Cali Getting Warmer
Ive kind of neglected my blog recently as have been well busy and was feeling an invisible pressure to make it more academic conscious of the fact that people other than family and friends are probably reading it and that informality of style might not be appropriate. Really though that was the whole idea as there a mountain of academic things available on the internet about Colombia (which if you want to read the links are there) but few personal accounts of what a random individual is up to and moreover that theres a mountain of people who simply arént going to read the academic online journals newspapers etc but might well read what a random person is up to. Either way ive decided to continue in the style I began.
Its been pretty quiet politics wise here in Cali over the past week but things are getting warmer. As such ive been soldiering on with this website which has been more of a mission than expected mainly on account of having no idea how to make one when I began so its been slow. I was starting to feel pretty demoralised a few days ago as working silly hours to get it done and totally on my own, feeling isolated that I was making a campaign that is going to have little impact and like theres much more to be done and no helpers.
The day before yesterday I had a meeting with a priest and some people from the Forbidden to Forget Campaign (against privatisation, corruption, and the criminalisation of social protest). The priest, Gonzalo Gallo is somewhat of a don in HR field here (so much so that I saw his charicature on a postcard) and has an amazing calm, peaceful and most of all powerful energy of presence. It rejuvenated my spirits talking to people who were well on the case and up for getting things moving. I was kind of waiting for approval to do certain things with the site and rewrite some of the texts they´d given me to put in but Ive since realised its best just to get it done my own way if theyre leaving me to it. They hadn’t really involved the students in the process and given the crucial nature of their support and the amount of mundane data collection jobs there are to be done theyre needed so ive arranged some meetings and soon should be heading off to some of the other unis in the country to collect more information about HR violation cases and talk with the students and staff about building a more integrated national network, that depending on what goes on here over the next weeks.
Yesterday at 6am workers of the Cali Municipal Services Company EMCALI occupied for the third time in five years Cali’s Central Municipal Administration Building in centre of the city. The tower has become a symbol of the struggle for workers rights and the defence of public services against the pervasive wave of privatisation sweeping the country in accordance with the global neoliberal mandate.
The workers took this measure of last resort to reject a new proposal for a restructuring of company debts that would shift the burden to users. The debt was incured during the bulding of a Sewerage plant in 1997 and at the time the Government agreed to take on 80% of repayment but retracted the offere after construciton began. The workers further demand the sacking of EMCALI’s Managing Director CARLOS ALFONSO POTES who has been found guilty of involvement in corruption and falsification of figures to discredit the viability of the firm by the Attorney General. The Attorney General recommended Potes' disqualification from working in the company and for holding public office for 7 years. In spite of this, the Superintendent of Public Services Eva Maria Uribe confirmed that POTES would carry on in his position.
Behind this issue lies a deep confrontation over the future of EMCALI. The agreement that ended the previous 36 day occupation of the CAM tower in January 2002 guaranteed both basic labour rights including holiday entitlement, sick pay and pension schemes and also subsidies for the provision
of water, sanitation and electrical services to the most impoverished social groups in the city. On 23 January 2003 Government passed resolution 000141 in a renewed attempt to liquidate the company, so as to pay debts to creditors. The President declared that there was not one peso for the salvation
of the company and the only alternative was the "Todos Ponen" initiative by which all parties would have to make sacrifices in order to cut costs - to pay the creditors. The workers, for their part, unprepared to increase costs to the users particularly the subsidised impoverished sectors, agreed in April 2004 to hand over rights guaranteed in their collective agreement.
But the government has since issued a new proposal for the payment of creditors involving restructuring of labour and operational costs that will involve increasing charges to users of 50% in water sanitation services, 25 – 30% in other services and 40% to impoverished zones who no longer receive subsidies. On top of that 2% of EMCALI's total income is to be paid to creditors, twice that of what had originally been agreed to.
I heard about the occupation as a message of solidarity in a conference about the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas whose likely imminent imposition forms part of the urgency for privatisation on the part of the Uribe Government. I headed into town immediately arriving around 2 pm and contrary to my expectations the scene was on the surface at least relatively calm. At this early stage most of the population are unaware as to advertise the taking of a public building in advance would serve only to facilitate its impossibility. The obligatory Anti- [civil] Disturbance Squadron (ESMAD) were naturally out in force backed up by the Military Police (PM) and civil police officers who had surrounded the building but supporters elusive. A closer inspection revealed the surrounding cafes and bus stops to be filled with supporters of the occupants aware unfortunately from experience of the gravity of the situation and wary not to make their faces known to police too soon in a place where legitimate social
protest is penalized with violence. The atmosphere was one of tense and penetrating apprehension rippled with fear and respect for the courageous occupants inside, all too aware that this time forced and violent eviction a looming possibility.
Indeed, today, just one day in to the occupation, negotiations are deadlocked. Uribe has said he will not negotiate under pressure and further that unlike in previous occupations no food is to enter the building. It is a characteristically contradictory statement in view of the situation, given that it is the government’s breach of its own agreement that has over the past year and particularly past month forced the workers into negotiations under pressure.
The denial of food presents a further testing situation indicative of the severity of the President’s tactics vis-a-vie both public services and public workers: that he is prepared to starve the workers so as
deprive the people of public services.
