Activists Plan Solidarity with Colombia's People's Movement
31 July 1998
"Stop Pentagon intervention in Colombia!"
The International Action Center, a leading anti-war organization since its founding in 1992, will hold a series of meetings and video showings in August to build solidarity with the workers', farmers' and students' movement in Colombia. The New York event will take place at 6:30 PM on August 4, 1998, at the IAC office at 39 W. 14th St., Second Floor, in Manhattan.
A special focus of the meetings will be the role of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP). Videotaped remarks from the FARC-EP's International Commission will be presented at the meetings and broadcast on more than 50 cable channels across the country.
Colombia's President-elect, Andres Pastrana, met with leaders of the FARC-EP on July 8, responding to continued offers by the FARC-EP for genuine dialogue toward peace with social justice. Speakers at the IAC meetings will review the FARC-EP's past commitment to dialogue.
Another key point in the meetings and video showings will be the role of the United States in the repression and violence against the Colombian people's movement. U.S. military aid to Colombia totalled over $100 million last year and continues to grow.
"Under the sham of a `war on drugs', U.S. military aid has meant the massacre of 40,000 Colombians over the past 10 years," charged IAC spokesperson Monica Somocurcio. "The first step toward peace in Colombia should be a complete halt of all Pentagon aid to the Colombian Armed Forces and a withdrawal of the 200 U.S. Special Forces `trainers' currently in Colombia."
In coordination with the IAC events, labor activists will be submitting resolutions to their local unions calling for solidarity with Colombia's embattled trade union movement and an end to U.S. military aid to Colombia.
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International Action Center
39 West 14th St. #206
New York, NY 10011
Phone: (212) 633-6646
Fax:(212) 633-2889
email: iacenter@iacenter.org
Web: http://www.iacenter.org
