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More than 800 trade unionists have been killed in Colombia over the past six years, by government count, yet the number of those murders solved can be counted on one hand.

According to Escuela Nacional Sindical, a national labor rights research group, the number of Colombian trade unionists killed annually exceeds the total for the rest of the world combined.

The biggest threat is hit men hired by employers, especially in parts of the country where many workers toil in semi-feudal conditions and illegal militias hold sway.

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link

Colombia receives more US "aid" than any other country in Latin America. Much of that aid is funding the "illegal militias" and government oppression. With clear facts like this (not to mention it's 3 million internal refuges):

Colombia political scandal imperiling US ties

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On Thursday came the worst blow. Jorge Noguera, who served as Uribe's campaign manager and later as head of Colombia's secret police, was arrested by the attorney general. Noguera is accused of giving a hit list of trade unionists and activists to paramilitaries, who then killed them. Another former secret police official is serving an 18- year sentence for purging police records of paramilitaries and drug traffickers.

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With such appalling massacres one would think as these articles imply the US is re-thinking it's support of the most repressive regime in Latin America. Instead they just put out this report full of criticism for Venezuela and Cuba. For Mexico and Colombia they write:

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Both Colombia and Mexico, close allies of Washington in the region, received positive comments. Mexico was highlighted under a section entitled "Mexico: Defending Human Rights," while the report claimed that the Colombian government was making progress in its respect for human rights. This comes in the wake of a political scandal in Colombia in which connections between high government officials and paramilitary death squads are being increasingly revealed.

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As a Colombian academic said in one of the articles:

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"Colombia is the beachhead of US interests in Latin America. . . . It doesn't matter what scandal happens," Carvajal said. "Everyone knows that the counterbalance to Chávez is Uribe and that Colombia is the bastion of US interests in Latin America."

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It definitely is a bastion of US interests. Judging by Harper's planned visit to Colombia in the next while it will soon be ours too.

[ 06 April 2007: Message edited by: a lonely worker ]

Thanks for posting this and reminding us all just how horrifying and dangerous it can be to stand up for working people, justice, freedom and ecology--all things the labour movement across the globe has fought and worked for over the decades and centuries (with a lot of success in spite of all the brutal repression).

And it’s no coincidence that all this brutal repression is going hand in hand with this so-called “free trade” deal between the Colombian regime and the Bush Administration/Corporate America dictatorship. What else is new?

The article says the repression wave may jeopardize that deal, due to opposition in the US Congress and among US labour, social justice, consumer and public interest groups. Hopefully, that will happen. But I’m not holding my breath, since the US Administration and its corporate cabal have a systemic immunity to public scrutiny and pressure.

It's sadly quite telling that your info here has received practically no response on what is supposed to be a predominantly progressive democratic/socialistic oriented site.

Here's some more info on this from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, which sadly verifies much of this report.

Corporate Imperialism, and what would that be? In Canada here the better corporations pay $100,000 to a lonely worker. That is where you want to be. The problem is there's not enough of them.

[ 10 April 2007: Message edited by: bruce_the_vii ]

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What is the point? There's this tendency to blame the world powers for troubles in the world but the world powers barely muddle through their own problems let alone run the world.

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Yep, (here comes some sarcasm) guess the Nazis had a tough job to do conquering and keeping down and exploiting all them working class savages in all them other countries too (that’s why the poor racist hyper-capitalistic bastards had to gas so many of our ancestors).

Get a grip.

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Corporate Imperialism, and what would that be? In Canada here the better corporations pay $100,000 to a lonely worker. That is where you want to be. The problem is there's not enough of them.

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I see you bin drinkin again.

And why do you think there's not enough of them?

Because the oppressive, destructive and unsustainable economics of corporate capitalism that dominate the economies of the world and their respective institutions dictate that's not what corporations, banks and bureaucracies are supposed to be for. They insist they are there to do the opposite.

That's why they are so undemocratic and unaccountable, yet get to control everyone else's money and use it against them in order to suck even more wealth out of economies and gain more monopolistic control over markets and resources (hence corporate imperialism).

The only corporations that are as wonderful as you claim are the ones mainly where the people who work for them either organize into unions and push to have a democratic say and a greater chunk of the pie they create, or democratically own and run them as cooperative ventures, or both.

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Originally posted by bruce_the_vii:
Corporate Imperialism, and what would that be? In Canada here the better corporations pay $100,000 to a lonely worker. That is where you want to be. The problem is there's not enough of them.

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Canada's median market earned income in 2004 was $25 400. Total median income was a thousand bucks less than that. Facts are always useful in persuasive argument.

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Originally posted by Steppenwolf Allende:
Yep, (here comes some sarcasm) guess the Nazis had a tough job to do conquering and keeping down and exploiting all them working class savages in all them other countries too (that’s why the poor racist hyper-capitalistic bastards had to gas so many of our ancestors).

