COLOMBIA DEMAND JUSTICE CAMPAIGN

“In solidarity with First nations (Indigenous People), Grassroots popular movements, political prisoners and against multinationals take-over in Colombia”

More than 45 committed activists from all areas of the Social movements in Melbourne gathered together to launch the Campaign - “Colombia Demand Justice” last Thursday April 23rd, 2009.

A campaign in support and solidarity with the Trade Union movement, Indigenous peoples, political prisoners and all movements against the corporate takeover of Colombia by Multinationals.

The meeting had 3 speakers interspersed with a handful of short films. These speakers from different backgrounds and experiences shared their views on Colombia and gave proposals for the campaign. The short films covered all facets of the struggles in Colombia from Human Rights abuses to the fight for water rights against Coca-Cola.

Denise Cauchi, an activist that worked in Colombia between 1999 and 2002 gave a short talk and spoke of the victims of violence perpetuated by the state and how none of the people responsible have been held to account. She also spoke of how daily life in Colombia for ordinary people has been totally disrupted and people have become weary of the internal war maintained by the para-militaries and other militarised forces. Denise provided a detailed account of the number of deaths and disappearances involved.

Fiona Thiessen from Friends of the Earth had spent more than 3 years living and working in Colombia. During that time she was involved with an anarchist feminist collective which gave women's sexual and reproductive rights workshops in urban areas. Fiona spoke of her experiences as an activist attending protests at the universities and in the middle of the city. She spoke of how the student movement has been a pivotal force at the forefront of the movements for protest in Colombia. Fiona shows a short slide of photos from some protests were she was presented.

William Guerrero, A Colombian living in Melbourne for about a year shared his experiences in the Colombian social movements. He is a political refugee in Australia as he was persecuted by Colombian repressive and military forces. William was a worker for the major car assembly company in Colombia that made cars for GMH. He was fired from his job under duress for his support of his relevant union. He then committed himself to the struggles against violence and oppression of workers.

Messages of support from ONIC - Colombia indigenous national organisation and SINALTRAINAL, food Union from Colombia were read out and we re-iterated our support for those organisations. SINALTRAINAL is one of the main unions at forefront fighting against multinationals such us Unilever and Coca-Cola which violated the workers/union rights and the food sovereignty of Colombia.

During the launch the several proposals, ideas and themes to develop the campaign were raised; the most important were as follows:

1. To Disseminate information about the Unions and Workers situation.
2. To Create direct links between Colombian and Australian Trade Unions
3. To Build a close relationships with social justice churches in Australia
4. To Make possible the visit of a Sinaltrainal union leader for July 2009
5. To keep support and contact with ONIC to denounce and support Indigenous people in Colombia
6. To keep denouncing and supporting political prisoners and human rights advocacy
7. To pursue and call for actions against Multinationals BHP-Billiton and Coca-Cola in Australia
8. To Create a calendar of events that we can support and show solidarity with the Colombian people from Australia.
9. That a final decision be made at the next meeting of the campaign that it be participatory, inclusive and open. All in attendance agreed that the campaign become an inclusive Forum in Solidarity with Colombia.

We would like to thank everyone for attending the Campaign launch. We hope that all that participated in this launch will attend the next organising meeting, so that we can make the main theme of our campaign a reality.

Next Meeting will be Tuesday May 5th, 7PM. FoE offices upstairs, 312 Smith Street, Fitzroy

Yours in the struggle

Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET)