Righteous Anger.

        I have always maintained that the anger of the people murmurs just below the surface, and it is a righteous anger. The state and capitalism together are an extremely oppressive system that not only exploits the people but thwarts their hopes of a fair and decent world. The people live day by day watching inequality grow and the ever growing repression to protect that inequality. For how long will that anger simmer below the surface, for how long will the people accept injustice, inequality and a pampered privileged few wallowing in opulence at the people's expense?
       Now and again the anger erupts and floods the streets of cities and towns with the fury of years of pent up frustration at this insane and unjust system. It has happened in the past and been brutally crush by the force of state militarism, but it never dies. Today we are seeing more and more of that pent up fury being unleashed and taking revenge on the symbols of the state/capitalist system and its inherent corruption. The world is on the verge of one final eruption of the people's anger, hopefully this will not be Kronstadt, 1921, Spain 1939, or Paris 1968, but the final elimination of the insanity of capitalism and the brutality of the state. 

 

The Murmur of the Poor.

 

Brokers, bankers, Earls, and Dukes,

callous, mercenary, pirate crew

gasconading through the land

bloated, pampered, privileged few.

 

Striding with selfish arrogance

plundering as you go

grasping at the fruits

the common people sow.

 

Take heed, you swaggering fat-cats

in our world you don't belong,

that murmur you hear is the poor

rehearsing an angry song.

 

The day is fast approaching

when our chorus loud you'll hear,

then all your greed and treachery

will surely cost you dear.

 

A price you'll pay for being blind

to the hungry at your door,

Oh, haste the day our angry chorus

becomes a mighty roar.

 

Solidarity with the people of Columbia: 

 

       In Bogotá on the evening of May 4, 25 neighborhood police stations (CAI) were attacked: “3 burned, 3 others completely destroyed by looting and 19 out of order by vandalism. And the most outrageous one is located in the Aurora neighborhood, where a dozen cops were inside when it burned. This is obviously a fair return of the flame, after the forty or so demonstrators killed by the uniforms, without even mentioning the hundreds of injured (846 officially, of which 22 lost an eye) or the 89 desaparecidxs counted, sometimes abducted in the street by plainclothes cops or the military. It is also worth noting that the Minister of Defense reported 216 shootings against cops in one week, and 579 cops injured in one week, including 25 hospitalized.
        The military has not only been deployed in Cali since last Friday, but also on several highway tolls with armored vehicles to protect them from the attacks of the last few days, to control the movements from one city to another, to maintain a minimal supply of goods which is mainly done by trucks (and to avoid their looting at these stopping points)… and to have a good pretext to strike the spirits with butchers in fatigues who bring an additional level of state terrorism against the revolting people
       In the same vein as the destruction of neighborhood comicos, we can point out the warm initiative of Cali rioters, who managed to flush out the lair of the fierce anti-riot cops (Esmad, Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios) recently arrived in the city: the famous La Luna Hotel, near the city center. After six hours of fierce confrontations all day long on May 3, with more injuries and businesses destroyed or looted, demonstrators managed to set fire to the hotel structure that was too hospitable for the assassins, destroying the entire second floor (in addition to the rest).

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The Corporate Juggernaut And Genocide.

       The horror, death and destruction that is Syria, is difficult to grasp, the scale of the deaths, maiming and total decimation of the country's infrastructure is Armageddon, here and now. No matter how you look at it, the greatest destruction and deaths on the planet are perpetrated by the so called "developed countries". This is how they attempt to dominate the world, state violence by their military might, taking sides and creating fields of blood and slaughter to determine who controls certain swaths of the planet, and the resources there in. Of course the various states don't always use their military killing machines, sometimes it is their corporate bed partners that do the damage with the backing and support of the state.
       I don't think you'll find our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, reporting this case of genocide, being carried out by a corporate juggernaut with the backing of a state that weaves the usual duplicity, and creates the necessary legislation to make it all "legal".
      In Columbia the Wayuu people have for countless generations relied on the Rancheria river, it is their main source of life, their only drinking water in the area for the people, animals and irrigation of the land. Now by duplicity, smoke and mirror illusion, it has gone, mainly to feed a large mining corporation. The Wayuu people are dying a slow death, while the corporate mining juggernaut gets richer and richer. The festering marriage of capitalism and the state at work.  When it comes to profit, people are expendable.

 A father and son observe the remnants of the Rancheria river on Wayuú land / The Cercado dam and reservoir

      Colombia’s largest indigenous group, the Wayuú, have been left for dead after the Colombian government diverted the Rancheria river to South America’s largest coal mine in 2011.
      Five years ago, Colombia’s government completed the construction of the Cercado dam, a project they claimed would improve the lives of all in the arid Guajira region by supplying 9 towns with a second source of drinking water, employing 1,000 workers and providing irrigation for 18,500 hectares of farmland. However, the dam’s impact on the lives of Colombia’s largest indigenous ethnic group, the Wayuú people, was ignored entirely. The river was the only source of drinking water available near the Wayuú and its disappearance from the landscape has had dire consequences. Now, the Wayuú must walk over three hours to water wells filled with dangerous bacteria and salt, making health complications and diarrhea the new normal.
        The area is entirely devoid of clinics and hospitals. Without the river, the Wayuú can no longer cultivate their land, leaving them not only thirsty, but hungry as well. Since the dam was completed in 2011, over 4,700 children, most of them under the age of five, have died from thirst or other complications associated with a lack of clean drinking water. Of course, these are only the documented deaths. The Wayuú, whose population now hovers around 100,000, say that more than 14,000 have died.
       Did the Colombian government live up to its lofty promises of offering water to new communities and farms? It turns out the largest beneficiary of the Cercado dam is a giant coal mine, known as Cerrejón, that uses more than 17 million liters of water a day while the Wayuú lives off of less than 0.7 liters a day per person, though their water is often too salty to drink. Cerrejón, whose logo reads “responsible mining,” is South America’s largest pit coal mine and produces an estimated 32 million tons of coal annually.
      Though originally founded by ExxonMobil, the mine is now jointly owned by a consortium of some of the largest mining companies in the world – AngloAmerican, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata. The Wayuú and their leaders have worked tirelessly to try to confront these mining behemoths who have stolen their water and threatened them with extinction. However, the mining companies often work with right-wing paramilitary groups, who are responsible for the deaths of thousands, in order to get what they want. The Colombian government is also uninterested in improving life for the Wayuú as its mining ministers are notoriously corrupt. Just this March, Colombia’s mining minister resigned amid a corruption probe.

