PROTEST at the PERUVIAN EMBASSY

PLANTÓN frente a la EMBAJADA del PERÚ
Friday 15 June 1-2pm
52 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9SP Knightsbridge
520 years after Colombus and Pizarro’s genocide for gold, the movement in Peru demands an end to domestic slavery and gold mining.

A year ago, after decades of organising, domestic workers won the historic Convention 189 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which recognises their rights as workers. Governments must now ratify the Convention. So far, despite promises by President Ollanta Humala’s party during the election campaign, the Convention has not been ratified. On Friday, Lima’s domestic workers’ trade union SINTTRAHOL will take to the streets to demand immediate ratification.

Impoverishment drives thousands of women and children from Indigenous and other rural areas to the city, where they are forced to take domestic work in slave conditions – unending hours; denial of wages, benefits or pensions; rape and other violence.

Leddy Mozombite, SINTTRAHOL’s General Secretary says: “Convention 189 is a great victory for women, whether we are remunerated or not, domestic workers or housewives, because it recognises the value of work in the home which has been kept invisible until now. Every country should include the economy of caring work in their public policies.”

President Humala is breaking other promises. Before he was elected he promised to fully consult the population on the gold mining Conga Project in the Cajamarca region. Instead he is giving the go-ahead to US multinational Newmont and other mining companies which threaten to destroy the environment and pollute the water supply. But Cajamarca, where Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro murdered Inca leader Atahualpa, is rebelling against this latest colonization. Despite the government sending in the army and killing protesters, the population of Cajamarca has been on general strike since 30 May: children have refused to go to school, there have been massive marches, and communal kitchens feed the strikers.

With SINTTRAHOL and the Cajamarca movement,
we call on President Humala to:

RATIFY Domestic Workers’ Rights Convention 189 – ¡RATIFIQUEN Convenio 189!
STOP CONGA Now – ¡CONGA No Va!

¡Agua Si, Oro No! –Yes to Water, No to Gold!
¡Si a la vida, No a la mina! – Yes to Life, No to Mines!
¡No a la militarización de Cajamarca! – Stop the militarisation of Cajamarca!

Called by: Collective of Peruvians in London colectivodeperuanosuk@gmail.com
Global Women’s Strike gws@globalwomenstrike.net Tel: (020) 7482 2496
Women of Colour, GWS

SINTTRAHOL is affiliated to the GWS.