Seven-hundredth grassroots, labor and left –wing delegates attended a national assembly on July 28 convened by the Alternative Social Forum (FSA) to discuss the next steps in the struggle against the neoliberal policies of President Leonel Fernandez and his administration.

The national assembly took place after a successful 24-hour general strike on July 9 that paralyzed schools and partially halted public transportation and commerce.

Delegates at the assembly voted to authorize the FSA leadership to set a date for another general strike to be held sometime in September as a response to the government’s refusal to meet the demands of the popular movement.

Speakers denounced the repression unleashed against the FSA during the general strike and accused the three main traditional parties of being more of the same.

Meanwhile, the government expanded subsidized food markets (mercados populares), and water distribution in poor neighborhoods but it still yet to concede basic demands that will benefit the majority of the population such as increasing wages and lowering food and medicine prices.

The assembly also approved several resolutions in support of FSA leaders Amparo Chantada and Juan Hubieres, targets of a government campaign to discredit, criminalize and silence organized protest.

Chantada is an environmentalist whose criticism of the lavish construction projects underway, and her role in the FSA, led to her expulsion from the Academy of Science on June 26.

Hubieres is the leader of the New Option National Transport Union (FENATRANO) that led the transport stoppages last march in Santo Domingo, the capital. He is being singled out by for his militant stance during the stoppages and the recent general strike. After a bomb was thrown at a bus during the stoppages the government tried to prosecute Hubieres and other unionists on terrorism charges. But the government failed as the case, built with the aid of the media, fell apart when three men were arrested in connection with the attack.

In a new twist of events, 6 of the 7 injured by the bomb are now suing Hubieres and FENATRANO for encouraging the stoppages as though labor should be held accountable for the attack.

This is a clear attempt to further criminalize the labor movement under the assumption that it could have anticipated the violent attack that ensued.

State repression in the Dominican Republic is being legitimized by Fernandez under the guise of fighting terrorism. Here in the US we can show our solidarity by building an anti-imperialist left that unabashedly opposes Washington’s War on Terror which is has become the latest ideological justification to clamp down resistance against neoliberalism in Latin America and elsewhere.

Emmanuel Santos is an activist in New York City.

---