Holes in hearts

Holes in hearts

A mother spoke about her daughter.

A hole in her heart she cries out.

But that was not why we came,

we came so she would not be abused.

Her mother saved her

becoming

a gendered violence statistic.

And became

another governments' statistic

alive

just

Her mother saved a brother

her kidney passed border control

now labelled a british citizen

leaving her behind

here destitute

High risk

of kidney infection

High risk

from immigration bill

High risk

of being left to die

by those with emotionless holes

in their hearts.

This piece is a creative listening to a speech given by a friend and asylum seekers who spoke at Bristol Refugee Rights 10th December human rights day event about the proposed denial of health care to some asylum seekers, including himself.

For more info:

www.bristolrefugeerights.org/10th-december-health-care-for-all/

This has also been published on asylumseekersinbristol.blogspot.com

Apart. A Part

I am apart

from this history

what was Mandela?

Prison black politician

selected parts of his speeches

shape my knowledge

sounds a good elder

to our struggles

against the again and again

of oppression

selecter parts of his history

give me knowledge

sounds like power corrupted

a lesson repeated

in the again and again

of oppression

questions of history grow

as we dance under Biko

how did apartheid become

the defining word for peoples experience?

How did the debate get framed

and then photographed

and then framed again?

What has not been framed?

Who has not been framed?

Alejando Uribe assasinated 2005

Aldelina Gomez assassinated 30th September 2013

Cesar Garcia assassinated 2nd November 2013

I am a part

of this history

Anglo in the mountains of colombia

Gold in the mountains of colombia

Ashanti in the mountains of colombia

the colonial pursuit of el dorado

leaves more freedom fighters

fallen again in its bloody wake.

What was in Mandela's other speeches?

What did he say

to Anglo Gold Ashanti,

The white south african mining elite?

What did they say to him?

Nationalise Privatise

Royalties Ransom.

Compromise?

I gather in community

at this time of his death

to prevent the centuries old

whitewash of black working class history

our elites white master so well

and to dialogue together

to find each other

to seek solidarity with each other

in this time of growing

fortress europe

apartheid.

We are a part.

I read this out in Millenium Square, Bristol on Sunday 15th December as part of a public community event, organised in response to Nelson Mandela's death. I wrote this after being inspired by an event at the Malcolm X Centre on the Friday night before. Thank you those who organised the space for us to come together.

We are going to survive.

He speaks bravely

he looks boldly,

voice clear loud,

fingers trembling reveal

our shared vulnerability

when we speak our truth.

Here is how I heard him:

I want

you to imagine

I am your brother, your uncle, your son.

Would you want

me to be

denied

healthcare

if I need it in the future?

My fear

is what will happen

to me.

It

won't

be

easy.

I don't want

to use this word

but I

think it is a torture

method.

How am I

going to pay

when I am not allowed to work or to receive any money?

How does government think

we are going to survive.

This piece is a creative listening to a speech given by a friend and asylum seekers who spoke at Bristol Refugee Rights 10th December human rights day event about the proposed denial of health care to some asylum seekers, including himself.

For more info:

www.bristolrefugeerights.org/10th-december-health-care-for-all/

Econometrician by trade, asylum seeker by necessity, deported by a racist government.

I remember last summer sitting out on my front wall . Camara would walk past several times a day on his way to pray. We would exchange greetings and smiles, share news and reflections on the workshops we did together. Gentle exploratory steps to build trust and friendship.

What name can I give to that moment when anothers life becomes bound up in your own?

A year later I sit on another wall. A faded red painted wall outside the Bristol Central Mosque. Camara and his friends would sit here socialising after prayers. I often waved and exchanged greetings as I passed by.

I pass by today and Camara is not there. I stop and sit on the wall. Tears come quickly. Camara is gone. Disappeared. Deported.

His full name is Koniagi Camara. He is from the Gambia. Econometrician by trade, asylum seeker by necessity.

On the 18^th July he was detained while signing at Trinity police station. Many people have to sign at police stations and reporting centres around the country because of their immigration status and at any point are at risk of being detained and deported.

That evening I strapped a giant heavy suitcase on the back of my bicycle and wobbled his paperwork related to his asylum case over to the police station. He did not get to see a duty solicitor until a week after he was detained and then this duty solicitor did nothing.

I also took him a new pair of shoes as he had been on his way to get some new shoes as his old ones were damaged. That's what detention is. Ripping people out of their lives with no warning. This is violent.

We have spoken daily since his detention. His voice comes filtered through the impacts of barbed wire, air less rooms and fear. He is in Colnbrook Detention Centre with removal directions for last Saturday.

 

Camara's strength has been a source of inspiration for me, with much of his strength coming from his Muslim faith. Fear, anxiety, anger doesn't dominate him yet they are all present.

