Super Urgent Action! - SOS from SINTRAEMCALI
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Contents
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I. SOS LETTER from BERENICE CELEYTA 5th July 2002
II. WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED from LUCHO HERNÁNDEZ 7th July 2002
III. IMMEDIATE ACTION from COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN 8th July 2002

ANNEXES (pp 4-13)

IV. RIGHT OF CORRECTION SINTRAEMCALI letter to El País, 5thJuly 2002
V. THE COUNCILLORS SHOW THEIR FACE El País 30th June 2002
VI. IDB 'FAILS' EMCALI'S FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT El País 4th July 2002
VII. FACTS AND SCRAPS El País 5th July 2002
VIII. SINTRAEMCALI UNDER SUSPICION El País 7th July 2002


I. SOS LETTER from BERENICE CELEYTA 5th July 2002
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Dear friends,

We write to you profoundly worried by the permanent threats, followings,
and labeling of SINTRAEMCALI.

Right now, in the night hours there are several suspicious vehicles
passing in front of the union's headquarters. These incidents follow
claims made by several Cali councillors charging the trade union with
being infiltrated by the insurgency.

These claims were published in El País newspaper and they put at high
risk the security of all the workers, actvistts and leaders of the
union. We append to this e-mail the formal complaint made against El
País, and we urge you to make urgent actions. This is an SOS call
against those who have stigmatised us and put our lives at risk.

Yours sincerely,

Berenice Celeyta
5th July 2002


II. WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED
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IN SPITE OF THE ATTACKS OF EL PAIS NEWSPAPER WE WILL NOT LET EMCALI
E.I.C.E. BE PRIVATISED


Sintraemcali Comrades,

Once again we are victims of being marked out by El País newspaper and
the political and corrupt class of Santiago de Cali, who in an
irresponsible manner to which they are accustomed, have once again
stigmatised our organisation as having links with the subversion
[guerilla movements].

In the last week El País has dedicated four pages and an editorial in
attacking us. These attacks the clear purpose of rendering illegitimate
and illegal the leadership and the struggle that we have given to defend
our commonwealth of the caleños, thereby setting the scene for the
privatisation of EMCALI E.I.C.E.

Mr. Diego Martnez Lloreda, the newspaper's sub-director of information
argues, in his editorial of 5th July entitled "Facts and Scraps", that
"it is totally false that members of Sintraemcali have never have been
in clandestinitity ... they wore balaclavas to hide their faces when
they took the EMCALI tower, is that not to shield themselves in
clandestinity? ... it is undeniable that the union has shown behaviour
that borders on the subversive ... the two occupations of the CAM tower
are the biggest example of this type of behaviour ...".

Comrades, as defenders of EMCALI E.I.C.E., today, more than ever, we
must show that we have sufficient civil values to defend our
corporation, that the attacks from the Lloreda family, from Mr.
Fernández de Soto, ex-Mayor Ricardo Cobo Lloreda, from councillors
Maria Piedad Echeverri, Marcos Len Villegas and all the political class
of the region. Rather than discourage the cause of the Cali people, it
strengthens us and clearly shows, as we have been saying, just who it is
behind the selling off and economic blood letting of the corporation.

The dignity that has been shown by this union and its workers are an
example to the whole world of resistance against neoliberalism, to the
International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation, and to all
those who want that the rich get ever richer while the poor become ever
poorer. In the case of the recent uprisings in Argentina, why are they
not justified? Why do hunger, misery , social crisis and the deaths
caused by privatisation seem so little to the masters of the neoliberal
model?

Our trade union organisation has shown to the nation and the entire
world our high degree of commitment, so that EMCALI should continue
being an Industrial and Commercial State Corporation, to stop the sell
off of public services, to demand of the government that it fulfils its
financial obligations to the PTAR project [waste water treatment
plant], and above all to prevent the handover of our resources to the
multinationals and the super-rich of this region.

With the leadership and struggle carried out by SINTRAEMCALI with the
people of Cali, it has been very evident both the viability and
profitability of EMCALI E.I.C.E. That is why comrades we will continue
struggling, we will defend to the final consequences the agreements
achieved on 29th January, with which we gained a new victory against
neoliberalism and the corrupt elite of this region.

WE CALL ALL OUR MEMBERS TO ASSEMBLE TOGETHER IN A GENERAL ASSEMBLY THIS
WEDNESDAY 10th JULY AT 5.00pm, so that we prepare ourselves to go out on
a massive protest against the declarations of El País newspaper, that
once more has place a tombstone around our necks, in an attempt to
silence our voice of protest against privatisation.

Politicians who want to appear as midwives to the future are no more
than merchants of death, hunger and misery.

We shall not be moved from the struggle... we shall not be moved from
defending EMCALI E.I.C.E., we shall not be moved from the cause of
social justice and dignity.

LUIS HERNÁNDEZ MONROY
President, SINTRAEMCALI
7th July 2002

III. CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION from COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
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8th July 2002

This is the most serious Urgent Action we have issued to date. The
situation is even more acute than at the height of the occupation.

The lives of Lucho Hernández, Berenice Celeyta and all our dear friends
in SINTRAEMCALI have been deliberately put in even greater danger by a
sustained campaign by El País newspaper, the mouth piece of Cali's
elite. Everyone in Colombia knows that to mark out somebody as being
involved with 'the subversion' or 'the insurrection', by which is meant
the guerilla movements, is to mark them out as a legitimate target for
paramilitary assassination.

Despite SINTRAEMCALI's emphatic denials of any link with the guerrillas,
El País has insistently pushed the accusation without providing any
evidence. The newspaper's campaign suggests a high level decision to
finish off SINTRAEMCALI. Immediate international solidarity action is
vital.

A second wing of the attack is destabilisation lead by the US dominated
Inter-American Development Bank. This organisation has been a consistent
supporter of privatisation, its intervention is designed to prevent a
negotiated solution with private banks that leaves EMCALI in the public
sector, that is to use debt terms as a lever to force privatisation.

We will work with other supporters of SINTRAEMCALI to organise an
emergency delegation to the Colombian embassy in London, most probably
on Thursday this week. If any of you can join this delegation please
contact me immediately.

In the meantime we urge our readers to WRITE IMMEDIATELY and send
messages to El País, the Colombian embassy, and to SINTRAEMCALI.


Members of the occupation hid their faces for the obvious reason that
they feared reprisals. A fear all too sadly vindicated since the
occupation with the assassinations of JULIO GALEANO, a community leader
who supported the occupation on 11th February, and SINTRAEMCALI member
ORLANDO ARENAS MARIN on 18th May, on both occasions the assailants were
paramilitaries.

Your message to El País should additionally point out that:

· The hostility and lack of objectivity in its reporting, including
specifically that nowhere in all the El País reports does the newspaper
acknowledge the merit of SINTRAEMCALI's case or the strength of popular
support SINTRAEMCALI has united around it against privatisation.

· SINTRAEMCALI enjoys increasing international recognition as an
inspiring example of resistance against the privatisation of public
services. The bravery of union members has saved water, electricty and
telephone services for the people of Cali, and as registered in the
Agreement of

· The standards of journalism that allow the repeated accusations
against the union that could leave to the assassination of any one of
its members without full right of reply are appalling. They indicate a
form of 'dirty journalism' use to justify Colombia's notorious dirty
war.