Workers Protest Privatization in Cali

On the morning of January 24 in the city of Cali, the working class movement, shoulder to shoulder with members of the local community, raised the stakes in the month-long occupation of the Municipal Administration Center by 600 workers when they blocked three major roads that link the city to the rest of the country. Thousands of workers protesting the privatization of the city’s public services maintained the blockades for six hours, preventing anything and anyone from entering or leaving the city by road. Over the past weekend, in an effort to prevent another demonstration, Cali’s Mayor Jhon Maro Rodríguez declared martial law and dispatched army troops throughout the city. Tensions were further heightened when the mayor declared that, either through negotiation or through force, the occupation would end on Monday.

According to Alexander Lopez Maya, president of the Cali Municipal Workers Union (SINTRAEMCALI), “On December 24 we found out the Colombian government was trying to privatize and liquidate the second-largest public services corporation (EMCALI) in Colombia. We were obliged to occupy the Municipal Administration Center (CAM) in Cali, the second most important city in our country.” The union and the Cali community’s central demands call for an end to the policy of privatization, no price increases for public services, and the formation of a high-level anti-corruption commission to bring to justice those who have drained the company’s resources.

In a rally that followed the blockade, union leaders inside the 17-story CAM Tower explained that the government had again postponed the negotiations. Speaking from the tower’s balcony, one union leader, his face covered with the balaclava that has become the symbol of the occupation, told the crowd, “If this is how they want to play the game, then so be it. Today is just a warning. If they think they are going to tire us out, they are wrong. We have now spent 30 days inside this Tower, and if we have to we can spend thirty more to achieve our objectives.”

The government has become deeply frustrated by the events of the past four weeks, surprised by the ingenuity of the workers and the solidarity they have gained from the local community. A recent RCN radio poll showed that over 90 percent of those questioned supported the actions of the union. According to Mayor Maro Rodríguez, the government has unofficially agreed to provide 80 percent of the funding for the city’s Residual Water Treatment Plant (PTAR), which would facilitate some of the union’s demands. However, the government refuses to put the agreement in writing.

SINTRAEMCALI’s president, Alexander Lopez, responded to the proposed agreement with skepticism, “How can we accept a verbal agreement with the government, when the government is notorious for reneging on agreements even when they are written on paper in the presence of lawyers?” Negotiations broke down when it became apparent that the Minister of Labor, Angelino Garzón, had little authority to make a concrete deal. A new round of talks between the SINTRAEMCALI/Community Alliance, the mayor of Cali, and the national government are scheduled to begin on Monday, January 28, in Bogotá.

The privatization of Cali’s public services would likely result in higher utility rates and a loss of jobs (see, Colombians protest IMF-imposed Austerity Measures). Colombia’s economic recession has already resulted in a doubling of unemployment in Cali over the past four years from 12 percent to 24 percent. According to the Center for Latin American Statistics (CEPAL), a United Nations research institute, 70 percent of Cali’s population now lives below the official poverty line. This situation has been aggravated by the influx of thousands of peasants who live in slums on the outskirts of the city or on inner city streets. Most were forced from their land by right-wing paramilitaries, others by the economic collapse of the agricultural industry.

But not everyone is suffering, a fact illustrated by the rise in income inequality. Since 1990, when the government introduced its neoliberal economic model, the difference in revenue earned by the poorest 10 percent of Colombians when compared to the richest 10 percent has doubled. Consequently, resentment is growing. During the protest march, crowds began shouting at the residents of high-rise luxury apartments that line the streets of one of the city’s richest neighborhoods. Cali is a potential powder keg, and one serious incident over the coming days could light the fuse.

Tensions were heightened on the evening of January 25 when Mayor Maro Rodríguez announced that the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had called for an Armed Strike in order to paralyze the southwest of the country on Monday, January 28. The mayor pointed out that the FARC’s Armed Strike coincided with a Municipal Civic Strike planned by SINTRAEMCALI.

A high level security meeting between the mayor, the military and police led to a range of security measures being deployed from Sunday evening until Tuesday morning. These measures call for the deployment of troops at all public buildings, a restriction on the movement of vehicles, and a ban on all alcohol sales, meetings, marches, demonstrations and the carrying of firearms. In order to enforce these measures, two extra army battalions will be deployed throughout the city.

The intended effect of the mayor’s announcements was to link the armed insurgency of the FARC to the working class movement in Cali, particularly SINTRAEMCALI. Quickly realizing the trap that was being set, SINTRAEMCALI and the Municipal Strike Command immediately postponed the planned Municipal Civic Strike and denied accusations that the trade union and community organizations had any links to the armed insurgency.

