The Party of Socialist Workers (PTS) salutes the triumph of the Yes vote which the comrades of the Stefani ceramics factory manages with more than five thousand votes n favor against the 47 who voted for No proposed by the town’s Mayor.

As we have been saying since the beginning of the conflict, PTS activists participated actively in the historic events of July 4th, together with the workers, their families and all the organizations which showed solidarity with the workers.

The workers managed to turn around the attempted con by the municipal government. The plebiscite, which was a manouvre to water down the workers struggle, yesterday was transformed into an expression of the massive support which the ceramists struggle has in their hometown of Cutral Co. The workers achieved more votes in this plebiscite than the 4,600 obtained by the winning party in the last municipal elections in 2007.

The great social force of the workers struggles is what the media, such as the provincial newspapers Río Negro or La Mañana, have come out to minimize the results of the plebiscite, because they don’t want it to be clearly shown that the workers won and the government lost. They are scared of the alliance between the workers and the wider people of Cutral Co which was expressed in this referendum.

As the workers said themselves, this support they have won gives them more legitimacy to continue with the struggle. The factory will continue producing and the struggle to guarantee the positions of the workforce and to put the factory at the service of the community continues.

He PTS will ocntinue to acocmpany them and put ourselves at the service of the ceramics workers and their unión, which yesterday reached another turning point in the history of tis struggle.

PTS – Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas/Party of Socialist Workers