>From: "T Murphy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Resolution of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth >International > >RE: Colombia (English) > >Resolution on "Plan Colombia" > >1. With the approval by the US Congress of the so-called Plan Colombia, the >political, social and military conflict in Colombia could become one of the >main scenarios of anti-imperialist confrontation in the Third World. >The US decision to finance and directly lead Plan Colombia is presented as >an operation of struggle against drugs and the narcotics trade; yet 80% of >the 7,500 million dollars of Plan Colombia has a counterinsurgent political >objective and this will be implemented through the destruction of the >cultivations on which 400,000 peasant families depend for their survival. >Destruction of cultivation and ecological-ethnic-cultural depredation, >similar to the experience of "Operation Dignity" in Bolivia; an operation >led by US "advisers" and soldiers and the USAID agency. >Plan Colombia means the most serious foreign agression of recent times >against a Latin American country and confirms the desire of the >imperialists to assure their hegemony over Latin America and the >Caribbean. It fits into the US vision according to which the "Colombian >disorder is becoming a regional danger", increasing the "insecurity of the >hemisphere" and endangering the "national security" of the United States. >The empire has resolved to turn Colombia - and the Andean region - into a >new theatre of war. > >2. The decree issued by the Clinton administration on August 23 which >approved military "aid" of 1,319 million dollars to the government of >president Pastrana, can only be read in one way: it is a declaration of war >against the armed insurgency (FARC, ELN, EPL), and also against the trade >union, peasant, popular and human rights movements, against the political >parties of the left and, in the end, against all the democratic actors in >Colombian society. >In the framework of a political, social and armed conflict that in recent >years has led to 35,000, deaths, 1,000,000 "internally displaced" (a >figure only exceeded by the Rwandan-Congolese drama) and 800,000 exiled, >Plan Colombia, far from being an option for peace, is an instrument to >strengthen the repressive capacity of the state, as well as of the criminal >paramilitary organizations. > >3. This escalation of the US interventionist strategy takes place in a >Latin American landscape characterized by economic crisis, the growth of >social resistance, and the loss of legitimacy of the "neoliberal model". >In some countries, moreover, the governing elites face situations of >ungovernability and crises of domination (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, >Bolivia). >The successive indigenous uprisings in Ecuador, popular and peasant >uprisings in Bolivia, as well as the decomposition of the Fujimori regime >on the one hand, and the nationalist discourse of Chavez, on the otherp, >have whipped up the tempests in the Andean region. Simultaneously, we >witness a growth of antineoliberal discontent and resistence in other >countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. >US imperialism is then playing all its cards to achieve a "stabilization" >Plan Colombia is intended to change decisively the relationship of forces >in the Colombian internal conflict, if not to establish a control over the >Amazon region and the oil wealth of the Orinoco, or reaffirm the military >presence in the zone of the Panama Canal and the Caribbean. > >4. The argument based on the "national security" for the United States is a >manifestacion of tutelage and the most complete and arrogant ignorance of >any notion of national sovereignty which conflicts with US interests >This policy submits the Latin American peoples and countires to the >economic control and neocolonial pillage of the international financial >organizations and the multinational companies (payment of the foreign debt, >unequal exchange, privatization) and accelerates the path towards the >creation of the American Free Trade Area (AFTA) which seeks an >"integration" subordinated to the US interests and which in many aspects, >puts in question the currently existing regional blocs, in particular the >Mercosur. >It also seeks to discipline more the Latin American governments and block >any alternative project of democratic and sovereign development proposed >by the left and the popular camp. >At the same time, Plan Colombia pursues a delimitation of areas of >influence with the imperialisms of the European Union, competing for Latin >American markets and the bioenergetic and strategic wealth of the Amazon, >assigning to the EU governments the EU the role of "humanitarian" donators, >above all to balance macroeconomic disequilibria, the payment of the public >and private debt , and the "collateral" social effects of the scorched >earth policy. > >5. Unlike other US interventionist operations, Plan Colombia uses military >pressure to assure the application of the antipopular denationalizing >adjustment plan that the Pastrana government and the IMF agreed in 1999. >This accord established the conditions to pursue counter-reforms which >undermine free education and public health and solidarity-based systems of >social security; which deepen the flexibility of labour; the privatization >of state companies, roads and rivers; the sale of biodiversity: the private >exploitation of energy resources; and the negation of the rights of the >indigenous peoples. >This adjustment plan aggravates unemployment and poverty in a country where >50% of the population survive on less than two dollars a day and where a >small oligarchic minority (3%) own 70% of the land. >These counter-reforms which have an antidemocratic character - and can >only be applied to the exclusion of. basic social rights and by violating >elementary human rights - have been contested by the social movements >through strikes and various mass demonstrations. > >6. Before the gravity of the moment, and taking into account that >"Operacion Sur" has already been implemented in the Putumayo region (as a >pilot for Plan Colombia), the trade union, peasant, indigenous, >neighbourhood, women, religious, organisations and movements, Amnesty >International, and the Peace and Justice Service, as well as the poltiical >fronts and parties of Latin America (in particular those grouped in the Sao >Paulo Forum), are beginning to mobilize against this US agression and in >solidarity with the Colombian people. >Also diverse NGOs, solidariy groups in Europe, the US and Canada, together >with personalities like Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Jose Saramago, Dario >Fo, and Danielle Mitterrand, among others, have signed a Manifiesto for >Peace and Human Rights in Colombia. >All these mobilizations and campaigns demand full respect for national >sovereignty and human rights; the dismantling of paramilitarism, the >immediate end to state terrorism, and the ending of impunity for those >guilty of innumerable masacres; the withdrawal of the 300 US military >"advisors" and an end to any foreign intervention; as well as respect for >the autonomy of the social, peasant and indigenous movements - including >in the zones controlled by the armed insurgency - and the demand for >"dialogue with social justice" as a condition for peace. > >7. The sections and sympathizing and fraternal organizationsiof the Fourth >Internacional participate in these movements and campaigns and in the >battle against the media intoxication, that beneath the cloak of the war >against drugs,seeks to neutralize the actions of a great number of NGOs >and social and democratic movements. >Simultaneously, we insist on the necessity of engaging in the development >of a broad, plural and unitary campaign of solidarity with the popular and >indigenous mobements and organisations, not just in Colombia but also in >Ecuador and Peru, which are directly targetted by the repressive strategy >of Plan Colombia. >The forces of the Fourth International agree also on the necessity of >emphasising the class nature of this war and the legitimacy of >insurrectional struggles which are in practice struggles of anticapitalist >resistance against the local oligarchies and the expression of a concrete >anti-imperialism >In such conditions, the next World Social Forum (Porto Alegre, January >2001), is a militant opportunity to incorporate the consequences of the >Colombian and regional conflict into the discussions and debates against >capitalist globalization, and on the political and social projects for a >radical transformation of society. > >International Executive Committee >29.10.00___________________________________________________________ >Get more from your time online. 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