"Day of Indigenous Resistance" picket of Colombian embassy in London (report)
pescao | 14.10.2005 03:50 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Workers' Movements | London
October 12th 2005, London: Exactly 513 years since Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, around 40 peace and solidarity activists picketed the Colombian embassy in support of workers, students, indigenous communities and other social movements there out on general strike.
Also present was a delegation from the British trade union movement, organised by solidarity campaign Justice for Colombia, which met with diplomats inside the embassy. On behalf of the TUC (Trades Union Congress) the delegates expressed their concern at the ongoing and severe human rights abuses in Colombia, especially against organised workers.
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be an activist. On average, three trade unionists are assassinated there each week by right-wing death-squads, often in collusion with the official military and protected by the Colombian government.
The strikers were protesting against this state-sponsored terrorism as well as president Uribe tampering with the Constitution in order to stand for re-election next year. International solidarity offers vital protection as anyone who opposes the government in any way is branded either a guerrilla fighter or sympathiser and is targeted for repression.
If the spirits of the London protesters were at all dampened by the British rain, these were immediately lifted by samba band Rhythms of Resistance who kicked off the demo with some topically tropical drumming. Their presence and role as the heart-beat of the protest was particularly appropriate given that social movements across Colombia and the entire continent (including the government of neighbouring Venezuela) have renamed October 12th as "Day of Indigenous Resistance".
An open-mic started with Andy Higginbottom, secretary of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, describing the appalling situation in Colombia and the reasons behind the strike. He also shared the distressing news that over 400 protesters were, at that very moment, surrounded by police in a Bogota hospital which was serving as one of the assembly-points for the march.
Giving more examples of repression against the strike, including the violent occupation of the national university by security forces and the raiding of student homes that very morning, he illustrated that "the Colombian regime, the government of Uribe Velez, its military and its paramilitaries are denying the mass social movement in Colombia the right to democratic protest."
Aiming his critism closer to home, he added that "we condemn British collaboration with the Uribe regime. We condemn military aid in whatever form to the Uribe regime. If the government of this country supported democracy, human rights and justice, it would boycott military aid to Colombia."
After several chants in Spanish, including one which translated as "Uribe - you mercenary, the people are furious with you", Colombian activist Soraya Gutierrez explained how the new so-called "free trade" agreement which Colombia is about to sign with the US will in fact result in even greater poverty and repression, as well as more displacement of indigenous and afro-colombian communities.
Gutierrez, who is president of the Colombian Human Rights Lawyers' Collective, pointed out that the demonstrators in Colombia were also protesting against the culture of rampant impunity, in which no-one is ever held accountable for the assassinations and torture that have become so commonplace. "The government is trying to legalise impunity," she explained.
The new so-called "Justice and Peace" Law has "given legal and economic benefits to the paramilitary groups that are responsible for so many human rights violations and crimes, and many of these crimes have been committed with the help of the state forces."
As darkness fell around 6.30pm, the National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear, who led the trade union delegation, reported back they had been told inside the embassy that the situation for trade unionists and activists was improving because less people have been killed this year and more have been prosecuted.
"We disputed every single one of those figures and we've asked to get copies of all the documentation they claim that shows the situation is improving," he assured the protesters.
He also thanked everybody for making lots of noise and revealed that the government representatives were startled by the samba and jumpy with the beats and chants, adding that this "was really useful for us and gave a good background to the meeting."
He finished by making it clear that "we're going to be here every time somebody is threatened, intimidated, kidnapped, harassed or killed, until we put an end to impunity and help the trade union and social movement win that fight for peace and social justice." Hopefully the government will take this seriously and realise that Colombia's international image is now a casualty of their own civil war.
Also present was a delegation from the British trade union movement, organised by solidarity campaign Justice for Colombia, which met with diplomats inside the embassy. On behalf of the TUC (Trades Union Congress) the delegates expressed their concern at the ongoing and severe human rights abuses in Colombia, especially against organised workers.
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be an activist. On average, three trade unionists are assassinated there each week by right-wing death-squads, often in collusion with the official military and protected by the Colombian government.
The strikers were protesting against this state-sponsored terrorism as well as president Uribe tampering with the Constitution in order to stand for re-election next year. International solidarity offers vital protection as anyone who opposes the government in any way is branded either a guerrilla fighter or sympathiser and is targeted for repression.
If the spirits of the London protesters were at all dampened by the British rain, these were immediately lifted by samba band Rhythms of Resistance who kicked off the demo with some topically tropical drumming. Their presence and role as the heart-beat of the protest was particularly appropriate given that social movements across Colombia and the entire continent (including the government of neighbouring Venezuela) have renamed October 12th as "Day of Indigenous Resistance".
