Haitian government officials say that up to 500,000 are dead, crushed beneath their homes, schools and workplaces during a mighty earthquake Jan. 12. Most were killed when poorly constructed buildings collapsed on them. Television news in the U.S. showed rows of children's bodies lying lifeless, bloodied and bruised. It is a horrible tragedy that will be largely reported as a natural disaster. There is nothing natural about it.

James Jordan of the Campaign for Labor Rights said, “I just returned from Haiti last week where I saw a people organizing for freedom and equality. I am heartbroken by the devastation, but I am also angry because I know all those people did not have to die. It is the poverty and misery imposed by the U.S. empire that creates the conditions where so many die, are injured and lose their homes because of a natural disaster. It reminds me of all the African-Americans and working people in New Orleans who died or were forced out during Hurricane Katrina.”

Haiti suffers under U.S. domination and exploitation. Poverty is abundant and hunger stalks the vast majority. Many homes are made of concrete cinderblocks with corrugated metal or other found materials used for roofing. Due to poverty and lack of materials, the bigger buildings are shoddily made and there is little regulation or standards. These came tumbling down on top of hundreds of thousands of Haitian people.

U.S. Marines are landing in Haiti before any large scale humanitarian aid or teams to dig out victims. The U.S. military's mission is to preserve the reactionary social order for U.S. corporations and to protect the wealthy few. While Haitian people are sleeping on the streets, searching for clean drinking water and digging out loved ones with their hands and sticks, the U.S. government is worrying about maintaining their military might. The U.S. supports a small Haitian ruling class composed of a few land-owning families and rich businessmen. They keep the vast majority of the island in poverty and backward living conditions.

The U.S. has dominated Haiti for decades, sponsoring military coups and death squads. In 2004, the U.S. orchestrated the ousting and kidnapping of President Aristide, a former Catholic priest and advocate for social justice and equality. Aristide opposed the privatization of state industries like the electricity and telephone companies. President Aristide put the interests of ordinary Haitians above those of the elites. Aristide still lives in exile. Haiti is suffering and many more are sure to die in the coming weeks. U.S. troops are occupiers, not liberators.

#Haiti #Aristide #CampaignForLaborRights #earthquake #Americas

A spirited picket line protested outside the Colombian consulate in Chicago Oct. 1. 30 students, solidarity and labor activists chanted in support of political prisoners held by the Colombian government of President Uribe. Passersby stopped to read leaflets and listen to chants of, “Free Lily Obando,” “No to U.S. bases,” and “The people of Colombia are under attack! What do we do? Stand up! Fight back!” Chicagoans were joined on Michigan Avenue by activists from Arizona, Minnesota, Ohio, California, Florida and Washington D.C. for this international day of action.

James Jordan of the Campaign for Labor Rights, which organized the protest, said, “There are more than 7200 political prisoners in Colombia, most arrested on the basis of fabricated evidence. Lily Obando is one of those. Lily is a labor leader, sociologist and video maker about to expose the Colombian government's role in running paramilitary death squads. Death squads have killed hundreds of peasants and farm workers belonging to the largest agricultural union – FENSUAGRO.”

He concluded his speech saying, “Those arrested are union members, farmers, students, teachers and members of the political opposition. Repression in Colombia is paid for and overseen by the U.S. government in service to big corporations. We call on the U.S. government to stop supporting repression and war. We demand dialogue and a just peace.”

Banbose Shango of the National Network on Cuba spoke about U.S. hypocrisy: “Posada Carriles, an internationally known terrorist who bombed a Cuban airplane killing 73 civilians in 1976, is walking the streets freely in Miami, Florida. The U.S. government is protecting this murderer. In the meantime, five Cubans, who monitored the planned activities of these Miami-based terrorist groups, have been languishing unjustly in several U.S. prisons for the past ten years. When there is no justice, there is no peace. We oppose U.S. aggression towards Cuba and Colombia.”

Tom Burke of the Colombia Action Network spoke last, saying, “We protested the outrageous trials in Washington D.C. that imprisoned Ricardo Palmera and Anayibe 'Sonia' Valderrama, members of the FARC. Our protests exposed the Palmera trials as a sham put on by a declining empire. The U.S. is overreaching. Ricardo Palmera is now a political prisoner of the U.S. government held in total isolation in the Florence, Colorado Super Max. Professor Palmera's imprisonment is inhumane.”

