Workers' Liberty

Numa Andrés Paredes Betancourt, a member of the National Executive Committee of the ACEU (one of Colombia’s main student union federations), visited Britain recently as part of a trip organised by

Hernando Hernandez Tapasco, Human Rights Officer for FENSUAGRO, the Colombian Agricultural Workers' Union, has has had to pull out at the last minute because of a family crisis.

The Colombian army has assassinated three members of the agricultural workers trade union FENSUAGRO, from the town of San Juan de Sumapaz on the outskirts of the Colombian capital Bogotá.

From Justice for Colombia

The National Trade Union School [NTUS], a EU funded research institution based in Medellin, Colombia, records 94 assassinations of trade unionists in 2004, an increase on the 90 trade unionists that both the NTUS and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) registered killed in 2003.

From Justice for Colombia: Just after midday on Saturday January 29th some 500 members of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian Army entered the rural area of Jiguamuando.

By Pablo Velasco

Inside:

• Strike wave in South Korea

• Soldiers terrorise workers Haitian workers
• Victory for Colombian banana workers' strike
• General strike in Nigeria stops petrol price rises

By Pablo Velasco

• Colombian oil workers halt privatisation: solidarity works!

• "Massive summer strikes" planned in Korea
• ANC against anti-privatisation activists
• Argentine workers fight for a six-hour day

From the Colombian trade union federation, CUT

In 2003, 78 trade unionists were killed in Colombia by paramilitary groups. Since the foundation of the Colombian Trade Union Federation (CUT), 3,800 trade unionists have died that way.

IN LONDON

Vigil 7.30 p.m. Friday 26 March onwards to coincide with negotiations between union and senior managers in Bogotá

Picket 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday 27 March

Both outside Coca Cola Great Britain and Ireland HQ headquarters, 1 Queen Charlotte Street, Hammersmith, London W6 (adjacent to Hammersmith tube).

more information below

by Pablo Velasco

• Oscar Olivera wins case
• Urgent appeal for Chinese workers' leaders
• P Diddy uses sweatshops
• Brazilian car workers walk out
• Korean workers' demonstrations
• Colombian Coca Cola worker visit

One of the fiercest debates at the Irish Social Forum (see page 6) was about the decision of University College Dublin's student union to boycott Coke in protest at the company's alleged links with far right paramilitaries in Colombia. Activists say a number of trade union activists in the company's plants have been murdered, many local union organisations have been destroyed, under threat from paramilitary organistions.

by Pablo Velasco

• Indonesian party fights for legal recognition
• Hong Kong: Article 23 postponed
• Korean unions to stand in parliamentary elections
• Yale University strike
• General strike in Bangladesh
• Colombian Coca-Cola workers face the sack

By Mark Osborn

The Colombia Solidarity Campaign (CSC) has called a big protest in London, 22 July, to mark an international day of action against Coca Cola (6pm, Piccadilly Circus).

The CSC says: