Subject: sent to the tower
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 00:31:28 -0000


This week's SchNEWS: http://www.schnews.org.uk/

wake up! wake up! It's yer sent to the tower

SchNEWS

Published in Brighton by Justice? - Brighton's Direct Action collective

ISSUE 339, January 25th, 2002

TOWER STRUGGLE

Colombia's second city Cali is today on a city wide stoppage in support of
800 workers from the Sintraemcali Union. For the past 31 days they have
been occupying a 17-storey communications tower, the home of the state
owned Emcali, who supply water, electricity and telephones to the city.

With the support of the Cali community, the workers - who have been there
since Christmas Day - are demanding that the company isn't privatised, that
there are no price increases and the corrupt company officials who have
siphoned off money for years are prosecuted.

Apart from the riot police around the tower, the square surrounding it is
in the hands of the people and has been "transformed into a beehive of
collective action."

A huge make shift kitchen feeds the hundreds of occupying workers with
breakfast, lunch and dinner. Across the road is a stage where people make
speeches, play music and try to keep people's spirits up. On some days
there have been 20,000 supporters outside, and every few days there is a
big meeting of several thousands. All around the square, the walls are
adorned with banners with slogans such as 'Better to die for something than
live for nothing'. Squatting such a sophisticated communications tower also
has its advantages - with workers beaming video link-ups around the world.

Colombia is not a place for the fainthearted. It has been in a civil war
for the past 40 years, and in the past ten alone over one and a half
thousand trade union activists have been assassinated. Since 1994 workers
from the Sintraemcali Union have successfully fought off sixteen attempts
to privatise Emcali - and the heavy price they have paid has been murders,
assassination attempts and the forced exile of many workers. The leader of
Sintraemcali is just 33 but has already survived three assassination
attempts, and workers occupying what has now been dubbed Robin Hood Towers,
cover their faces knowing that even if they are victorious right wing
paramilitaries could exact revenge at any time.

Over recent years the paramilitaries have managed to grow in parallel with
the US initiated Plan Colombia, a two billion dollar largely military aid
package supposedly aimed at the eradication of cocaine production (see
SchNEWS 273). However the paramilitaries have been untouched by this
military war on drugs, despite admitting that they fund themselves largely
from drug production in the areas under their control.

As Mario Novelli from the Colombian Solidarity Campaign, who is currently
in Cali as a Human Rights Observer points out "Could it be that the US is
fighting not against drugs, but against resistance to the imposition of an
economic model based on privatisation, budget cuts, and rising inequality?
If it is, then the stakes at this negotiation table here are high, for if
the Cali community and Sintraemcali stop the privatisation of public
services, and prevent price increases for the poor, then they are not just
preventing government plans, but the plans of the IMF and the World Bank,
and their US masters. Plans that seek to ensure that Colombia fits in to
the neo-liberal block being developed across the region." With the
occupation now entering a fifth week and messages of solidarity pouring in
from around the world, negotiations are now taking place at the highest
level. As Mario Novelli says "We are beginning to get the feeling that the
world is starting to take note of what those inside the tower already know:
this is an historic battle."


   * There will be a mass picket of the Colombian Embassy today (25th) 4-6
     pm at 3 Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, London (back of Harrods). The
     Union is facing bankruptcy so if you want to make a financial
     contribution to the strikers send cheques payable to 'Colombia
     Solidarity Campaign' with SINTRAEMCALI on the back and send to
     Colombia Solidarity Campaign, PO Box 8446, London N17 6NZ .
     07950-923448, colombia_sc-AT-hotmail.com

   * The campaign have also organised a conference: 'Plan Colombia -
     Clearing the Way For the Multinationals', 23rd-24th February at Conway
     Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 (Holborn tube).

   * Mario Novelli, who has been sending daily bulletins back from the
     occupation, will be speaking immediately on his return from Colombia
     on Saturday 2nd February at the CORAS Centre, 161 Lambeth Walk, SE11.
     (Vauxhall tube) 4pm

For general news on Colombia see www.colombiareport.org
-
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
"Whenever you advise a ruler in the way of Tao,
Counsel him not to use force to conquer the universe.
For this would only cause resistance." - Lao Tzu

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws!" --Tacitus (A.D.
55-130)

"Whoever lays his hand on me to govern me
 is a usurper and a tyrant, and I declare him my enemy."
 --- Pierre Joseph Prouhon (1849)

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who
could not hear the music."-Friedrich Nietzsche-

"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my
contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the
spinal cord would fully suffice." -Albert Einstein

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