As night falls over a meeting of student and youth organisations in eastern Colombia, the shadows over the peace process between the government and guerrilla groups become eerily literal. We are in a village in Casanare department, in the east of Colombia, far from the nearest mobile phone signal. As darkness closes in around us,…
Year: 2013
Getting organising moving and keeping it moving – some ideas
Very interesting blog post from Aaron Peters of Novara Media: This short piece intends to outline what kinds of organisation are optimal in this context and how they would emphasize the strengthening and broadening of a currently weak social movement ‘base’. Examples of currently existing organisations that perform similar roles will be given. This is…
Radical street organisation in Turkey
I was pleased to read these blogs about organising in Turkey. A few quotes sum up what I liked: #Solidarity – a letter: What pleasantly surprises me is that the Turks are not repeating the errors of the Spanish indignados or the Occupy movement. In almost all of the Spanish occupations, decisions were taken by…
Colombian indigenous people protest road through ancestral territory
Young people in the Valle de Sibundoy, Colombia, are campaigning against a road to Brazil that cuts through their territory, including an ancient pathway used by their ancestors. “Our worry as indigenous people is that this project was not agreed with the people. There was no prior consultation, they don’t have our permission. This is…
Bogotá young people head for university with the help of popular education
Young people in Tunjuelito, southern Bogotá are participating in free classes to help them get into university, part of a movement to improve political awareness in poorer barrios. Across Bogotá there are now at least six free pre-universitarios that work according to the principles of popular education. They aim to help students who can’t afford…
Campesino organisation in Huila, Colombia
This post was written following the loss of an interview recording and the notes on that interview, so contains no direct quotes and I no longer know all the names. It still seemed an interesting subject so I have written a quick summary. I met a couple of campesinos from Isnos, Huila, in the nearby…
How the Colombian student movement won
In 2011 the Colombian government proposed a sweeping marketization program for the Colombian higher education system, including allowing private capital to invest in public universities. Students across the country rose up to fight the proposals. By the end of the year the protests against the reform had forced the government to abandon their plans. Since…
Tourist area of San Agustín to be dammed
The Colombian government is planning to dam the Rio Magdalena at San Agustín, a popular tourist town, but local campaigners say it would be an environmental catastrophe. The dam at San Agustín will the third on the Rio Magdalena, one of the major rivers of Colombia, and according to Ricardo Baez, a campaigner against the…
‘Congress for Peace’ in Bogotá demands economic and social justice
They came from all over Colombia, riding in buses and chivas, many from hundreds of kilometres away, to meet in Bogota under the slogan: “People building peace for a life of dignity.” The Congreso Para La Paz in Bogotá this weekend was the culmination of a long process of building a people’s agenda for peace….
Hundreds of thousands of Colombians march for peace
On April 9 people and organisations travelled from all over the country to Bogota to join a march of hundreds of thousands that ended in the Plaza Bolivar. The march was originally organised by Marcha Patriotica and gained the backing of the mayor of Bogota and President Santos himself. Carlos Eduardo, an indigenous campaigner who…