06.06.2014 - 08:50
Today is the thirty-day anniversary of the beginning of high school teacher Jaume Sastre’s hunger strike to protest the contempt that the Balearic Islands Government has shown toward the demands and complaints from the education community. One month without food in order to force President José Ramón Bauzà to accept a dialogue with educators that defend a quality public school system taught in the Catalan language. Sastre still has not received any communication from the government, but in contrast, has received many, many messages of solidarity from all over.
Biel Majoral, musician and former teacher, serves as Sastre’s spokesperson since Sastre is too weak to attend to the media or visits. “He is getting a lot of support, there are very emotional moments, and I suppose that those emotions are helping him survive,” said Majoral.
Sastre is determined to continue the hunger strike, although he is now entering a more delicate phase. The results of the last medical analyses came back normal for someone who has gone a month without any food. He has lost 15 kilos (33 pounds) and has gotten to the point where in addition to burning off fat, his body has begun to eliminate muscle. On Monday he will undergo a complete analysis and muscle test. The results will show if the situation implies a grave risk to the health of the fifty-five year old language teacher.
He doesn’t want to stop. And Sastre and everyone who supports him are convinced that thanks to the hunger strike and the social mobilization that it has unleashed, Bauzà will have no other option than to open a dialogue. “When he says so, we will consider the possibility of stopping the hunger strike,” says Majoral.
He also explains that the most radical sectors of the PP have begun to circulate the rumor that the people with Sastre in the Casa Llarga are giving him food to eat. “They have begun a psychological war,” and when that happens, it’s because they’re afraid that Bauzà will make some gesture.
