely the most inspiring person we met, he spoke out
at the FNT Congress about a number of issues, particularly the problems with the
lack of young people doing youth work within the FNT. He set up the Che Guevara
union in his work place in the maquillas and plans to develop this work in other
maquillas in the near future. He was sacked and black listed after 4 years
working at the maquilla and is now unemployed. He was originally a member of a
white union, where the employer paid him 400 cordobas a month to make no
complaints, he then joined another worker in setting up the Che Guevara union
and soon after 200 people were sacked for joining or considering joining!. 38
workers remained with the union and managed to get the employer to agree to
reinstate the workers, but no action has been taken. 70 workers went on strike
in May but all were then sacked. Fidas cant get another job until his case has
been heard by the labour ministry.The same company, Hin Sing (?), has another 37
factories in the free trade zone, the Che Guevara union is trying to organize in
all factories but face many obstacles so little progress has been made.
CST-JBE, March 9th union for sweat shop workers - has branches in a number of
different factories in the free trade zones. Their work is gender focused and
they are aiming for 80% women representation in the union leadership.
CST-JBE (Confederacion Sindical de Trabajadores – Jose Benito Escobar) (general
info): Armando lopez was our main contact at the CST. He is the CST education
secretary and CST rep on the FNT Youth Committee. The CST have 19 trade union
federations, 120 unions in sectors of private industry, trade and services,
construction, maquillas, free trade zones, communication, food industry, banana
workers, sea workers (fishing, diving, sailing)
They have 6 women and one youth secretary on the EC. They are politically
autonomous but identify with the Sandanista movement. They believe in political
autonomy to be able to grow and defend the interest of workers
CST work in the maquillas: CST is working with other sectors to try and secure
jobs for the sacked workers outside of the free trade zones. CST is asking the
government to make sure that all companies pay a deposit when setting up in free
trade zones. The new government has improved the situation by not taking any
bribes from the companies to avoid tax, but now many are threatening to leave.
Company case study: Mille Colores has been in Nicaragua for 10 years without
paying tax and running up severe debts of rent expenses as well as owing 74
million cordobas in social security payments. Company closed over the weekend
without telling workers, over 500 jobs were lost. Security guards called workers
to say the company was moving out- the workers took over the factory by force
and fought for 4 months for severance payment. Case is in the courts and workers
are waiting for factory and equipment to be auctioned.
Key issues for women in maquillas
- 80% of the workforce are women (which Fidas believes is mainly due to the fact
that they are easier to manipulate by employers)
- union membership is no where near proportional to this 80%
-Many women workers in the maquillas are single mothers and therefore are very
fearful of organising and loosing their jobs, making this representation
difficult to achieve.
-Women have to work long hours and are not offered any child care support in the
factories: these issues are not represented by men in the unions.
-Women do not yet have the confidence to take the leading roles within the trade
unions, especially when their male counterparts want these posts as well
- Employers will not hire pregnant women, although permanent workers do
sometimes get maternity leave (3 months only in national labour law). Many women
will however be kept on short term contracts to avoid this
Youth- we met with about 15 young members under 30 and all were very
active within their unions. The general secretary and Armando left the group
after intial questions leaving us for a direct exchange with the young members
without the intervention of the leadership, which was very refreshing and
enabled many interesting discussions. They plan to develop their youth programme
with new training methods and a sports and culture programme.
The CST asked for support along supply chains, eg EU consumers of clothes
produced in Nicaragua, to organize joint campaigns. Urgent action responses for
when union leaders are sacked, raising awareness of what the TUs are doing and
financial support for cultural and sport activities
c. Communications workers
CST-JBE, Federation Enrique Schmidt. (We met with
Enitel call center workers and telephone engineers)
Telecommunication companies have recently been privatized and many are now owned
by Slim (?) or Movistar. The workers are divided into 2 groups by the companies,
new and young workers who have been there for less than 10 years and older
workers who have been there for 10 years plus. The new workers are being
subcontracted out and are not allowed to join a trade union. These workers have
very low wages and minimal job security. The FESC is trying to get funding to
train these new workers and get them organized.
Separate groups are also being picked out for sub-contraction, such as the
cleaners, security etc. there are also many white unions within the
telecommunications sector, acting as another obstacle to worker organization.
