The Colombian Working Class Against Neoliberalism and Imperialism
In the aftermath of the pandemic, Colombians are striking and demonstrating against austerity and police repression in a historic rebellion. The uprising highlights the power workers hold–and if the rising is successful–it could spell the end of decades of right-wing rule.
The Gasoline and the Spark
On April 28, hundreds of thousands of Colombians joined a general strike and protested against a proposed anti-worker reform. The dubiously named “Sustainable Solidarity Law'' would have increased taxes on wages and consumption for the working class, while leaving the ultra-rich and corporations largely exempt. Additionally, it would have maintained the budget of the Colombian military at current levels, cementing the power of an institution associated with vast human rights violations and war crimes. After a year of economic and social devastation from the pandemic, working class anger exploded. Due to the ferocity of the uprising, right-wing president Ivan Duque was forced to withdraw the tax bill on May 2. But with the government poised to introduce a new version of the bill and the masses continuing to suffer under severe austerity and police repression, the rebellion is showing no signs of slowing down.
The present eruption is the result of a long period of built-up tensions. Massive protests against the regime’s austerity policies began in 2019 but mobilizations came to a halt in 2020 due to the pandemic. In the wake of the pandemic, 72,000 COVID deaths and nearly 10% unemployment have further increased tensions.
Since the protests began, Colombians have only gained more reasons to take to the streets. Already, at least 42 protesters have been killed by the police, and hundreds more disappeared. Particularly violent are the anti-riot police known as the ESMAD, a unit funded and trained by the United States. The brutality of the state, which was always present in the countryside, is now making itself felt in the urban centers. As a result, the demonstrators have taken up the demand to disband the ESMAD in addition to opposing any new austerity bill.
A False Peace
The generalized character of the protests is the result of years of betrayals and dashed expectations. In 2016, the Colombian government signed a peace agreement with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), a predominantly peasant guerrilla organization. The agreement was supposed to end the world’s longest-running civil war, which had claimed more than 220,000 lives and displaced more than 6 million people. Since the agreement was signed, however, more than 1,100 activists from the labor, indigenous, peasant, and women’s movements have been murdered by government-aligned paramilitaries.
It is no accident that Duque’s iron fist politics coincide with a program of economic liberalization. The violence is a direct consequence of the Colombian model of capitalist accumulation, which is heavily skewed towards dispossession of indigenous and peasant populations and the hyper-exploitation of the urban working class. In the countryside, the state relies on the armed forces and right-wing paramilitaries to displace peasant and indigenous populations from their lands in order to make room for domestic agribusiness and foreign-owned extractivist industries.
The violence is a direct consequence of the Colombian model of capitalist accumulation, which is heavily skewed towards dispossession of indigenous and peasant populations and the hyper-exploitation of the urban working class.
In the urban centers, profits are extracted through the privatization of everything from energy production and distribution to education. Up until now, the state had not resorted to the terroristic measures it uses in the countryside against the urban centers. Instead, the government maintains its base of support in the cities through direct subsidies to the urban population which partially compensate for the deprivation of real public services. But along with the carrot comes the stick: Since 1980, more than 4,000 trade union activists have been murdered in Colombia, by far the most in the world. As a result, only 1.2% of the workforce is unionized.
Under these conditions of extreme deprivation and state-sanctioned murder, the so-called “peace” established in 2016 was always a fiction. Only a restructuring of the social order and accountability for the worst criminals of the civil war – the government and the military – can deliver real peace. In that sense, this explosion was inevitable.
An Outpost of US Imperialism
The Colombian government has been a key ally of U.S. imperialism for decades. Since the Clinton administration initiated “Plan Colombia” in 2000, the US has sent more than $10 billion in aid to Colombia, with the vast majority going to the military and police. The Plan also created the notorious ESMAD riot police units which have become a focal point of the struggle. Plan Colombia – known to ordinary Colombians as “Plan Washington'' because of its US origins – was a centerpiece of the bipartisan “war on drugs” which has ravaged all of Latin America. Under the guise of fighting drug cartels, both major US parties have pursued a strategy of funneling money, arms, and training to the Colombian state and its paramilitary clients. Rather than being used to combat the cartels, these resources have been funneled to paramilitaries.
Since the Clinton administration initiated “Plan Colombia” in 2000, the US has sent more than $10 billion in aid to Colombia, with the vast majority going to the military and police.
Plan Colombia officially ended in 2015, but the United States maintains a vested interest in sustaining the status quo. A right-wing government in Colombia serves as an important bulwark against popular movements within the country as well as official U.S. enemies in the region like Venezuela and Cuba. Additionally, it ensures access to Colombian resources on the part of multinational capital. This explains the Biden administration’s shameful silence on the violence of the Colombian state: Duque and his lackeys are key allies in the region.
The Uprising Opens A New Path Forward
Colombian politics have been dominated by a right-wing clique in the thrall of Washington for more than half a century. Guerrillas fought against the state, sometimes heroically, but they were ultimately crushed or alienated from the masses by decades of violent conflict. The electoral left has been marginalized, and the traditional organizations of the working class have been nearly destroyed.
Despite this dire context, the present rebellion shows that the people cannot be cowed forever. More than this, it reveals the power of the working class. With the government in total control militarily, a national strike brought the country to a halt and forced the withdrawal of Duque’s tax reform. If the strikes and demonstrations continue in the face of such severe repression, the stability of the whole regime will be called into question.
In the United States, we must support the efforts of the Colombian people by answering the international calls for solidarity protests at Colombian consulates and also denounce US militarization of Colombia. We have a responsibility to help our Colombian comrades topple this murderous regime once and for all.
Zack Frailey Escobar is a communist dock worker and sociology student living in San Diego. You can find more of his work at redhorizon.home.blog.