Despite the union’s statements, major newspapers in Cali ran stories the following day implying that the Armed Strike called for by the FARC was linked to the Municipal Civic Strike. The El Pais daily newspaper claimed, “A terrorist plan to destabilize the city through roadblocks, the occupation of churches, public buildings, and other buildings as part of a civic strike endorsed by the EMCALI workers union was discovered yesterday by the authorities.”

In the same edition, the commander of the Army’s Third Division, General Francisco Rene Perlaza, alleged that, “Some trade union organizations and armed groups at the margin of the law are behind the calling of the civic strike.” The intent of the authorities was evident: to link the popular movement to the armed insurgency and label its activities part of a “terrorist” plan.

But in Colombia, union leaders have repeatedly been among the principal victims of terrorism. Over the past few weeks, right-wing paramilitaries with close links to the Colombian army have threatened to kill Alexander Lopez, and to blow up both the CAM building and the union’s headquarters. Some 1,535 union leaders and activists have been assassinated over the past decade by paramilitary death squads that have expanded in recent years to a force of 10,000 fighters.

The paramilitary growth has paralleled the implementation of Plan Colombia’s U.S.-aid package–$1.3 billion in mostly military aid supposedly aimed at eradicating cocaine production (see, Plan Colombia: A Closer Look). But curiously, the paramilitaries have remained untouched by this militaristic war on drugs, despite admitting that much of their funding comes from drug production in areas under their control.

The war on drugs is clearly focused on those regions where leftist guerrilla movements are located. Could it be that Washington is fighting, not against drugs, but against resistance to the imposition of a neoliberal economic model based on privatization, budget cuts, and rising inequality? If so, then the stakes at the negotiating table in Cali are high. For if the local community and SINTRAEMCALI halt the privatization of public services and prevent utility rate increases for the poor, they will not only be thwarting the plans of the Colombian government, but the plans of the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank; plans that seek to ensure Colombia take its place in the neoliberal block currently being established throughout the region.

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UPDATE - 1/30/02:
On Tuesday, January 29, an agreement was signed by the Colombian government, the mayor of Cali and SINTRAEMCALI to end the 35-day occupation of the CAM Tower.

The agreement completely satisfies the three demands of the union, which since December 25 had occupied the CAM Tower intent on ensuring that EMCALI remains a public company.

The agreement guarantees that the company will not be privatized, there will be no price increases this year, and a high level anti-corruption inquiry will begin to investigate and bring to justice all of those who have siphoned-off public resources from the company in recent years.

On Monday January 28, Alexander Lopez and Luis Hernandez, president and vice-president of SINTRAEMCALI, and two community spokespeople, had travelled to Bogotá. Upon arrival, they found out the government was yet again backtracking on negotiations. The union leaders took the decision to escalate the non-violent direct action that had been taken thus far.

A coach load of SINTRAEMCALI workers and activists, who had arrived in the capital several days before to build solidarity for the union’s cause amongst Bogotá’s trade unions and social organizations, occupied the headquarters of the Superintendent of Public Services a little after 10.00am. They were backed by both water industry workers and telecommunications trade unionists in Bogotá. Riot police and the army quickly surrounded the building, with snipers positioned on the roofs of the adjacent buildings and several tanks stationed on the road below.

Meanwhile in Cali, workers lined the streets outside the CAM Tower, parking their EMCALI trucks and cars on the streets. These acts were in clear defiance of the emergency regulations imposed by the city’s mayor.

In both Bogotá and Cali the situation remained tense throughout the afternoon and evening. In Cali at around 4.00pm, two policemen began writing down the number plates of the parked cars. When challenged by EMCALI workers, one of the officers fired a shot that wounded Arley Gordillo, a water and sewerage worker.

Meanwhile in Bogotá, negotiations between the Superintendent of Public Services and the SINTRAEMCALI/Community Alliance broke down with virtually no progress, increasing the likelihood of both occupations ending in violence. Frantic negotiations in Bogotá between human rights representatives and government officials eventually managed to avert the use of force. In Cali, the massive presence of workers and supporters outside the CAM Tower appeared to have a similar effect.

By 9.00pm things began to calm down and an agreement was negotiated in Bogotá to end the occupation at the headquarters of the Superintendent of Public Services. The government pledged it would begin serious negotiations with the SINTRAEMCALI/ Community Alliance on Tuesday morning.

Mario Novelli

This article originally appeared in Colombia Report, an online journal that was published by the Information Network of the Americas (INOTA).