Rumours of the death of the anti-capitalist globalization movement have been greatly exaggerated. In Latin America, even in countries like Colombia that have civil wars to worry about, the fight against neoliberalism is still the battle. The fact that neoliberalism is still the major killer in Latin America has caused some of our best activist minds to mix up neoliberals and neoconservatives. But that’s a tale for another day.
I blogged a couple of days ago (in an admittedly convoluted way) about social movements in Peru and their plan to mobilize for an anti-FTAA (for readers just tuning in, FTAA is the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and it is one of those “free trade” agreements that ought to be called “investor rights” agreements, in that they give multinational investors rights that supercede citizens’ life-and-death human rights. If you want background on this ZNet’s Globalization section is a good place to start). Yesterday I blogged about the Indigenous and Popular Congress in Colombia, which is moving quickly to establish itself all over the country.
Well, it turns out one of the commitments the Indigenous and Popular Congress has made is to join Peru’s social movements in a major anti-FTAA mobilization on October 12.
In Ecuador, they are planning protests at the US Embassy on that day.
Today in Colombia, there is another major march going on from Santander to Bogota (an enormous distance!) to protest health care privatization.
This is in a country where paramilitaries are continuing to kill with impunity. On October 2, for example, 27-year old Yorbeli Amparo Restrepo was assassinated by paramilitaries on an army-controlled road near San Jose de Apartado, a peace community. Union leader from agricultural worker’s union FENSUAGRO Pedro Jaime Mosquera (Vice-President of the Arauca region) was just assassinated.
They are fighting on against neoliberalism despite terrible repression. The contrast with so many of our organizations in North America, which collapsed when needed most because of the upcoming election — as Rahul argues in his blog — is somewhat of a shame.
