1. COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN MEETING
3pm Sunday 4th November at :
161 Lambeth Walk SE11 (nearest tubes Vauxhall or North Lambeth)

Video: 'Colombia' Oil Fix' and discussion

Organising the campaign: 10th December Vigil, Speaking Tour, Conference.
 
 

2. Colombia Solidarity -
Bulletin of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign No 3 October - December 2001 (OUT NOW) £1

CONTENTS

I. PARAMILITARY-MILITARY MASSACRES - INCLUDED WITH THIS E-MAIL

II. Oil Workers Leaders Detained

III. EDITORIAL - INCLUDED WITH THIS E-MAIL

IV. 'NEVER FORGET'
Statement of the Trade Union and Human Rights Delegation to Cali Colombia / 'PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR' INFORME DE LA VISITA REALIZADA POR LOS SINDICALISTAS Y LA DELEGACIÓN DE DEFENSORES DE DERECHOS HUMANOS A LA CIUDAD DE CALI COLOMBIA

V. HRW Report on Military - Paramilitary Links

VI. "Go and tell people that we are staying here" LIFE UNDER PARAMILITARY SIEGE

VII. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

VIII. Coca Cola Accused of Using Death Squads to Target Union

IX. CUT - THREE MONTHS OF REPRESSION

X. Ecuador: Quichua Indians File US Lawsuit Against DynCorp

XI. DynCorp - Bush?s Respectable Paramilitaries

XII. Irishmen - Guilty until Proven Innocent

XIII. El 60% es pobre / 60% are poor

XIV. TABACO ATTACKED

XV. BUSH Y BLAIR INTERNACIONALIZAN LA PENA DE MUERTE / BUSH AND BLAIR INTERNATIONALISE THE DEATH PENALTY

XVI. The Terrorist War ... is a Propaganda War

XVII. Argentina - on the edge of the abyss

XVIII. ARGENTINE MINERS IN OCCUPATION

XIX. CAMPAIGN NEWS INCLUDED WITH THIS E-MAIL

XX. LOS COLOMBIANOS DEL REINO UNIDO SE OPONEN AL PLAN COLOMBIA / COLOMBIANS IN THE UK ARE AGAINST PLAN COLOMBIA

I. PARAMILITARY-MILITARY MASSACRES
It was one o'clock in Alaska village, near Buga in the Valle del Cauca. Lunch was eaten and people were gathering to catch the bus back to work. Then the paramilitaries descended. They killed by shooting, by battering, and with chain saws. Within an hour the trail of massacre stretched into two other villages, thirty people had been murdered.

There is just one road into Alaska. To get there the paramilitaries had to pass by a camp of the Palacé Battalion of the Third Brigade, and a police station. The next day, 11th October, the Bishop of Buga pointed out the community?s belief that the army must have colluded in the killings. (Days earlier the commander of the Third Brigade had denounced Human Rights Watch report linking his officers with the paramilitaries as the work of "narcotraficantes").

Meanwhile Buga's police chief commented that this massacre was uncharacteristic of the Calima Front of the Autodefensas (AUC) paramilitaries. They normally engage in selective assassinations of subversives, he argued. This claim is so untrue as to cause incredulity. Massacring civilians is part of the modus vivendi of the paras. Working from official figures, and hence an underestimate, the conservative newspaper El Tiempo reported that the paras had murdered 140 people across Colombia in the first 10 days of October. Multiple massacres are a daily event.

Although the charge is not accepted by the Colombian government, the evidence is that this wave of terror is sanctioned by, and in many cases carried out by, official state forces.

III. EDITORIAL
News from Colombia is more sombre by the day. The country's corrupt elite has taken advantage of the international situation, marked by Bush's prevailing war psychology that those who are not for us are against us, to launch a concerted drive to destroy all their political opponents. Every activist is labelled a subversive. The ruling powers' campaign employs official and unofficial actors, legal and illegal methods. The popular social movement is fighting for its very existence against a wave of state and para-state terror. By every index the human rights violations perpetrated against the trade unions and social movements, and against the civilian population at large, have increased to the point of genocide.

The Colombian state justifies its own criminality by the war against terrorism. This assertion needs to be challenged. Colombia's own neighbours reject the mindset that the FARC and the ELN are terrorist organisations. These two main guerrilla movements have demonstrably deep roots amongst sections of the population who have for decades been murdered whenever they employ democratic methods. There is no peace process, only a charade. Pastrana has extended recognition of the FARC?s main liberated zone, but this is a tactical move. In the meantime the counter insurgency war has been intensified through Plan Colombia. The fumigations have spread to wherever they are a useful weapon in softening up a peasant population suspected of supporting the guerrillas.

It is important to recognise the economic imperatives driving Colombia's elite to attack its own people, not least to grasp why they are so resistant to humanitarian appeal. For all its special characteristics, Colombia is a laboratory for the neo-liberal project, an example of globalisation in practice. The ruling class and the multinationals alike need to break all significant resistance if they are to turn the country into an export processing zone. And the pacification of Colombia is a vital link in implementing the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Yet neo- liberal policies, average incomes collapsing 30% in four years, are bound to generate class response. The state's project is to identify and snuff out any focus of protest, and to do it in a way that terrorises by example. Trade unions, peasant organisations, all social movements are on the list. Globalisation has led to state sponsored fascism.

Enter the paramilitaries. Colombians look to Cordoba and the Atlantic coast, to many small towns in Antioquia, and now to South Bolívar and to Barrancabermeja, and they can see what it is like to live under paramilitary control. They can see that unless they struggle now, unless the people are mobilised to resist, they will fall. Colombians with a social conscience are working under extremely dangerous and difficult circumstances of state repression. No popular, democratic, let alone left-wing political movement has ever been tolerated in Colombia. There are fewer and fewer formal democratic opportunities. The Social and Political Front that is standing in next year's presidential elections is extremely concerned for the life of its candidate, Lucho Garzon, former President of the CUT trade union federation.

Many international NGOs have declared they are leaving, Colombia is too dangerous for them to operate. But how more dangerous is it for Colombians? Now more than ever the Colombian people need humanitarian aid. More positively there have been at least four international delegations recently - the US Steelworkers, social organisations from Canada, our own delegation and the International Caravan - based on the idea of direct contact with people involved in trade unions and social movements. This marks an important change, enriching the concept of humanitarian support. The two common themes emerging strongly from these delegations have been: commitment to accompaniment, keeping close and real links with our Colombian brothers and sisters on the front line; and the need to mobilise public opinion to create active solidarity movements in our home countries.

This is our challenge as a Campaign, and the challenge we present to every reader. Once you have read this bulletin, make the decision to get involved. Help organise protests on 10th December. Come to our February conference. Your efforts will make a difference.

XIX. CAMPAIGN NEWS

Monday 10th December
We call on people in Britain to mobilise solidarity with the people of Colombia. Mark the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with vigils in as many towns and cities as possible. We suggest that united, humanitarian events are organised along the lines:

No More Paramilitary Massacres!
Stop Plan Colombia!
Yes to Human Rights!
Peace with Social Justice!

Please contact us and we will try and put you in contact with others in your area.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE AND ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The Colombia Solidarity Campaign has decided to hold a conference on 'Plan Colombia - Opening the Door to the Multinationals' and its AGM in London on the weekend of 23rd and 24th February 2002. Start planning now to attend these events. More details on enquiry and in the next bulletin.

NEXT COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN MEETINGS
3pm Sunday 4th November
5pm Saturday 1st December
at 161 Lambeth Walk SE11 (nearest tubes Vauxhall or North Lambeth)

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