Students mobilize in Colombia

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5) Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay, and cut the retirement age to 55. Provide unemployment and retirement payments at We propose an EMERGENCY CONGRESS OF LABOR to discuss and 6) To combat inflation: A sliding scale of wages and pensions that match1) Bail out the people, not the bankers! Open the account books of the es the rises in comsumer prices. To combat high medical costs: A free, banks to full public inspection. Nationalize the banks to be supervised by 7) Immediate citizenship for all undocumented workers. No job discrimi2) No foreclosures! No forced evictions! Cancel usurious debt payments, nation; equal pay for equal work — regardless of gender, sexual orientaand reduce mortgage payments in proportion to their capitalist-caused 8) Nationalize manufacturing, big agribusiness, energy, and transporta3) Full employment at union wages! An emergency public works program tion corporations and place them under the control of elected committees to employ all jobless workers and youth! Employ people to build what we need — low-cost quality housing, efficient mass transportation, cheap and 9) To mobilize support for the demands it adopts, the EMERGENCY renewable sources of power, schools, clinics — and to conserve our water, CONGRESS should organize ACTION COMMITTEES in every workplace and neighborhood threatened by the crisis. These committees can draw up 4) Immediate and full withdrawal of U.S. troops and mercenaries from Iraq & Afghanistan! Close all U.S. bases abroad! No money for the military 10) To put all these measures into effect, we need a LABOR PARTY — — use funds instead for public works! Convert the war industries to mak- based on a fighting union movement and all people who are oppressed Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.

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Socialist Action reporters Ana Noli and Lisa Luinenburg interviewed Sergio Fernandez at the conference of the United National Antiwar Coalition in March. Fernandez is a leader of the student protests in Colombia and a representative of Mesa Amplia Nacional Estudiantil (MANE). The interview has been translated from Spanish and slightly edited for publication.

Socialist Action: Sergio, can you tell us a bit about the state of the student movement in Colombia and what their demands are?

Sergio Fernandez: Last year, we managed to defeat the “reform” of higher education (Law 30) put forward by [Colombian President] Juan Manuel Santos, which was intended to adapt higher education to the requirements of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States. We set the task for ourselves to build—along with teachers, workers, peasants, indigenous people, and virtually the whole country—truly democratic reforms to ensure that education will be public, free, of high quality, and serving the people.

SA: Would this law have affected primary and secondary education, or only the universities?

SF: Our fight today, above all, concerns the universities. Secondary education in Colombia is mostly public, but higher education, university education, is mainly private. In Colombia there are 32 public universities and 48 private universities. Only half of Colombian students are at a public university—and out of those who enter the public universities, only half can finish their career.

Our fight is to try to ensure that higher education is a right and that the state adequately funds education. The public universities are on the verge of bankruptcy, and what Juan Manuel Santos proposed in the reform we defeated is that when the public universities would go bankrupt, private capital could enter, fund them, A WORKERS’ ACTION PROGRAM TO FIGHT THE CRISIS take steps to implement the following demands — workers’ committees.

decline in value.

forests, farmland, and open space.

ing products for people’s needs and to combat global warming.

SOCIALIST ACTION Closing news date: June 3, 2012 Editor: Michael Schreiber Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Name Address City State Phone E-mail Tony Savino / Socialist Action Sergio Fernandez speaks at UNAC conference.

and they would be governed by private law, meaning that they [universities] would be fully privatized.

SA: Which organizations have joined the struggle?

SF: There are many student organizations in Colombia. I am the national spokesperson of one of them, the Colombian Student Organization. But what we accomplished last year was to create Mesa Amplia Nacional Estudiantil (MANE). MANE brings together all student organizations in the country and operates in a democratic, participatory, and broad manner. Out of the 80 universities in the country, MANE already has a presence in more than 70. MANE has managed to unify groups around what we call the minimum program.

