RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Workers of the World Unite - in Anti-Paramilitary Vigil

[Judi Lynn]

RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Workers of the World Unite - in Anti-Paramilitary Vigil
By Constanza Vieira

BOGOTA, Feb 21 (IPS) - The world’s largest trade union federation has called a Mar. 6 global demonstration to pay homage to victims of Colombia’s far-right paramilitary militias and their allies in the state, political establishment and business community.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which represents 168 million workers in 155 countries "has called on all of the countries where its member unions are located to hold demonstrations outside of Colombian consulates and embassies," said Carlos Rodríguez, president of the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), Colombia’s main labour union federation.

The global protests will demand "the truth about the 2,574 trade unionists killed in Colombia" in the last 22 years, he told IPS.

The demonstration "for the disappeared, the displaced and the victims of massacres and other killings" began to be organised in October 2007 to coincide with the Mar. 6 start in Bogota of the fourth meeting of the Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE), which will be attended by more than 1,500 delegates from throughout Colombia.

But the planned demonstration has taken on a higher profile since the huge Feb. 4 global protests against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s biggest rebel group.

The worldwide anti-FARC demonstrations had the full backing of the rightwing government of Álvaro Uribe, which instructed its embassies and consulates to invite Colombians abroad to participate in the protests.

Many companies in Colombia gave their employees the day off to take part in the march, in which hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets wearing t-shirts saying "No More Kidnappings", "No More FARC" and "I Am Colombia".

However, government and business support will not be seen on Mar. 6, although officials in Colombia said they would provide security for the demonstrators.

The president’s main adviser, José Obdulio Gaviria, even alleged that the planned demonstration was organised by the FARC, because a web site that supports the rebels declared its backing for the Mar. 6 event.

In the civil war-torn southeastern province of Nariño, on the border with Ecuador, organisations promoting the demonstration have been declared "military objectives" by a paramilitary group active in the area.

And while the partially privatised ECOPETROL oil company gave its workers the day off to take part in the Feb. 4 march, it plans to take punitive measures against anyone who misses work on Mar. 6, the oil workers trade union reported.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41298