Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP

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 With what little is propagated, much depicts the insurgency as nothing more than an outdated ideologically-lacking guerrilla movement violently enmeshed in Colombia’s narcotic industry.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.

Visit To Colombian Political Prisoner Liliany Obando

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.  

Fidel Castro on U.S. Bases in Colombia: It is a Time for Mobilization, for Marching Together

The following is from Marxism-Leninism Today:

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.

Colombia: Eyewitness report from solidarity delegation

Angela Denio in the Colombian countryside

The following article is from Fight Back! News:

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.

U.S. escalates intervention in Colombia: Two Articles

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.

Read the rest → http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14503

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.

 

Read the rest → http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=12393&ArticleId=340311

Chiquita: Between Life and Law

An excellent documentary about U.S. banana giant, Chiquita Banana (formerly the notorious United Fruit Company) financing and arming Colombian death squads. For more about this visit the Colombia Action Network website.

Women in Colombia’s prisons, a view from the inside

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.

Revolución Colombiana

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.

Who are the FARC and why do they fight?

The FARC Speaks Out: Interview with Colombian Revolutionaries (part 1 of 2)

FARC Speaks Out: Interview With Colombian Revolutionaries (part 2 of 2)

Revolution in Colombia: An Interview

Colombia: Mercenaries freed, FARC carries forward fight for liberation

Fidel Castro and the FARC: Eight Mistaken Theses of Fidel Castro

Statements and Resolutions on the Colombian Revolution from FRSO

Resolution in Support of the Colombian Revolution

Revolution in Colombia: ISO stands on the wrong side (March 2008)

Revolutionary Martyrs

Manuel Marulanda: In the fight to end oppression, he never missed his mark (May 2008)

A Salute to Comrade Raúl Reyes: His spirit and work will live forever (March 2008)

Colombian rebel leader murdered: Reflections on meeting with Raul Reyes

Free Ricardo Palmera!

The Facts about the Ricardo Palmera Case

60 Years in Prison for Colombian Revolutionary Ricardo Palmera

Free Colombian Revolutionary Leader Ricardo Palmera! U.S. Imperialism, Hands Off Colombia! statement by Jose Maria Sison

Interview with Imelda Daza-Cotes

Write to Ricardo Palmera

The National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera issued a call to write to Colombian revolutionary and U.S. political prisoner Ricardo Palmera. The call is reproduced below. For more information on the case of Ricardo Palmera, see the NCFRP’s Ricardo Palmera Fact Sheet.

 

Write Palmera!
March 24, 2009

The National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera is calling on people everywhere to stand for human rights and social justice in opposition to the cruel and unusual treatment of Ricardo Palmera, a negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), now a Colombian political prisoner of the U.S. Empire held in the Florence Colorado Supermax Prison. Professor Palmera is being held in 23-hour solitary lock-down with no access to the outside world.

March 1st: Raul Reyes remembered

The following is from Fight Back! News, published by Freedom Road Socialist Organization. For more information, see my article from one year ago, Fallen Comrade Raul Reyes: A Death Weightier than Mount Tai:

Colombia’s Raul Reyes remembered, events planned for March 1
By staff

Chicago, IL – The Colombia Action Network is organizing events in six cities to honor and remember those killed by the U.S.-backed war in Colombia. March 1 is significant because one year ago the U.S. government directed an attack inside Ecuador that killed Raul Reyes and 25 others. Raul Reyes was a commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP). Angela Denio who will be speaking in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said, “We will remember the brave Colombian rebels, Ecuadorian supporters and Mexican students who died at the hands of the U.S.-sponsored attack in Ecuador, especially FARC leader Raul Reyes who gave his life for the freedom of the Colombian people.”

New letter from Lily Obando

The following letter from Colombian political prisoner Liliana Obando is from the website of the Colombia Action Network. This letter was read from the stage at the School of the Americas Protest in Georgia

Bogota, Colombia, November 17 de 2008
National Women’s Penitentiary

Friends of the Campaign for Labor Rights,
Friends of the Colombia Action Network,
Activist Friends for Peace, Social Justice and the defense of Human Rights ,

United States

A fraternal greeting of solidarity to all of you on my behalf and from all the other political prisoners secluded in the jails of Colombia and the United States.

Georgia: Huge protest against ‘School of Assassins’

The following article is from the Fight Back! News Service:

Podcasts from the SOA protest Charla Schlueter Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at University of North Carolina at Asheville Speaking at Nov. 22 SOA rally Kosta Harlan Freedom Road Socialist Organization Speaking at Fight Back! program on Colombia, Nov. 23 Meredith Aby Colombia Action Network Speaking at Fight Back! program on Colombia, Nov. 23 Angela Denio National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera Speaking at Fight Back! program on Colombia, Nov. 23 Doug Michel Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at University of North Carolina at Asheville Speaking at Fight Back! program on Colombia, Nov. 23

Columbus, GA – Over 20,000 people from across the country flooded Fort Benning on the Nov. 22-23 weekend, calling for the School of the Americas (SOA), a U.S. military training institute that trains Latin American soldiers in ‘counter-insurgency’ techniques, to be shut down. During the vigil to honor the memory of the thousands of men, women and children that have been tortured, kidnapped and murdered by SOA graduates, six people, in an act of civil disobedience, crossed onto the military base and were arrested. They face up to six months in federal prison for taking action to close down the SOA – the ‘School of Assassins.’

Throughout the weekend, groups that organize in solidarity with Colombia emphasized the need for people in the U.S. to take action to stop the U.S. government’s support for war and repression in Colombia.

Colombia is particularly affected by both the SOA and U.S. foreign policy. Colombia sends more soldiers to the SOA than any other country. Under aid packages such as Plan Colombia, Colombia receives billions of dollars from the United States. It is no coincidence that Colombia has one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere, with over 40 Colombian trade unionists killed this year alone.