87 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
87 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
COLOMBIA CALIDOSCOPIO
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The following article comes from the current edition of the
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Colombian anarchist journal CORREO A
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Cali is the third biggest city in Colombia. A city which is
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in the process of becoming a major metropolis, a process which
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is at once aggressive, violent and dehumanising. It has a population
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of 2,000,000 40% of whom live in absolute poverty (800,000 people).
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Another 40% are poised on the edge between the middle and lower classes
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whilst 20% have to work outside the area. 10% of those who can work
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don't have any (the figure doubles when related to young people) and
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50 % survive on the daily leftovers selling everything and consuming
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dreams.
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There were parliamentary elections followed by more local ones. Of
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every one hundred people who were eligible to vote 70 didn't. Of the
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other 30 one has to take into account the votes that were bought, those
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that were stolen, those that were sold and those that were swindled,
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those that were forced to vote and those deceased voters who still
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registered their votes. Such are the miracles of Colombian democracy.
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Here folk listen to salsa - good, bad and indifferent - at all hours
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and in every place. The people are dark-skinned, fun-loving and dancers
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who keep at it until they drop. The bursts of music mix with the bursts
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of machine-gun fire. The average killing every weekend is between 30 and
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50 - mainly the young and women. Here to be young and poor is to invite
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death. Death squads stalk the streets shooting, kidnapping and
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'disappearing' girls and boys. Nobody says anything, nobody knows
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anything, nobody hears anything. Fear closes the eyes, the mouths
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and the ears whilst the government washes its hands and promises
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exhaustive investigations which generally come to nothing. The local
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council in Cali recognised that in 1993 68% of the murders that took
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place went unpunished. Nobody can explain how it is that these
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murderous squads can pass along the streets which are full of armed
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police, detectives, soldiers, secret police agents, ordinary police
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agents and military barracks. Perhaps they don't see them? Or perhaps...
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The blue sky is dotted with clouds of polluted air: from the west
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come rivers and streams of pollution; the people are as warm as the
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climate; football and frivolity gain the attention of thousands of
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people every weekend; the population growth is intense and overwhelming...
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urban chaos is on the way.
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And so it is in Cali just like so many other places in Our America:
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an inhuman product of the development policies of Big Capital. Cali is
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a paradise for the TNCs who came in the 50s and 60s and seized the best
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lands, the greatest riches... Standing beside them, hand in hand with
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the powerful, are the drug traffickers who are simply another strain of
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the bourgeoisie and who have contaminated the whole political and economic
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environment. Much of the aforementioned violence has its roots in the
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drugtrafficking world and its roots. A veritable narcotragedy.
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But the consequences of the drug dealing are not just the bloody
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ones. It is a whole subculture which proclaims easy riches, ostentation,
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fiddles, machismo and frantic consumerism, dragging down with it into
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the mud thousands and thousands, especially the young, with the approval
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of the ruling classes shamefully enjoying the fruits of the drug trade.
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The opportunities for living a life with dignity become fewer and
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fewer. Industrial restructuring, privatisation and neoliberalism have
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added to the increasing number of closures of factories and companies,
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hyper commercialisation of education, health and recreation, the growing
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numbers of women and children who work either in subhuman conditions and
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for any salary they can get or fall into delinquency and prostitution.
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Official figures show that 61% of those who commit crimes are under
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the age of 21 many of whom are in prison for having tried to get a few
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pesos to survive. Government statistics are eloquent: whilst a simple
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diet costs in the region of US$300 per month the income of poor families
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only comes to about US$90 if indeed they are lucky enough to have an
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income.
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Such a state of affairs has sharpened the peoples ability to survive
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and resist. Here we call it 'the gleaning culture' - those strategies
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that people adopt in order to live from day to day always looking for
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ways to acquire the necessary pesos which will allow them to eat in the
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daily struggle to survive: parks, traffic lights and the streets
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themselves have become commercial areas where a small business can
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be set up in order to cheat hunger. Thus there you will be able to
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buy a hot dog, a coffee, a newspaper, a loaf of bread, a red rose or
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a quick fix.
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Although libertarian and alternative groupings are weak and marginal
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there do exist thoughts, discussions and practices which are linked to
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social projects which give rise to new ideas and new ways to live. Lack
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of co-ordination is, however, one of the greatest weaknesses.
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Nevertheless in the teeth of the neoliberal storm and the ferocity
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of the regime, the building of a new society is making progress along
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with setbacks and fears, threats and successes progress is being made,
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slowly but surely as it advances hand in hand with hope..
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WILI
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