Colombia Free Trade Agreement Prayer Breakfast

Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson addresses the Colombia Free Trade Agreement from a biblical and theological perspective at a prayer breakfast with Jim McGovern, D-MA. As we near a vote on this issue, Dr. Nelson reminds us that it is important to consider how we can best love our neighbors. 

If Over 150 CEOs Had Been Assassinated in Colombia Over the Past 3 Years, Would You Still Think It a Safe Place for Investment?

Read Representative James McGovern's (D-MA) most recent Dear Colleague Letter against the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA).  Click here to call your own Representative and ask him/her to vote NO on this agreement that will lead to human rights violations, poverty, and death.

If Over 150 CEOs Had Been Assassinated in Colombia Over the Past 3 Years

Would You Still Think It a Safe Place for Investment?

Dear Colleague,

            That’s how many labor leaders and activists were targeted and murdered in Colombia, according to the annual reports of the International Trade Union Confederation.  Each year, the number of trade unionists assassinated in Colombia has equaled or surpassed the total number of such murders in the rest of the world combined.  That’s why Colombia remains #1 as the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist. 

           
               And 2011 is no different.  So far, this year, 17 labor activists have been murdered, as documented by the National Labor School (ENS/Escuela Nacional Sindical) based in Medellín.   These are real people – not just statistics.  They were teachers and workers in factories and farms.  We should care about their lives and their deaths.

               I support the measures outlined in the U.S.-Colombia Labor Action Plan (LAP) – but they don’t go far enough and it’s a plan that rewards intentions, not results.  Congress should demand that the increased protections called for under the LAP actually result in protecting and reducing the violence against trade unionists before the U.S.-Colombia FTA is debated.  Congress should require that Colombian workers are able to organize, speak freely and negotiate directly with their employers – without fear of violence and death aimed at them and their families – before taking up the FTA for debate and approval.

         
               Please take a look at the names of the 17 labor activists murdered so far this year in Colombia.  Remember that they had families, children, friends, neighbors and colleagues.  Remember the 150 trade unionists targeted and assassinated over the past three years.  Demand that conditions change and improve on the ground in Colombia before the House takes up the Colombia FTA for consideration.

Sincerely,

James P. McGovern

Member of Congress

Colombian Unionists Killed January 1 – June 21, 2011 (ENS):

1.     Alejandro José Peñata López, teacher and member of the Asociación de Maestros de Córdoba – ADEMACOR (teachers’ association of Córdoba), affiliated to the CUT, was murdered on June 20.   After he disappeared after leaving school, his body was found with signs of torture.  He had been hanged with barbed wire.                          

2.     Margarita de las Salas Bacca, judge on the Sixth Circuit Labor Courtand member of the Asonal Judicial union, was killed in Barranquilla on June 9, 2011, after leaving the courthouse.  She was survived by her husband and daughter.

3.     Jorge Eliecer de los Rios (pictured left), teacher, environmental campaigner, and member of the Ser union, killed June 8, 2011 in Pereira, Risaralda department.  He was shot several times from a motorbike while on his school’s campus.  A leading member of the Meedrua non-governmental organization, he had led a campaign to expose the damage wreaked by an open air mine belonging to multinationals.

4.     Carlos Julio Gómez, teacher and member of the Sutev union, shot and killed May 29, 2011 in Cali, Valle department.  

5.     Freddy Antonio Cuadrado Nuñez, teacher and member of the Edumagunion, killed May 27, 2011 in Cienaga, Magdalena department. He was shot in the head and killed as he celebrated his 46^th birthday.

6.     Carlos Arturo Castro Casas, 41, engineer, member of the Sintraemcali union, and father of three, shot in the neck by two armed men and killed May 23, 2011 in Cali, Valle department.

7.     Juan Carlos Chagüi Cueter, prison guard and member of the Sigginpec union, killed May 15, 2011 in Barranquilla, Atlántico department.

8.     Dionis Alfredo Sierra Vergara, elementary school teacher and member of the Ademacor union, killed May 15, 2011 in La Apartada, Córdoba department.

9.     Luci Ricardo Florez, 28, teacher and member of the Ademacor union, shot by armed men on motorbikes and killed May 3, 2011 in Ayapel, Córdoba department as she was walking home with her mother.

10.  Antonio Ramiro Muñoz Sánchez, member of the Asotmem union, killed April 8, 2011 in Puerto Boyacá, Boyacá department.  According to witnesses, he was shot repeatedly by two men riding a motorbike as he was leaving a union meeting. According to Justice for Colombia, the union had been organizing workers and the local community to demand that oil companies hire local labor.

