Meredith Aby, Minneapolis
Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist. On average, right-wing paramilitary death squads or the military murder three Colombian trade unionists a week. Many more are threatened each day. At the same time the US has given more than US$3 billion in military aid, which funds both the military and paramilitary wars on Colombian trade unionists, peasants and human rights workers.
In July, the US Colombia Action Network (CAN) sent a solidarity delegation of anti-war and student activists to meet with representatives from the Colombia trade unions, including the CUT(Colombia's largest labour federation), USO (the oil workers' union), the Bogota teachers' union and the beverage workers' union.
The goal of the delegation's two-week visit was to stand in solidarity with the people of Colombia and investigate the effects of the US military aid package, Plan Colombia. The delegation saw the effects first hand. Two unions had members killed the same day the delegation visited them.
Government repression
In addition to extralegal violence, the Colombian government is also waging a war by "legal" means. The Colombian Congress passed the new Democratic Security Act, similar to the USAPATRIOT Act. It legalises the indefinite detention of people the government labels "suspected terrorists". These people then lose their rights to formal accusations, to bail and to being considered innocent until proven guilty.
Every trade union and social movement organisation the delegation talked to expressed concern about this new law. They explained while these acts of repression were standard practice for the armed forces and police in the past, at least when such activities were illegal, activists could use the legal system to fight the unlawful detention and imprisonment of their comrades.
Activists and trade unionists in Colombia specifically blamed the Bush administration for these new repressive policies. They said that since 9/11, the Colombian government has been given clear direction from the US to use whatever means necessary in order to fight against both leftists and rebels.
Domingo Tovar, director of human rights for the CUT, laid out the political situation for us on our first day in Bogota: "There's 30,000 dead each year. Only 7% are killed in combat between the two forces. One hundred and sixty kids die daily due to poor health and nutrition and the rest of the deaths are the responsibility of the state. The government is the primary violator of human rights. There are more than 12,000 members of the armed forces who are devoted to violating human rights and paramilitarism...
"Colombia is the country with the most assassinations of union members in the world. Under the administration of [Alvaro] Uribe, the current president, there's been more than 160 union deaths. This year there's been 29, including a companero this morning. Under Uribe there's been more than 700 illegal arrests. Under the new anti-terrorism statute it gives judicial police the power to investigate, capture and condemn. The CUT has more than 100 members in jail and more than 500 are in exile."
The US gives $3 million in military aid per day to Colombia because the US wants Colombia to be a part of its free trade vision for the hemisphere. The US wants its corporations to be able to sell their goods cheaply in Colombia and for their products to be made cheaply there as well.
Colombia's strong labour movement and rebel armies are in deep opposition to these policies. Additionally, Colombia lacks the infrastructure for free trade. So US military aid is used to train the military in torture and to wage warfare against the guerrillas. The US military aid is also being used to guard Occidental Oil's pipeline in Arauca and to guard the highways being built for multi-national trade.
Control of oil
By law, the state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol, used to handle 50-70% of the nation's oil production. Six years ago, under the previous president, the law was changed to give 70% to foreign corporations. This change decreased the amount of revenue the state earns from oil production and it increased taxes for Colombians. It also meant more profits for foreign oil companies like Occidental Oil and BP Amoco.
In May, the oil workers' union, USO, completed one of the most important strikes in Colombia's recent history. The government, acting on behalf of multinational corporations and under World Bank pressure, wanted to sell off its national industries, including Ecopetrol. The government purposefully sabotaged the oil company's economic viability to justify selling it to foreign companies.
Had this plan for privatisation succeeded, it would have robbed the Colombian people of an important source of wealth, and it would have placed one of Colombia's most valuable resources, oil, in the hands of foreign corporations. It would have killed the nation's most militant union.
The battle began this northern spring when the Colombian government instituted layoffs that violated the union contract and directly targeted the leadership of the oil workers' union. USO responded with a 36-day strike to fight against further layoffs, against the privatisation of the oil company, and for the right to have a union.
Sixty-five percent of the union's members went out on strike. The company offered bonuses, bribes and promotions to try to persuade workers not to strike.
During the strike, the families of strikers received letters and phone calls threatening death. Pressure was brought to bear on the family members of union workers, who in a few cases caved in and encouraged their loved ones to scab rather than risk job loss and the family's economic support. The union remained strong however, and in the end the government agreed to not privatise the company and to keep it 100% Colombian.
After the strike, two USO members were framed for a crime they didn't commit, under the new "terrorism" laws. One member has been charged with planting a bomb and running from the scene of the crime, even though he had a broken leg at the time.
Killer Coke
In Barrancabermeja, the CAN delegation met with William Mendoza, the vice-president of the beverage workers' union, SINALTRAINAL. He explained the context of the struggle at Coca-Cola plants throughout Colombia: "Since 1990 the Coca-Cola company has had the goal of union-free plants in Colombia. Twelve years ago, 96% of the Coke work force was unionised, and 96% of the jobs with Coke were full-time permanent positions. Now, only 4% of the jobs with Coke are permanent full-time jobs. The rest are now temporary jobs.
"In 1993, 1808 workers were members of SINALTRAINAL, but now only 300 workers are with the union. The company's campaign of firing, pressuring and threatening union members and leaders has severely hurt the union. Nine companeros have been assassinated, 45 displaced and 75 threatened."
Recently Coca-Cola has applied to the Colombian government to dismiss 63 workers, including 31 leaders of the union. This is in violation of their contract. These union workers should be relocated to other positions or transferred to other plants.
The government has approved this attack and each of Coke's massive layoffs. These firings are more evidence that Coca-Cola, with its economic and political power, is plotting with the Alvaro Uribe administration to eliminate the union.
Mendoza continued: "Another tactic Coke is taking is to close the plants. They have closed 12 in total. The union believes the plants will be reopened but without a union. However, the union offers a better way of life for the workers.
"At Coca-Cola's plants a union worker will earn $260 per month and work an 8-hour day, whereas a non-union worker will earn $110 per month, the legal minimum, and work 14-16 hours per day. Coca-Cola is trying to eliminate the contract by closing all the plants where union members work.
"However, Coke isn't just trying to destroy the union through plant closings. Several union members in Barrancabermeja, including the vice-president, reported that their families had been threatened and that paramilitaries had tried to abduct their children."
SINALTRAINAL members in Barrancabermeja stated that the company and the paramilitaries were working together to destroy the union. They gave the CAN delegation several examples and personal testimony of cases when known paramilitaries were allowed into the plant to meet with Coca-Cola executives, even after the workers reported these in-plant meetings to Coca-Cola in Bogota. They even gave the example of Coca-Cola donating free soda pop to paramilitaries so they are refreshed while staffing the check-points that intimidate and terrorise people in the Barrancabermeja area.
In an email communication to the CAN, Mendoza wrote: "If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives."
The truth of that statement may be imminent. Mendoza also said that if the firings take place and the union is broken, "It makes things very complicated for me — in terms of my security. This decision removes any political cost to the paramilitaries who would assassinate me."
Since 2002, the CAN has been organising in solidarity with SINALTRAINAL. Mendoza informed the delegation that the movement in the US has helped: "We've felt international solidarity and pressure has decreased the threats to us. The company has had to give some means of security to us because of international pressure. It's because of this international pressure that we can continue our struggle."
[Abridged from <http://www.fightbacknews.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, September 8, 2004.
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