Colombia

The Colombian army has assassinated three members of the agricultural workers trade union FENSUAGRO, from the town of San Juan de Sumapaz on the outskirts of the Colombian capital Bogotá. On 18 March the men were travelling to another town to inspect some cattle, when they went missing. Some days later the Colombia media reported that the army had killed three guerrillas in the area and, on 27 March the families of the three men identified their bodies. The army’s claim the men were guerrillas is the same claim they made last year when they assassinated three senior trade union leaders in the...

From Justice for Colombia The National Trade Union School [NTUS], a EU funded research institution based in Medellin, Colombia, records 94 assassinations of trade unionists in 2004, an increase on the 90 trade unionists that both the NTUS and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) registered killed in 2003. The NTUS has also reported an increase in “disappearances” and arbitrary detentions. This deterioration contrasts with Colombian government claims that human rights abuses against trade union members are declining. Send messages of protest to: President Alvaro Uribe...

By Pablo Velasco Inside: Strike wave in South Korea Soldiers terrorise workers Haitian workers Victory for Colombian banana workers' strike General strike in Nigeria stops petrol price rises Strike wave in South Korea Korean taxi drivers and metal workers went on strike this month for wage increases and better working conditions, joining hospital workers on their week-long walkout. About 4,600 drivers of the Korean Federation of Taxi Workers' Unions, an affiliate of the independent Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), are demanding the introduction of a minimum wage, a strengthened...

From the Colombian trade union federation, CUT In 2003, 78 trade unionists were killed in Colombia by paramilitary groups. Since the foundation of the Colombian Trade Union Federation (CUT), 3,800 trade unionists have died that way. The State has not had the political will to find those responsible, to judge them and thus mitigate the pain of the victims. The vast majority of the legal cases has been archived or remain in preliminary stages, without possibility of showing to the world the truth about these crimes against humanity. The state, as always, has responded in a violent way to our...

IN LONDON Vigil 7.30 p.m. Friday 26 March onwards to coincide with negotiations between union and senior managers in Bogotá Picket 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday 27 March Both outside Coca Cola Great Britain and Ireland HQ headquarters, 1 Queen Charlotte Street, Hammersmith, London W6 (adjacent to Hammersmith tube). more information below STATEMENT FROM SINALTRAINAL Thirty workers at the US multinational have for 11 days been on hunger strike, in rejection of the corporation's collective sackings, in defence of their jobs and for the survival of their union SINALTRAINAL. After 264 hours of fasting...

By Pablo Velasco Colombian oil workers halt privatisation: solidarity works! "Massive summer strikes" planned in Korea ANC against anti-privatisation activists Argentine workers fight for a six-hour day Colombian oil workers halt privatisation: solidarity works! Colombian oil workers have won their struggle against privatisation, thanks to their resolute strike action backed up by international solidarity. In the last issue of Solidarity we reported on how the Colombian government was trying to break the month-long strike at Ecopetrol, the national oil company, using military force. The Uribe...

One of the fiercest debates at the Irish Social Forum (see page 6) was about the decision of University College Dublin's student union to boycott Coke in protest at the company's alleged links with far right paramilitaries in Colombia. Activists say a number of trade union activists in the company's plants have been murdered, many local union organisations have been destroyed, under threat from paramilitary organistions. Following a call by the Colombian trade union SINALTRAINAL, the leaders of UCD SU (mostly members of Labour Youth or the ex-SWP group Socialist Alternative) organised a...