I've just been to the May-Day march through the centre of Bogota, Colombia's
capital. I cannot estimate how many people were on the march but it
certainly looked like a lot to me. What struck me most and what I want to
communicate to people in Palestine is that there is much heart-felt
support for your struggle here from all the left-wing, trade union and
pro-peace groups . It is quite astounding. Each group, as well as it's own
banners, carried a "Support Palestine" banner. And some groups such as the
International Anti-Imperialist Brigades and an enormous, very theatrical
group of National University students devoted themselves entirely to
Palestine. The slogans were many and varied and constantly new ones were
being made up tying the struggles in the 2 countries together, such as;
The same kind of s*** are Uribe and Sharon;
They kill the people and then they say they don't (it rhymes better in
Spanish).
(Uribe is the very right-wing paramilitary presidential candidate who is
set to win the elections at the end of May. But when compared with Sharon he
looks like a radical left-wing revolutionary).
Another chant was:
Palestine is here with us;
We feel it, we live it.
And:
Why are Palestinians being killed for living in their own land?
Embroidered black and red Palestinian scarves were order of the day as was the Palestinian flag. Many people have promised me photos to publish on the 'Net.
For a while I walked with some professors from the Universidad Pedagogica and asked them why do they think Colombians feel so strongly about Palestine when they have so many problems here at home. They said there were 2 reasons: Firstly, it's safer to protest about injustice abroad. Here the factions are many and complicated, and state violence against human rights protesters is very common. Secondly they identify very strongly with a country like Palestine which is being destroyed by US money and arms just like Colombia is.
This is just to let you all know that CNN, the BBC and all the other mass
media liars and lackeys haven't managed to confuse the Colombian people
about what's really happening in Palestine.
Anne Barr, for the Atlantis Ecological Community in Colombia, Ireland and
Palestine.
1st May 2002