An open-mic started with Andy Higginbottom, secretary of the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, describing the appalling situation in Colombia and the reasons behind the strike. He also shared the distressing news that over 400 protesters were, at that very moment, surrounded by police in a Bogota hospital which was serving as one of the assembly-points for the march.
Giving more examples of repression against the strike, including the violent occupation of the national university by security forces and the raiding of student homes that very morning, he illustrated that "the Colombian regime, the government of Uribe Velez, its military and its paramilitaries are denying the mass social movement in Colombia the right to democratic protest."
Aiming his critism closer to home, he added that "we condemn British collaboration with the Uribe regime. We condemn military aid in whatever form to the Uribe regime. If the government of this country supported democracy, human rights and justice, it would boycott military aid to Colombia."
After several chants in Spanish, including one which translated as "Uribe - you mercenary, the people are furious with you", Colombian activist Soraya Gutierrez explained how the new so-called "free trade" agreement which Colombia is about to sign with the US will in fact result in even greater poverty and repression, as well as more displacement of indigenous and afro-colombian communities.
Gutierrez, who is president of the Colombian Human Rights Lawyers' Collective, pointed out that the demonstrators in Colombia were also protesting against the culture of rampant impunity, in which no-one is ever held accountable for the assassinations and torture that have become so commonplace. "The government is trying to legalise impunity," she explained.
The new so-called "Justice and Peace" Law has "given legal and economic benefits to the paramilitary groups that are responsible for so many human rights violations and crimes, and many of these crimes have been committed with the help of the state forces."
As darkness fell around 6.30pm, the National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear, who led the trade union delegation, reported back they had been told inside the embassy that the situation for trade unionists and activists was improving because less people have been killed this year and more have been prosecuted.
"We disputed every single one of those figures and we've asked to get copies of all the documentation they claim that shows the situation is improving," he assured the protesters.
He also thanked everybody for making lots of noise and revealed that the government representatives were startled by the samba and jumpy with the beats and chants, adding that this "was really useful for us and gave a good background to the meeting."
He finished by making it clear that "we're going to be here every time somebody is threatened, intimidated, kidnapped, harassed or killed, until we put an end to impunity and help the trade union and social movement win that fight for peace and social justice." Hopefully the government will take this seriously and realise that Colombia's international image is now a casualty of their own civil war.
pescao
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pix
14.10.2005 04:35
speeches
samba
solidarity
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14.10.2005 22:52
samba 2
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samba 4
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speaker pix
16.10.2005 01:35
andy higginbottom
colombian chants
soraya gutierrez
jeremy dear
pescao
video script
17.10.2005 00:44
samba
Andy Higginbottom: The demands of the Colombian people are that their government of Uribe Velez should not be allowed to stand for a second time. And secondly, the general strike in Colombia today, the 12th of October, has been called against the power of the imperialist United States of America and the so-called "free trade" agreements which he is trying to impose on the Colombian people.
Soraya Gutierrez: (live translation) And they're protesting against the "free trade" agreements because these agreements are only benefiting the economic interests of the United States and they're finishing with the national economy. Because these agreements are only going to cause more poverty for the Colombian people, and it's going to make it worse for the 24 million Colombians who are already living in poverty.
Andy Higginbottom: Remember the date, 12th of October 2005. It is an historic date because 513 years after the so-called "discovery" of the Americas by one Christopher Columbus, there are some people who celebrate this date, but I can tell you, in Latin America there are many many more who consider the 12th of October to be, not a day of discovery, but a day of disgrace. It is a disgrace the way the Spanish empire robbed the peoples of Latin America, along with the Portuguese, a robbery which went on for 300 years.
Soraya Gutierrez: (live translation) But these agreements are also going to wipe out unions and privatise the few public services that still exist. It's also going to finish with the healthcare system, with education and privatise the few public universities that still exist in Colombia. And it's also going to affect the indigenous communities and the afro-colombian communities that are going to get displaced off their land to serve economic interests.
Andy Higginbottom: We say, on this picket line: Down with the Uribe regime and long live the Colombian people! And we salute them in their courageous fightback against a regime which in no way can be called democratic, a regime which is the absolute example of dictatorship in the Western world today. A regime in which there are more human rights abuses committed against trade unionists, against students, against young people and indigenous people than everywhere else in the western hemisphere put together.
Soraya Gutierrez: (live translation) Today the human rights situation is getting ever worse. We have more than 3.5 million Colombians displaced and community and civil society and trade union leaders continue to be assassinated.
