Colombia: The FARC and the Trade Unions
Militante | 06.02.2002 08:46
Rebelion: PETRAS ESSAYS IN ENGLISH
The trade unionists and the FARC need international support from trade unionists in the U.K. and elsewhere to counter the imperialist counter-offensive. A victory for the death squads will weaken the popular struggles throughout Latin America and beyond. With international solidarity and unity of purpose within Colombia a victory would open new vistas for struggle throughout the world.
The trade unionists and the FARC need international support from trade unionists in the U.K. and elsewhere to counter the imperialist counter-offensive. A victory for the death squads will weaken the popular struggles throughout Latin America and beyond. With international solidarity and unity of purpose within Colombia a victory would open new vistas for struggle throughout the world.
Colombia: The FARC and the Trade Unions
James Petras
Colombia has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of trade union leaders and activists assassinated in the world (180 in the first 11 months of 2001). Almost all these murders are committed by paramilitary forces closely associated with the Colombian Armed Forces. Over 30,000 people mostly workers, peasant, human rights advocates, leftist political leaders, teachers and health workers have been killed by the Armed Forces and their backers among paramilitary allies over the past decade. Brutal state terrorism is supported by two identical parties, the Liberals and Conservatives, who in turn, purchase protection for their narco trafficking bankers, landlords and industrialists. The oligarchical dictatorial regime, passed off as a democracy in the Western media, is responsible for the emergence of the two guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Peoples Army (FARC-EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Thirty six years ago, in Marquetalia in the rural interior of Colombia, a group of poor peasants cultivated subsistence farms in a remote area of the country. They attempted to avoid the violent civil war and terror which predominated in the country following the assassination by the Right-wing of populist progressive leader, Eliecer Gaitan. The government however, saw these independent peasant communities as a threat and sent in the army to destroy their settlements and drive them off their land. Among these subsistence farmers there was a young peasant named Manuel Marulanda. Together with 14 other small farmers he began organizing the FARC, The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia which grew over the next 36 years into the biggest and most successful guerrilla army in the Third World, with 16,000-20,000 armed combatants and millions of supporters. Experts claim the FARC is a major influence in over 50% of the country's municipalities. Over the past 3 years Washington has poured over $2 billion in military aid to bolster the regime under the pretext of fighting the "drug war", while the major banks in the U.K. and the U.S. launder the bulk of the Colombian elite's drug profits. To bolster Washington's and the UK's war efforts against the FARC, the mass media have jumped in with a propaganda barrage designed to justify the bloody state repression by demonizing the FARC and the ELN. The Bush-Blair propaganda line disseminated by the mass media includes the following arguments.
(1) The "guerrillas" are opposed by the majority of the Colombian people; they are merely armed terrorists defending their lucrative drug trade and destroying democracy.
(2) Colombia is a democracy which is under military siege and has a right to seek outside support form the U.S. and the EU, including military aid, to defeat the FARC.
(3) Colombia's free market economy and electoral system is best for the Colombian workers and peasants, and the FARC, who oppose it, are enemies of democracy.
Let us examine each one of these propaganda messages. Colombia has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world: less than 40% of the electorate votes. The reason is they have no choice. Back in the mid-1980s an alternative Leftists electoral coalition, the Patriotic Union (UP), ran successfully for office and was subsequently destroyed: two Presidential candidates were murdered and over 5,000 activists were killed - all "unsolved" cases. Many of the trade unionists and other activists who supported the UP either fled the country, went under underground or joined the guerrillas. While the FARC is mostly based in rural areas, almost one third of its fighters come from the cities and many of these are former trade unionists. The majority of Colombians oppose the Pastrana regime's socio-economic policies of privatization, regressive labor legislation, cuts in health and education spending, pay reductions and easy firings (20% of the labor force are unemployed, and 30% are underemployed). Opposition to the Colombian version of Thatcherite policies is evident in a number of general strikes, massive protests and major highway blockages that have paralyzed the economy.
