Colombia: urgent action request!
CSC supporter | 16.10.2002 10:51
INTRODUCTION:
This urgent appeal comes from good friends in Colombia, the university workers union SINTRAUNICOL who are in their fourth week of peaceful occupation and now risking their lives to prevent the collapse of Universidad del Valle [Univalle], Cali's main public university.
Members of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign and UNISON have visited Univalle on three occasions, and SINTRAUNICOL leader Carlos Gonzalez came to the UK this year, speaking at the London May Day rally, as well as the national conferences of the AUT, UNISON HE sector, PCS GA sector and NATFHE.
We urge all who met Carlos and all our readers to respond immediately to this action.
Colombia Solidarity Campaign
UNIVERSITY WORKERS AND EMPLOYEES TRADE UNION SINTRAUNICOL CALI
URGENT ACTION !!!
We members of SINTRAUNICOL have now completed three weeks of a Permanent Assembly [1] by workers and employees at the Universidad del Valle. The response to this labour conflict has been intimidation, death threats and militaristic repression by the university authorities.
Within a few days of starting the Permanent Assembly the Superior Council of Univalle, headed by Dr. Germán Villegas V. who is the governor of the department of Valle del Cauca, announced that it would resort to the powers granted it by the State of Internal Unrest to stamp out the trade union's action [2]. Besides this the university's rector has made threats and attacks on the right to freedom of association and union rights, such as harassment of those in the Permanent Assembly who are, according to him, liable for strong punishment, or his frequent calls on the Minister of Labour to take action against the workers and the union.
We call attention to the increase in death threat phone calls, trailing and harassment of union leaders and activists, as well as the presence on the university campus of vehicles (4 x 4, dark windows with several men inside) and persons not normally part of university life.
Last Saturday 12th October the union was notified by the University Management that the situation of the workers and employees at Univalle had become a "public order problem" and therefore would receive the corresponding treatment. The next day a union leader received a phone call from the top commander of the Cali Metropolitan Police, Coronel Adolfo Naranjo, who insisted on the need to speak personally in relation to delicate matters.
As a trade union organisation we reject all the above described repression, we demand a university solution to the conflict, we reject the para-state, military and parmilitary and we make absolutely clear:
1. We are in a LABOUR DISPUTE to DEFEND THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY which at the current time involves the following issues:
Respect for Collective Negotiation
Rejection of budget cuts which would immediately cause Univalle's collapse, and of the banks' voracity will during 2003 absorb the reduced budget constraining even more the University's mission [3]
Renegotiation of the onerous "Payment Schedule" and "Performance Agreement" signed with the finance sector which is the cause of the multiple problems at this university [Alma Mater].
2. As a consequence of the above the only people responsible for whatever undesirable outcome of this dispute are the university authorities themselves.
3. To invoke the State of Internal Unrest and to characterise this dispute as a "public order issue" to militarise, threaten and repress a labour dispute and social protest, is moreover an open rejection of the academic spirit, of seeking a scientific solution and the reason for existence of such a beautiful university as our Universidad del Valle.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SINTRAUNICOL CALI BRANCH
Santiago de Cali, 15th October 2002
Colombia Solidarity Campaign Notes:
[1] A Permanent Assembly consists of workers occupying a building or plant in such a way that services can continue. The workers are permanently at their post.
[2] The State of Internal Unrest passed by Uribe Velez on 12th August 2002 provides his government and state authroties with sweeping dceree powers, as augmented by Decree 2002 of 10th September 2002 (see Colombia Solidarity No 8).
[3] Carlos Gonzalez previously warned about the Univalle's immense debt,
"In 1998 a crisis exploded on the University, its debt had passed more than 60 thousand million pesos, some £17 million, a debt which after a long process of negotiations reached more than 73 thousand million pesos (or £22 million - that is nearly £5 million more after three years). It was finally agreed that this debt must be paid back over 12 years, by the end of which the University will have paid more than 230 thousand million pesos (£69 million). These payments are guaranteed in a Performance Agreement, that is the University subject itself to the administrative, academic as well as financial dictates of its creditor banks, reducing university autonomy to a caricature." (Colombia Solidarity No 7)
Recommended Actions:
1) Send a message to the Colombian government urging:
a) adequate state funding to Valle de Cauca University in Cali to reverse the budget cuts
b) a renegotiation of the 1998 agreements made with private bankers, specifically the onerous "Payment Schedule" and "Performance Agreement"
c) and an end to all forms of state and paramilitary repression against members of SINTRAUNICOL involved in the Permanent Assembly at the university.
