26 July 2001 Edition
Colombia's unreported killing fields
BY DOUGLAS HAMILTON
At the end of June, a leading Colombian trade unionist, Luis Hernández, vice-president of the public services union SINTRAEMCALI, was invited to Belfast by the recently elected Sinn Féin councillor Eoin O'Broin. He met with Joan O'Connor of Sinn Féin's International Department, with trade unions and the One World Centre, highlighting the horrific nature of workers' struggle in Colombia. Last year alone, 136 trade unionists were assassinated by government-backed paramilitaries, with a further 54 killed this year.
Luis Hernández spoke in detail about his union's ongoing campaign against the neo-liberal policies of the US-backed Colombian government, in particular the privatisation of four key services - electricity supply, telephones, clean water supply and drainage.
Since 1994, SINTRAEMCALI has initiated a series of anti-privatisation campaigns, involving joint action and solidarity between local communities and workers. These campaigns have highlighted the costs of privatisation that would be incurred by local communities in terms of increased misery and impoverishment. Moreover, the depth of corruption involved, in particular the bribing of local councillors to support the privatisation process, was exposed. Peaceful protests were organised which were constantly dispersed by the army and police, who brutally attacked workers.
In 1996, a seven-day strike was called which was finally broken by the government, involving heavy injuries to and imprisonment of strikers. In 1998, the union took by force the main administration building of their employers, and over a 15-day period there were daily confrontations with the police. By stopping food from entering the building and cutting the water supply, the authorities attempted to starve the workers into calling off their actions.
Despite all this, the workers won their campaign and the privatisation process was halted. However, the historic gains made by united workers' action was achieved at huge human cost. During the course of the struggle 13 workers were killed. Collusion between paramilitary death squads and the ``security forces'', life-threatening intimidation, the need for 24-hour bodyguards and the daily movement of activists to safe houses have become routine for Colombian trade unionists - an experience all too familiar for Irish republicans.
This is a time when a similar struggle against the backdoor privatisation of the health and education services is being fought in Ireland. The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public/Private Partnerships (PPP) may look mild, but they represent the same process of profit making for business from the provision of basic public services. The Colombian experience acts as a huge source of inspiration.
Luis Hernández explained that, as in Ireland, the Colombian people are fighting a war of national liberation. This is reflected in Plan Colombia which, while presented as a policy to combat drugs, is in fact a strategy to increase US military and political control over Colombia, backed by the undemocratic imposition of US neo-liberalist economic policies.
Irish republicans have much to learn from the principled socialist struggle of Colombian workers. International solidarity between Ireland and Colombia must be intensified.
At the end of June, a leading Colombian trade unionist, Luis Hernández, vice-president of the public services union SINTRAEMCALI, was invited to Belfast by the recently elected Sinn Féin councillor Eoin O'Broin. He met with Joan O'Connor of Sinn Féin's International Department, with trade unions and the One World Centre, highlighting the horrific nature of workers' struggle in Colombia. Last year alone, 136 trade unionists were assassinated by government-backed paramilitaries, with a further 54 killed this year.
Luis Hernández spoke in detail about his union's ongoing campaign against the neo-liberal policies of the US-backed Colombian government, in particular the privatisation of four key services - electricity supply, telephones, clean water supply and drainage.
Since 1994, SINTRAEMCALI has initiated a series of anti-privatisation campaigns, involving joint action and solidarity between local communities and workers. These campaigns have highlighted the costs of privatisation that would be incurred by local communities in terms of increased misery and impoverishment. Moreover, the depth of corruption involved, in particular the bribing of local councillors to support the privatisation process, was exposed. Peaceful protests were organised which were constantly dispersed by the army and police, who brutally attacked workers.
In 1996, a seven-day strike was called which was finally broken by the government, involving heavy injuries to and imprisonment of strikers. In 1998, the union took by force the main administration building of their employers, and over a 15-day period there were daily confrontations with the police. By stopping food from entering the building and cutting the water supply, the authorities attempted to starve the workers into calling off their actions.
Despite all this, the workers won their campaign and the privatisation process was halted. However, the historic gains made by united workers' action was achieved at huge human cost. During the course of the struggle 13 workers were killed. Collusion between paramilitary death squads and the ``security forces'', life-threatening intimidation, the need for 24-hour bodyguards and the daily movement of activists to safe houses have become routine for Colombian trade unionists - an experience all too familiar for Irish republicans.
This is a time when a similar struggle against the backdoor privatisation of the health and education services is being fought in Ireland. The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public/Private Partnerships (PPP) may look mild, but they represent the same process of profit making for business from the provision of basic public services. The Colombian experience acts as a huge source of inspiration.
Luis Hernández explained that, as in Ireland, the Colombian people are fighting a war of national liberation. This is reflected in Plan Colombia which, while presented as a policy to combat drugs, is in fact a strategy to increase US military and political control over Colombia, backed by the undemocratic imposition of US neo-liberalist economic policies.
Irish republicans have much to learn from the principled socialist struggle of Colombian workers. International solidarity between Ireland and Colombia must be intensified.