[Marxism] Drummond Corporation and Colombia's Death Squads

[Greg McDonald]

June 2007

Drummond Corporation and Colombia's Death Squads

By staff, Fight Back News
(http://www.fightbacknews.org/2007/06/drummond.htm)

Birmingham, AL - In northwestern Colombia in 2001, the president and  
vice
president of the mining union Sintramienergetica were taken off a  
Drummond
bus and shot to death by paramilitary death squads hired by the  
corporation.
Later that year, paramilitaries also killed the new president. These men
were all killed during negotiations with Drummond.

The miners union and the International Labor Relief Fund filed a  
civil suit
against Drummond in 2002. Despite the court case, even more Drummond  
workers
have since been threatened and murdered by paramilitaries. The civil  
suit
was going to start on July 9 in Birmingham, Alabama. But on June 20
Bush-appointed judge Karen Bowdry ruled that Drummond will not have  
to stand
trial on ‘wrongful death’ charges, even though there are numerous  
Colombian
citizens willing to testify that Drummond paid right-wing death  
squads to
kill union organizers. “Drummond, which made $2 billion last year strip
mining coal in Colombia, is an Alabama firm, owned by Republicans, being
tried in a Republican court,” explains Birmingham community activist
Reverend Jack Zylman.

At the trial multiple witnesses were scheduled to testify that  
Drummond made
regular payments to the U.S. government-sponsored death squads, and a
paramilitary officer was going to testify to being hired to ‘neutralize’
union leadership.

Peace and student groups are organizing a demonstration for what  
would have
been first day of the trial on July 9 at the federal courts building in
Birmingham. This case brings further national and international  
attention to
the crimes of U.S. corporations in Colombia and to the role of U.S.
sponsored death squads. Chapin Gray of Tuscaloosa Students for a  
Democratic
Society explains, “Corporations should not be allowed to literally  
get away
with murder. Period. When Colombians try to improve their working
conditions, they are killed so that big corporations like Drummond can
continue raking-in high profits. We want to bring attention to these  
charges
so that more people will realize what is going on, will see the ties  
between
the U.S. government, the Uribe administration and the paramilitaries,  
and to
demand that those ties be severed. We want Drummond to know that we’re
watching them. We want justice.”

U.S. Aid Funds Colombian Death Squads

“Colombia is a country dominated by U.S. economic and political  
interests.
There is growing U.S. intervention with soldiers on the ground  
engaged in
combat, and $5 billion given to Colombia since 2000. The U.S. is running
Colombia for the benefit of corporations. Worker after worker and  
peasant
after peasant told the Colombia Action Network delegation that U.S.  
military
aid goes straight into the hands of U.S. government-sponsored death  
squads
that terrorize their communities,” said Meredith Aby of the Colombia  
Action
Network.

Colombia receives more U.S. military aid than any other country  
outside of
the Middle East. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Colombia
Action Network delegations have documented that the right-wing Colombian
government uses U.S. tax dollars to kill and threaten trade  
unionists, human
rights workers, and campesinos (peasants) who organize against the  
U.S.’s
free trade agenda.

As a result Colombia is the most dangerous place to be a trade union
activist in the world. U.S. corporations like Coca-Cola, Chiquita,  
Drummond
and Occidental Oil hire paramilitaries to target trade unionists in  
order to
kill union organizing and negotiating efforts. This corporate-death  
squad
link has come under increasing scrutiny recently. Since 2002, the  
Colombian
Action Network has been leading a boycott of Coca-Cola products for
Coca-Cola’s collusion with death squads and the murders of eight trade
unionists. Campuses across the country have been ending their  
contracts with
‘Killer Coke.’ This spring, Chiquita pled guilty to arming and funding
paramilitaries in Colombia.

The ruling comes at an important time. The Bush administration and
Colombia’s President Uribe want the U.S. to pass a new free trade  
agreement.
Drummond has laid off 1700 U.S. miners who earned $18 an hour and moved
their operations to Colombia. In comparison, Colombian miners earn an  
hourly
wage of $2.45, receive no other benefits, and are threatened,  
kidnapped and
murdered by paramilitaries for union organizing. Passage of this free  
trade
agreement would only further hurt workers in both countries.

Despite the increasing publicity of the atrocities that the Colombian
government really does with U.S. support, President Bush has  
requested $600
million more in military aid for Colombia. However, Congress is  
currently
debating whether to discontinue U.S. military aid. “Drummond’s crimes  
give
us the opportunity to make the impact of U.S.-sponsored death squads  
real to
the American public and to Congress,” explained Aby. “Trade unionists  
and
peace activists should come demonstrate in support of the workers in
Colombia and to protest the judge’s unjust ruling.”