Fw: GENERAL STRIKE ROCKS COLOMBIA

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

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 GENERAL STRIKE ROCKS COLOMBIA:
 
 GROWING THREATS OF INCREASED U.S. INTERVENTION
 
 By Andy McInerney
 
 Close to a million workers brought the South American
 country of Colombia to a standstill on June 7. The 24-hour
 general strike, supported by all of Colombia's public-sector
 unions, was aimed at blocking a government measure to cut
 spending on public services.
 
 Some 300,000 teachers and 125,000 health-care workers have
 been on strike against the bill's passage since May 15. They
 were joined by nearly 400,000 other public-sector workers.
 
 Public transportation was at a standstill in the capital
 city of Bogota and many of the other major cities. Hooded
 demonstrators broke department store windows. Workers in the
 capital fought back against government armored personnel
 carriers with Molotov cocktails.
 
 Oil workers in the northeastern city of Barrancabermeja also
 joined the strike. Protesters set up roadblocks throughout
 the country, including the provinces of Norte de Santander,
 Cauca and Valle.
 
 The Spanish news agency EFE called the protests "the most
 serious of Andres Pastrana's administration, which has been
 in power for two years and nine months." It is in fact the
 third major general strike since Pastrana took office.
 
 "We are protesting against Legislative Act 012," said the
 FECODE teachers' union President Gloria Ramirez, "and also
 against other government measures to deepen the neoliberal
 model in the country."
 
 Legislative Act 012 is part of Colombian President Andres
 Pastrana's 1999 deal with the International Monetary Fund to
 win a financial bailout. The IMF has warned that if the act
 is not passed before June 20, it will pull back $2.7 billion
 in standby loans.
 
 Colombia faces a severe economic depression. Unemployment
 stands at over 20 percent. Half the population lives in
 poverty.
 
 Strikes and protests take place in the face of brutal
 repression in Colombia. Death squads linked to the military
 routinely target organizers and activists.
 
 As of the end of May, 48 union activists and leaders had
 been assassinated this year alone--in addition to hundreds
 of peasants, Indigenous people and Afro-Colombians living in
 the countryside.
 
 PROTESTS AMID REVOLUTION
 
 Protests against the IMF and its neo liberal economic
 policies have become increasingly common around the world in
 the last five years. The Colombian protests take on
 increased importance because of the presence of armed
 revolutionary insurgencies challenging the Colombian ruling
 class and U.S. imperialism.
 
 The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army
 (FARC-EP) exert tremendous political and military power
 throughout the country. For the past two years, they have
 been engaged in a process of dialogues with the Colombian
 government.
 
 Throughout the talks, the FARC-EP have made clear that the
 government's neo liberal economic plan must go.
 
 On June 1 the FARC-EP recently won another victory at the
 bargaining table. The government agreed to turn over 15 FARC-
 EP prisoners in exchange for the release of captured
 government troops.
 
 The FARC-EP also achieved a measure of support for their
 demand for the status of "belligerent" in the civil war--to
 be recognized as an armed force with political goals, which
 the government must confront according to guidelines
 prescribed by international accords.
 
 While the Colombian government refuses to recognize this
 belligerent status, its agreement on a limited prisoner
 exchange is a de facto step in that direction.
 
 In early May, Colombian Interior Minister Armando Estrada
 made a startling admission about the government's assessment
 of the FARC-EP. "These people could one day be governing the
 country," he warned. (London Independent, May 2)
 
 INCREASED SIGNS OF U.S. INTERVENTION
 
 Colombia's ruling class is thus being battered on two sides:
 from the armed insurgencies and the powerful mass movements.
 Without the support of U.S. imperialism, the Colombian
 regime would quickly collapse.
 
 For that reason, U.S. intervention has stepped up
 dramatically.
 
 Aid to the Colombian government skyrocketed from $89 million
 in 1997 to the $1.3 billion "Plan Colombia" last year. Much
 of this aid has been sold to the public as part of a "war on
 drugs."
 
 But there are growing signs that this is just the tip of the
 iceberg. In a report commissioned by the U.S. Air Force, the
 Rand Corp., a right-wink think tank, argues that the "drug
 war" rhetoric is an obstacle to the increased intervention
 the Colombian government will require. The report was
 released on June 9.
 
 "U.S. policy misses the point that the political and
 military control that the guerrillas exercise over an ever-
 larger part of Colombia's territory and population is at the
 heart of their challenge to the Bogota government's
 authority," the report notes. It argues that new aid should
 not be hampered by restrictions on the anti-drug effort.
 
 United Press International's Pamela Hess reports that "Rand
 recommended the United States dramatically increase its
 support for Colombia and the military along the lines of
 what the United States did in El Salvador during the Reagan
 administration--transforming the military from a defensive
 force into mobile units that can root out guerrillas in
 strategic areas."
 
 The report, read in tandem with recent Bush administration
 moves toward increasing military aid to Colombia under the
 so-called "Andean Initiative," points toward new levels of
 U.S. intervention to try to hold back the Colombian people's
 fight for a new society and an end to IMF exploitation.
 
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