Pickets demand 'U.S. out of Colombia'
By Brenda
Sandburg
San Francisco
Protesting against U.S. intervention in Colombia, several
hundred people marched in San Francisco July 21. Chanting
"Plan Colombia, we say no, the phony war on drugs has got to
go!" and "USA out of Colombia," demonstrators marched more
than two miles from 24th and Mission streets to the Civic
Center.
A member of the Committee for a New Colombia spoke on
behalf of the student movement in that country. "Even though
they have been threatened, murdered, disappeared, they are
going to continue fighting no matter what," she said. She
read a letter from a friend in Colombia who said the country
is "struggling in the extremes of hunger, misery, poverty and
social injustice that have characterized capitalist societies
of the so-called Third World. ... Today we say from the
universities, from the streets, from the countryside that we
will rather die than be a defeated people."
Alicia Jrapko from the International Action Center said
the U.S. ruling class has a long history of intervening
against governments that stand up for their sovereignty and
independence. "For over 40 years, the socialist country of
Cuba has been a constant target of U.S. military and economic
attacks and now they are trying to do the same thing to the
popular movement in Colombia and to the neighboring country
of Venezuela and its president, Hugo Chavez," she said.
"We have to stand in solidarity with the Colombian people
and defend their right for self-determination," Jrapko said.
"It is not the role for us here in the United States to tell
the people of Colombia what form their struggle should take.
Our role is to wage a struggle against U.S. foreign policy,
which is the number-one problem of the people of Colombia and
all of Latin America."
The demonstration was called by Juntos, a coalition of
people opposed to U.S. militarization around the world. The
Committee for a New Colombia was one of the most active
organizers of the demonstration. Other groups included the
International Action Center, Witness for Peace, School of the
Americas Watch, Global Exchange, the FMLN, Workers World
Party, Freedom Socialist Party and others. Russ Redner of the
International Treaty Council gave the opening talk at both
the beginning and closing rallies.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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