AWorld To Win News Service

4 February 2008. A World to Win News Service.  The rulers of Colombia organized what was presented as a “grass-roots” march on February 4 against the guerrilla group FARC in cities in that country and abroad.  It was widely seen as an attempt to claim popular support for the rejection of FARC’s calls for negotiations to end the 40-year-old war and Uribe’s proclaimed determination to seek their defeat on the battlefield.  Although much was made of the fact that the initiative was identified with an Internet campaign on MySpace, government offices, schools and workplaces were closed that day to encourage people to demonstrate. Hundreds of thousands of people reportedly took part in Bogota and elsewhere. Following are excerpts from a leaflet by the Brigadas Anti-Imperialistas on this march.
The “good people” of Colombia have united to call for a grand national march against what they call “terrorism” 4 February. This call, basically pushed by the state apparatus, industrialists, big merchants and landowners, as well as their echo chambers in the press, is also publicly “supported” by the paramilitaries and the whole official war machine…
This call and the current situation in Colombia is very reminiscent, in terms of the ideological and political atmosphere, to pre-Nazi Germany, when Hitler called on the Germans to create a movement to “save the nation”… This is no accident. Similarly, today, to guarantee the maintenance of the status quo the ruling classes need a fascistic government that could even prepare the ground for a larger-scale U.S. military intervention if the situation in the country or the region made it necessary. This movement for the defence of the “nation” against the “bandits” requires a mass reactionary movement in the streets…
The Uribe regime, faithful to fascist precepts, has turned over the people to the voraciousness of the most corrupt and bloody elements. The whole political and military apparatus on the national and regional levels has been put in the hands of narcotics traffickers and paramilitaries…
Opposing this fascist 4 February march doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing with the politics and methods of the FARC. What it should mean is supporting the right of the people to rebel against oppression and exploitation. The FARC, like dozens of other guerrilla groups that have existed in Colombia since the 19th century – some in opposition to a regime, others revolutionary – are not the cause but the consequence of the denial of the people’s freedom and rights.
Nevertheless, in their political thinking and their methods of fighting, the FARC do not represent the sentiments and highest aspirations of the majority of the Colombian people: an unwavering, resolute and consistent struggle against imperialism, capitalism and the landowners. In fact, their methods are similar to those of these reactionaries. What the FARC should be criticized for is not that they have rebelled against a hateful system, or that they have done so arms in hand, but that they centre their work in the logistics of war and acquiring economic resources, and not in the conscious activism of the people. In more than 40 years of struggle they have not built new economic and social relationships that would be the embryo of a new nation. On the contrary, their methods – such as kidnapping and their treatment of prisoners, etc. – have facilitated the efforts of the oppressor classes to sling mud on the revolutionary struggle of the peoples…
But our people’s spirit of struggle can never be extinguished in any way, even though today the oppressors are on the offensive. This is a temporary situation that will be transformed through the rage and courage of a fighting people, who here and around the world have demonstrated their spirit of struggle and their yearning to live in a society where the poor are the makers of history.