US unions visit Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

US unions visit Colombia
Monday, 10 November 2008 11:44



Several United States unions visit Colombia Monday to inspect the situation of labor rights workers in the country. the visit is one of the conditions of the Democratic Party to approve a free trade pact with Bogotá.

Colombian opposition party Polo Democrático uses the opportunity to protest the agreement. It will meet with the U.S. union members as part of its lobby to not have the NAFTA approved by President-elect Barack Obama.

For the same reason, senators of the party will travel to Washington next week to talk to U.S. lawmakers, expressing their objections to the free trade agreement.

"We hope to make a number of visits to the United States to stress the human rights violations committed to the Colombian people" Polo senator Luis Carlos Avellaneda told newspaper El Espectador.



Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombian-news/news/1977-us-unions-visit-colombia.html

[High Plains]

1. It's kinda weird to have Democratic web site where threads about unions...

...typically vanish without a trace. Unions were important once.

[awoke_in_2003]

2. k&r. nt

[Judi Lynn]

3. Colombia: An Open Letter From ACIN to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama

Colombia: An Open Letter From ACIN to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama
Written by Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca
Monday, 10 November 2008
Santander de Quilichao, Cauca, Colombia

Dear Mr. President-Elect,

First, please accept our sincerest congratulations. We congratulate you for having won because of the noblest aspirations of your people. We believe your election expresses the deep desire for change felt by the majority of the American people: change in the economy and society, change in international relations, and from there, we hope, a change in the relation between the United States of America and the indigenous peoples of the world.

During your historic campaign, you publicly noted some of what Colombians currently face: you acknowledged the murders of trade unionists by the regime and stated your reservations about a Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, which our people have decided against through a democratic referendum, about which we have written before. We thank you for this, and now want you to know about the specific situation facing Colombia's indigenous peoples.

In the past six years we have lost 1,200 people to assassinations by armed groups, both legal and illegal: right-wing paramilitaries, guerrillas, police, and members of the Armed Forces. These murders have created insecurity, and this insecurity has been used to strip us of our rights with what we call the 'Laws of Disposession', legislation and other institutional norms that legalize the loss of our lands, our fundamental freedoms, and our rights. These 'Laws of Disposession' dispose of Colombia's mines, hydrocarbons, water resources, intellectual property, and national parks – all of these are brought under the ultimate rule of the Free Trade Agreement with the US. The FTA will mean that if Colombia tries to change the laws to allow its people to share in its resources, or take any independent action, then we will be obliged to compensate investors. We will have to submit our laws to international arbitration outside our own legal jurisdiction.

But in our view, the ultimate law is respect for life. In our view, the FTA puts commercial logic above the respect for life itself, not to mention international humanitarian law, and agreements such as the ILO's Covenant 169, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Worldwide. These covenants, as well as the respect for life, have to date been ignored by the government of our country, as well as by your government.

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1566/68/

[Arctic Dave]

4. I hope the new administration strong arms Colombia into

respecting the peoples right to unionize and have a way to share in the wealth of their countries.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Emanuel Makes the Right Move on Colombia Trade Deal

Emanuel Makes the Right Move on Colombia Trade Deal
posted by John Nichols on 11/10/2008 @ 2:59pm

~snip~
The fear with regard to Emanuel's selection was that he might try to impose his pro-Wall Street politics on an administration that has promised to serve Main Street.

The hope, detailed in a column last week, has been that Emanuel would put his own ideological tendencies aside and use his considerable political skills to help Obama implement a more pro-worker, pro-environment agenda on trade policy.

Perhaps fittingly, at least for this initial stage of America's Obama moment, hope has won out over fear.

In an appearance Sunday on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Emanuel offered a signal that he intends to carry the Obama program forward -- as opposed to the Emanuel program.

The chief-of-staff told his fellow Clinton-White House alumnus that the Obama transition team will oppose any effort by the Bush administration to attach the Colombia Free Trade Agreement to an economic stimulus package in order to get the approval of the Bush Administration.

In his final debate last month with Republican John McCain, Obama made it clear that he opposes a deal with Colombia, a country with a tragic human rights and labor rights record. But, since the election, President Bush and his aides have been suggesting that their "price" for advancing a new stimulus package might be inclusion in that package of the Columbia FTA.