SA: When did the struggle begin and what are some of the victories that have been achieved so far? Zip • Ashland, Ore.: [email protected] • Boston: [email protected] (781) 630-0250 • Carrboro, N.C.: (919) 967-2866, [email protected] • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860) 478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: [email protected]. www.thenorthernworker.blogspot.com • Florida: [email protected] • GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.: [email protected] • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • LOUISVILLE / LEXINGTON, KY.: [email protected], (502) 451-2193 • Madison, Wis.:

[email protected] • Mankato, Minn.:

[email protected] • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 802-1482, [email protected] SF: The movement began years ago. But the fight against the reform began in March 2011. The national government stated its intention to reform higher education, presenting its proposal to the media and public opinion. This generated major opposition from students. And in October the government gave the proposal to Congress for its adoption. At that point, the national university strike began. All student organizations came together in Bogota, and in a huge gathering of thousands of students we outlined a program of political unity. … The mobilizations of last year drew about one million students and their families to the streets and were the largest in the history of the student movement in Colombia.

SA: Does the student movement have a relationship with the trade unions in Colombia?

SF: Yes, of course. We have been working side by side with the United Confederation of Workers (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores), and unions of education. The telephone workers, miners, and other unions of all kinds have given us support. Support was given not only in the demonstrations, where many of them mobilized with the students, but also through funding. They have helped to fund MANE activities such as concerts, demonstrations, and theater works—which gathered thousands of Colombian students.

SA: Is it possible to create links between the student movement in Colombia and others in Latin America?

SF: Last year we developed a continental mobilization that was supported primarily by countries like Costa Rica, Ecuador, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. This was a success and we have begun to build links.

However, MANE, while the largest organization of the student movement in Colombia’s history, was only born last August. It takes gigantic strides, but it is still a baby. We are still in the process of organizing committees and appointing spokespeople. For example, we do not have a committee in charge of international relations; relationships with other organizations have been carried out mainly around specific activities or through the work of spokespeople. n • New York City: (212) 781-5157 • Philadelphia: [email protected] • Portland, Ore.: (503) 233-1629 [email protected] • Providence: [email protected] (401) 419-1706 • Salem, Ore.: [email protected] • San Francisco Bay Area:

P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, Ca 94610 (510) 268-9429, [email protected] • WASHINGTON, DC: [email protected], (202) 286-5493 National Office

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15,000 protest NATO in Chicago CHICAGO—On May 20, the largest U.S. antiwar demonstration in years took place, defying a violence-baiting campaign orchestrated by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (a former member of the Obama cabinet), the Chicago police, and the Obama administration.

Some 15,000 protesters jammed into the streets to voice their outrage at the May 20-21 conference in Chicago of the U.S.-led military alliance known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It was the first big protest against the U.S.-led NATO in U.S. history, marking a new level of understanding in the United States of the imperialist aims of this organization. It was also the first major antiwar action with Occupy-era young people as the main participants.

The protest was a clear victory for the antiwar movement and for democratic rights. The legal, peaceful, permitted march began with a rally in Grant Park and marched downtown about two miles to conclude in the vicinity of the NATO meeting. The day’s protest concluded with 40 veterans delivering their personal antiwar messages and—in an incredibly powerful act of defiance reminiscent of the protests by anti-Vietnam GI resisters—tossing their medals in the direction of the NATO summit. Concluding were “Afghans Against the War” members living in Canada, who read statements and recited angry resistance poetry. (To see the vets throw away their medals, see www.democracynow.org/2012/5/21.)

The protesters came from mainly from Chicago and the Midwest but also from California, New York, Canada, and many other places—including Europe and Afghanistan. The antiwar veterans led the march, followed by antiwar activists, Occupy rebels from several cities, immigrant workers, trade unionists, Filipino youth, Palestinians, Muslim civil-liberties advocates, and others. Anti-NATO rallies were also held in London and other European cities and in Iran, India, Bangladesh, Russia, and Canada (see international rallies: http://nepajac.org/ internationChicago.htm.)

