[WSMDiscuss] National strike in Colombia completes one month, the struggle continues (People’s Dispatch)

[Krishna Roy]

Long Live the struggle!
Krishna Roy

On Wed, Jun 2, 2021 at 2:27 AM Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net> wrote:

> Tuesday, June 1, 2021
>
> *Colombia in movement…, People in movement…, **Indigenous Peoples in
> movement…, **Workers in movement…, **Resistance in movement…*
>
> *National strike in Colombia completes one month, the struggle continues*
>
> The struggle, which began in rejection of a neoliberal tax reform bill,
> has transformed into a social uprising in Colombia demanding structural
> changes and an end to policies that only deepen social inequality and
> deprive the greater part of the population of basic rights
>
> People’s Dispatch
>
> May 31 2021
>
>
> https://www.alainet.org/es/node/212461?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=alai-amlatina,
> off
> https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/05/29/national-strike-in-colombia-completes-one-month-the-struggle-continues/
>
> May 28 marks one month since the beginning of the national strike in
> Colombia against the far-right government of President Ivan Duque and his
> neoliberal policies. The struggle, which began in rejection of a tax reform
> bill that would have affected the majority of the working class, has
> transformed into a social uprising demanding structural changes and an end
> to policies that only deepen social inequality and deprive the greater part
> of the population of basic rights such as education and health.
>
> Since April 28
> <https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/04/29/national-strike-in-colombia-continues-for-a-second-day/>,
> hundreds of thousands of workers, teachers, students, doctors, peasants,
> Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, women and LGBTQ movements,
> human rights organizations, progressive political leaders, have been
> mobilizing in the urban as well as rural areas of the country with
> different sets of long-standing demands
> <https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/05/14/colombians-continue-to-resist-as-national-strike-completes-15-days/>.
> Numerous peaceful demonstrations, road blockades, sit-ins, art and cultural
> events, among other protest actions, are organized every day in different
> parts of Colombia to demand that the government address the urgent issues
> facing the country such as worsening socio-economic conditions due to
> COVID-19, health crisis due to slow vaccination pace, rampant inflation and
> unemployment, and the widespread paramilitary violence.
>
> Additionally, the mobilizing sectors are also demanding respect for their
> constitutional right to protest, end to brutal police and military
> repression, withdrawal of the army from the cities, thorough investigation
> into the human rights violations committed by the national security forces
> in the past one month, dismantling of the Anti-Disturbance Mobile Squadron
> (ESMAD) and the resignation of defense minister Diego Molano.
>
> The government has continued to respond with its policies of criminalizing
> and stigmatizing those who participate in these social protests so as to
> justify and normalize violent repression against them. The protesters are
> being called “vandals” and have been enduring unprecedented levels of
> repression in the name of “restoration of public order.”
>
> According to the human rights organization Temblores
> <https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2Rj1EfXEAAUeux?format=jpg&name=900x900>,
> between April 28 and May 24, a total of 3,155 cases of police violence were
> registered in the country. These included 955 victims of physical violence,
> 43 deaths, 1,388 arbitrary arrests, 595 violent interventions, 46 victims
> with eye injuries, 165 cases of shooting with firearms, 22 victims of
> sexual violence and 5 victims of gender-based violence. In addition,
> various local media outlets have reported that over 100 people have gone
> missing after they were arrested by the ESMAD officials.
>
> On May 27, the National Strike Committee, which brings together a diverse
> group of social organizations and trade unions, denounced that the national
> government had refused to sign the pre-agreement, reached on May 24, to
> provide guarantees to exercise social protests, a condition set to begin
> negotiations to peacefully cease the anti-government demonstrations and
> discuss the demands. The committee reported that instead the government
> demanded that the protesters lift road blockades across the country in
> order to advance the talks.
>
> The Committee announced that it hopes to reach an agreement in the next
> meeting and called for massive nationwide mobilizations on May 28 and 29 to
> highlight with renewed vigor, the struggle of the Colombian people against
> neoliberalism and violence, for life, peace, justice and democracy. Since
> early morning, the people began flooding the streets throughout the
> national territory.
>
> In addition to continuing the violent repression and ignoring the demands
> of protesters, the ruling party and its allies in the Senate rejected the
> motion of censure presented by the progressive opposition parties against
> Molano
> <https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/05/25/colombian-congress-debates-motions-of-censure-against-defense-minister-diego-molano/>
> for unleashing ruthless repression against peaceful mobilizations in the
> past one month of the national strike. With 69 votes against and 31 in
> favor of the motion, Molano was supported by the ruling Democratic Center
> party, the Conservative party, the Radical Change party, the Colombia Justa
> Libres, the Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation (MIRA) and some
> sectors of the Social Party of National Unity.
>
> Senator Ivan Cepeda Castro of the Alternative Democratic Pole, one of the
> promoters of the motion, strongly rejected the decision. “In an act of
> complicity with impunity for crimes against humanity, the Senate denied a
> motion of censure against Minister Molano. The government of Iván Duque and
> his ministers will go down in history as frustrated gravediggers of peace
> and weak Colombian democracy,” tweeted
> <https://twitter.com/IvanCepedaCast/status/1397946016079519747?s=20>
> Cepeda.
>
> The Central Union of Workers (CUT), in a tweet
> <https://twitter.com/cutcolombia/status/1397973581997527049?s=20> said
> that “those who voted in favor of Molano, so that he continues as the head
> of the defense ministry have become accomplices in the largest massacre and
> violation of human rights in this country.”
>
> Several national and international human rights organizations such as the
> United Nations, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) have
> expressed their concerns regarding the excessive, disproportionate and
> arbitrary use of force and implementation of military assistance programs
> to suppress social protests. The IACHR is waiting to receive a response
> from the Colombian government on the permission requested, on May 15, to
> verify the human rights situation in the country, after receiving thousands
> of petitions from Colombian civil society representatives, students,
> academics and politicians to investigate their violations by the security
> forces.
>
>
>
> https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/05/29/national-strike-in-colombia-completes-one-month-the-struggle-continues/
>
>
> ____________________________
>
> Jai Sen
>
> Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of
> International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of
> Ottawa
>
> jai.sen at cacim.net &  <jsen at uottawa.ca>jsen at uottawa.ca
>
> Now based in Ottawa, Canada, on unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282
> 2900) and in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325)
>
> *Check out something new** – including for copies of the first two books
> below, at a discount, and much more : **The Movements of Movements
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>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – *The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us
> Move ?*.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and
> hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>; hard copy only
> also at The Movements of Movements <https://movementsofmovements.net/>
>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – *The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our
> Dance*.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
> <http://www.pmpress.org/>; hard copy only also at The Movements of
> Movements <https://movementsofmovements.net/>
>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – *The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us
> Move ?*  (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration
> with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN
> <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>
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>
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