The following is a description of the exciting new book Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP by James J. Brittain to be released in February, 2010 by Pluto Press. Professor Brittain will be available to speak about the book:
Compared to other Latin American countries, minor socio-political analysis has been given to contemporary Colombia. This lack of investigation is perplexing due to Colombia’s geographical and socioeconomic importance worldwide. The Andean country has one of the largest reserves of fossil fuels in the world, it is home to the longest running civil war in the hemisphere, it has the second highest number of internally displaced persons on the planet, it remains one of the most inequitable countries in the region, and is the poster-child of the international drug trade. Amidst such conditions, Colombia also holds a unique and interesting history of resistance against dominant political-economic interests.
At the helm of this decades-long struggle has been the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias Colombianas-Ejército del Pueblo, FARC-EP). Regarded by some as the largest and most powerful political-military force in Latin American history, modest research has been conducted on the FARC-EP and lesser still accessible to the public. With what little is propagated, much depicts the insurgency as nothing more than an outdated ideologically-lacking guerrilla movement violently enmeshed in Colombia’s narcotic industry.
Attempting to fill a much-needed void, Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia evaluates the unique theoretical and pragmatic composition of the insurgency and its relation to radical social change within Colombia. As the FARC-EP continues to be a symbolic power both regionally and globally, it is important to analyze where and why this organization came into existence and whether the insurgency has the potential to create conditions for an emancipatory transformation of Colombia. After spending the greater part of ten years analyzing the FARC-EP in both text and person, James J. Brittain addresses the question of who the FARC-EP are, what they are doing in Colombia, and if this insurgency can assist in the creation of a social and political revolution of, by, and for those marginalized in Colombia.
The following commentary by James Jordan is from Fight Back! News:
Bogotá, Colombia – Liliany Obando is powerful. She is one thousands of Colombian political prisoners. For a year now, I have known Liliany through letters. We finally met face-to-face on three occasions, during a delegation sponsored by the U.S.-based Campaign for Labor Rights and the Colombia Action Network. I represented the International Network in Solidarity with Colombia’s Political Prisoners.
I’m a fairly tall man, and Liliany is relatively small. But upon first meeting her, I was engulfed by one of her bear hugs – hugs that show a heart and courage many times larger than her size. Liliany is in jail, accused of ‘rebellion.’ Yet even behind bars, she is organizing; collecting the testimonies of other political prisoners and advocating for a humanitarian exchange of prisoners between the Colombian government and guerrillas as a first step toward a just peace.
US Bases in Colombia: It is a Time for Mobilization, for Marching Together
Written by Fidel Castro Ruz
This reflection is not addressed to the governments, but to the fraternal peoples of Latin America.
Tomorrow, August 28, the UNASUR Summit will convene in Argentina and its significance cannot be overlooked.
There, an analysis should be made of the concession to the American superpower of seven military bases in the Colombian territory. A rigorous secrecy had been imposed on the previous talks of the two governments. The accord should have been presented to the world as a fait accompli.
The following video from the Real News explains how the situation is progressing in Honduras given the return of President Zelaya since the coup of 28 June.
Colombia: Eyewitness report from solidarity delegation
By Angela Denio
In August, a delegation of U.S. students, trade unionists and anti-war activists traveled to Colombia to meet with leaders in the struggle there. The Colombian Action Network and the Campaign for Labor Rights, two grassroots organizations here in the United States fighting against U.S. intervention in Colombia, hosted the trip.
“I knew what I heard in the U.S. media about the benefits of U.S. tax money and aid to Colombia was true only for the rich. I wanted to see for myself what the reality is for Colombians,” said Jeremy Miller, a member of the Colombian Action Network when explaining his decision to go on the delegation. Members of the Colombian Action Network and the Campaign for Labor Rights arranged meetings with peasant, indigenous and student groups, as well as with political leaders, unions, political prisoners and families of Colombians killed or imprisoned by the government.
Carlos Montes is a veteran fighter in the Chicano Liberation movement. He was a founder of the Brown Berets and the Chicano Moratorium. Montes is currently active in the Southern California Immigration Coalition, the East L.A.-based Latinos against War and with CSO, which organizes parents in the East Los Angeles area to fight against the privatization of public education in Los Angeles Unified School District. For more on the Chicano Liberation Struggle, see the League of Revolutionary Struggle’s 1979 Resolution on the Chicano National Question.
