Chile was shaken by an enormous earthquake across its entire national territory. The epicenter of the earthquake was close to Concepción, the second largest city in the country. Road and telephone connections are still not working properly or are completely disrupted. Several ‘sea-quakes’ followed the earthquake and a tsunami, which destroyed many coastal settlements and hit fishing villages particularly hard.
Information is still very incomplete, but it seems that thankfully most people were able to flee onto higher territory and save themselves.
Many residential properties, in all parts of the country, were badly damaged. Official estimates talk about 1.5 million houses affected. Many regions are still without energy (including electricity) or water. In some areas, people were compelled to open supermarkets to get food and water for them and their families. However, in some cases, instead of ensuring the distribution of food and water, and milk for babies, the police used physical force to prevent people from getting access to much needed resources, in order to protect ‘private property’. This is an unbelievable approach in view of the disaster befallen Chilean people.
Socialismo Revolucionario supporters send thanks to the many anxious messages of concern and solidarity that have reached us, so far. Fortunately, from all the information we have so far received from around Chile, Socialismo Revolucionario comrades survived the earthquake (there are regions which, to date, remain cut off).
Being an LGBT person means facing discrimination in the workplace, bullying at school and in many cases from family members, not being able to marry your loved one legally, and being faced with higher rates of suicide and homelessness (between 20 and 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT).
The world is a mess. War, poverty, and oppression are now part of the daily lives of billions round the globe. Even during the last boom 80% of the world’s population – 5.4 billion people – lived on less than $10 a day. Now that the world is in the midst of this crisis even the head of the World Bank has said it will result in “a human and developmental calamity… the number of chronically hungry people is expected to climb over 1 billion this year”. The wars in the middle east, enviromental destruction and worsening economic turmoil are only the most recent striking examples of the crises facing humanity.
Make ETUC 29 September "Day of action" decisive workers’ mobilisation