Send to:
ALVARO URIBE VELEZ
Presidente de la República
Fax 00571 337 5890, 00571 566 2071
Try also (00571) 3342921-- 2431023 - 3342841
E-mail:
auribe@presidencia.gov.co; rdh@presidencia.gov.co
2) Send message of support to SINTRAUNICOL at Univalle :
E - mail: sintraunicolcali@yahoo.com
WITH COPIES OF BOTH MESSAGES TO
Colombian Embassy (UK): mail@colombianembassy.co.uk
Denis MacShane Foreign Office (UK): macshaned@parliament.uk
CUT Human Rights Department: derechoshumanoscut@cc-net.net
Colombia Solidarity Campaign (UK) colombia_sc@hotmail.com
JOIN IN CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES
London public meeting Wednesday 16th October 7.00pm University of London Union, Malet Street, WC1 (nearest tubes Goodge Street and Warren Street) will also be showing the video The Curse of El Dorado made by Berenice Celeyta and will therefore have to charge entrance £2 waged/ £1 unwaged.
Devon - also Wednesday 16th October 7.30pm Bogan House, High Street, Totnes
PICKET THE COLOMBIAN EMBASSY
Wednesday 30th October 4.00 - 6.00pm
3 Hans Crescent, London SW1 (back of Harrods, Knightsbridge tube)
No to Criminalisation and Repression! End the State of Internal Unrest!
For the Right of Social Protest!
Trade Union Delegation to Colombia 17th- 24th November
This invitation for an international trade union delegation was initiated by the oil workers union USO and has the backing of the CUT and CGTD federations. If you would like to join this delegation contact the Campaign immediately. Costs with airfare are expected to be about £1,000.
This urgent appeal comes from good friends in Colombia, the university workers union SINTRAUNICOL who are in their fourth week of peaceful occupation and now risking their lives to prevent the collapse of Universidad del Valle [Univalle], Cali's main public university.
Members of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign and UNISON have visited Univalle on three occasions, and SINTRAUNICOL leader Carlos Gonzalez came to the UK this year, speaking at the London May Day rally, as well as the national conferences of the AUT, UNISON HE sector, PCS GA sector and NATFHE.
We urge all who met Carlos and all our readers to respond immediately to this action.
Colombia Solidarity Campaign
UNIVERSITY WORKERS AND EMPLOYEES TRADE UNION SINTRAUNICOL CALI
URGENT ACTION !!!
We members of SINTRAUNICOL have now completed three weeks of a Permanent Assembly [1] by workers and employees at the Universidad del Valle. The response to this labour conflict has been intimidation, death threats and militaristic repression by the university authorities.
Within a few days of starting the Permanent Assembly the Superior Council of Univalle, headed by Dr. Germán Villegas V. who is the governor of the department of Valle del Cauca, announced that it would resort to the powers granted it by the State of Internal Unrest to stamp out the trade union's action [2]. Besides this the university's rector has made threats and attacks on the right to freedom of association and union rights, such as harassment of those in the Permanent Assembly who are, according to him, liable for strong punishment, or his frequent calls on the Minister of Labour to take action against the workers and the union.
We call attention to the increase in death threat phone calls, trailing and harassment of union leaders and activists, as well as the presence on the university campus of vehicles (4 x 4, dark windows with several men inside) and persons not normally part of university life.
Last Saturday 12th October the union was notified by the University Management that the situation of the workers and employees at Univalle had become a "public order problem" and therefore would receive the corresponding treatment. The next day a union leader received a phone call from the top commander of the Cali Metropolitan Police, Coronel Adolfo Naranjo, who insisted on the need to speak personally in relation to delicate matters.