The following commentary by Carlos Montes is from Fight Back! News:
39th Anniversary of Chicano Moratorium: The Struggle Continues
Commentary by Carlos Montes
Los Angeles, CA – Today, Aug. 29, 2009, shows that our people are continuing the fight for equality and self-determination. It was demonstrated by the many groups that were present today at Salazar Park, including the student group MECHA and the new Brown Berets, to commemorate the historic day in 1970 when over 20,000 Chicanos marched down historic Whittier Boulevard in East L.A. to protest the war in Vietnam and the high casualty rate of Chicanos. The mass peaceful rally in 1970 was attacked by the Los Angeles Police Department and the sheriffs. Ruben Salazar, news director for KMEX, was killed, along with Angel Diaz and Lynn Ward. A similar example of repression took place on May 1, 2007 when the LAPD attacked a pro-immigrant rights rally at MacArthur Park.
The following articles are very helpful at understanding the U.S. plan to escalate its intervention against the Colombian people’s just revolutionary struggle for national liberation and socialism. The second article especially, a bourgeois article about the response of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP), should be read with some skepticism:
US Escalates War Plans In Latin America
US Military: After Iraq, Latin America
by Rick Rozoff – July 23, 2009
On June 29 US President Barack Obama hosted his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe at the White House and weeks later it was announced that the Pentagon plans to deploy troops to five air and naval bases in Colombia, the largest recipient of American military assistance in Latin America and the third largest in the world, having received over $5 billion from the Pentagon since the launching of Plan Colombia nine years ago.
FARC Seeks “National Accord” Against U.S. Bases in Colombia
BOGOTA – Colombia’s leftist FARC rebels called for creation of a broad front to block a prospective agreement between Bogota and Washington for the stationing of U.S. military personnel at bases in the Andean nation.
In the early hours of Sunday 28 June 2009, some 200 soldiers, under the command of a general trained at the School of the Americas, a notorious US military facility long used to train its Latin American hirelings in subversion and torture, seized the democratically elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, placed him under arrest and forcibly bundled him out of the country, still in his pyjamas.
El Salvador's new Vice President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, with former CISPES Executive Director Cherrene Horazuk and solidarity activist and Fight Back! reporter, Brad Sigal
FMLN Takes Power in El Salvador
By Brad Sigal
San Salvador, El Salvador – In an historic day here, June 1, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren were sworn in as the new president and vice-president of El Salvador. Funes and Sanchez Ceren are members of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a leftist political party which was formerly a guerrilla movement that fought against the U.S.-backed right wing dictatorship in El Salvador in the 1980s. Funes and Sanchez Ceren won election on March 15, marking the first time there will be a leftist government in El Salvador’s history.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following essay from the Colombian trade unionist and political prisoner, Liliany Obando. The introduction was prepared by the Colombia Action Network.
Liliany Obando at a FENSUAGRO rally | photo from www.freeliliany.net
The essay below was written by Colombian trade unionist, video documentary producer, and political prisoner Liliany Obando. Liliany wrote her “Reflections” with Mother’s Day in mind. Like many organizers for social justice in Colombia, Liliany is imprisoned with little to no evidence. The US government is funding and advising Colombia’s judicial system, but it has only worsened with time. The US government also continues to fund and direct the Colombian Military and their paramilitary death squads. Under the US “Plan Colombia”, labor unionists are murdered every week, nearly 4 million Colombian peasants are displaced from their land, and 7000 political opponents of President Uribe are imprisoned. The CAN wants to thank James Jordan of the Campaign for Labor Rights for translating the original Spanish essay. We demand “Free Liliany Obando!”
REFLECTIONS ABOUT COLOMBIA’S POLICY CONCERNING CRIMINALS AND THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN PRISONERS
a glimpse from a woman on the inside…
By Liliany Obando, Political Prisoner
Although we women have struggled throughout history to reach better living conditions, dignified work, acknowledgement, and social and political inclusion, still we must suffer vestiges of a patriarchal and sexist society that does not recognize our role in society. It is a reality that things are getting worse for us women who find ourselves deprived of our liberty.
March 26th was the one year anniversary of the passing away of Manuel Marulanda, founder of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP). In honor of the occassion, I’d like to post here a brief collection of readings on the organization he founded and the revolution that he led, which continues today.
The following is a description of the exciting new book Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP by James J. Brittain to be released in February, 2010 by Pluto Press. Professor Brittain will be available to speak about the book: 
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