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Colombian Trade Unionist Visits Twin Cities
In mid-October 2003, Luis Adolfo Cardona spent a few
days in the Twin Cities, speaking to community members about the effects
of US military aid on Colombia.
While
the
occupation
in
Iraq
is
an
important issue to the anti war movement, we also felt that this was an important
time to
draw
attention to the effects of US militarism around the world. We wanted to
strengthen
concern around the impact of US military aid to Colombia.
The Anti-War Committee worked tirelessly fighting against “Plan Colombia” in 1999/2000 when President Clinton’s administration spent over $1.3 billion in US aid to fight the “War on Drugs” in Colombia, the worst human right’s violator in the Western Hemisphere. Human rights groups have documented that the Colombian government gives US military aid to the right wing paramilitary death squads which target peasant, student, community and labor activists. Now, the Bush administration is developing its own war in Colombia which they claim is a war on “terrorism.”
Our guest speaker, Luis Adolfo Cardona, escaped from Colombia after paramilitaries attempted to murder him. The paramilitaries have killed 6 union activists from his union at his Coca-Cola bottling plant. Luis is being hosted in the US through the AFL-CIO’s solidarity program.
Making that solidarity local, we even made last minute changes to our event locations, ensure that we would not cross the AFSCME 3800 or MAPE picket lines in October.
Encouraged be the stories from Luis, the Anti War Committee has joined the Colombia Action Network call for a boycott of Coca-Cola products until Coke takes responsibility for the violence in their plants. This campaign is sweeping college campuses, unions, and community groups around the country as people learn about the connections between corporations and US militarism.
Anti-War
Committee |