As a trade union organisation we reject all the above described repression, we demand a university solution to the conflict, we reject the para-state, military and parmilitary and we make absolutely clear:
1. We are in a LABOUR DISPUTE to DEFEND THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY which at the current time involves the following issues:
Respect for Collective Negotiation
Rejection of budget cuts which would immediately cause Univalle's collapse, and of the banks' voracity will during 2003 absorb the reduced budget constraining even more the University's mission [3]
Renegotiation of the onerous "Payment Schedule" and "Performance Agreement" signed with the finance sector which is the cause of the multiple problems at this university [Alma Mater].
2. As a consequence of the above the only people responsible for whatever undesirable outcome of this dispute are the university authorities themselves.
3. To invoke the State of Internal Unrest and to characterise this dispute as a "public order issue" to militarise, threaten and repress a labour dispute and social protest, is moreover an open rejection of the academic spirit, of seeking a scientific solution and the reason for existence of such a beautiful university as our Universidad del Valle.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE SINTRAUNICOL CALI BRANCH
Santiago de Cali, 15th October 2002
Colombia Solidarity Campaign Notes:
[1] A Permanent Assembly consists of workers occupying a building or plant in such a way that services can continue. The workers are permanently at their post.
[2] The State of Internal Unrest passed by Uribe Velez on 12th August 2002 provides his government and state authroties with sweeping dceree powers, as augmented by Decree 2002 of 10th September 2002 (see Colombia Solidarity No 8).
[3] Carlos Gonzalez previously warned about the Univalle's immense debt,
"In 1998 a crisis exploded on the University, its debt had passed more than 60 thousand million pesos, some £17 million, a debt which after a long process of negotiations reached more than 73 thousand million pesos (or £22 million - that is nearly £5 million more after three years). It was finally agreed that this debt must be paid back over 12 years, by the end of which the University will have paid more than 230 thousand million pesos (£69 million). These payments are guaranteed in a Performance Agreement, that is the University subject itself to the administrative, academic as well as financial dictates of its creditor banks, reducing university autonomy to a caricature." (Colombia Solidarity No 7)
Recommended Actions:
1) Send a message to the Colombian government urging:
a) adequate state funding to Valle de Cauca University in Cali to reverse the budget cuts
b) a renegotiation of the 1998 agreements made with private bankers, specifically the onerous "Payment Schedule" and "Performance Agreement"
c) and an end to all forms of state and paramilitary repression against members of SINTRAUNICOL involved in the Permanent Assembly at the university.
Send to:
ALVARO URIBE VELEZ
Presidente de la República
Fax 00571 337 5890, 00571 566 2071
Try also (00571) 3342921-- 2431023 - 3342841
E-mail:
auribe@presidencia.gov.co; rdh@presidencia.gov.co 2) Send message of support to SINTRAUNICOL at Univalle :
E - mail:
sintraunicolcali@yahoo.com WITH COPIES OF BOTH MESSAGES TO
Colombian Embassy (UK):
mail@colombianembassy.co.uk Denis MacShane Foreign Office (UK):
macshaned@parliament.uk CUT Human Rights Department:
derechoshumanoscut@cc-net.net Colombia Solidarity Campaign (UK)
colombia_sc@hotmail.com JOIN IN CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES
London public meeting Wednesday 16th October 7.00pm University of London Union, Malet Street, WC1 (nearest tubes Goodge Street and Warren Street) will also be showing the video The Curse of El Dorado made by Berenice Celeyta and will therefore have to charge entrance £2 waged/ £1 unwaged.
Devon - also Wednesday 16th October 7.30pm Bogan House, High Street, Totnes
PICKET THE COLOMBIAN EMBASSY
Wednesday 30th October 4.00 - 6.00pm
3 Hans Crescent, London SW1 (back of Harrods, Knightsbridge tube)
No to Criminalisation and Repression! End the State of Internal Unrest!
For the Right of Social Protest!
Trade Union Delegation to Colombia 17th- 24th November
This invitation for an international trade union delegation was initiated by the oil workers union USO and has the backing of the CUT and CGTD federations. If you would like to join this delegation contact the Campaign immediately. Costs with airfare are expected to be about £1,000.
CSC supporter