Call centers, which began to open in Nicaragua 1 year ago, e g, ENITEL, are also
causing new problems for union organization in this sector.
Youth- all of the FESC workers we met were below 30 and one spoke English
so the delegates were able to talk directly and have kept in touch since.
d. Municipal government workers
UNE, Federation of municipal workers in Carazo: The
municipal government is trying to break down the unions by sacking union leaders
and disrespecting the workers rights, although they are given a room to meet in.
They feel that there are more problems with the Sandanista government than in
the past but this is due to corrupt individuals within the municipal government
and the labour ministry is now supporting workers in their struggle to resolve
cases of unfair dismissal at municipal level. Municipal officer are used to 61
years of neo-liberal rule and their action remain the same as they were before,
these officers need to be changed and government policy enforced
The delegates mentioned that this is the same situation as in the UK, but the
government is more subtle; local government meets with the trade unions and on
the surface they have good relations but no action is ever actually taken to
improve conditions or respond to workers demands. In the UK, they also try to
create the image that unions are not effective so that workers don’t want to
join, which in turn results in unions not being effective. The youth of today
were not around in the 70´s and 80´s when the unions achieved a lot and
therefore are lacking the same inspiration to get involved.
Youth- There are few young people working in municipal government and the
union are using sport to try and engage young members. We met 4 young members,
two female, but they seemd rather shy in the presence of the union leaders.
UNE, Federation of municipal workers in Managua (FETRAMUN):
Consists of 11 trade unions, representing 2,000 workers. FETRAMUN were possibly
the most political union we met, with strong support for the FSLN, detailing
many of the FSLN positive policies in the meeting.
FETRAMUN support the economic policies of the government as this supports the
stability of their work. When they ask for wage increases they take the
government budget into account. In the 2008 budget the mayor plans to build an
expensive bridge in a shopping mall and FETRAMUN are trying to get the mayor to
spend it on repairing the roads and increasing workers wages instead.
They carry out training in the law of administrative careers and promotion and
law 502 of municipal careers, this work is supported by UNISON.
They are working to empower women through training and the development of a
women’s committee and have 50% representation of women in union leadership but
this is not passed up to the EC (only one in 15 of the EC are women).
Youth - We met one of the most inspirational female young members at this
meeting, who spoke openly about the abortion issues and the influence of the
male leaders of the FNT in preventing action being taken on this. FETRAMUN said
they feel lucky to be part of UNE as this gives them the opportunity to develop
their work with women and youth, but so far they have had limited results in
empowering youth or women within their leadership structures.
e. University workers
FESITUN (Federacion de Sindicatos de Trabajadores
Universitarios): This federation of university workers consists of nine
trade unions that represent administrative workers (and some teachers) in public
and private universities. The universities are autonomous so the unions have
strength.
Sector history: The revolution in 1979 saw a 500% increase in university
enrollment, increasing access for the poor. The government tried to privitise
all universities in 1999 as they were a burden on the budget, passing the
economic responsibility onto families and parents
FESITUN have been involved in the fight for free education for the past 16
years; these struggles were violently repressed by the national police and one
FESITUN union leader was killed. The National Union of Students was also very
active in this fight and held a hunger strike for 13 days. The government has
now implemented their demand but they do not believe the fight is over as many
right wing MPs are trying to return to the policy of paid education.
FESITUN’s current work includes increasing CBA´s, labour stability, increased
wage rates, union freedom plus campaigns against water privitisation, promoting
sexual diversity, environmental issues and anti-femicide and violence campaigns.
They work to promote the idea of social investment rather than social
expenditure within the government. They are also working to support local
communities by offering education workshops on labour rights and international
issues.
Women’s committee structures and agendas are being developed in all 9 unions but
women need to be encouraged to take more opportunity of the leading roles that
are being opened for them.
Youth- This sector has very few young employees. FESITUN aim to replace
all union leaders with young members but the problem is motivating the youth;
there are not enough active youth to fill the positions We met the FESITUN youth
secretary and a few other youth coordinators but they were all over 25.
Jennifer Forbes was interviewed for the FESITUN university radio broadcast,
responding to questions on the aims of the trip, the issues for youth in the UK
and plans for developing young member solidarity. The radio programme is one of
their organizing tools, particularly among young members.