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But it didn't matter, because in perfect hindsight, the Russians didn't pursue the proper road to progressive socialism after Lenin. Had they turned to democratic elections and peaceful socialism, they could have thwarted Hitler's operation barbarossa with slogans of socialism, and defended Stalingrad and Kursk with walls of sweeping social reforms.

And Salvador Allende's mistake was that he refused to handout rifles to the workers leading up to the fascist military coup.

Viva la revolucion!

[ 16 April 2007: Message edited by: Fidel ]

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But it didn't matter, because in perfect hindsight, the Russians didn't pursue the proper road to progressive socialism after Lenin. Had they turned to democratic elections and peaceful socialism, they could have thwarted Hitler's operation barbarossa with slogans of socialism, and defended Stalingrad and Kursk with walls of sweeping social reforms.

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Huh? What? That sounds like yet another Stalinist excuse for the brutal totalitarian state capitalist economic model shoved down people's throats, leading to all sorts of mass-murder and atrocities (as well as war and 50 years of expansionist foreign policy).

Are you actually dumb enough to think that in a much more democratic socialist economy, given the growing situation in Europe at the time, people would not invest in an effective military defense capacity? If you do, then you can join the Stalinists and Neo-cons who, like good social Darwinists, think the average working class person is stupid and needs to be exploited and bossed around "for his/her own good."

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And Salvador Allende's mistake was that he refused to handout rifles to the workers leading up to the fascist military coup.

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Maybe it was. It seems to me, in hindsight, that developing community militias would have certainly helped. Then again, maybe changing the rulers of the Chilean military public sector corporate hacks would have gone a lot further than trying to work with them, which far too many progressive government, including Allende (and NDP governments here), have made the mistake of doing.

As for the situation today, the people of South America have finally won, after decades of struggle, the right to have free democratic elections, and, quite appropriately, have elected center-left coalition (who led that fight) governments in most of those countries (including Chile).

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Originally posted by Steppenwolf Allende:
Huh? What? That sounds like yet another Stalinist excuse for the brutal totalitarian state capitalist economic model shoved down people's throats, leading to all sorts of mass-murder and atrocities (as well as war and 50 years of expansionist foreign policy).

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Yes, but it was also an excuse used by the military industrial complex cabal for outrageous spending on Keynesian-militarism since the collapse of laissez=faire capitalism. A madman general threatened to incinerate North Korea in order to draw China and the Soviets into a nuclear war. Hundreds of millions of people vapourized because the hawks were terrified of an idea.

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Are you actually dumb enough to think that in a much more democratic socialist economy, given the growing situation in Europe at the time, people would not invest in an effective military defense capacity?

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I'm not naive. We deal in facts when debating here. Russia lost millions of lives from WWI to international military invasions(25 nations) into Russia to put down the revolution in the previous decade, more than any other nation. Massive destruction and loss of life with millions wandering around the frozen scape homeless and starving. Russia was a basket case. They had to industrialise and prepare for western aggression against the revolution part two. Russia lost 30 million people in WWII. Again, more than any other country.

The truth is, no other western nation practicing state capitalism was ready for war, except fascist Germany which had abandoned state capitalism for Keynesian militarism in building up as rapidly as it did. Russia industrialized rapidly and was somewhat prepared. State capitalism was abandoned around the western world in favour of New Deal socialism in the U.S., andcountries like Sweden and Canada have had a mixed market economies ever since. It wasn't a case of being stupid in hanging on to old ideas that just didn't work anymore.

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Maybe it was. It seems to me, in hindsight, that developing community militias would have certainly helped. Then again, maybe changing the rulers of the Chilean military public sector corporate hacks would have gone a lot further than trying to work with them, which far too many progressive government, including Allende (and NDP governments here), have made the mistake of doing.

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The NDP has never been in power federally in order to clean out our old line party bureaucracy. And the two old line parties have allowed our "G8" economy to become the most foreign dominated of all rich nations. And Canada has had its own military industrial complex serving the Pentagon and its contractors for many years. Canada is a repository of cheap energy and raw materials for American industrialists to raid at will.

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As for the situation today, the people of South America have finally won, after decades of struggle, the right to have free democratic elections, and, quite appropriately, have elected center-left coalition (who led that fight) governments in most of those countries (including Chile).

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It was a needless blood bath. Thousands were killed, disappeared and tortured to death. And when it was over, leftist political opposition who lost family members to Pinochet's secret police and death squads were forced to sit across from fascist politicos and the General in Parliament. The fascists are still there in Chile, and a murdering SOB was never brought to trial.

My own optimism for democracy in Chile is furtive at best. Donald "the don" Rumsfeld announced increased U.S. aid to Latin America's militaries just several months ago. It only takes a few weak militants to be corrupted and democracy hangs in the balance. There was a CIA-led military coup in this decade against Chavez and another to remove a democratically-elected leader in Haiti. Fascism continues to bear its fangs in this hemisphere, and democracy is only as strong as the people's will to fight for it. There will come a time for peaceful socialism, SA.