In contrast, thousands of trade unionists have attended open forums organized by the FARC in a demilitarized zone to discuss alternative job creating programs, social budgets increasing public investments in health, education and welfare. The great majority of trade union leaders' socio-economic demands coincide with the program of the FARC and not with President Pastrana's "free market" program.
Programatically the Pastrana government and the death squads support the same reactionary landlords and bankers, which explains their close military relations, while the FARC's close ties to peasant and worker unions is based on the similarity of their program.
Almost all of the death squad killings are directed at peasants not landlords, trade unionists not bosses, human rights lawyers not government officials, resistence sympathizers not U.S. military advisers. Colombia could best be described as a "death squad democracy," in which the electoral facade provides a political cover for a murderous regime.
While the social base of the Pastrana regime has shrunken to less than 15% of the population, mainly big business, landlords, drug bankers and the upper-middle class, the FARC has expanded its base of support throughout the country, from the countryside to the cities. The results published in the press regarding so-called public opinion polls are totally unreliable. Under conditions of high levels of state sponsored paramilitary terror, no group or individual is willing to express their true loyalties. The widespread terror unleashed by the paramilitary forces throughout the major provincial cities, towns and villages against trade unionists and community activists (killing an average of 250 people per month) indicates that vast confluence of views between the peoples' demands and the FARC. For the Armed Forces and their paramilitary allies, the coincidence of socio-economic reforms proposed by FARC and the similar demands of the trade unions is sufficient reason to kidnap and murder trade unionists as "suspected guerrilla sympathizers."
The greatest repression - kidnaping, torture and murder of trade unionists takes place where the government troops predominate, and the death squads have a free hand. In the regions and municipalities where the FARC is strong, the trade unions are free to successfully carry on their struggles. In the demilitarized zone - the size of Switzerland - where the FARC rules, not a single trade unionist has been assaulted. In adjoining regions scores have been killed, with impunity. In Army controlled zones, assassinations and kidnaping of trade unionists take place in broad daylight on major roads a few meters from military headquarters. No one is ever arrested nor prosecuted. In FARC regions, the guerrillas actively pursue death squads responsible for murders of trade union and other popular activists, and bring them swiftly to justice.
It is abundantly clear to the majority of working class Colombians who are the "terrorists" and who support their class interests. They know from their experience what system of justice exonerates the assassins of the poor in defense of the rich and who defends their rights to organize and demand a decent standard of living. They know the difference between the current death squad democracy run by the oligarches and the military, and the open, pluralistic democratic forums organized by the FARC in the de-militarized zone. Experience has taught the working class to distrust the regime and sympathize with the FARC.
The Government's free market policies have devastated the economy. Foreign imports, low prices for primary commodities and the destruction of peasant livelihoods via fumigation have sent Colombia's economy into its worst economic recession in the last 70 years. The regime floats on foreign loans and rules by force. Its economic program is designed by U.S. and EU bankers and the IMF. Its military policies are dictated by the Pentagon and implemented by the local generals and mercenary U.S. helicopter pilots.
In contrast the FARC grows out of native soil of Colombia: its volunteers are the daughters and sons of the peasantry and the working class, who hate the violence and poverty and humiliations which their families and neighbors suffer under the free market death squad democracy. No guerrilla movement can survive for 36 years, defeat several U.S. sponsored counter-insurgency programs and grow to nearly 20,000 fighters without a vast network of organized supporters in the villages, towns and cities.
The Colombian state survives because it has been colonized by the U.S. military. The FARC thrives because of its solid class and family links to the peasants and workers. The regime supports the millionaire drug cartels; the guerrillas tax the traffickers and protect the peasants while at the same time proposing plans from drug free alternative agriculture, which the U.S. and the Colombian regime refuse to discuss.
Behind all the rhetoric about fighting drugs (with drug dealers and traffickers in command), the Colombian state's real objective is to impose the harsh class rule of the financial and big business elite on the working people, and to force them to bear the cost of the economic crises. With millions of unemployed crowding the streets and squares, with masses of peasants driven off the land by state terror and crowded into hovels and cardboard shacks on the periphery of the big cities, with hundreds of thousands of trade unionists marching and striking in the capital and with the FARC engaging in military confrontations 60 kilometers from the Presidential Palace, it is clear that the death squads are a main prop for sustaining the regime.
