Revolutionary greetings from Montenegro

[Alfonso Cano]

Hi!

I'm a young Communist newcomer from former Yugoslavia which hopes to have a nice discussion with like-minded comrades on this place.

I hope that I'm welcomed. :D

[Alfonso Cano]

No one is going to welcome me? :crying:

[ВАЛТЕР]

Dobrodosao druze!

[Art Vandelay]

Welcome comrade! I take it you are a supporter of FARC?

[seventeethdecember2016]

Hello and welcome to these forums. My name is Havee3333333, and I am looking forward to talking with you in the future.

R.I.P Cano!

[Anarcho-Brocialist]

Hello and welcome to these forums. My name is Havee3333333, and I am looking forward to talking with you in the future.


I didn't get a formal welcome!:D

Alfanso, comrade, welcome to Revleft.

[Alfonso Cano]

Dobrodosao druze!

Hvala. :)


Welcome comrade! I take it you are a supporter of FARC?

Thanks. Indeed, I do support FARC wholeheartedly. :)


Hello and welcome to these forums. My name is Havee3333333, and I am looking forward to talking with you in the future.

R.I.P Cano!

The feelings are mutual. :)


I didn't get a formal welcome!:D

Alfanso, comrade, welcome to Revleft.

Well, we will correct that. Welcome! :cool:

Thanks for your welcome. :)

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Welcome. We have a handful of people on the forums from former-Yugoslavia and surrounding areas.
Enjoy your stay.

[Искра]

Pozdrav....

Why do you support drug dealing cartel called FARC?

[Alfonso Cano]

Pozdrav....

Why do you support drug dealing cartel called FARC?

Pozdrav i tebi...

Why do you support anti-FARC propaganda that is spread by bourgeois anti-Communist mass media?

FARC has never in any way participated in drug-trafficking. All that is said about their supposed role in it, is either an attempt at demonisation, or in your case, sheer ignorance.

However...

As a result of neo-liberal capitalist policies that have been implemented in Colombia in the couple of last decades and which have resulted in gradual liberalisation of Colombian economy, small farmers that have traditionally grown crops which were sold on local market have been ruined by influx of cheap American agricultural imports, resulting in mass impoverishment and destruction of traditional economy. As an answer to the aggressive neo-liberal policies that have ruined their lives, the Colombian peasants (or campesinos) have started growing coca in order to support their families, without any FARC pressure (the similar things are happening in Peru and Bolivia, too). Since the FARC was founded in 1964, as an answer to the institutionalised violence of the Colombian ruling class, and the cocain trafficking only started to be really massive in the 80's, you can clearly see that FARC was not founded as a organisation dedicated to any sort of dealing with coca. But, since the backbone of the FARC support base is composed of the campesinos, when they on their own initiative started growing coca, FARC had no option but to tolerate it, if it wanted to keep their supporters. As time passed, the relations with coca-growers (but not narco-traffickers) deepened, and FARC accepted to protect campesinos from attacks by the army and paramilitaries in exchange for a small tax on their income derived from coca sales. And that is the reason why the FARC has been accused for drug-trafficking; they are taxing coca-growers when they sell their products, similar to the any government which taxes trade in order to increase government budget. The government of Netherlands, for example, allows sale of narcotics and it taxes that sale. Would you accuse the government of Netherlands of being a narco-trafficker?

Here is what James Brittain noted in the "Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP" in relation to the narco-trafficking:



Donnie Marshall, a former Administrator of the American Drug Enforcement Agency, and James Milford, a former Deputy Administrator, both said that there is no evidence that the FARC guerrillas are taking part in the drug trade through selling, producing, or smuggling. Marshall himself testified to the US House Committee that no conclusion could be made regarding the claim that the guerrillas take part in the narcotics industry. He also testified that there is no proof that FARC is laundering, smuggling, or trafficking drug money. Former US Ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette also said that there is no clear evidence of FARC being involved in the drug trade. According to known writer Robin Kirk, both Frechette and Rosso Jose Serrano would say that the tales of FARC being highly involved with narcotics is a lie used by the military in order to get more money from the US for counter-insurgency operations.
Former US Special Forces officer Stan Goff said:
“My own personal experience as a military advisor in Colombia in 1992 leads me to conclude that the ‘war on drugs’ is simply a propaganda ploy, a legitimizing story for the American public. We were briefed by Public Affairs Officers that counter-narcotics was a cover story…”.
Andres Pastrana Arango, former Colombian president and ambassador to the US, said that the state couldn’t find “any evidence that they’re [the FARC] involved directly in drugs.” It has been widely noted that FARC has worked to prevent coca from completely taking over entire rural sectors of the country. They began to work with the United Nations in the 1980’s on projects involving crop substitution, replacing coca, in areas they controlled.
Klaus Nyholm, former director of the UN International Drug Control Programme in Colombia, said:
“The guerrillas are something different than the traffickers, the local fronts are quite autonomous. But in some areas, they’re not involved at all. And in others, they actively tell farmers not to grow coca”.
During the 1990’s and 2000’s the FARC successfully supported the transition from coca to legitimate crops in the mayoralty of Micoahumado in the Morales municipality of the Bolivar department. The guerrillas implemented similar programs in the Casanare department of the central northeast. FARC-EP independently started a program of replacing illegal crops with normal ones in Caqueta during 2000. This program had the full support of the European Union and United Nations. After several months, the guerrillas held a conference open to the international community and Colombian peasants regarding this program.
However, many farmers in FARC territory have to grow illegal crops because it is hard for them to make a living from normal crops and subsistence farming due to the land centralization programs that were carried out by the Colombian state and the neo-liberal foreign trade policies for food that Colombia and the US take part in. Understanding the economic hardships faced by farm workers, FARC allows them to grow coca, but a class-based tax system is used for those involved with coca. FARC has similar tax systems in place for other things such as coffee and oil. Landless and subsistence peasant farmers aren’t taxed, but drug merchants and multi-national corporations (MNC’s) are. The tax money is then forwarded to a local democratic body and used for local schools, health services, and other infrastructure. Basically, FARC only taxes coca but doesn’t involve itself in the growing, selling, or transportation of it.


Except US and Colombian propaganda outlets, you will find few people that are well aquinted with Colombian affairs that will claim that FARC is a narco-trafficking organisation.

Besides James Brittain, good source for FARC is also investigative journalist Garry Leech and his site Colombia Journal.

Pozdrav i malo manje vjeruj svakoj laži koju buržuji šire o pravim revolucionarnim organizacijama poput FARC-a. Ako imaš neka dodatna pitanja rado ću odgovoriti na njih. :)

[OHumanista]

While I don't support the FARC...welcome yugoslavian comrade:)