Uruguay: Workers to Fight the Effects of Neoliberal Act

Uruguay’s President Luis Lacalle Friday enacted the Urgent Consideration Act (LUC), which was previously approved by Parliament on July 8.

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The discussion of this controversial law, which contains 501 articles, began on April 23 when the executive branch sent a proposal to be processed in a period not exceeding 90 days.

Approved with the support of a coalition of conservative parties, the LUC introduces changes in regulations on public security, state intelligence, education, the economy, public companies, agriculture, labor relations, social security, health, and housing, among other issues.

Progressive social organizations and political parties, however, have warned on multiple occasions about the possible perverse effects of a law that seeks to implement a neoliberal policy agenda in a country that has maintained leftist governments for more than a decade.

"The government approved the LUC, a regressive law we fought against to prevent progress from being dismantled and workers from losing rights. From the Broad Front, we will control that the people do not lose their rights. History will judge them!" The sign reads, "Mr. President, what's urgent is the people's pot."

On July 2, over 7,000 people mobilized in a march against the LUC from Independence Square to the Legislative Palace, "thus ushering in a new scenario of independent struggle and organization," the Uruguayan Workers' Party (PT) announced through social networks.

In an interview for teleSUR, The Communist Party - Broad Front lawmaker Ana Olivera explained that the LUC changes the state structure in at least 60 substantive areas.

"The Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology held that we were facing the partial construction of a police state," she recalled, adding that human rights defenders have also warned of a possible "weakening of individual guarantees in police actions."