TOWER STRUGGLE Colombia's second city Cali is today on a city wide stoppage in support of 800 workers from the Sintraemcali Union. For the past 31 days they have been occupying a 17-storey communications tower, the home of the state owned Emcali, who supply water, electricity and telephones to the city. With the support of the Cali community, the workers - who have been there since Christmas Day - are demanding that the company isn't privatised, that there are no price increases and the corrupt company officials who have siphoned off money for years are prosecuted. Apart from the riot police around the tower, the square surrounding it is in the hands of the people and has been "transformed into a beehive of collective action." A huge make shift kitchen feeds the hundreds of occupying workers with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Across the road is a stage where people make speeches, play music and try to keep people's spirits up. On some days there have been 20,000 supporters outside, and every few days there is a big meeting of several thousands. All around the square, the walls are adorned with banners with slogans such as 'Better to die for something than live for nothing'. Squatting such a sophisticated communications tower also has its advantages - with workers beaming video link-ups around the world. Colombia is not a place for the fainthearted. It has been in a civil war for the past 40 years, and in the past ten alone over one and a half thousand trade union activists have been assassinated. Since 1994 workers from the Sintraemcali Union have successfully fought off sixteen attempts to privatise Emcali - and the heavy price they have paid has been murders, assassination attempts and the forced exile of many workers. The leader of Sintraemcali is just 33 but has already survived three assassination attempts, and workers occupying what has now been dubbed Robin Hood Towers, cover their faces knowing that even if they are victorious right wing paramilitaries could exact revenge at any time. Over recent years the paramilitaries have managed to grow in parallel with the US initiated Plan Colombia, a two billion dollar largely military aid package supposedly aimed at the eradication of cocaine production (see SchNEWS 273). However the paramilitaries have been untouched by this military war on drugs, despite admitting that they fund themselves largely from drug production in the areas under their control. As Mario Novelli from the Colombian Solidarity Campaign, who is currently in Cali as a Human Rights Observer points out "Could it be that the US is fighting not against drugs, but against resistance to the imposition of an economic model based on privatisation, budget cuts, and rising inequality? If it is, then the stakes at this negotiation table here are high, for if the Cali community and Sintraemcali stop the privatisation of public services, and prevent price increases for the poor, then they are not just preventing government plans, but the plans of the IMF and the World Bank, and their US masters. Plans that seek to ensure that Colombia fits in to the neo-liberal block being developed across the region." With the occupation now entering a fifth week and messages of solidarity pouring in from around the world, negotiations are now taking place at the highest level. As Mario Novelli says "We are beginning to get the feeling that the world is starting to take note of what those inside the tower already know: this is an historic battle." * There will be a mass picket of the Colombian Embassy today (25th) 4-6 pm at 3 Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, London (back of Harrods). The Union is facing bankruptcy so if you want to make a financial contribution to the strikers send cheques payable to 'Colombia Solidarity Campaign' with SINTRAEMCALI on the back and send to Colombia Solidarity Campaign, PO Box 8446, London N17 6NZ . 07950-923448, [EMAIL PROTECTED] * The campaign have also organised a conference: 'Plan Colombia - Clearing the Way For the Multinationals', 23rd-24th February at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 (Holborn tube). * Mario Novelli, who has been sending daily bulletins back from the occupation, will be speaking immediately on his return from Colombia on Saturday 2nd February at the CORAS Centre, 161 Lambeth Walk, SE11. (Vauxhall tube) 4pm For general news on Colombia see www.colombiareport.org
