¡Huelga!

The traffic circle at my school at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, amid a citywide work stoppage.

The same vantage point 24 hours later, when things were back to normal.

Sure enough, less than a week in Cusco and a work stoppage just about paralyzes the town. The Friday before I arrived, high school and college students protested over an increase in bus fares. Tuesday it was the bus drivers´ turn. If fares are going up, they want a piece of the action. Tuesday wasn´t technically a "huelga," or strike, but it was close.

The bus drivers, however, made the students look lame, because the bus drivers union got all the other unions to join their 24-hour work stoppage. And the whole town just about shut down. The vast majority of cars over here are taxis, and while I don´t believe most taxi drivers are in a union, it was clear the unionists didn´t want the taxis plying their trade during a work stoppage.

Rows of rocks deterred taxis from working during the stoppage, and also provided handy ammo for unionists when a taxi did drive through.

Unionists gathered at corners and harrassed anyone who drove by, including the few private cars in town. They yelled, blocked the road with rocks, whistled, jeered and tossed a few stones here and there, but no major damage was reported. Banks, post office and cops were all on duty -- just about everything else was shut down. Even little shops that sell snacks, if they dared to open, kept their doors only slightly open, hoping to avoid the wrath of unionistas. This action was simply a shot across the bow -- a warning that things could get ugly if the unions were pressed.

They like their statues big over here, and they like their work stoppages widespread. The places with roadwork going on had ample supplies of car-slowing material handy.

Many people could not work for a day, and secondary school students, who generally travel to class by bus, had the day off. People acted like it was a holiday, playing and walking in the streets with little concern -- opposed to most days, when it´s a dodge with death just getting across a street. I saw four volleyball games in the street Tuesday, and only two of the had a net.

In a significantly poor place, with unionism now on the upswing, anti-capitalist sentiment is widespread. This states that capitalism doesn´t discuss, it destroys.