Colombian Armed Conflict ends as government signs bilateral peace agreement with FARC

[RedSonRising]

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombians-of-All-Stripes-Welcome-The-Last-Day-of-the-War-20160622-0045.html

While this is clearly a project geared towards empowering neoliberalism by pacifying the rural masses without land distribution and attracting foreign capital, I see this as an opportunity for the left to organize more effectively and have greater access to the political process. We've seen students, activists, workers, and particularly farmers grow bolder in their demonstrations since the FARC has receded, as they no longer monopolize dissent. The government and bourgeois media has lost the cover of the armed conflict as an excuse to retaliate against working class dissent and paint radicals as violent guerrillas. I'm sure many people here won't agree with my analysis, but failing to acknowledge that the FARC has operated under a failed strategy marred with numerous atrocities and environmental disasters would be fantasy. Make no mistake, the Colombian state cannot be trusted, but as I said, this should be looked at as a beginning of new possibilities for working class empowerment.

[Gorra Negra]

There has been a lot of development in Colombia in the last 4 - 5 months. Specially around the peasant strikes. Very very little cover in general even productions like Democracy Now has not mentioned much.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombians-of-All-Stripes-Welcome-The-Last-Day-of-the-War-20160622-0045.html

While this is clearly a project geared towards empowering neoliberalism by pacifying the rural masses without land distribution and attracting foreign capital, I see this as an opportunity for the left to organize more effectively and have greater access to the political process. We've seen students, activists, workers, and particularly farmers grow bolder in their demonstrations since the FARC has receded, as they no longer monopolize dissent. The government and bourgeois media has lost the cover of the armed conflict as an excuse to retaliate against working class dissent and paint radicals as violent guerrillas. I'm sure many people here won't agree with my analysis, but failing to acknowledge that the FARC has operated under a failed strategy marred with numerous atrocities and environmental disasters would be fantasy. Make no mistake, the Colombian state cannot be trusted, but as I said, this should be looked at as a beginning of new possibilities for working class empowerment.

I would agree with your analysis. It's clear that the guerilla war hasn't worked, and has hampered the ability of the Left to organize workers and peasants more effectively. I don't think this was the intention of FARC, but it was the effect. On the other hand, it's easy to see how the FARC would attract Leftist in Colombia to its banner, seeing as how there was no real space for them to organize under the conditions of civil war except through the guerilla movement. Moreover, the refusal of the Colombian bourgeoisie to allow for peaceful Leftist movements was the ultimate cause of the existence of FARC in the first place - both through their actions in the 60s and the 80s. Any Leftist trying to organize would face the real threat of murder by paramilitaries, the police, the military and other forces.

The real interesting thing here is the division among the Colombian elite. On one hand, you have a military man like Santos pushing for peace, while on the other you have Uribe whose whole political project was the final military elimination of the FARC. Hopefully voices like Uribe will fade into the background once the peace deal becomes a fact, and once the ELN also join in negotiations. Under such circumstances, the energy and militancy of those who were previously guerilla fighters can be combined with that of peaceful activists and channeled into organizing workers and peasants.

[Red Terror Dr.]

How can anyone say that guerrilla tactics has not worked??!!! I'm sure the FARC has won major concessions/stipulations evident in this peace deal than the working class would have won without guerrilla strategy. Can anyone tell me the particulars of this peace deal? Do the FARC enjoy a mandatory percentage of congressional
seats and other concessions?

[Kirran]

As the FARC was killing innocents and smearing the left through their use of violence and corruption, I'd say this is positive. The left can, as you say, organise more effectively in other ways.

[LionofTepelenë]

FARC has been known to be involved in drug deals and child soldiers, along with being a Marxist-Leninist organization that only stops the progress that the radical left has had over the last few decades.
Now that they are being slowly driven away, I can say that it's a good thing. However, my main issue is that it could be possible for some of those soldiers to instead join right-wing militias and drug cartels, which would only shift the problem.

[ckaihatsu]

Eyewitness to a new chapter for Colombia: Interview with James Jordan

By Meredith Aby-Keirstead

Meredith Aby-Keirstead, of Fight Back! interviews James Jordan, with the Alliance For Global Justice in Tucson, Arizona. Jordan recently returned from the Accompaniment Delegation to Support Colombia’s Peace Process.

Fight Back!: Want do Colombian activists say about the prospects for peace?

James Jordan: We just got the good news that an accord was signed on June 23. This is really exciting -an end to more than 52 years of war.

However, the accord still has to be voted on in a plebiscite to be fully implemented. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) are in favor of a much more extensive discussion and inclusion of the popular and social movements, with a constitutional assembly. That's a good idea because it doesn't just reduce the conflict to an up-down vote. The armed conflict is an extension of conflicts that are still all too present. Even so, this is a huge victory. Conditions are different today than they were before, including that a majority of people want the war to end. The hope of the Left, including the FARC-EP, is that space is being opened for a new and revitalized political movement that will ideally be able to operate without the fear of violence and repression by the state and paramilitary death squads. More than 70% of political violence has been at the hands of the state [the right-wing Colombian government] and paras [paramilitary armies which are an offshoot of the government], and Colombia still is one of the three countries in the world with the highest rate of impunity for political murders. But the left is more organized than ever, and national and international observers are better equipped to monitor the situation. It will take a truly internationalist effort to make this peace durable.

Fight Back!: What evidence did you see of U.S. intervention in Colombia on this recent trip?

