By MARIBEL LA LUZ

DC 37 and the city employees’ pension system are part of the growing international movement to free Lori Berenson, a U.S. citizen who on March 20 began her second trial for alleged terrorism after serving five years in harsh Peruvian prisons.

In November, two months after the City Council unanimously urged Peru to immediately release Ms. Berenson, DC 37 helped convince the New York City Employees Retirement System to take action. NYCERS wrote to major companies it holds stock in that do business in Peru, including Citibank and Marriott, asking them to press for Berenson’s release.

As a multi-million dollar shareholder in such firms, the pension fund’s involvement added teeth to the City Council resolution by raising the unstated possibility of economic sanctions. Those familiar with recent history know that disinvestment by NYCERS and other retirement systems helped weaken the apartheid regime in South Africa, leading to Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.

Since the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the “freedom rides” of the 1960s, DC 37 has battled violations of human rights and civil rights. The union supported workers’ rights in Nicaragua and El Salvador, denounced Augusto Pinochet’s notorious dictatorship in Chile, and is currently working for an end to military practice bombing on the inhabited island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.

“We consider ourselves a social force. We take a proactive stance to exert pressure in situations like this,” said DC 37 Administrator Lee Saunders. “Civil and human rights issues have a real impact on people, and we are fundamentally a social activist union.”

The action taken by DC 37, the City Council and NYCERS came late last year before the resignation of then Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori in a corruption scandal. Fujimori was forced to overturn the military conviction after it became clear that no sustainable evidence linked Ms. Berenson to the charge of leading a Peruvian terrorist group.

In her first trial — a secret, closed-door “hearing” that broke four international treaties on legal rights and Peru’s own constitution — hooded military judges sentenced her to life in prison with no chance for parole.

Lori Berenson is now on trial again in Lima, Peru. This time she could receive a sentence of up to 20 years. The retrial is in a civilian court that the U.S. State Dept. says, “fails to meet international standards of fairness and due process.”

Ms. Berenson has steadfastly maintained that she is innocent of the charges against her. Asked what she would do if freed, she said, “I have dedicated my adult years to social justice issues, and I do not plan to stop doing that.”Her parents live and teach in New York City and remain dedicated to the struggle to free their daughter.