By Marea Socialista – Venezuela
Since April 28, the Colombian people have been in the streets confronting the criminal government of Iván Duque, his great mentor Álvaro Uribe and the intention of applying a whole package aimed against workers and the poor, which would further exacerbate the precarious conditions life of the general population. Throughout the entire Colombian country its streets have been taken over by powerful mobilizations led by the youth, the workers and a whole set of social sectors historically marginalized by the political plans of the corrupt castes and gangsters that have always ruled.
The tax reform presented by Uribismo to be approved by congress has been the straw that broke the camel’s back, serving as a trigger for all the accumulated social anger due to the deep economic crisis that hits the vast majority of Colombians, exacerbated due to the Covid 19 pandemic and how the government has managed it, guaranteeing the profits of businesses, bankers and landowners, while the lack of an effective plan to massively counteract the pandemic continues to wreak havoc with thousands of infections and deaths.
Euphemistically called by the government “Sustainable solidarity law”, it is part of an entire austerity package ordered by the IMF, the World Bank and the OECD that contemplates other reforms, such as in the area of health, so that the crisis continues be paid by those who have historically carried on their shoulders the consequences of the surrender of natural resources to powerful international capitals and a whole series of measures that have made Colombia one of the most unequal countries in the region.
The mobilization made Duque back down from the tax reform, but that did not calm spirits or diminish the protests, especially in a youth that fully understands that they have no future in a country with a regime completely permeated by drug trafficking and paramilitarism and that in labor terms offers increasingly suffocating conditions. Amen to the privatization of education and public services.
The call for a strike that the National Strike Committee (CNP) hear
The idea of a national strike is a demand nested for a long time in the bosom of Colombian workers and supported at the popular, neighborhood and youth levels in general. The only reason why it had not been put into practice is because the centrals that make up the CNP such as the CUT, the CTC, the CTG or the federation of teachers (FECODE) are bureaucratic organizations, pro-employer negotiators and conciliators that, if they have recently joined the mobilizations it is because they have been left with no alternative given the avalanche of events and the indifference with which the government treated the petition they had presented.
Large layers of workers affiliated to the unions that are grouped in the aforementioned centrals did not wait for their leaders to join the mobilization and raise their demands for wages and fair working conditions. In this framework, the CNP speaks of a strike, but without creating the necessary preconditions, without holding assemblies, without discussing with its ran-and-file how to truly carry out a production stoppage, which decisively contributes to defeating the government and its repressive forces.
There cannot be a decided policy of struggle by these calculating union leaderships that have been very useful to the bosses and have always acted in their bureaucratic interests. The scene of the rebellion that has arisen must also serve so that the workers organically consolidate their new leaderships in the union, social and political fields, arising from these fervent days.
Petro’s historical pact has also been exposed
The Colombian people have been the great protagonists of this historic rebellion. With strengths and weaknesses, they have managed to continue fighting, at the cost of many lives. In this sense, they must be very persistent and try to advance as quickly as possible at high levels of organization to qualify fundamental aspects, such as their own security when confronting the bloody repressive bodies of the State, at the same time as achieving a leap in political consciousness and eliminate outright the danger that their struggle will be capitalized by sold-out reformists, who present themselves as an alternative, but who do not even turn up on the street.
At the moment of truth, characters like Gustavo Petro show their true face of class conciliation. With clear electoral calculation, he positively alludes to the mobilization, while pointing out the dire responsibilities of Uribe and Duque, but also emphasizes calls for “peace”, aiming to contain the protests.
Petro tells Duque to “reflect” and is confident that the great problems of the people can be solved through institutional channels. It is the preaching of those who aspire to be President of the Republic, attracting to his figure the favor of the vote of those who today have achieved what he never could: defeating the regime, even if that defeat is partial. It is in the streets and mobilized, precisely where the Colombian people can achieve new victories; It is from the streets thattheye took Carrasquilla out, it is in the streets that they defeated the first reform and it is in the streets that they can remove Duque and the government. And for that they do not need Petro and his project, or any other political aspect whose strategy is limited to being measured in the electoral contest next year.
The final outcome, for the Colombian people, is to trust only in themselves and in their ability to know how to organize and lead their enormous forces. It is urgent to find more effective mechanisms that allow us to take stock of each day and discuss how to advance in the programmatic and political aspects, so that the rebellion continues to add more people to the already millions that are mobilized. It is the greatest basis that can be given to the slogan of Duke out!
The international solidarity of the peoples and the denunciation of the brutal repression
From Marea Socialista we denounce the brutal repression and massacre that the criminal government of Duque is carrying out through the police and the military against the mobilized population. It is not possible to know for sure how many dead, or disabled, or raped detainees there are. This merits all the international solidarity of the peoples of the world and of the genuinely leftist and revolutionary political factors linked to the world working class. The Colombian people must be certain that they are not alone in this fight.
Also, in our case from Venezuela, we say that it is pure hypocrisy and cynicism of sectors linked to the Maduro government to express solidarity with the Colombian brothers and sisters. Maduro and his militarist leadership are as repressive and anti-working class as Duque is, and their play to ingratiate themselves with the Colombian rebellion, is only framed in their confrontation government to government with Uribism. One serves internationally the Chinese and the Russians and the others the Americans and Europeans.
In the same way, we denounce the boss´ opposition led by Juan Guaidó and his complicit silence with the Uribe repression. Guaidó and company cry out against the repression of Maduro and the violation of human rights by the FAES and the military in Venezuela, but like the UN, the OAS and the Lima Group, they look to the side in regard to the crimes carried out in the streets by the police and the Colombian military.
Maduro and Guaidó fear workers´ and popular mobilization. They are cynical and play their wicked and criminal game. It is a lesson that workers and popular sectors in Venezuela must assimilate because, although right now we find ourselves in a context of momentary defeat and demobilization, we must see beyond our borders, and the peoples of the world are rising ever more against their oppressive regimes.
Finally we say that, as Marea Socialista is part of the International Socialist League (ISL) in Venezuela and in Colombia our brothers and sisters of the ISL (Socialist Impulse) are being an active and militant part of the rebellion, from here we send them our warmest support and all the push in these moments of so much turmoil and struggle. We are closely following all the events and all their reports that have been published on the ISL website (www.lis-isl.org).
Long live the rebellion of the Colombian people!
Down with Duque, Uribe and his government!
Stop the massacres! Punishment for all those responsible!