(Forwarded) Public Meeting - PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS WIDELY Plan Colombia and the Privatisation of Public Services in Cali 7pm prompt Monday 6 November TUC Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1 (Nearest tube Tottenham Court Road) Speakers: Alexander Lopez, President SINTRAEMCALI Cali Municipal Workers Union; Latin American Solidarity Collective; Jeremy Corbyn MP This meeting has been organised with the support of UNISON and the TUC. Admission is free but please bring a donation For the last six years SINTRAEMCALI has been fighting attempts to privatise Cali's water, electricity and telephones. In 1998 the union occupied the corporation's headquarters. In 1999 it conducted a nine-day strike. The workers have wide support amongst the 3 million people using its services, especially in the poor districts. But conditions for Colombian trade unionists are the most dangerous in the world. Alexander Lopez has survived three assassination attempts. One of his bodyguards, Omar Noguera, was recently murdered in another attack outside the home of the union's general secretary. In addition to the unofficial assassination campaign, the state's official response has been to criminalise social protest - 55 union members are awaiting trial on charges of rebellion. [STOP PRESS: Another leader of SINTRAEMCALI has just been assassinated, and Alexander's sister Ximena, also a union member, has survived an assassination attempt at her place of work in the social services in Cali.] On 4 October the Colombian government sold off the country's principal coal mine to a group of foreign multinationals, including the London based ex-South African mining house Billiton. And President Pastrana gave the go ahead for the imminent privatisation of Cali's public services. Two days later, the union held a 3,5000 strong mass meeting and voted to take strike action, from a time to be decided. The stage is set for a momentous struggle. PLAN COLOMBIA - PLAN FOR WAR As Alexander Lopez says: "All of our natural resources, the flora and fauna, Colombia's wonderful bio-diversity, all that is being put up for sale by Pastrana's government." Oil multinationals like BP and Occidental Petroleum have funded the war lobby inside the USA. They and the arms industry are the major backers of US military intervention in Colombia's affairs under the misnamed 'Plan Colombia'. Under this plan the USA provides $1.3bn military aid for helicopter gunships and three new battalions centred in the southern zone. Ostensibly Plan Colombia is to stop coca production, but the real agenda is to create a rapid reaction force that will strike down any opposition. Pastrana and Clinton want to strengthen the army and right wing paramilitaries. They fear the power of the guerrilla movements, and the people's trade union and social struggles against their neo-liberal economic policies. The peace that Plan Colombia aims to impose is the undisputed rule of the multinationals. It is the military complement to the privatisation policy. The EU countries met in Bogota on 24 October and have agreed to fund $300 million of social programmes, although not the military core of Plan Colombia. The EU has not opposed US military intervention. The war has already begun, planes are bombing poor peasants to force them way from their crops in readiness to spray the region with devastating fungicides. Plan Colombia is, in its entirety, a plan for war. We appeal for solidarity with the Cali workers, and for support to the Colombian people in their resistance to Plan Colombia and US imperialism. Campaign Meetings 7.30pm Monday 30 October, Monday 13 and 27 November at War on Want, 37-39 Great Guildford Street, London SE1 Sunday 10 December International Human Rights Day Demonstration Help us circulate the petition against Plan Colombia. I would like to join the campaign/more information Name ..................... Telephone/E-mail ................. Address....................................................... P&p LASO Collective, PO Box 8446, London N17 6NZ E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Andy Higginbottom