No one except the Government and its local and overseas elites believe that the free market benefits Colombia. It is precisely the abysmal failure of Thatcherite free market policies which has provoked trade union opposition, escalated state violence and expanded the base of support of the FARC. The greatest fear of the Government is that the FARC and the trade unions will be able to cross the bloody barriers, imposed between them by the Armed Forces - and their paramilitary allies, and create a unified leadership to overthrow the regime and create a new democratic, independent socialist regime. To forestall this, the regime is calling for and receiving military and economic support from the U.S. and EU governments. The trade unionists and the FARC need international support form trade unionists in the U.K. and elsewhere to counter the imperialist counter-offensive. A victory for the death squads will weaken the popular struggles throughout Latin America and beyond. With international solidarity and unity of purpose within Colombia a victory would open new vistas for struggle throughout the world.
Colombian Peace Association
London, England
James Petras
Colombia has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of trade union leaders and activists assassinated in the world (180 in the first 11 months of 2001). Almost all these murders are committed by paramilitary forces closely associated with the Colombian Armed Forces. Over 30,000 people mostly workers, peasant, human rights advocates, leftist political leaders, teachers and health workers have been killed by the Armed Forces and their backers among paramilitary allies over the past decade. Brutal state terrorism is supported by two identical parties, the Liberals and Conservatives, who in turn, purchase protection for their narco trafficking bankers, landlords and industrialists. The oligarchical dictatorial regime, passed off as a democracy in the Western media, is responsible for the emergence of the two guerrilla groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Peoples Army (FARC-EP) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Thirty six years ago, in Marquetalia in the rural interior of Colombia, a group of poor peasants cultivated subsistence farms in a remote area of the country. They attempted to avoid the violent civil war and terror which predominated in the country following the assassination by the Right-wing of populist progressive leader, Eliecer Gaitan. The government however, saw these independent peasant communities as a threat and sent in the army to destroy their settlements and drive them off their land. Among these subsistence farmers there was a young peasant named Manuel Marulanda. Together with 14 other small farmers he began organizing the FARC, The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia which grew over the next 36 years into the biggest and most successful guerrilla army in the Third World, with 16,000-20,000 armed combatants and millions of supporters. Experts claim the FARC is a major influence in over 50% of the country's municipalities. Over the past 3 years Washington has poured over $2 billion in military aid to bolster the regime under the pretext of fighting the "drug war", while the major banks in the U.K. and the U.S. launder the bulk of the Colombian elite's drug profits. To bolster Washington's and the UK's war efforts against the FARC, the mass media have jumped in with a propaganda barrage designed to justify the bloody state repression by demonizing the FARC and the ELN. The Bush-Blair propaganda line disseminated by the mass media includes the following arguments.
(1) The "guerrillas" are opposed by the majority of the Colombian people; they are merely armed terrorists defending their lucrative drug trade and destroying democracy.
(2) Colombia is a democracy which is under military siege and has a right to seek outside support form the U.S. and the EU, including military aid, to defeat the FARC.
(3) Colombia's free market economy and electoral system is best for the Colombian workers and peasants, and the FARC, who oppose it, are enemies of democracy.
Let us examine each one of these propaganda messages. Colombia has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world: less than 40% of the electorate votes. The reason is they have no choice. Back in the mid-1980s an alternative Leftists electoral coalition, the Patriotic Union (UP), ran successfully for office and was subsequently destroyed: two Presidential candidates were murdered and over 5,000 activists were killed - all "unsolved" cases. Many of the trade unionists and other activists who supported the UP either fled the country, went under underground or joined the guerrillas. While the FARC is mostly based in rural areas, almost one third of its fighters come from the cities and many of these are former trade unionists. The majority of Colombians oppose the Pastrana regime's socio-economic policies of privatization, regressive labor legislation, cuts in health and education spending, pay reductions and easy firings (20% of the labor force are unemployed, and 30% are underemployed). Opposition to the Colombian version of Thatcherite policies is evident in a number of general strikes, massive protests and major highway blockages that have paralyzed the economy.