11.  Héctor Orozco, 35, father of three and Vice-President of the Astracatol union, killed March 30, 2011 in Chaparral, Tolima department.  In the days before he died, Orozco had reported to the local office of the Reiniciar human rights non-governmental organization that he and several other persons had been threatened by an army officer named John Jairo Velez. 

12.  Hernán Yesid Pinto Rincón (pictured left), member of the CGT union and Founder and member of the national board of the new farmers’ organization, killed March 19, 2011 in Tibacuy, Cundinamarca department.  Before his death, he had taken the lead in the struggle of farm workers.

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13.  Carlos Alberto Ayala Moreno, member of the Asepunion and Director of the Caucasia Rural Education Institute, killed February 5, 2011 in Puerto Asís, Putumayo department.  He was shot and killed by gunmen as he left his home.

14.  Humberto de Jesús Espinoza Díaz, teacher in the Mistrato Agricultural Institute and member of the Ser union, shot and killed by armed men in January 30, 2011 in Mistrató, Risaralda department.

15.  Jairo Enrique Veloza Martínez, 35, member of the Sigginpec union, shot three times in the head by gunman and killed January 27, 2011 in Bogotá, Cundinamarca department.

16.  Silverio Antonio Sanchez(pictured left), 37, member of the union Ser, killed on January 24, 2011, from an intentional explosion which caused burns to 80% of his body on December of 2010.

17.  Manuel Esteban Tejada, teacher and member of the Ademacor union, shot and killed in his home by armed men on January 10, 2011 in Planeta Rica, Córdoba department.

Taking Up Your Cross By Carrying A Coffin

teamsternation.blogspot.com

It’s not every day you see a man in a preacher’s stole having his hands tied and being thrown in the back of a police vehicle. 

But that’s exactly what happened to Rick Ufford-Chase, Executive Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and Former Moderator of the PCUSA, and 3 other Presbyterians on Monday, July II.  At noon, a group of over 200 concerned US citizens, some of whom had traveled hundreds of miles to attend, held a rally in front of the White House to oppose the pending Colombia Free Trade Agreement.  Standing in heat that could only be called oppressive, we listened to speakers from the faith community, advocacy organizations, and labor unions, both from the US and from Colombia.  Among the speakers were Rev. J. Herbert Nelson II, our Director here at the Office of Public Witness, and afore mentioned Rick Ufford-Chase.  The spoke to us words of prophecy in the face of injustice.  They raised their voices on behalf of the trade unionists and human rights activists murdered, the indigenous communities forced off their land, the small farmers whose incomes will be reduced by as much as 70% when they are forced to compete with subsidized imports from the US.  We as the crowd raised our voices in response – we yelled and sang, waved signs and coffins.  Coffins?  Yes indeed.  Before the protest, members of the organizing groups constructed and painted 51 cardboard coffins to represent the 51 trade unionists killed in Colombia in 2010 (more than the combined number of trade unionists killed during the same period of time in the rest of the world).

After listening to the speakers, we formed a single-file procession, walking from the park where we’d gathered to the White House fence, where we laid our symbolic coffins down in the street as an act of civil disobedience.  The police asked us to leave and remove the coffins.  Most of the crowd stepped back to the other side of the street, behind the police line, but a brave remnant stayed refused to move.  While the rest of us sang, encouraged them, and took Communion in the park, they held their signs and prayed until the police finally arrested them and carted them away in the back of their van.

And then it was over.  After weeks of phone calls, planning, logistics, the protest was over.  Was it successful?  Did we “win?”  A couple of news sources mentioned our story, but did people with the power, the people who make the decisions hear us?  Our work and sacrifice through this protest, education, grassroots organizing, letters, calls, news stories, etc. – will it make them reconsider, or maybe even change their mind?  Honestly, I don’t know.  According to the news reports I’ve read, the considerations in the Obama Administration and Congress are almost exclusively political – inclusion of the Action Plan, the TAA, when the FTA will hit the House floor.  The real human considerations often seem not even to be on the table.  But that’s where we are, and that’s where we’re staying.  That is our call as Christians and Presbyterians – to speak the truth to power with love.  Click here to call your Representative and ask him/her vote no on the Colombia FTA.  Join a great cloud of witnesses and be an advocate for justice, a member of the human family, and a follower of Christ.

And Who is My Neighbor? The PC(USA)’s Call for Justice in International Economic Policy and Trade

OPW Summer Fellow Ginna Irby addresses the OPW’s policy, action, and theological concerns surrounding trade justice, specifically focusing on the pending Free Trade Agreement with Colombia.