 Hello and welcome to Around the World in 8 Minutes, a show by People's Dispatch. In this show, we bring you stories of mass mobilization and resistance as people's movements across the world rise against authoritarianism, exploitation and oppression. In today's show, we look at the confrontation in Chile between the people and a repressive government, mass protests in Honduras against the regime and the struggle of the workers of the University of Johannesburg in South Africa for their rights. We begin with a situation in Chile where a national strike has been called today against the government of Sebastian Pinera and the emergency it has declared in key regions. Organizations across the country are also protesting the militarization of cities and the violence unleashed on those who are protesting Pinera's neoliberal reforms. There are reports that many organizations have called for his resignation. Sebastian Pinera imposed a state of emergency on Friday night after over a week of massive protests by students against a hike in transport fares, especially in the fares of the Santiago metro. The students protested by jumping turnstiles and refusing to pay for the tickets. The fare hikes had made Santiago's transport system among the most expensive in the world. The police attacked the students mercilessly and following the circulation of a video showing the repression of the protesters, thousands of people across the country joined the movement on Friday. Angry protesters set fire to several metro stations, the headquarters of the national energy company, buses and a branch of the Banco Chile. In response, the national police arrested at least 300 people and 150 suffered severe injuries. At least three people have died in the protests. It was increasingly clear that a protest had escalated and had become as much about the anti-people policies of the government of Pinera. In response, the president declared a state of emergency in the province of Santiago. The state of emergency which was imposed for 15 days prohibits people from holding public demonstrations, meetings, mobilizations and allows the military to fulfill the functions of the police. On Saturday morning, Santiago woke up to heavy military presence across the city. Large sections of the downtown were closed and all the services in the metro system were suspended. However, despite the heavy militarization and state of emergency, thousands took to the streets again. This is the first time soldiers have been deployed on the streets of Santiago since the end of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in 1990. On Sunday, the state of emergency was also declared in the regions of Coquimbo, Valparaiso, Oigins and Biobio. In addition, a curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. was also announced in the metropolitan region of Santiago and the communes of Puente Alta and San Bernardo. While the fair hikes have served as a catalyst for the recent wave of protests, they have also awakened the longstanding discontent in Chile. The country which in the 70s and 80s served as a laboratory of neoliberalism in the region is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Under Sebastian Pinera, neoliberal measures have been intensified with the repeal of workers' rights, anti-union measures, privatization of public education and advancement of extractive industries. The social movements of Alba expressed their support in solidarity to the people of Chile in their fight against neoliberalism and denounced the state's repression of social protests. We denounced the authoritarianism of Pinera's government and a demand and end to the state of emergency. No more repression and arbitrary detention. We embraced and joined in solidarity from all over our Americas in support of the general strike this Monday, said Alba in its official statement. We now move on to Honduras, where social movements and the people are continuing the resistance to the regime in the aftermath of the conviction of the president's brother. On October 18, Tony Hernandez, the younger brother of the president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was declared guilty of trafficking 200,000 kilograms of cocaine and heavy weapons into the US. Hernandez will be sentenced on January 17, 2020 and faces a mandatory 30-year prison sentence and could even face a maximum life sentence of life imprisonment. The verdict is led to massive protests against the endemic corruption and criminality of the government of president Juan Orlando Hernandez, also known as JOH. JOH is implicated in the case as a co-author. On October 18, following the announcement of the verdict, spontaneous protests broke out across the cities and towns of Honduras with one demand, where are JOH Narco-Dictator, which means get out JOH, you Narco-Dictator. The people of Honduras have been in a state of permanent rebellion since JOH was re-elected in November 2017 in an election marked by blatant fraud. Since then, the Honduran people have been on the streets against JOH and its policies of extractivism, dispossession of people and communities, repression, violence, corruption and criminality. Since the revelation that JOH himself was implicated in Tony's case as co-conspirator for the protests have gained greater strength. On Saturday October 19, the former president and leader of the Liberty and Re-Foundation Party, Manuel Zelaya, the former opposition presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla and the president of the Liberal Party, Luis Zelaya, announced the creation of a new political alliance for the final offensive against JOH. This front is called the coalition of unity of the opposition out-dictator. The opposition alliance has joined the Honduran social movements and organizations in calling for massive protests to bring a definitive end to the JOH regime. On Friday, in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, central roads and highways were blocked and barricades with burning tires were re-elected. We now move on to the final story, which is the strike by hundreds of workers of the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. These workers, including security personnel and sanitation staff, have been on strike for 18 days over the university administration's refusal to accept the demands for equal pay for equal work. The workers are represented by the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, NUMSA. On October 18th, NUMSA submitted a memorandum, Dr. Nolita Vakuza, senior executive director at the office of the vice chancellor. The memorandum called out the administration's practice of forcing employees to work extra hours for no additional pay and its refusal to pay the security staff for the work they do on Saturdays. In 2016, under the pressure from the free fees must fall movement, the university was forced to insource the workers. However, this was a trick, since those who were insourced in 2016 continue to earn less than permanent employees. These insourced workers are earning a monthly basic salary of 5,000 grand, which is nearly $333, while permanent workers earn a basic of 12,200 grants, which is $820. The difference of nearly 7,200 grants persists despite the fact that both sections do exactly the same kind of work. The insourced workers also do not receive the same benefits. These workers have to pay for their own medical aid, with the university making a small contribution of only 200 grand. Meanwhile, permanent staff get 100% contribution from the university. NUMSA has pointed out that the difference in pay and benefits is both a violation of the principle of equal pay for equal work and also of the constitutional court order on labour brokers, which NUMSA won in 2018. As per this judgment, any worker employed through a labour broker for an annual pay of 205,000 grants or less is eligible to acquire the status of a permanent employee after three months of work. The university is citing weak finances as a reason for not paying the workers, but NUMSA has noted that it does seem to have the money to spend on private companies which are bringing workers from outside to replace those on strike. NUMSA will continue its strike action in picketing at the university premises till October 25th, which is the deadline it has given to the university administration to respond to its demands. That's all we have for this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. 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