In contrast, thousands of trade unionists have attended open forums organized by the FARC in a demilitarized zone to discuss alternative job creating programs, social budgets increasing public investments in health, education and welfare. The great majority of trade union leaders' socio-economic demands coincide with the program of the FARC and not with President Pastrana's "free market" program.
Programatically the Pastrana government and the death squads support the same reactionary landlords and bankers, which explains their close military relations, while the FARC's close ties to peasant and worker unions is based on the similarity of their program.
Almost all of the death squad killings are directed at peasants not landlords, trade unionists not bosses, human rights lawyers not government officials, resistence sympathizers not U.S. military advisers. Colombia could best be described as a "death squad democracy," in which the electoral facade provides a political cover for a murderous regime.
While the social base of the Pastrana regime has shrunken to less than 15% of the population, mainly big business, landlords, drug bankers and the upper-middle class, the FARC has expanded its base of support throughout the country, from the countryside to the cities. The results published in the press regarding so-called public opinion polls are totally unreliable. Under conditions of high levels of state sponsored paramilitary terror, no group or individual is willing to express their true loyalties. The widespread terror unleashed by the paramilitary forces throughout the major provincial cities, towns and villages against trade unionists and community activists (killing an average of 250 people per month) indicates that vast confluence of views between the peoples' demands and the FARC. For the Armed Forces and their paramilitary allies, the coincidence of socio-economic reforms proposed by FARC and the similar demands of the trade unions is sufficient reason to kidnap and murder trade unionists as "suspected guerrilla sympathizers."
The greatest repression - kidnaping, torture and murder of trade unionists takes place where the government troops predominate, and the death squads have a free hand. In the regions and municipalities where the FARC is strong, the trade unions are free to successfully carry on their struggles. In the demilitarized zone - the size of Switzerland - where the FARC rules, not a single trade unionist has been assaulted. In adjoining regions scores have been killed, with impunity. In Army controlled zones, assassinations and kidnaping of trade unionists take place in broad daylight on major roads a few meters from military headquarters. No one is ever arrested nor prosecuted. In FARC regions, the guerrillas actively pursue death squads responsible for murders of trade union and other popular activists, and bring them swiftly to justice.
It is abundantly clear to the majority of working class Colombians who are the "terrorists" and who support their class interests. They know from their experience what system of justice exonerates the assassins of the poor in defense of the rich and who defends their rights to organize and demand a decent standard of living. They know the difference between the current death squad democracy run by the oligarches and the military, and the open, pluralistic democratic forums organized by the FARC in the de-militarized zone. Experience has taught the working class to distrust the regime and sympathize with the FARC.
The Government's free market policies have devastated the economy. Foreign imports, low prices for primary commodities and the destruction of peasant livelihoods via fumigation have sent Colombia's economy into its worst economic recession in the last 70 years. The regime floats on foreign loans and rules by force. Its economic program is designed by U.S. and EU bankers and the IMF. Its military policies are dictated by the Pentagon and implemented by the local generals and mercenary U.S. helicopter pilots.
In contrast the FARC grows out of native soil of Colombia: its volunteers are the daughters and sons of the peasantry and the working class, who hate the violence and poverty and humiliations which their families and neighbors suffer under the free market death squad democracy. No guerrilla movement can survive for 36 years, defeat several U.S. sponsored counter-insurgency programs and grow to nearly 20,000 fighters without a vast network of organized supporters in the villages, towns and cities.
The Colombian state survives because it has been colonized by the U.S. military. The FARC thrives because of its solid class and family links to the peasants and workers. The regime supports the millionaire drug cartels; the guerrillas tax the traffickers and protect the peasants while at the same time proposing plans from drug free alternative agriculture, which the U.S. and the Colombian regime refuse to discuss.