Continue reading HERE:

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Solidarity Has No Borders.

 

        An appeal for solidarity from Labour Start:

      Tomorrow is Human Rights Day -- and I'd like to ask for your help to get our brother Huber Ballesteros released from prison.
       Huber Ballesteros is one of Colombia's best known trade union and human rights activists. He is also one of the most threatened.
He was arrested on 25th August 2013 and accused of 'rebellion' and 'financing terrorism'.
He has still not faced trial.
     Huber is vice-president of FENSUAGRO, Colombia’s second largest union and one of the most persecuted, having had over 1,000 members assassinated in recent years. We believe it is because of his activism that Huber is being targeted, and are calling for his unconditional release, along with that of all other political prisoners in Colombia.

Please take a minute to send your message of protest to the Colombian government:

http://www.labourstart.org/go/freehuber

    And please share this message with your friends, family and fellow union members.

Eric Lee 

Copyright © 2014 LabourStart, All rights reserved.  our website (http://www.labourstart.org) Our mailing address is: LabourStart 27 Muswell Hill Place London, England N10 3RP United Kingdom Add us to your address book Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

World Wide Solidarity.

An appeal for world wide solidarity from IUF:

Colombian trade unionist murdered! Oscar López Triviño was murdered on November 9 in the Colombian city of Bugalagrande a day after he and other members of his union, SINALTRAINAL, received death threats from paramilitaries. The union had been on hunger strike at Nestlé beginning November 5. The IUF joins with the national center CUT and unions around the world in condemning this assassination of yet another Colombian trade unionist and calls on the government to swiftly bring the perpetrators and organizers of this crime to justice through a full and transparent investigation, and to provide all necessary security for other union members at high risk. Click here to send a message to the government of Colombia!

E-mail: iuf@iuf.org Rampe du Pont-Rouge, 8, CH-1213, Petit-Lancy (Switzerland) www.iuf.org Follow us on Facebook and Twitter Subscribe to IUF NEWS by e-mail  Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

World Wide Solidarity.

An urgent call for solidarity from Columbia by IUF, UITA, IUL unions:

    Trade union leaders and opposition politicians in Colombia have been the target of death threats in recent days.
      The Colombian national trade union centre CUT has denounced these threats against their leaders and leaders of the political party Polo Democrático and asks that messages be sent as a matter of urgency to the Colombian government, demanding that immediate action be taken to ensure their safety!

Click here to send a message Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

TRADE UNION RIGHTS.

An appeal from Labour Start.

       Every June, trade union leaders, employers and government officials meet in Geneva for the International Labour Conference. And every year since 1926, that conference has set aside some time to discuss the worst violations of trade union rights. But not this year - because this year employers have put down their foot and said "no". As I write these words, unions have issued some strong statements (here's one example) and we're monitoring the situation.

         To coincide with the conference, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has just issued its annual report on violations of trade union rights -- and it makes for chilling reading.

        "Colombia is once again the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists," says the ITUC. "Of the 76 people murdered for their trade union activities, not counting the workers killed during the Arab Spring, 29 lost their lives in Colombia. And in Guatemala yet again trade unionists paid a heavy price, with 10 assassinations committed with impunity. A further eight trade unionists were murdered in Asia."

You can read the report in full here.

As if to highlight those issues, two of the global union federations have launched major appeals in the last 24 hours.

1. One is in support of oil workers in Iraq - please make sure to add your name to the online campaign here.
2. The other supports nine trade union leaders in Algeria, five of them women, who have been on hunger strike since 6 May. They too need your urgent support - please click here.

The employers' representatives in Geneva may want us to stop talking about workers rights, and maybe they'll succeed in doing so at the ILO conference. But they can't stop us from campaigning -- as we will show them in the next few hours. We are going to fill the inboxes of political leaders in Iraq and Algeria with our messages of protest. And we're going to show the world once again what solidarity means.

I know that I can count on your support - thank you!

Eric Lee

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STATE BRUTALITY.

       Every country sees homeless people as a problem, in most countries they are marginalised and discriminated against However, the Columbian state's method of dealing with the homeless "problem" must rate as the most brutal and inhumane on the planet. This being capitalism, homeless people cost money, so the state can save money and tidy up the cities for tourism by getting rid of the "homeless problem".

       Being without a home is bad enough. But in Colombia, the government has conscripted police and armed forces to murder the homeless in the name of "social cleansing." 

Tell Colombia to stop this horrific violence immediately.

      According to a documentary done by VBS.TV, the homeless are forced to hide in sewers to escape the death squads. These sewers, however, do not provide much protection: militia groups have been known to ignite the sewers with gasoline, trapping and killing those below.

      Many of these homeless people are children and adolescents who have been living on the streets for years. With no support and no other options, these people’s lives are at risk every single day.

Tell Colombia to Stop Murdering the Homeless!

   

Tell the President of Colombia, the Minister of Defense and the National Police Director that the social cleansing occurring in Colombia is unacceptable! »

Thanks for taking action! Kathleen ThePetitionSite

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