The Anti-Empire Project

The Union Sindical Obrera, the union of workers in Colombia’s state oil company ECOPETROL, is on strike, trying to prevent further privatizations of the oil company. They are risking a lot. USO’s strength has been in the oil regions around Barrancabermeja, and several years ago that city was taken over by paramilitaries by block-by-block, house-to-house slaughter. Some very terrible massacres took place, and much of the social movement in that city was destroyed. The USO remained, as did the Popular Women’s Organization, the OFP, but both have suffered severe repression.

They went out on strike again on April 22 (the same day the family of the Coca-Cola bottler’s unionist was gunned down in their home) and the strike was immediately declared illegal by the government. In some ways the future of the Colombian oil sector depends on this strike.

About a year ago, Hector Mondragon discussed USO’s problems when they were planning a strike, and compared the situation with that of the Venezuelan oil sector. Both groups of oil workers had the problem of management and engineers controlling the high-tech aspects of the business and being able to run the business (or stop it from running) without the worker’s participation. In Colombia, however, the military and the repression will be against the workers, on behalf of the privatizers, unlike in Venezuela, where the national guard intervened to stop the management-led ‘strike’. This makes things far more difficult for the workers of USO.

After the machine-gunning of a unionist’s family in Colombia (the union, SINALTRAINAL being one that is trying to negotiate with Coca Cola, and one that has seen quite a few of its unionists murdered by paramilitaries in the employ of Coca Cola’s bottlers over the past few years), some activists took things to the shareholder’s meeting yesterday. The full story below…

Coca-Cola faces down shareholder revolt and ejects protester

The Guardian David Teather in New York Thursday April 22, 2004

Coca-Cola yesterday faced down a shareholder rebellion at its annual meeting as well as protests from human rights activists which led to one being forcibly removed…

Reports from the annual meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, said shareholders looked stunned as security guards wrestled the human rights activist, Ray Rogers, to the ground. He had been shouting and swearing at Coke chairman and chief executive Douglas Daft. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said the force used looked excessive.

Mr Rogers had been accusing Coke of violating human rights in Colombia. Legal filings in US courts have claimed that the company and its Colombian bottlers have hired rightwing death squads to intimidate unions at the plants. They claim nine union organisers have been killed in the past decade. Mr Daft said yesterday that the charges “are false and outrageous”.

Other protesters alleged that the company’s bottling plants in India are depleting water supplies in local communities and causing pollution with discharged materials…

full article here

Campaign to Stop Killer Coke – www.killercoke.org adds

Dear Campaign Supporters:

1. Yesterday, the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke successfully demonstrated at Coke’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Wilmington, Delaware. The protest generated extensive media coverage – a few samples are linked below. A highlight of the Washington Post article describes that Coke CEO Douglas Daft suppressed an independent investigation of the charges regarding Coke’s abuses in Colombia (if you do not get a “hot” link, copy and past the web addresses below):

Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32875-2004Apr21.html

Atlanta Journal Constitution: www.ajc.com/business/content/business/coke/0404/21speaker.html

Atlanta Business Chronicle: atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2004/04/19/daily30.html?jst=b_ln_hl

2. In addition, the following link will bring you to a radio piece produced by Workers Independent News Service. This requires an MP3 player and is best heard on a high-speed internet connection: www.laborradio.org/audio/features/mp3/winsfeat042304.mp3

3. We have added several photos of the demonstration to our Protest Pics section.

*****************************************************

Campaign to Stop Killer Coke

http://www.killercoke.org
stopkillercoke@aol.com
(212) 979-8320

The CSN asks you to sign this petition on US Colombia Policy.

Speaking of the US and Colombia, a certain famous US corporation’s bottlers employ paramilitaries to kill unionists in Colombia. There was recently a hunger strike by unionists whose desperate action result in negotiations with Coca Cola. The reprisals against those unionists have officially begun, with the slaughter of a unionist’s family in their home by machine gunners today. Here is the full note, translated and circulated by the UK Colombia Solidarity Campaign.

————

At 7 am on April 20, 2004, various armed men with machine guns entered the home of the brother of Coca-Cola union leader Efrain Guerrero’s wife in Bucaramanga, and fired indiscriminately at the family, killing Efrain’s brother-in-law, Gabriel Remolina, his wife Fanny and wounding three of their children. One of these children, Robinson Remolina, is in grave condition in the hospital.

