The following statement was written for the Freedom Socialist on behalf of the General Council of Costa Rican Workers (CGT) by Luis Alberto Salas Sarkis, the council's secretary general.

Respectful of the people's right to self-determination, we Costa Ricans have for many years chosen our own style of living, form of government, and democratic system, which we built on the basis of solidarity and education. Our system allots a great percentage of the Internal Gross Product (6 percent) exclusively to free education, from preschool to primary and secondary school and all the way up through the state universities.

The Costa Rican system protects all those who get sick. It provides social guarantees in the form of insurance programs that cover illness, maternity and birth, labor-related accidents, disability, retirement, and death.

These programs are financed by employers, workers and the state through compulsory contributions. The labor insurance, however, is financed exclusively by employers; this is a constitutional responsibility.

All these insurance programs cover all Costa Ricans and foreigners who live in our country.

During the last few decades, we unionists have dedicated ourselves to defending these educational and health programs against a group of employers, politicians, and foreigners who are intent on ending Costa Rica's institutional structure emphasizing solidarity. They argue that expenditures on social welfare prevent the country from being able to compete in a globalized economy. Other countries offer cheaper labor than ours, they argue, which hurts investment and thus destroys jobs.

We have constantly countered these arguments with the truth: the wealthy have worked to buy off politicians in order to avoid paying both taxes and their contributions to the programs for social welfare. They want to stop supporting education as well, since the more educated people are, the more difficult it will be to exploit them, financially and physically.

So far, we have fought successfully against all the attempts in the legislature to destroy our social system. However, the corrupt and treacherous neoliberals are now attempting to attain their goals through CAFTA, the free trade agreement among Central America, the Dominican Republic, and the U.S.

Costa Rica's constitution is the nation's highest legal authority. However, our laws can be overridden by international treaties properly ratified by the legislature. This is why the passage of CAFTA is urgent for those who want to overhaul our social and educational system, eliminate social security for Costa Ricans, evade paying taxes and contributing to programs for the common good, and increase the exploitation of workers by paying them miserable wages.

Using the tools of selfishness and greed, the neoliberals are waging a battle to globalize economic systems everywhere throughout the world. But we are convinced that as long as there are societies that believe in solidarity, the neoliberals will lose. We are convinced that neoliberalism is not invincible. We will not cease to fight against its practices and methods, which impoverish us every day. We continue to fight for a better world for all the women and men who coexist with us and who depend on us.

That is why we are unionists.