Mass frame-up trial in Colombia

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DOERATE Colombian workers demonstrate At a time when the trial of six dissidents in Prague has been given generous press coverage by the self-styled 'human rights' lovers of the western mass media, a show-trial of 382 people on charges of 'subversion' in Colombia has not merited a single line.

The reason for this is that Colombia is supposedly a "democracy" -though one, let it be said, where the Liberal and Conservative parties have had a formal agreement to take turns governing the country and to share administrative posts for a twenty year period.

On paper this arrangement ended in 1974 but in fact continues to exist. Abstentionism at the polls has increased to the point where President Turbay Ayala's ruling Liberal party received barely 15% of the vote. acional) are reported to be in discussions with Guevara, who has gone so far as to call for an indefinite general strike in opposition to the coup.

Hostile

Perhaps most important of all, the US imperialists sensed the extent of the hostile mass movement.

They have felt obliged to defend their 'democratic' experiment in concrete terms by Dadilla This deal was struck after La Violencia, the Violence, a civil war provoked by the Liberal and Conservative parties in which an estimated 300,000 people, mainly peasants, lost their lives and gained nothing.

The 382 persons now accused are alleged to have belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, (FARC), the National Liberation Army, (ELN) and the April 19 Revolution Movement (M19).

State of siege

This last group is widely suspected of having been infiltrated by the CIA because of its provocative tactics and its criminal negligence in carrying them out.

But the mass arrests also include liberals and people şympathetic to the left who have no involvement with the foquistas (guevarists). cutting all economic puE military aid, which amounts to $60 millions.

Hence, while on the surface Natusch retains control and has the nominal support of the major garrisons, in fact matters are very much in flux.

If the military splits, which is possible, this may leave the way open for the construction of a bonapartist regime under guise of 'revolutionary nationalism' similar to that of General Juan Jose Torres in the prerevolutionary period of October 1970 to August 1971.

But equally, the extraordinarily rapid failure of the imperialist experiment with constitutionalism in Bolivia by no means puts out of count other sorts of revamped populist and reformist endeavours on the part of the bourgeoisie.

Vital role

Appreciable sectors, including the powerful group around the MNRI of Hernan Siles Suazo have so far been able to distance themselves from attachments with the dictatorship.

Under these conditions, the attitude of the COB and the strategy it adopts for the general strike will play a vital role in the coming days.

It is crucial that while resisting Natusch and his coup there is no bloc formed with Guevara and his bourgeois colleagues. In this the practical role of Rolivian Tentahuinta retin ann:A state of siege has been operating in Colombia for 30 years, recently given even sharper teeth by President Turbay's Security Statute.

This decrees that the accused have committed a crime against the state and they must therefore be tried by military rather than civilian courts.

Some of the other more bizarre features of the Statute is its invention of new crimes such as "occupying a public or private place with intent to put pressure on the authorities"

This is punishable with a year in gaol, with no right of appeal.

It is also illegal to publish or broadcast information relating to a disturbance of public order 'so long as the disturbance persists' Army officers and police inspectors are now empowered to impose prison terms of up to one year for certain offences and again there is no right of Soldiers fire on erowds ..... ".. u A Ud a position of strength without parallel anywhere else in the world, will be absolutely critical.

The Bolivian working class is far more advanced and better organised than its comrades in Nicaragua or E! Salvador; the present crisis undoubtedly puts the question of political power on the agenda.

The revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat must build a mass party based rigorously on class independence, the demands of the Transitional Programme and the call for a workers government towards the dictatorship of the proletariat.

appeal.

The 382 are to be tri id in specially erected marquee in the courtyards of the 'Mo delo' and 'La Picota' prisons.

Secret charges

The defence lawyers will find it difficult to gain access to the marquees since it will be necessary to get specially authorised security clearances to enter each prison.

And restrictions on the information available to defence counsel mean that the defendants face effectively a trial on secret charges and with secret evidence, in which there is no obligation to consider the reply of the defence!

While rights are under fire, the economic picture is no less depressing for those who do not form part of the governing elite.

Colombia has almost ceased to produce oil and has been paying for its new energy bill by saving on wages.

Wages are now lower than they were in 1970, and all this is taking place under an expanding economy:

The rise in the international price of coffee, the main export, took the Colombian economy into a period of expansion which is now expected to last until 1982.

Unemployment

However the situation in the labour intensive manufacturing industry has brought increasing unemployment.

The government has recently restricted credit facilities which has forced expanding business sectors to look to the multi-million ilegal marijuana export industry for loans.

This means extremely high interest rates, which in turn push up prices and make Colombian goods hard to sell both at home and abroad.

The recent lifting of import controls also restricts the market for Colombian manufactured products and once again pushes up unemployment.

The capitalists have of course been protected, by a tax reform which eliminates the progressive increase of tax or income relation lo gains.

In general the economic policies of the government favour finance capitalists and the agricultural sectors at the expense of the manufacturing industries.

A general strike in 1977 achieved none of its demands but militancy has continued unabated although disorganised even though the President has the power to declare illegal any strike which "damages the normal running of the country'.

Illegal

Naturally most declared illegal.

The trade union bureaucracy participates in a tripartite National Wages Council at the beck and call of government and business interests.

This council last met in May the request of business sectors who feared a recession and wanted to reactivate the economy by raising wages and t thsu increasing consumption.

However, the frosts which destroyed part of the Brazilian coffee harvest gave the economy an unexpected boost and killed off the meeting and any 'wage rise from above'.

The refusal of the trade union leaders to coordinate effective strike action has condemned workers to continue their struggle against military and economic repression in this 'democracy, without any