Solidarity with the People's Struggle in Colombia and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela.
6:00pm
USWA L. 8751 - Boston School Bus Drivers
25 Colgate Rd., Roslindale, MA. $5 suggested donation.The Featured Speaker will be: Gerardo Cajamarca - Gerardo is in the United States with his family as a political refugee due to threats he and his family faced in Colombia by the paramilitary for his work as a human rights defender and community leader. In January 2003 Gerardo participated in the International Caravan (La Caravana Internacional) in solidarity with the Bolivarian process where he traveled from Colombia to Venezuela. In December of the same year, he represented Sinaltrainal (Food & Commercial Workers union) in the Meeting of the People (El Encuentro de los Pueblos) in Caracas, Venezuela.
He served as a City Council member for the 1999-2003 period in the Municipality of Facacativa, Cundinimarca. His election was through the support of the popular sectors, unions, and social movements that struggle for better living conditions. These struggles have been the highlight of movements against the privatization of public services such as the highways and the imposition of tolls. Gerardo also participated in the organization of social networks in solidarity with workers in the flower agro-industry and against their exploitation as well as in defense of the environment.
He arrived in the U.S. over a year ago and since has been educating about the dangerous situation in his home country due to the paramilitary and their relations with the current Colombian government led by Alvaro Uribe, and transnational corporations like Coca Cola and Oxy petroleum.
He has given talks about the International Campaign against Coca-Cola, Plan Colombia, and the revolutionary advances in Venezuela
Gerardo will speak on the "Reality of Human Rights in Colombia in the context of Plan Colombia and the impact of Globalization"
Other speakers include:
International Action Center Chuck Turner - Boston City Council, District 7
Jorge Marin; Berta Joubert-Ceci; Steve Gillis, Pres. of USWA L. 8751 and Frantz Mendes, V.P. USWA L. 8751 all participated in the April 13-16 3rd International Solidarity Gathering with the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela and will provide an eyewitness account of this historic meeting.
solidarity messages, cultural performances and food
endorsers: Permanent Committee for Colombian Peace; MLK, Jr. Bolivarian Circle; New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti; Chuck Turner, Boston City Council; International Action Center; FIST (Fight Imperialism-Stand Together); Women's Fightback Network; New England Million Worker March Committee; Chelsea Uniting Against the War
The U.S. government, through Plan Colombia, has given the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe more that $2 billion and trains the military. This past year the U.S. Congress authorized the doubling of U.S. military forces in Colombia. The U.S. would like nothing more than to eliminate all mass opposition within Colombia. Paramilitary groups are allowed free reign to abduct and assassinate labor leaders, terorrize villages and run narcotics. In fact, more trade unionists have been assassinated in Colombia than anywhere else in the world. Why? If there is no opposition from the organized masses in Colombia, the U.S. will feel free to impose the free trade agreements that the majority of people in Latin America reject and that will be detrimental not only for the Colombian workers, but for the workers in the U.S. as well.
Why in Colombia? Colombia is now a laboratory of the U.S. to militarize and further control the region of Central and South America and the Caribbean. It is particularly aimed against Colombia's neighbor, the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela that is giving hope to the millions of poor people worldwide.
In Venezuela the government of Hugo Chávez is moving forward with land reform, education and health programs and worker control of factories. In short, the Chavez government is taking the massive oil revenue and using it to help those who need it most, not to pad the pockets of U.S. corporations and the wealthy.
The April, 2002 coup, done with the full complicity of the U.S. government, temporarily removed Chavez however, just as in Cuba, Iraq, Palestine and Haiti U.S. imperialism has consistently underestimated the organized strength of the people. In Venezuela, Chavez was swept back into power within 48 hours. Venezuela is under the constant threat of imperialist intervention by the U.S. Most recently, the U.S. stationed warships of the coast and bellicose remarks by Rumsfeld and Rice have made it clear that the U.S. government will stop at nothing to undermine and overthrow the democratically elected government.
The real threat to the region is not Cuba, Venezuela or the people's struggle in Colombia. The real threat resides on Wall Street and in Washington DC. It is time for the anti-war movement to raise the the demands: U.S. Out of Colombia! Hands Off of Venezuela! No to Plan Colombia! Support the People's Struggle in Colombia and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela!
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