Collage by Raquel Mogollón
AFGJ Colombia work is centered around three things:
1) Advocacy for an end to US support for war, repression and neoliberal economics in Colombia, and in favor of a political solution to the armed, social and political conflicts;
2) Solidarity with FENSUAGRO (the National Unitary Federation of Agricultural Unions) and other labor unions that are targeted for violence and repression by transnational corporations, paramilitaries and the US funded and advised Colombian Armed Forces;
3) Political prisoner solidarity work via our relationships with Traspasa los Muros, Lazos de Dignidad and other political prisoner solidarity organizations, and participation in the INSPP (International Network in Solidarity with the Political Prisoners).
For more information send an email to James@AFGJ.org
100,000 Colombian filling the Plaza de Bolívar and surrounding streets, demanding land reform, a safe and open political process, freedom for political prisoners and a negotiated, political solution to the social, political and armed conflicts.
United Steel Workers and California Labor Federation Stand up for Colombian Unions and Peace
North American unionists have taken a significant step forward in solidarity with Colombian unionists-one that raises intriguing possibilities for the development of a new kind of worker to worker internationalism. Both the United Steel Workers (USW) and the California Labor Federation (CLF) have spoken out on behalf of the the beleaguered peasant labor federation FENSUAGRO (the National Unitary Federation of Agricultural Unions), with special attention called to their role in the Patriotic March. The Patriotic March (Marcha Patriótica) is a new Colombian popular mobilization that advocates for a political solution to the country’s decades long armed and social conflict. Read more…
USAID Grants $3 Million to Solidarity Center’s Bogotá Office–Unionists Want to Know Why
The Solidarity Center office in Bogotá has received an unusually large two-year grant of $3 million for its operations in the Andean Region. The scope and dimensions of the grant are not fully known, nor the exact programs to which it will be applied. However, given the history of the Bogotá office and the Solidarity Center’s Andean representatives, observers expect the grant to have major implications for the countries of Colombia and Venezuela, where the office’s work is usually concentrated. Read more…
La oficina del Centro de Solidaridad (Solidarity Center) en Bogotá ha recibido un subsidio inusualmente grande de (EE.UU.) $3 millones por dos años para sus operaciones en la región Andina. El alcance y las dimensiones del subsidio no son plenamente conocidos, ni a los programas a los cuales se aplicará. Sin embargo, dada la historia de la oficina de Bogotá y representantes del centro de solidaridad Andino, observadores esperan la concesión que va a tener importantes repercusiones para los países de Colombia y Venezuela, donde está concentrado el trabajo de esta oficina. Read more…
USA’s Prison Industrial Complex Moves South of the Border
The United States today uses an extensive and unprecedented form of imprisonment and policing as social control of its most marginalized communities. It is a unique culture of incarceration: no other country locks up their population to the same degree that we do, nor has so perfected imprisonment as a tool of innocuously perpetuating racial division. (Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow) Led in large part by William R. Brownfield, the Assistant Secretaryof State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the US is aiding Latin American countries to build “a new penitentiary culture”…. Read more…
Colombia’s Marcha Patriótica Calls for Solidarity, Not Interference
The Colombian popular movement wants international support. One thing that they clearly are not asking for, however, is interference or judgment. Yet to our extreme discredit, many US based solidarity activists and organizations, in the name of “peace”, repeat and spread around lies, distortions and misinformation emanating directly from sources such as the US State Department, the Pentagon and the very transnational corporations that are currently plundering Colombia. Read more…