Emanuel was blunt and specific in expressing opposition to the Bush blackmail, arguing that it was essential to avoid creating policy conflicts that might slow the work of extending unemployment insurance and providing healthcare assistance to economically-embattled states.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/state_of_change/382517

[Kolesar]

6. I was impressed when Obama mentioned the deaths in Colombia during the last debate

I cannot recall the words, but he said that Colombian labor leaders were murdered.
Please keep DU apprised with these stories! :hi:

[Judi Lynn]

7. It was unexpected, and wonderful. I think the last public demonstration of interest in Colombia's

truly screwed up, sadistic, bloodthirsty, and cruel history was Paul Wellstone, who made several trips there.

You recall his visit to Barrancabermeja, and the discovery someone had placed a bomb exactly where his car was supposed to park, before he got there. That lucky discovery spared his life.

Also, he and his aides were drenched accidently (?) when they stood watching a demonstration of a coca-spraying airplane, and got totally soaked in industrial strength Round Up.

If you didn't know any better, you'd imagine someone was sending him a vicious message.

Hearing Obama refer to this sordid history was startling, and so very welcome, after years of pandering to that fascist government by our own officials.

[struggle4progress]

8. Solidarity Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYiKdJoSsb8

[Peace Patriot]

9. Glad to see this. And that story on another thread about Rahm Emmanuel implementing

Obama's will regard to Bush blackmail on the Colombian "free trade" deal (no free fire zone against labor leaders in Colombia...um, no Colombia 'free trade' deal, no stimulus package this session).

That floating the the Chiquita death squad attorney, Eric Holder, for A.G., that I saw in a Alternet story gave me the goddman jitters about Obama and South America. We still don't know who floated that name. But the Alternet writer said Holder was at the top of the list. Holder is the high-priced corpo attorney who got Chiquita exces off with a hand-slap (and secrecy--both arranged by the Bushwhacks) after they maid rightwing death squads in Colombia $1.7 million to take care of their "labor problem," that is, the slaughter of 4,000 union leaders and members in Chiquita's banana plantations.

FOR U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL! I like ta died! How could that even be thinkable? Of all the good guy attorneys in the country, working for civil rights, the environment, the public interest and lawful law enforcement, THIS is all they can come up with for A.G.? Don't know if this is the Obama camp. Hope to God it's just a rumor.

Anyway, I'm STILL jittery--and I'm glad to see these signals from Emmanuel about Colombia, which has one of the worst human rights records on earth. This is one foreign policy--massive arms to Colombia, the failed "war on drugs" in Colombia, and "free trade" for Colombia's rich, brutal fascist class--that Obama MUST reverse, or he will fail in South America. Rumsfeld (Dec 07) wanted that Colombian "free trade" deal as a weapon of mass destruction against Venezuela, in what may be an on-going plan to grab Venezuela's Caribbean oil coast (where most of their oil is).

Here's one of the Eric Holder flying fish...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/lawyer-for-chiquita-in-co_b_141919.html

Here's Rumsfeld...
"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

Very chilling articles, both of these.

[bvar22]

10. I truly pray they will hold the line here,...

...and that this is not just rhetoric spouted for the cameras.
I have serious doubts about Rahm because of his Anti-LABOR past, but his appearance on MTP was mildly reassuring.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[ryanmuegge]

11. Hopefully they do, but I wouldn't be surprised if they cave.

I'm so tired of these anti-labor Chicago thugs already (referring to Rahm, not so much Obama).

[Judi Lynn]

12. UAW Against Colombia Trade Pact for Aid to Big 3

UAW Against Colombia Trade Pact for Aid to Big 3
By Josh Mitchell
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The chief lobbyist for the United Auto Workers said Tuesday that the union would strongly oppose any political deal involving the passage of a free-trade agreement with Colombia in exchange for government aid to U.S. auto makers.

Alan Reuther made the comments amid reports Tuesday in the Washington Post and the New York Times that President George W. Bush has indicated he would support aid to the auto industry if Democrats dropped their opposition to a pending Colombia free-trade agreement. Bush has long sought passage of the agreement, which Democrats and others have opposed because of concerns about human-rights violations in the country.

Reuther told Dow Jones Newswires that the union wouldn't support such a political deal.

"Colombia had the worst record in terms of murdering trade unionists, and the violence has been continuing," Reuther said. "We don't think we should be doing free-trade deals with countries that are murdering people because they're engaged in union activity."

More:
http://www.smartmoney.com/breaking-news/on/?story=ON-20081111-000383-1113