DAY OF INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORKERS AND THE PEOPLE'S UPRISING OF COLOMBIA
From Pereira, Colombia…
Carlos García, member of the National Union, Social and Popular Coordinator
“The workers, despite the calls of the traitors to lift the strike, have taken to the streets and persevered to continue mobilizing”
Good afternoon comrades. I send greetings to all the comrades from the different international organizations that are participating in this important event.
In Colombia it’s the moment where working youth and student youth have broken the domination of bourgeois institutions. They have broken their ideological and political domination and are taking the streets throughout the country. They have also broken the dominance of the central bureaucratic apparatuses that have wanted to contain the struggle, when it was unleashed on 21N [November 21, 2019, Editor’s note].
The national strike of 21N was heroic. But this time, the workers, who are totally precarious and enslaved, have decided to take the streets and begin self-organizing processes that allow progress in this fight.
In this process, its very important the intention to build a revolutionary alternative to confront the Duque government and the plans of the International Monetary Fund and also to confront those bureaucracies of the Strike Committee that are only there to contain and betray the struggle.
In July of last year the National Union, Social and Popular Coordinator was built, made up of unions and popular organizations, among the presence of different sectors, with the intention of appearing as an alternative, of grouping and organizing all those who fight.
But the reality is that this explosion of youth right now has no direction. We have to try to build that direction on the same path. We are in this process.
It’s important to recognize that its the participation of these youth, workers and students, which has managed to maintain blockades and also factory strikes, since, not being able to go to work, workers join the demonstrations, the blockades and the barricades that are maintained even at night in the popular neighborhoods.
This spark that ignited this great revolutionary process 10 days ago was the response to the regime's attempt to impose a starvation “tax reform” against all workers and people, and in favor of big capital and the bandits and thieves who rule us.
It’s also extremely important to recognize the fact that this mobilization and this great strike has exceeded the day of 21N, in the sense not only that the mobilizations are more numerous, but also that the participation extends over time. It hasn't just been for a day or two.
The other definite thing is that the workers and the people have not been fooled by the traitors who have wanted to come to lift the action days. The workers, despite the calls of the traitors, have taken to the streets and have persevered in continuing to mobilize.
Here in Pereira we have had mobilizations with around 17 thousand people, many of whom could not enter the square for lack of enough room and had to remain in the surrounding streets. The mobilizations continued to come out of each neighborhood and each area of the city.
This process was repeated in all the cities of the country, but with a very sensitive peculiarity: the Cali comrades placed themselves at the head of the resistance, despite the violent repression of the regime that fires on protesters and activists who remain in the street. This murderous policy is very similar to the one used by the murderous Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and the one used in Myanmar to dissolve the marches. It’s a criminal policy of the whole bourgeoisie worldwide and here we see it repeated. That is why it must be understood that this revolutionary process has no borders. It’s a revolution of the working class at the international level because the policies of imperialism and colonialism must be defeated.
Here and in other cities the intention of the protesters to win over the army base was observed. That is very important: that we succeed in winning over the soldiers who are children of the people for this revolutionary process. That would be definitive in order to bring down this dictatorship of Duque and Uribe. Here we have gone to the barracks to call on the soldiers to join the struggle and for the families who have relatives providing public service to call on the soldiers to lay down their arms against the people and embrace the struggle of the workers in the streets.
This process depends on the pressure of the fight. Now it's about rearranging it. For that, from the Coordinator it has been proposed to hold a National Congress of all those who are fighting so that we can make decisions regarding the plan of struggle, the demands and how we are going to continue facing the current situation. This includes that we have to confront the politics of sectors of the bourgeoisie and bureaucracies that are attempting a maneuver to lift the strike and contain it. They are trying to reach important sectors that are part of all this mobilization and are vital, to try to negotiate with them separately, as is the style of these bandits, most likely trying to buy their leaders. This is avoided with the popular assemblies that have begun to be held in all cities, where tasks are discussed and balanced and all activities are organized to face this regime in the streets day by day. That is what the comrades have also been doing in Cali and other cities.
Thank you very much comrades.
|