Behind all the rhetoric about fighting drugs (with drug dealers and traffickers in command), the Colombian state's real objective is to impose the harsh class rule of the financial and big business elite on the working people, and to force them to bear the cost of the economic crises. With millions of unemployed crowding the streets and squares, with masses of peasants driven off the land by state terror and crowded into hovels and cardboard shacks on the periphery of the big cities, with hundreds of thousands of trade unionists marching and striking in the capital and with the FARC engaging in military confrontations 60 kilometers from the Presidential Palace, it is clear that the death squads are a main prop for sustaining the regime.
No one except the Government and its local and overseas elites believe that the free market benefits Colombia. It is precisely the abysmal failure of Thatcherite free market policies which has provoked trade union opposition, escalated state violence and expanded the base of support of the FARC. The greatest fear of the Government is that the FARC and the trade unions will be able to cross the bloody barriers, imposed between them by the Armed Forces - and their paramilitary allies, and create a unified leadership to overthrow the regime and create a new democratic, independent socialist regime. To forestall this, the regime is calling for and receiving military and economic support from the U.S. and EU governments. The trade unionists and the FARC need international support form trade unionists in the U.K. and elsewhere to counter the imperialist counter-offensive. A victory for the death squads will weaken the popular struggles throughout Latin America and beyond. With international solidarity and unity of purpose within Colombia a victory would open new vistas for struggle throughout the world.
Colombian Peace Association
London, England
Militante
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
Colombian War Association
06.02.2002 11:25
I also dispute your assumption that the FARC and the ELN are supported by trade unions. This is evidently not the case and in fact the FARC and the ELN have only a tiny base of support within urban areas.
You call yourself the Colombian Peace Association, but you are a front for guerrillas.
Pacifist
Colombia: Courage, Struggle & Victory.
06.02.2002 15:19
Recently Sintraemcali have staged a heroic occupation of
their workplace in defiance of government attempts at privatisation.
I use the phrase "heroic" literally, as this union has been
viciously targeted by paramilitaries, and their leader has been victim of several assassination attempts. All this information I hvae received from the email list of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign - (Contact
The experience in Colombia shows that the anti-capitalist
struggle is universal. The courage and bravery of Colombian
trade unionists - and their victory is an inspiration to people who work for social justice everywhere:
VENCEREMOS!
SINTRAEMCALI OCCUPATION: EYEWITNESS UPDATE NUMBER 14
Wednesday, 30th January
Victory Celebrations End Historic Occupation of CAM Tower
---------------------------------------------------------
Today in Cali, the neo-liberal model, based on impoverishment of the many for the benefit of the few, has again been dealt a serious blow. Through the courage, dedication, and imagination in resistance of thousands of
people, the CAM Tower occupation came to an end, and EMCALI EICE ISP remains in state hands, will fulfill its social role by not increasing prices to people who can barely afford to eat, and now has the power to root out the corruption that has plagued the company for years.
Last night I spent my last night in the CAM Tower, with people whose dignity and courage has changed many peoples lives, including my own. Many joked and laughed, others cried tears of tension and joy. For everyone the immensity of what they had achieved was understood, and people chatted
about how the 'model' can be broken, and of how public services such as education and health could be defended. There were lots of hugs, and special moments, and signs that friendships forged in these situations will never disappear. But most of all there was talk of the 'salida'
(leaving the building).
We had been preparing for this possible day of victory for several days, with hundreds of Colombian flags being sewn, and the new SINTRAEMCALI flag and symbol being designed. The CAM Tower has become the new symbol, with the faces of workers and communities surrounding it. The colours of the
flag represent the ideas of the movement: Green for hope, White for honesty, Red for the struggle, and Black for all the members that have been assassinated. Around the circular perimeter is written SINTRAEMCALI :
Por la Vida: Hasta la Vida Misma, a rough translation would be 'for life, even if we have to give up our own lives.'.
The 'salida' fulfilled all the expectations, with thousands of people filling the streets, the Internationale playing, and the workers filing out in military parade, faces covered with balaclavas, flags held high, and the force and power of what had been achieved present for all to see.
Before the 'salida' began the new four metre by three metre flag of SINTRAEMCALI was lowered by ropes from the 17th floor. The streets filled with the roar of the crowd as they watched it slowly reach the ground.