Next Burke spoke of the recently announced plan to build seven U.S. bases in Colombia, saying, “The U.S. is losing its control over Latin America. 'Plan Colombia,' the U.S. counter-insurgency war is a failure. While the U.S. increases repression and terror in Colombia, the revolution, led by the FARC and other groups, is spreading and building. The U.S. is forcing dozens of Colombian military officers trained at the School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia to resign. Some are going to jail for murdering 1300 or more poor workers and dressing them up in FARC uniforms. The U.S. is losing its war and U.S. bases will only bring more suffering to the Colombian people. In solidarity with Colombians, with Venezuelans, Bolivians and Ecuadorians – with all Latin Americans, we need to oppose the U.S. bases in Colombia. We do not benefit from the war and repression in Colombia. Only the rich do. No to U.S. bases!”

Organizers are making plans for more events to build for the Nov. 21 School of the Americas protests in Georgia. Similar protests to the Chicago event took place in Colombia, Australia, France, Mexico and Canada.

#ChicagoIL #Colombia #ColombiaActionNetwork #PoliticalPrisoners #LilianyObando #FENSUAGRO #CampaignForLaborRights #Americas

In August, a delegation of U.S. students, trade unionists and anti-war activists traveled to Colombia to meet with leaders in the struggle there. The Colombian Action Network and the Campaign for Labor Rights, two grassroots organizations here in the United States fighting against U.S. intervention in Colombia, hosted the trip.

“I knew what I heard in the U.S. media about the benefits of U.S. tax money and aid to Colombia was true only for the rich. I wanted to see for myself what the reality is for Colombians,” said Jeremy Miller, a member of the Colombian Action Network when explaining his decision to go on the delegation. Members of the Colombian Action Network and the Campaign for Labor Rights arranged meetings with peasant, indigenous and student groups, as well as with political leaders, unions, political prisoners and families of Colombians killed or imprisoned by the government.

The first union the delegation met with was the National Peasant-Farmer Federation, FENSUAGRO. They unite farmers from all over Colombia to struggle for land reform and everyday rights for rural workers. It is the largest rural labor organization in Colombia and is unwavering in its principled defense of workers. Because of the work they do, this union is the most targeted for violence by the wealthy and their pro-government death squads.

During a rural community meeting, a FENSUAGRO leader told the delegation, “75 of our members are currently in jail. We fight for a public policy that favors the peasant farmer and we are always clear about our demands. Because of this the government works daily, looking for ways to finish us off. The government tries to connect us to the FARC [the largest armed rebel group in Colombia], in attempts to discredit us. The Uribe government goes after anyone who defends the working class. They claim that we are not the victims of violence, that we are the aggressors. Farmers have no support from the government. No rights even to housing or health care. The government does not care for the poor and has completely abandoned us to poverty. Human life is worth only the value of a bullet.”

The stories from other groups told much of the same – of being afraid to leave the house in the morning, of being followed, of having family members killed by death squads, of being arrested for implausible charges – all of this because of the fight for the rights of workers and peasants, indigenous people and Afro-Colombians, everyday people. “I was shocked to hear the stories of the university students in Bogotá. They are doing the same kind of activism we are here in the U.S., but because of it, they are facing death threats, they are being imprisoned or assassinated,” said Sarah Buchner of Students for a Democratic Society, another delegate on the trip, speaking one night after a particularly intense day of stories.

During the trip, the theme that repeatedly came up was “what is most important for us as U.S. activists to bring back?” We decided to bring back the stories and pictures but also something more: to drive home the message that the terrible violence in Colombia is directly connected to the United States government. We can do something to change that, to stop it. It is the U.S. government that foots the bill for the war and violence that happens in Colombia. The people of Colombia are very clear on this. The people the delegation met with had all sorts of ideas about ways to build a better Colombia and about ways for peace. But all of them were united in saying U.S. intervention must stop, that the seven proposed U.S. military bases in Colombia would do nothing to end violence in the country and would serve only to increase it, that peace in Colombia would only come with the end of U.S. violations of Colombian sovereignty.

From this trip, members of the delegation have returned to the U.S. with the hopes of continuing to build a movement in the United States against imperialist intervention in Colombia.

Hands off Colombia!

No to the U.S. bases!

#Colombia #ColombiaActionNetwork #FENSUAGRO #CampaignForLaborRights #USMilitaryBases #Americas