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LABOUR:
Colombia Still Undisputed Leader in Trade Unionist Murders
By Gustavo
Capdevila
GENEVA, Jun 10 (IPS) - Colombia has long been the world
leader in murders of trade unionists – a dubious distinction
that it seems in no danger of losing, according to a new
report by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
In 2008, 76 trade unionists were killed worldwide for
defending workers’ rights, according to this year’s Annual
Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations, which details
abuses of workers rights in 143 countries.
That total is smaller than the figure for 2007, when 91
labour activists were slain around the world.
But in Colombia, 49 were murdered last year, 10 more than in
2007, "despite assurances by the administration of Colombian
President Álvaro Uribe that the situation was improving,"
says ITUC.
"I submit that there has not been, that there is not and
that there never will be real progress in this case unless
and until the impunity crisis is directly, authentically and
honestly resolved," said Stanley Gacek, representative of
the AFL-CIO federation of labour organisations in the United
States.
"That means: 1)Effective convictions of all the
intellectual, as well as the material, authors of the
violence; 2) Achieving the investigative prosecutorial and
judicial capacity to do so; and 3) Insuring that the terms
of the convictions are significant and durable," said the
U.S. union leader.
Colombia has been in the grip of a civil war since 1964,
when the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and
the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas rose up in
arms.
The far-right paramilitary groups emerged in their present
form in the 1980s, to combat the leftist insurgents
alongside the government forces.
The numbers show that Colombia is still the most dangerous
country in the world for labour activists, the secretary
general of Colombia’s Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de
Colombia (CUT) central trade union, Domingo Tovar, told IPS.
Gacek said killings of Colombian trade unionists rose 25
percent from 2007 to 2008, and that so far this year, 17
more have been killed. Meanwhile, 95 percent of such murders
have gone unsolved and unpunished in the last 23 years, he
said.
And "if we consider all acts of violence against Colombian
unionists since 1986, including not only homicides, but
abductions, assaults, and torture, for example, the impunity
rate soars to 99.9 percent," he added.
The 2008 murder rate of labour activists also shows the
extent of the problem in Colombia, against a backdrop of
conflicts between workers on one hand and the government and
employers on the other, said Tovar.
ITUC Secretary General Guy Ryder reached a similar
conclusion, saying "The fact that certain countries, such as
Colombia, Guatemala and the Philippines appear year after
year on the death list shows that the authorities are, at
best, incapable of ensuring protection and in some cases are
complicit with unscrupulous employers in the murders."
In terms of the number of murdered labour activists,
Colombia is followed by Guatemala, "which in recent years
has seen an increase in violent attacks against trade union
representatives and members," with nine murders committed in
2008, says the ITUC report.
It adds that four were killed in the Philippines and in
Venezuela; three in Honduras; two in Nepal; and one each in
Iraq, Nigeria, Panama, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.
The current global economic crisis has also had an effect.
Ryder said the lack of respect for workers rights has
aggravated inequality around the world, which has
contributed to the global recession.
"The impact of the global economic situation on workers’
rights was a prominent feature in many countries," says the
ITUC report.
"Much of the repression across Africa in particular involved
governments reacting harshly against workers seeking to
improve wages as the global food crisis hit, with increasing
numbers of families unable to feed themselves properly.
"Later in 2008, the effects of the global financial crisis
began to hit, putting additional pressure on job security,
wages and working conditions," adds this year’s edition of
the study, which is released annually to coincide with the
International Labour Conference, in which the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) makes decisions on its general
policy, work programme and budget, and creates conventions
and recommendations.
This year’s Jun. 3-19 Conference in Geneva took up the case
of Colombia at the request of worker delegates, who take
part in the annual event along with representatives of
governments and employers.
Gacek told the Conference Committee on the Application of
Standards that even in cases that make it to court,
Colombia’s legal system falls short because prosecutors
often merely repeat the pretext given by the perpetrators -
for example, that the slain trade unionist was a guerrilla
or had a connection with the guerrillas, or that the killing
was "a crime of passion" or just a common case of murder
motivated by theft.
"Of the over 2,700 unionists murdered in the last 23 years,
at the current average of 70 sentences per year, it would
take the system 37 years to overcome the impunity rates
cited, and only on the assumption that there would be no
more killings starting today," said the U.S. trade union
leader.
Tovar said it has been demonstrated at the ILO Conference
that violations of international conventions are growing in
Colombia, where the armed conflict is becoming crueler and
bloodier, "while trade unionists and the civilian population
are caught in the middle."
The head of CUT said he was concerned about right-wing
Uribe’s policies and about the possibility that legal
reforms could be approved allowing the president to run for
a third term.
"His administration is on its way to becoming an
authoritarian government that could evolve into a
dictatorship," said the Colombian trade unionist.
Tovar said the murders and other abuses make young people
reluctant to join unions, and that it would be strange if
that were not so, in a country where the labour movement has
lost nearly 3,000 members, and has suffered a documented
total of more than 10,000 violations of rights like the
right to life and freedom to organise, and where more than
1,000 union leaders have fled into exile.
"Trade unionists are human beings, and as such we feel fear
in the face of a bloody regime like Uribe’s, and in the face
of such an intransigent stance taken by employers," he said.
However, the pain and fear "turn into strength, and we in
Colombia continue to fight with the support of the
international community; with the support of those
democratic governments around the world that understand the
situation in Third World countries," he said.
Tovar added that foreign corporations in Colombia, from
Canada, Spain, Switzerland and the United States, are
implicated in human rights abuses, and "one way or another
sponsor paramilitarism and violations of fundamental human
rights."
He specifically mentioned the U.S. multinational fruit
giants Chiquita Brands International and Dole, the Cerrejón
coal mining company, owned by U.S., European and Australian
firms, Unión Fenosa from Spain, Nestle from Switzerland and
Mexico’s Telmex. |
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