Andy Higginbottom: Trade unionists have been assassinated by death-squads for standing up and organising unions. To give you one example, a leader of the food and drinks workers unions was tortured to death on the 10th of September. When his body was found the next day, they found forty knife wounds in his body. It took him four nights to die.
chants
Andy Higginbottom: It's quite easy to make speeches on the streets of London; it's another matter, and we know this very well, what our friends and comrades, our brothers and sisters in Colombia have to face. Even today, we have heard news of four attacks on people as they gathered to demonstrate in Bogota alone. Four hundred people are being surrounded in a hospital in Bogota by armed police. The police have gone into the university, the national university in Bogota, and they are at this minute attacking people with tear gas. They raided student homes this morning, they arrested students yesterday and they're attacking the working class communities in the South of Bogota to stop people from gathering, to stop people from meeting and marching. In other words, the Colombian regime, the government of Uribe Velez, its military and its paramilitaries, are denying the mass movement, the social movement in Colombia, the right to democratic protest. That is what is terrorist in Colombia. The terrorism in Colombia is coming from the State.
Soraya Gutierrez: (live translation) People are also mobilising today against the process of impunity. The government is trying to legalise impunity and to create impunity for all the crimes committed, that have murdered thousands and thousands of people. This process has given legal and economic benefits to the paramilitary groups that are responsible for so many human rights violations and crimes, and many of these crimes have been committed with the help of the state forces.
Jeremy Dear: I thought I would tell you the good news first. They've written to us in response to the letter that the TUC wrote to them raising concerns about the possibility of violence on the demonstrations today, about the occupation of the national university, about the occupation of hospitals, about the indigenous demonstrations that have been prevented from marching. And they have said that they've taken note of our concerns and wish to stress that "in Colombia, the rule of law prevails. Our country has always upheld the right to freedom of opinion and expression and recognises that peaceful demonstrations are an integral part of a modern democracy." We just about managed not to laugh at that.
Soraya Gutierrez: (live translation) This situation is altogether more serious and this militarisation of the country is also happening due to the help of military aid from the United States in the form of Plan Colombia and the Patriot Plan. And the British government is also giving military aid to the Colombian army.
Jeremy Dear: We were also told that the situation for trade unionists and civil rights activists and so on is improving because less have been killed this year and more people have been prosecuted. We disputed every single one of those figures and we've asked to get copies of all the documentation they claim that shows the situation is improving.
Andy Higginbottom: We condemn British collaboration with the Uribe regime. We condemn military aid in whatever form to the Uribe regime. If any government of this country supported democracy, human rights and justice, it would join the boycott of military aid to Colombia.
more samba
Jeremy Dear: So thank you everybody for having come on the demonstration, made the noise, let them know that they are being watched.
Andy Higginbottom: It's important that in Colombia, many different organisations with their different traditions, their different methods and their different ideologies are uniting in protest against Uribe and against the proposed "free trade" agreement. And it's fitting that similarly here there should be many different groups and organisations joining together in a protest.
Jeremy Dear: In that room they were kind of turning round every time you started up either the drums or the chanting so that was really really useful for us and gave a good background to the meeting.
Soraya Gutierrez: (live translation) That's why we need this relationship of solidarity and support so that we can stop this impunity and to say that "another world is possible!"
Andy Higginbottom: 513 years of oppression, 513 years of exploitation, and president Uribe, president of the rich in Colombia, would like that to go for another 500 years. Well the Colombian people have had enough!
Jeremy Dear: They're getting used to seeing us but they better get used to the fact that we're going to be here every time somebody is threatened, intimidated, kidnapped, harassed or killed, until we put an end to impunity and help the trade union and social movement win that fight for peace and social justice.
ENDS
pescao
audio
24.10.2005 02:46
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pescao
Colombian Resistance Growing
25.10.2005 11:59
There were different collectives such as Colombia Solidarity Campaign, New Generation, Justice for Colombia, the recently conformed Collective PUNKUS(Door in Kechua Language), and the Samba musicians which made the picket a diverse and strong group of people wuith the same aims.
The rain didn't stopt the people being there at the embassy and the most hopeful is that many new comers were at the picket and expressed their interest and will of being back there anytime is necessary. So we can say from what happens here: there is maybe a posibility of re-election in Colombia, but the resistance is growing too and IT IS POSSIBLE TO DEFEAT URIBE "the authoritarian".
So we need to help, and if more people join us and we will be stronger, and able to not only resist but propose and be part of the solution, for the colombian conflict and call for the non violent actions from the armed actors -state,paramilitars, guerrilla,and drug exporters.
Is very much apreciated the solidarity of any internationals as individuals or groups.
Get in touch! and make revolution together!
Mauricio
Mauricio Lopez-Arenas
e-mail:
chamantes@yahoo.co.uk