Jordan: Lots. First of all, there's the legacy of $10 billion in funding for Plan Colombia, mostly to pay for arming the military and police and to build new jails - that sort of thing. The U.S. also has thrown up many roadblocks to the peace process. They have refused to allow FARC negotiator Simón Trinidad [also known as Ricardo Palmera] to leave his jail in Florence, Colorado even though his conviction was based on a frame up. The U.S. government has also been denying visas to major progressive political and labor leaders from Colombia. We need to hear from these people because awareness of their struggles is key to making sure this peace is just, and that it lasts. And to top all this off, the Obama administration has proposed a new "Plan Peace Colombia" that actually increases military aid and other for other repressive institutions.

Fight Back!: How is the Colombian labor movement fighting back against U.S.-promoted free trade policies?

Jordan: It's not easy. I'm mainly familiar with Fensuagro, the agricultural workers union, and USO, the oil workers union. We also visited with people from the miners union, Sintramientergetica, including strikers near Valledupar. All of these unions are waging battles against transnational corporate exploitation and privatization of national resources. Since the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement was approved, Colombia has become dependent on big agriculture from the U.S. This is despite the fact that historically, Colombia has had no problem producing enough food for its population. However, a recent national strike led by farmers and indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities quickly forced important concessions from the government. The popular movements are strategizing around building unity among rural, student and labor movements. That, along with their class consciousness and militancy, is a winning combination.

Fight Back!: What can Americans do to support the people's movements given the peace process in Colombia?

Jordan: We have to stay aware and vocal about abuses and threats we hear about. In this age of empire and globalization of capital, we have to realize that our solidarity as workers and students must be stronger than that of the capitalists and their political servants. If we workers can learn to be loyal allies to each other whatever our nationalities then we will have removed a big obstacle to revolutionary change. A good place to start learning this lesson is for us to be vigilant in our defense of peace, justice and human and labor rights in Colombia.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

How can anyone say that guerrilla tactics has not worked??!!! I'm sure the FARC has won major concessions/stipulations evident in this peace deal than the working class would have won without guerrilla strategy. Can anyone tell me the particulars of this peace deal? Do the FARC enjoy a mandatory percentage of congressional
seats and other concessions?

The purpose of guerilla war was not to gain concessions, but to seize power. It failed at its stated goal, even if after half a century it did bring some limited gains.

[RedSonRising]

There has been a lot of development in Colombia in the last 4 - 5 months. Specially around the peasant strikes. Very very little cover in general even productions like Democracy Now has not mentioned much.

Yep, this has been true for the past several years now, and part of the reason seems to be that the fear of reprisal from either the FARC (who want to dominate every possible demonstration and act of organization) or the state/right wing paramilitaries who have the cover of the armed conflict to carry out political assassinations.

The first significant one was a few years ago, against Monsanto and trade agreements which would favor their seeds via monopoly protectionism:

mv6zDRm2s58

The recent demonstrations resulted in an agricultural strike that intends to pressure the government to honor the deals made during the previous strikes regarding the environment, land rights, and farmer sovereignty (in Spanish):

http://www.telesurtv.net/telesuragenda/Fin-del-paro-agrario-en-Colombia-20160613-0029.html

[ckaihatsu]

Report from the frontlines of Colombia’s peace process

http://www.fightbacknews.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article-lead-photo/jennycolombia.JPG

By Meredith Aby-Keirstead

Minneapolis, MN - On July 21, Jennie Eisert, a Colombian-American activist with the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, gave a moving report back to a packed room concerning her participation in the Alliance for Global Justice’s Colombian peace process delegation. Eisert was in Colombia in May, only weeks before the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) officially declared an end to half a century of war on June 23.

Eisert’s talk began with a focus on the current peace process. “I met with people representing campesinos, the Indigenous, Afro Colombians, unions, the displaced, and pardoned FARC political prisoners. The people I met with have hope that this peace process will be successful. The Colombian peace process has two important points. The first is to create a broad front for elections and the second is to create a new constitution. These two points have a lot to do with what happened to the Patriotic Union in 1985.” The leftist Patriotic Union (UP) did surprisingly well in national elections, with movement leaders and former guerillas running as candidates, but thousands of candidates and supporters were murdered in what Colombians refer to as the genocide of the Patriotic Union. Eisert explained that because of this history, “They have demanded these mechanisms be put into place to address possible future paramilitary and state violence so that they will not experience another genocide.”

On the delegation, Eisert had the opportunity to interview union leaders and activists who represented many different sectors of Colombian society who have all aligned themselves with the newly formed Marcha Patriotica. It was founded in 2012 and is made up of roughly 2000 organizations. They describe themselves as being “deeply committed to the defense of the popular cause and inspired by the historical legacy of the struggle of the Colombian people for a true and definitive independence, for peace with social justice, democracy, sovereignty and Latin American Unity processes. They have created an anti-imperialist vision and are a product of organized resistance, from a combination of rural organizations, intellectuals, students, social leaders of the Left, and some unions.” Eisert used the report-back as an opportunity to share some of their stories of exploitation by the Colombian government and paramilitaries and of their resistance.

A theme of Eisert’s talk was the role of the U.S. in Colombia. She called out the U.S. government for its use of military aid to support the right-wing government of Colombia, its knowledge that aid and training was funneled to government-sponsored paramilitary death squads, its desire to promote free trade policies at the expense of worker rights, and its refusal to release FARC peace negotiator Ricardo Palmera (known in Colombia as Simon Trinidad) from a U.S. supermax prison in Colorado.

Eisert encouraged supporters to sign the Anti-War Committee’s petition to free Colombian political prisoner Hubert Ballestros, the FENSUAGRO vice president who is imprisoned in Colombia; to pressure President Obama to free Ricardo Palmera so that he can help implement the peace process, and to share the stories they heard from her about the Colombian people’s struggle for justice.

The Minnesota Anti-War Committee plans on organizing its supporters to pressure for the Colombian government to keep its promises in the peace process in this critical period.

To see a video of the event: http://tinyurl.com/jeh9ufb

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]