This is not the first time that the families of Sinaltrainal union leaders have been the victims of such violence. This happened in the context of the labor conflict against Coca Cola, where we are trying to avoid the firing of workers due to closing production lines. The union is also negotiating a new convention with the company which was presented in March of this year. On April 18, we held the workers’ assemblies where we approved the petitions that we would present to the Coca Cola bottlers in Bucaramanga, Cucuta and Barrancabermeja. We also just had a meeting with the Vice President of the Coca Cola bottlers where we expressed our concern for the security problems. In addition, the lawyers who filed the case against Coca-Cola in the United States, for acts of anti-union violence, just announced they had filed a new brief to reinstate Coca-Cola as a defendant.

We demand an end to the aggression against Sinaltrainal affiliates and our families, and we demand that the authorities investigate and find the material and intellectual authors of these crimes.

Enough already of so much injustice!

Yours,

LUIS JAVIER CORREA SUAREZ

President SINALTRAINAL

20th April, 2004

Because I never even try to understand anything by myself, I asked one of my trusted Colombian friends to explain the events in Guaitarilla to me. My friend replied: “Guaitarilla? SURE!!!”

Here is my friend’s explanation, complete with an unsolicited and very nice comment. And this story ain’t over, either…

The news in Colombia, everywhere, all media had only one thing to talk about: Guaitarilla. Initially the story is that accidentally at dawn, an army patrol unexpectedly met with a GAULA police team (special forces) and confused them with FARC terrorists and shot them, killing all of them. The Police commander gave this very version on all media. 4 civilans were killed with the 7 policemen. According to this high officer, the 4 were either narcotraficantes or insurgents captured by the police. The army gave a different version and contradicted the police. According to army officers, the GAULA had nothing to do in that area, they did not inform the army about this and that lack of coordination led to the problem. The initial report from the attorney general’s office comes out and the forensic report shows that the victims were shot inside their vehicles, at short distance and that their bodies were moved out of the cars to make them look as though they had been shot outside!

In other words, they were massacred at point-blank range.

Then, a witness shows up, seeking protection. He is an active policeman from the same GAULA unit who was not on duty that day, but who “decided” to accompany the group’s rounds from his own vehicle and was keeping contact with them through his car radio. He was the brother of one of the civilians killed (allegedly criminals according to the National Police Comander).

His brother, he said, was not a criminal, neither were the other civilians, but paid informants of the more than 1 million that Uribe has called the “million friends”. [[NOTE from Justin: this is the network of civilian informers Uribe promised in his election]]

In fact, locals have informed that GAULA does regular rounds with support from informantes in the area because there are drug laboratories in the region. The rounds are to “vaccinate” (get money from, extort from) the drug processing operation. The army intercepted them knowing they had money (and cocaine, as this is better payment) and attempted to have these goods transfered to the soldiers from the Police. The witness said (it was everywhere in the news) that his brother called him to say, we are being stopped by an armed group, stay behind til I tell you what is happening. The next communication was, it’s OK, come over, it’s just army people. We are alright. The man says he was scared and decided no to come closer and then he heard the shots, round after round and ran away only to discover later that his brother and the entire group had been massacred.

This caused a scandal. Even fairly right wing columnists and liberals (Maria Jimena Duzan) commented on their editorials (El Tiempo) that the corruption within the armed forces had gone beyond the wildest nightmare. Everyone wanted the truth. Too many cases of accidents, massacres, confessions, corruption etc. This had to be clarified. The truth had to come out.

Uribe moved swiftly to promise a full report and resolution “punishing those responsible” within a week. The fact is the cover-up is evolving and now “evidence” will point at a “mistake”. A specific commander or two might be destituted for mis-communicating and end of story…..OR IS IT?

Nobody swallows the lies now. The army is irreparably discredited, not because they are corrupt assasins, crooks connected to drug trade and theft of all types, but mostly because they have done things in a way such that everyone knows the truth AND THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE. They have to learn to lie better, especially if they are to win the US’s dirty war and advance not only in controlling the whole country through a paramilitary regime lead by a paramilitary president, but because Colombia and the Colombian army of paras and soldiers and policemen are to lead (under the command of General Hill), the attack on Venezuela. So, a clean up is required so that private deals are not tolerated, institutional corruption is well administered and dirty war managed through official lies only.

THERE YOU HAVE IT. tHE FUTURE OF THIS CONTINENT IS BEING WRITTEN IN COLOMBIA AND FEW GIVE A DAMN ABOUT IT. ESTABLISHED LIES, A FASCIST DRUG RELATED PARAMILTARY-CORPORATE GOVERNMENT REGIME AND FULL GUIDANCE FROM us GOVERNMENT, SOUTHCOM AND STATE DEPT. Freedom or free trade through horror. Want a cut on the deal? Easy, write in favour of Uribe, Bush, Plan Colombia, the armed forces and against Venezuela and you are in!!! They need people desperately, especially since types like you keep telling the truth!!!