Solidarity with Colombia's workers, Venezuela's revolution

An enthusiastic, militant crowd heard a strong program here in solidarity with the people’s struggles in Colombia and Vene zuela on April 23. The meeting, at the union hall of the Boston School Bus Driv ers Union, USWA Local 8751, was co-chair ed by Jorge Marin of the Martin Luther King Boli varian Circle and Berta Joubert-Ceci of the Inter national Action Center.

From left, the IAC's Berta Joubert-Ceci and SINALTRAINAL's Gerardo Cajamarca.

The featured speaker of the evening was Gerardo Cajamarca, a leader of the SINALTRAINAL union in Colombia that is at the forefront of the struggle of Coca-Cola work ers there and the international Boy cott Killer Coke campaign. A City Coun cil member from 1999-2003 in the Munici pality of Facatativa, Cundina marca, he was elected with the support of the popular sectors, unions and social movements that struggle for better living conditions.

Cajamarca is in the United States with his family as a political refugee due to threats he and his family faced in Colom bia from paramilitaries because of his work as a human rights defender and community leader.

Cajamarca showed the crowd moving photos of trade union leaders in Colombia assassinated by the death squads of the Uribe government. The killings have escalated in recent months. In the world, nine out of every 10 trade union leaders assassinated over the last year were Colombian.

Steve Gillis, president of the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, had just come back from the Third International Con ference in Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. He described a moving meeting with paper workers who, with the support of their revolutionary government, have occupied and taken over their factory after having been locked out by their bosses. Gillis conveyed the excitement of seeing first-hand an ongoing revolutionary process that is consciously moving toward socialism and putting the resources in the hands of the people.

Jorge Marin and Berta Joubert-Ceci, who also had been on the delegation to the Venezuelan conference, spoke of the solidarity of delegations from around the world. Joubert-Ceci described the Boli varian history of Colombia and Venezuela, which had originally been one country.

Roxbury City Councilor Chuck Turner called for taking the example of the Vene zuelan revolution to raise the level of fighting back right here at home. He projected weekly or daily actions, in the spirit of Martin Luther King’s Poor Peoples Campaign, demanding economic justice here at home.

Dario Zapata of the Permanent Com mittee for Colombian Peace spoke of the struggle of democratic forces in Colombia against the Uribe government.

The event was rounded out by Rhode Island Colombian activist Elvira Busta mante, who explained the Free Trade Area of the Americas and how it destroys the livelihood of people in Latin America as well as the sovereignty of countries subordinated to the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank.

In a subsequent meeting with a small group of dedicated activists, Cajamarca was enthused to hear about the struggle of maintenance workers at the Bromley Heath Housing Project, who attended the meeting, as well as the Million Worker March Movement. He looked forward to raising the issue of Colombia at the May Day demonstration in New York City and to building broader actions on the 120th anniversary of May Day in 2006.