From: Taka Ono (takaono5@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Dec 06 2001 - 20:13:14 EST
Dear USAS CC members,
This is a request that USAS endorse the "Stop
Impunity: Colombia Demands Justice" campaign
(http://www.contraimpunidad.org - forthcoming).
Labor/worker's rights are a critical part of this
campaign. Two Colombian unionists visited a number of
cities for a couple of weeks in November to talk about
incredible obstacles facing unionists in Colombia,
particularly workers making Coca-Cola products (see
the description of the campaign and, if interested, my
article about the Coke issue below). For one thing,
they are planning a public hearing about human rights
abuses by Coca-Cola in Atlanta where Coke has its
world headquarters, July 22, 2002.
They are asking groups, organizations, and individuals
to endorse the campaign. Please circulate this message
to appropriate lists and folks.
Thanks for your great work. Please let me know if you
have any questions. I look forward to the good news
(no hurry)!
Sincerely,
Taka Ono
Labor Education and Action Project,
United Students Against Sweatshops,
Georgia State University
#####
US endorsers (groups) so far:
-8th Day Center for Justice
-American Friends Service Committee
-Chicago Coalition for Justice in Colombia
-Chicago Colombia Committee
-Chicago Religious Leadership Network
-Colombia Support Network
-CP Holy Cross Province
-Great Lakes Witness for Peace
-Northwestern International Human Rights Department
-OFM Sacred Heart Province
-OSF Rochester
-Peace Action of WA
-SOA Watch
-US LEAP
[Forms] (please send it to
English@contraimpunidad.org)
(for organizations)
#Name of your organization as you wish to be listed:
#Acronym (if applicable) of your organization:
#Organization's main area of focus (please select one
only):
Local/regional/national/international
#Type of organization or principal field of action
(please select one only):
Human Rights/Religious/Local
Concerns/Civic/Peace&Justice/University/Women/Busisness/Union-Labor/Environment/Other
(please specify)
# Name & Title of person authorized to represent your
organization in campaign:
# Your name:
# Address:
# City:
# State/Province:
# Zip/Postal code:
# Country:
# E-mail:
# Phone (with area code):
# Fax (with area code):
# Do you wish to receive bi-monthly e-mail updates?:
Yes/No
# Can we count on you to respond to action requests
(write a letter to an official or organize a workshop
or participate in protest, etc)?: Yes/No
(for individuals)
# Your name:
# Address:
# City:
# State/Province:
# Zip/Postal code:
# Country:
# E-mail:
# Phone (with area code):
# Fax (with area code):
# Do you wish to receive bi-monthly e-mail updates?:
Yes/No
# Can we count on you to respond to action requests
(write a letter to an official or organize a workshop
or participate in protests, etc)?: Yes/No
------
(Description of the campaign)
The Stop Impunity: Colombia Demands Justice Campaign
is part of an on-going struggle of Colombian
communities and grassroots social and political
organizations to overcome the devastating effects of
state terrorism and the impunity that accompanies it.
Crimes carried out against the civilian population -
assassinations, forced disappearances, displacements,
threats, economic blockades - are committed without
any serious consequence or punishment of the
perpetrators. The government's structural and
institutional complicity ensures impunity at all
levels before, during, and after the perpetration of
these crimes. In the search for truth, justice, and
due reparations for the victims of crimes committed
against citizens peacefully working for change.
Colombian communities are constructing a social
movement against impunity.
The campaign began as a response by grassroots
organizations to the Barrancabermeja massacre in May,
1998 when a joint military-paramilitary operation left
seven civilians dead and another 25 disappeared.
The campaign seeks to create international solidarity
for the protection and accompaniment of those
individuals and organizations affected by this
violence. The principal goal of this solidarity action
is to protect human life by preventing repressive acts
against Colombian communities and organizations.
Moreover, international solidarity will help guarantee
the existence of resisting communities and
organizations. Supporting alternative justice
proposals of Colombian communities will strengthen
their resolve and enable them to continue the
grassroots struggle against impunity.