The workers have made a courageous move, it now rests with the people of Cali and the international community to mobilize in solidarity to show that in a state that calls itself a democracy contracts are binding, the people have rights and those rights must be respected.
Its been pretty quiet politics wise here in Cali over the past week but things are getting warmer. As such ive been soldiering on with this website which has been more of a mission than expected mainly on account of having no idea how to make one when I began so its been slow. I was starting to feel pretty demoralised a few days ago as working silly hours to get it done and totally on my own, feeling isolated that I was making a campaign that is going to have little impact and like theres much more to be done and no helpers.
The day before yesterday I had a meeting with a priest and some people from the Forbidden to Forget Campaign (against privatisation, corruption, and the criminalisation of social protest). The priest, Gonzalo Gallo is somewhat of a don in HR field here (so much so that I saw his charicature on a postcard) and has an amazing calm, peaceful and most of all powerful energy of presence. It rejuvenated my spirits talking to people who were well on the case and up for getting things moving. I was kind of waiting for approval to do certain things with the site and rewrite some of the texts they´d given me to put in but Ive since realised its best just to get it done my own way if theyre leaving me to it. They hadn’t really involved the students in the process and given the crucial nature of their support and the amount of mundane data collection jobs there are to be done theyre needed so ive arranged some meetings and soon should be heading off to some of the other unis in the country to collect more information about HR violation cases and talk with the students and staff about building a more integrated national network, that depending on what goes on here over the next weeks.
Yesterday at 6am workers of the Cali Municipal Services Company EMCALI occupied for the third time in five years Cali’s Central Municipal Administration Building in centre of the city. The tower has become a symbol of the struggle for workers rights and the defence of public services against the pervasive wave of privatisation sweeping the country in accordance with the global neoliberal mandate.
The workers took this measure of last resort to reject a new proposal for a restructuring of company debts that would shift the burden to users. The debt was incured during the bulding of a Sewerage plant in 1997 and at the time the Government agreed to take on 80% of repayment but retracted the offere after construciton began. The workers further demand the sacking of EMCALI’s Managing Director CARLOS ALFONSO POTES who has been found guilty of involvement in corruption and falsification of figures to discredit the viability of the firm by the Attorney General. The Attorney General recommended Potes' disqualification from working in the company and for holding public office for 7 years. In spite of this, the Superintendent of Public Services Eva Maria Uribe confirmed that POTES would carry on in his position.
Behind this issue lies a deep confrontation over the future of EMCALI. The agreement that ended the previous 36 day occupation of the CAM tower in January 2002 guaranteed both basic labour rights including holiday entitlement, sick pay and pension schemes and also subsidies for the provision
of water, sanitation and electrical services to the most impoverished social groups in the city. On 23 January 2003 Government passed resolution 000141 in a renewed attempt to liquidate the company, so as to pay debts to creditors. The President declared that there was not one peso for the salvation
of the company and the only alternative was the "Todos Ponen" initiative by which all parties would have to make sacrifices in order to cut costs - to pay the creditors. The workers, for their part, unprepared to increase costs to the users particularly the subsidised impoverished sectors, agreed in April 2004 to hand over rights guaranteed in their collective agreement.
But the government has since issued a new proposal for the payment of creditors involving restructuring of labour and operational costs that will involve increasing charges to users of 50% in water sanitation services, 25 – 30% in other services and 40% to impoverished zones who no longer receive subsidies. On top of that 2% of EMCALI's total income is to be paid to creditors, twice that of what had originally been agreed to.
I heard about the occupation as a message of solidarity in a conference about the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas whose likely imminent imposition forms part of the urgency for privatisation on the part of the Uribe Government. I headed into town immediately arriving around 2 pm and contrary to my expectations the scene was on the surface at least relatively calm. At this early stage most of the population are unaware as to advertise the taking of a public building in advance would serve only to facilitate its impossibility. The obligatory Anti- [civil] Disturbance Squadron (ESMAD) were naturally out in force backed up by the Military Police (PM) and civil police officers who had surrounded the building but supporters elusive. A closer inspection revealed the surrounding cafes and bus stops to be filled with supporters of the occupants aware unfortunately from experience of the gravity of the situation and wary not to make their faces known to police too soon in a place where legitimate social
protest is penalized with violence. The atmosphere was one of tense and penetrating apprehension rippled with fear and respect for the courageous occupants inside, all too aware that this time forced and violent eviction a looming possibility.
Indeed, today, just one day in to the occupation, negotiations are deadlocked. Uribe has said he will not negotiate under pressure and further that unlike in previous occupations no food is to enter the building. It is a characteristically contradictory statement in view of the situation, given that it is the government’s breach of its own agreement that has over the past year and particularly past month forced the workers into negotiations under pressure.
The denial of food presents a further testing situation indicative of the severity of the President’s tactics vis-a-vie both public services and public workers: that he is prepared to starve the workers so as
deprive the people of public services.
The workers have made a courageous move, it now rests with the people of Cali and the international community to mobilize in solidarity to show that in a state that calls itself a democracy contracts are binding, the people have rights and those rights must be respected.