6. The therapeutic abortion ban
Views from:
* Gustavo Porras, ie, the FNT and FSLN stance
Whilst stating that the FNT are against the therapeutic abortion ban (and Porras
himself is actually pro-abortion), Porras argued that:
- in 1979 the FSLN were the first to open the debate on women’s rights for the
first time and these priorities remain within the party.
- in a government survey when asked what was most important to them 97% of
Nicaraguan women said God and religion.
- social, cultural and religious forces that are opposing therapeutic abortion
can not be ignored by the government
- 80% of the population said they were against abortion (but not specifically
therapeutic)
- average education in Nicaragua is 4 years, which contributes greatly to the
ignorance of the population around issues such as the therapeutic abortion ban
- the ministry of health has issued clear guidelines on how the ban should be
applied in practice to make sure that each case can be looked at individually
based and allowing for emergency treatment (eg, in the case of ectopic pregnancy
3 doctors can decide together to do an abortion and sign a specific form to
evade legal repercussions)
- He believes that there have been no deaths directly related to the ban on
therapeutic abortion, all deaths recorded have been due to other circumstances
* FNT Women’s Committee
- The women’s committee currently do not have a common view on the ban and have
therefore not developed any action around it, they do however agree that it has
been a major set back for the country and that they must reach a joint position.
- They plan to include the topic in future education work to raise awareness on
what the ban actually means as lack of education and awareness, particularly in
respect to very poor sexual education in Nicaragua, is the main causal factor
for the implementation of the ban.
- They highlighted the fact that the women supporting the ban are rich and can
simply pay for an abortion when needed, it’s the poor that have to suffer the
consequences.
* FNT women members
-Most women members in the trade unions appear to be anti the therapeutic
abortion ban when they speak openly about it, however, they are not able to talk
openly about it due to the male domination in the unions. The female trade
unionists are therefore limited in the action they can take to oppose the ban.
- Most women are not aware of the issues, the patriarchal actions of their
family, community, employers and government institutions leave women unaware
that they have rights and are able to stand up for these. If you are abused as a
women in all aspects of society you feel that this is how life is meant to be.
For poor women the necessities of life are to provide for family and maintain
their jobs, leaving them unable to consider the broader picture and take action
* Maria Elena Cuadra (MEC)- Womens' rights organisations
MEC is obviously completely against the therapeutic abortion ban and is
outspoken in this opinion. They have supported national campaigns and protests
against the ban and have worked in collaboration with other womens rights
organizations. However, the campaign against the ban is not at the front of
their current work as they are instead incorporating this into their wider work
in support of women’s rights in Nicaragua, the ban being juts one, very serious
violation of these rights.
* Autonomous Women’s Movement (AWM)
Violeta Delgado was the most outspoken women we met, in regards to the ban on
therapeutic abortion. They are actively campaigning against the ban and have
instigated a number of protests in collaboration with the Red de Mujeres contra
la violencia. They also work closely with the MRS, who are the only political
party who have opposed the ban in Nicaragua. They are currently working on an
international demand/ statement opposing the ban to be sent to the government
and their national and international networks. They are hoping to get a number
of signatories to this statement, in particular all the individual organizations
of the Red de Mujeres, however, they are not prepared to dilute this statement
to gain more signatories. When completed this statement will be put up on their
website -
www.movimientoautonomodemujeres.com
Actions we can take (suggested by Violeta):
-Make our opinions know to other organizations within Nicaragua, for example the
FNT and Gustavo Porras, and let them know that we are not prepared to be
accomplices to this abuse of women’s rights
-Make our concerns known to the Nicaraguan government via the foreign office,
ministers and embassies in the UK, and also via the UN if possible.
-There is a German organization called ‘ I decide about my rights’ who have been
very active on this campaign so Violeta suggested that we make links with them.
* Coordinadora Civil (CC)
The CC are against the ban, the Red de Mujeres and other key organizations that
have opposed it being members of the CC. They believe that the government
relation to the hierarchy of the church has lead to many regressions, ie the
govt have not promoted sexual health education, which has lead to pregnancy, HIV
problems and lack of awareness of the issues around therapeutic abortion.
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