The campaign calls on local groups in other countries,
united in national networks, to express their
solidarity through coordinated volunteer actions in
the construction of a global public movement against
impunity in Colombia. The movement strives to educate
others - constituents, policy makers, the media -
about the oppressive situation in Colombian and to
demand changes, such as the elimination of US military
aid to Colombia and the suspension of US military
training for Colombian troops. Only a concerted global
movement will pressure the world's governments to levy
sanctions against Colombia and end the reign of
impunity.
Colombian advocates for change need your support. More
than just a signature on a document, the Campaign
hopes that committed individuals will disseminate
information about the Campaign, organize
demonstrations and other acts of solidarity with the
Campaign, and encourage others to join us in the
struggle to Stop Impunity.
-------
(Here's my article)
Expose Coke's Complicity with Terror Against Colombian
Unionists!
Two Colombian union leaders visited Atlanta on 19
November to expose the involvement of Colombian
Coca-Cola subsidiaries in the death-squad murder and
intimidation of unionists in that country.
Representing the Central Trade Union and SINALTRAINAL,
the union for Coca-Cola bottling workers in Colombia,
the unionists urged Coke to take responsibility of the
working conditions where Coke products are made, and
asked for a public support to bring justice.
On 20 July, the United Steelworkers of America and the
International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit
against Coca-Cola and its Colombian business partners
for their involvement in violence against the leaders
of SINALTRAINAL.
"There is no question that Coke knew about and
benefits from the systematic repression of trade union
rights at its bottling plants in Colombia," asserts
Terry Collingsworth, general counsel of the
Washington, D.C.-based International Labor Rights
Fund.
"This case is extremely important for trade union and
human rights," Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said
in a press release
(http://www.uswa.org/press/CokeLawsuit.html). "If we
can't get Coke, one of the best known companies in the
world, to protect the lives and human rights of the
workers at its world-wide bottling facilities, then we
certainly have a long way to go in making the global
economy safe for trade unionists…. We absolutely must
stand together to stop such criminal activity against
our union brothers and sisters, regardless of where or
in what industry it occurs."
Three out of every five unionists killed in the world
are Colombians, according to a recent report,
"Colombia: A Case of Genocide Against Unionists"
(available at
http://www.nlcnet.org/colombia/0401/index.htm). Nearly
120 trade unionists have been assassinated in Colombia
by late October this year, according to a recent press
release by the International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions, which represents 156 million workers in
145 countries and territories. The wave of violence
is happening in the context of the worst economic
recession in fifty years, a long-running civil war,
and the impunity of the military and of paramilitary
death squads, which are responsible for most human
rights violations in the country. More than 35,000
Colombians have died in political violence over the
last decade. The US government has exacerbated this
situation by throwing over $1 billion of mostly
military assistance in the name of the "war on drugs."
The so-called Andean Counterdrug Initiative in
Colombia is looking increasingly like the bloody US
intervention in El Salvador two decades ago.
The union leaders' Atlanta visit was one stop of
several US city tour, including New York City and San
Francisco, organized by the Franciscan Peace and
Justice Office, the United Steelworkers of America,
and Teamsters union. Locally, Atlanta Labor Council,
Teamsters, and Concerned Black Clergy put together the
event. This vigil will add to the mounting campaign
against the impunity of those responsible for the
terror and war that is being inflicted on the working
people of Colombia.
Coke's attitude doesn't stop in Colombia. Gary Gibson,
former employee and shop steward at a Coke's
Minute-Maid factory in Florida, told at the vigil that
since the factory was sold to a Brazilian company in
1996, he's seen firing of union leaders, canceling
health and pension funds, and deteriorating health and
safety conditions at the plant.
As a part of this Stop Impunity: Colombia Demands
Justice Campaign (http://www.contraimpunidad.org -
forthcoming), a public hearing is being planned for
July 22, 2002 in Atlanta, location of the Coke's world
headquarters.
For more information on the Coke campaign, please
visit http://www.prairienet.org/clm. On human rights
situation in Colombia, please visit
http://www.globalexchange.org/colombia.
~Taka Ono
Help Protect Colombian Unionists and Families!
Please support Colombian unionists and their families
who are in danger because they have just stood up for
their rights and dignity! Your donations will help
secure safe places both inside and outside Colombia.
Send a check payable to National Labor
Committee/Colombia Trade Union Fund, 275 Seventh Ave.
15th floor, New York, NY 10001, 212-242-3002.
-30-
__________________________________________________
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