Everybody outside had been told to wear blue jeans and white or yellow t-shirts, and as the hundreds of workers filed past the barricades, they entered the crowd, took their balaclavas off, and merged with the masses.
It was a special moment for all.
After several interventions by the strike command, community leaders, representatives of SINTRAEMCALI the time came for Alexander Lopez, president of the union to make his speech, and the crowd fell silent. He thanked everyone who had built this victory from the local community, the workers, the people who had occupied the Headquarters of the superintendent of Public Services, and of course the women and men who had been in the CAM Tower. He urged everyone to celebrate this victory of the people, but only for today. Tomorrow everyone had to carry on in the struggle, to build in the communities a spirit of resistance which would
drive out the corrupt oligarchy that has bled the country dry, and give back to the people what is rightfully theirs: Everything.
As the sounds of SINTRAEMCALI PRESENTE ended the speech, we began a march around the city's streets, and those who had been inside the CAM Tower for 35 hard days, slipped away, silently, and as planned, to protect their security
and identity.
The occupation was over, but the danger of state and para-state forces taking their revenge is not. This was a big blow to the ruling class in Colombia, and we all need to stay alert for when they begin to strike back through the selective assassination of the activists and leaders involved, a practice which has made them notorious. One battle has been won, but the dirty war continues.
Mario Novelli
RECOMMENDED ACTION
------------------
Celebrate today - and get ready to struggle again tomorrow.
NOS CUBRIMOS EL ROSTRO PARA QUE NOS VIERAN
------------------------------------------
TOTAL VICTORY FOR SINTRAEMCALI AND THE PEOPLE OF CALI
-----------------------------------------------------
On the 29th of January, 2002, an agreement was signed by the Colombian government, the Mayor of Cali, and SINTRAEMCALI to bring to an end the 35 day occupation of the CAM Tower. The agreement completely satisfied the three demands of the Union, which since the 25th of December had occupied the CAM Tower and developed a range of activities to ensure that EMCALI EICE ESP remains a public company.
This agreement represents a complete victory for the workers of EMCALI, guaranteeing that the company will not be privatised, that there will be no price increases this year, and that a high level anti-corruption inquiry will begin to investigate and bring to justice all of those people
who have siphoned off public resources from the company in recent years.
After several days of heightened tension, which threatened to end in violent confrontation between workers and security forces both in Cali and Bogota, a peaceful solution is a welcome ending for all concerned. That this solution is also a just one, is a tribute to the strategy of the union leaders, the courage of all those involved both inside and outside the CAM Tower, and the solidarity expressed by trade unionists and activists across the World, and particularly in Britain.
Let this victory give courage to all those who desire a world of peace and social justice. It is time to challenge the dictates of the rich and powerful. If it can be done in Colombia, the most dangerous country in the World for trade unionists and activists, it can be done anywhere.
Mario Novelli
From inside the CAM Tower
COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN CONFERENCE AND AGM
-----------------------------------------------
SATURDAY 23nd & SUNDAY 24th FEBRUARY 2002
CONWAY HALL, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON WC1
"Plan Colombia - Clearing the Way for the Multinationals"
For more information on the campaign contact
PO Box 8446, London N17 6NZ, or tel (07950) 923 448
Adam Johannes
Government/death squad relationship continues
07.02.2002 15:34
"The Colombian government has failed to suspend members of the Colombian Armed Forces credibly alleged to have committed gross violations of human rights or to have helped paramilitary groups;
The Colombian Armed Forces, in particular the army and navy, continue to organize, coordinate with, share information with, support, and tolerate paramilitary groups;
The Colombian Armed Forces are not cooperating with civilian prosecutors and judicial authorities to investigate reports of abuses or to pursue and capture known paramilitaries".
The report was issued as part of the certification process whereby human rights considerations must be met before more US aid can be approved. The report found "overwhelming evidence of the Colombian government's failure to meet the human rights conditions". Whether such findings will actually prevent Washington from continuing to support the Colombian government (which has the worst human rights record in the hemisphere) is, of course, another matter.
Read the full report at -
or download it as a 96k pdf file from -
Ron F