The rally in Grant Park at the start of the protest included speakers such as Jesse Jackson Sr.; Inge Hoger, a member of the German legislature; Malik Mujahid of the Muslim Peace Coalition; Carlos Montes of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and himself a frame-up victim facing trial; and UNAC leaders (see UNAC speaker Chris Gauvreau: http://nepajac.org/chris.htm).

Organizing for the NATO/G8 protest was made doubly difficult in an election year given the illusions that many working people still have in the Democratic Party wing of the 1%. Obama authored the 2010 “surge” of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, although some 60% now oppose that war. The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), an initiator of the Chicago protest, was founded on the principle of independent mobilization against war, poverty, and joblessness—regardless of who sits in the White House.

The NATO summit concluded by essentially restating the position of the White House to withdraw most U.S. troops by 2014 and hand over combat duty to Afghani troops and police, leaving out the role of private U.S. “security” forces. However, Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has said, “There is a narrative that combat operations for the U.S. will stop at mileof capitalism and the spread of worldwide resistance, the rulers put Chicago under virtual police lock-down, using the city as a giant test lab for future repression. The fear factor was ramped up in order to get working people to accept unprecedented attacks on democratic rights. Many businesses and museums were shuttered. Roads were periodically closed. Backpacks, even cups of coffee, were banned on trains. Many bosses were telling workers to dress in black in the style of the loosely organized “Black Block” anarchists in order to avoid beginning hassled or assaulted in the street by unruly protesters. A Chicago sheriff proposed opening up for mass incarceration of protesters the shuttered Jolliette prison, made famous by the “Blues Brothers” movie. Red Cross officials in Milwaukee were notified to prepare for an evacuation of the entire city Chicago!

Fearing the prospect of a large protest like the Toronto G20 protest in June 2010, both Obama and Emanuel were forced to recognize the growing size of the NATO/ G8 protest movement and changed the location of the G8 meeting on May 19 to the isolated Camp David in Maryland. Soon afterward, the Chicago rally was rescheduled by organizers from Saturday, May 19, to May 20 (at the beginning of the NATO conference). That change, unfortunately, cut into attendance by those outside Chicago who had to be back at work Monday.

The successful rally was the culmination of months of organizing. Cang8 activist Joe Isobaker, a UNAC member and FBI spy-frame-up victim, first submitted UNAC’s march permit request to the city last July. In August, a larger than expected first meeting took place in Chicago of over 100 activists.

Protest organizing in Chicago centered on the Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda ((CanG8), composed of some 100 community organizations. Support for the rally gained ground with endorsement from Joshua Lott / Getty Images Jesse Jackson Sr. of Operation PUSH, SEIU locals, the Chicago Teachers Union, the United Electrical union (UE), and the National Nurses Union (NNU). For five months, organizers had been told there could be no protests during the summits. But after numerous protests, press conferences by CanG8, Occupy Chicago and many unions, plus a full-page ad by UNAC in the Chicago Sun Times, signed by hundreds of people, organizers were finally told that they’d get a permit..

City ordinances, backed by the mayor and dutifully approved by the Democratic Party-run Chicago City Council, meant agreeing to massive fines for civil disobedience and submitting protest signs and banners in advance to police for approval. Those undemocratic ordinances were not accepted by rally organizers.

After months of city obstructions in negotiations with rally organizers, the request for a legal, peaceful rally permit was finally issued in writing by the Chicago administration on May 15. Yet, in the end, the permit still denied protesters the right to be “within sight and sound” of NATO, which is the internationally accepted standard. Andy Thayer, a key organizer of CanG8, told Socialist Action, “It was important to conduct this first amendment battle. “We got close to the summit sight.” “Standing proud”

At a May 10 press conference on the upcoming actions, CanG8 organizer Andy Thayer told the media, “Occupy rapidly learned to focus not just on the economic, but on the political and on the military. They got it. They were not fooled when president Obama pulled the G8 summit from Chicago. They knew that NATO represents the defacto military arm of the G8. They are standing proud. We are standing proud with them. I am an Occupy Chicago participant. Do not let the city of Chicago intimidate you (continued on page 11, in “Women’s equality by year 2593!”)

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