MEXICO CITY - AP World News : About 125 unemployed transportation workers marched peacefully to the British Embassy here Monday in support of dock workers on strike in Liverpool, England.
- ``We are here because they supported us. This is happening because of neoliberalism,'' said a man holding a small banner saying, ``Respect for the workers.''
- The strike began in September 1995, when dockers working for a private contractor in Liverpool were ordered to work overtime for a disputed rate of pay. They refused, went on strike, and were replaced.
- Within 24 hours, all 329 stevedores employed by Mersey Docks and Harbor Company refused to cross the picket line. They were fired and replaced. Their strike goes on.
- Protesters blamed the dockers' situation on the globalization of markets and the government's hard line against labor.
- Members of the Mexico City transportation union Ruta 100 and the radical Independent Proletarian Movement, known by its acronym MPI, chanted slogans outside the embassy for about two hours.
- The show of solidarity was a surprise to British officials, embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Romero said.
- Ruta 100 was declared bankrupt and disbanded by officials in 1995 after it was widely accused of funneling money to the Zapatista National Liberation Army. Those charges were never proven, and a judge investigating the case died in mysterious circumstances, in what was officially ruled a suicide.
- The British dockers' have expressed solidarity with the Mexican transportation workers during protests here last year.
[01-20-97 at 18:07 EST, Copyright 1997, The Associated Press]
