Justice for Columbia
29 Jun 2003Francisco Ramirez, president of the National Mine Workers Union in Columbia was in the Leftfield “getting organised” debate on Friday (see associated feature). He was invited to the Festival via the Justice for Columbia organisation with whom he has been working for the past month. In Britain for 2 months before returning to Columbia he is campaigning for decent working conditions and wages for Columbian people. It is entirely possible that he might be killed –soon. As he told me his story I felt a curious need to touch this brave man whose life is on a permanent knife-edge, whose predecessor was murdered, who carries on his fight with the threat of death forever present.
He is here to rally support and raise awareness. It is more difficult for government-sponsored murders to take place when the world is watching. It is more difficult for the multi-national corporations who want a piece of Columbia’s vast reserves to bulldoze their way in if they are in danger of suffering a mass boycott. He is here to work with our own trade unions, to learn and share ideas but mostly to tell the world what is going on. At home he has to move house at least once a week. He is terrified for the safety of his family. He showed me a copy of a letter, a death threat letter from the Columbian government, delivered by Para-militaries (?) in which it clearly states that anyone seen to be criticising the government will be treated as a subversive and dealt with accordingly.
It is possible to hold a strike in Columbia. It is all right to form a blockade in front of a US sponsored pipe-line where workers are slaving away with no basic human rights for a pittance. The Paras leave the union to it. They let the brave men on the front line get on with it in peace and quiet whilst they happily go and murder their children.
Sandy Francis
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