Colombia: Keeping Up The Pressure

Colleagues,

If you have attended a course with me that has an international dimension you will have heard me repeat the phrase that Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionst. Nearly 200 trade union activists have been murdered in Colombia since January 2008.

Last month I was fortunate enough to spend some time delivering a course for UNISON with Miguel Puerto the Latin American officer for the International Centre for Trade Union Rights (he is a great speaker - please contact him via http://www.ictur.org/). Miguel documents these murders and undertakes great work to maintain the pressure on the Colombian government. ICTUR reports the total number that have died since the election of the right wing Uribe government at approximately 2,500.

The fantastic work of ICTUR and other organisations has now led to the Colombian government being hauled before the ILO to account for the persecution, torture and muder of trade unionists. Read the article on the PSI web site:

http://www.world-psi.org/TemplateEn.cfm?Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=20411

As a modest but important step to keep the pressure on the Colombian authorities, UNI Global Union would like every trade union activist in the UK to send a message to Colombian embassies around the world.

Please send a message via the LabourStart web site:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=352

Thanks

Ian