Despite much effort, we did not have enough time to stop his deportation. We spoke as he was in the car on the way to the airport. He was full of love for all the people who had stood by him against this injustice.

The government appears to go out of its way to create a dehumanising and traumatic system for aslyum seekers. This needs to be challenged and changed. I thought to ask what a humane and dignified asylum system would look like, yet then I think maybe we are creating it. A grassroots popular system of welcome based on solidarity and needs, and a recognition of the impact of colonialism and neocolonialism on migration.

I don't sleep much on Saturday night. His phone is switched off. At 8.30am it starts to ring. A foreign sounding ring. He is gone.

Yes to Life, No to the Mine - Si a la Vida No a la Mina

(vea abajo por el español)
I wanted to write some poetry, I wanted to write some lyrical words, and what I seem to have written is anger and outrage manifested in these words. No apologies, just a heads up.

I walk through Belgrave, central London. It is a neighbourhood for the super rich, a neighbourhood build on the wealth of British colonialism and this wealth taken through a violent history of genocide, trickery and exploitation has never been returned.

Belgrave hits the human spirit hard. My eyes take in the white mansions and bullet proof 4x4's and the message that global wealth continues to be concentrated in central london. The tough lives of friends and unknown friends in Colombia and elsewhere are shaped by this power that resides in central London. I feel a combination of small, sick, angry and determined.

Thousands of miles away people are just waking up, excited and anxious. In a few hours time 12,000 people will be taking to the streets in the Colombian city of Ibague in the “Carnival for the Defense of Life”.

AngloGold Ashanti has been given the go ahead to open what will be – if we don't stop them – the largest opencast gold mine in South America. They are the third largest gold mining multinational in the world, and became so due to their history of getting rich by colonialsim in Africa. The city of London invests and profits from their mines.

From school kids to elderly people, 12,000 will fill the streets with a clear unequivocal united view “We want water, we want to live, Anglo Gold Ashanti leave this country in peace.”

Six hours earlier we are shouting the same words in the heart of the beast of capitalism. “We want water, we want to live, Anglo Gold Ashanti leave Colombia in peace.” Words break the silence of the fake peace of London. Words stretch across time and space, united in our sense of horror of what peoples lands would become if the mine goes ahead.

People are opposed to the mine as it will cause destruction to their environment – water, biodiversity, land - on which their lives in the region depend. The Colombia Solidarity Campaign have just published a great report "the Quest for El Dorado in Cajamarca".

A friend on the London demo had just returned from the Lake district and the reality of what La Colosa opencast gold mine means is made real by imagining gold being found in our beautiful lake district. Mountains removed to dig it out, huge slag heaps and contamination of Liverpool's and Manchesters water supplies with cianide. Would this be acceptable? Would Mancurians be expected to suffer so that others could profit? Is it that it is not in some peoples land but it is ok in someone elses?

Our silence on these questions could be their death toll. Silence is complicity in murder. And i don't use these words lightly. Pause. Stop, please consider them a moment.

Please consider this for a moment.

In Colombia 24,000,000 hectares of land are under threat of being mined. 

Protected areas and mining requests

The area in red is equivalent to the size of the UK.

I personally struggle to believe this, it seems beyond comprehension. I don't want to believe this. but it is fact.  My words seem pathetically insignificant yet my totally necessary. 

Where will people live? What will they eat? What air will they breathe? What will they drink?

Much of the investment that is driving this mining boom comes from London and the money made from this mining will flow back in to the city of London.

Meanwhile the poor and landless on our own island are being told to accept the privatisation of what little common resources we have left, such as libraries and the NHS, because the country is skint. This morning at work I was told that I have to cut an elderly disabled womans morning visit by a carer by half because there is a crisis and "we need to save money". This is a lie. It is a lie with brutal consequences for people. We are being told we need to save money so that those with capital can take even more. 

Colombians are being told they need to accept the privatisation of their gold. We are being told we need to accept the privatisation of our health care system.

A torrent of justifications are thrown at us, creating an ideology that convinces us that the only option is the privatisation of our common resources. It is not the only options. 

12,000 Colombians showed us it is not the only option. People came out on the street on Ibague on Friday shouting "Yes to life, no to the mine". 

Lets join them with our own twist relevent to our situation. 

 "yes to life, no to the mining of our NHS and welfare system for private profit."

Si a la Vida, No a la Mina

Quería escribir algo de poesía,  quería escribir algunas palabras lírica, y lo que me parece que he escrito es la ira y la indignación manifiestada en estas palabras.

Camino por Belgrave en el centro de Londres. Es un barrio de los súper ricos, un barrio construido por la riqueza del colonialismo británico, una riqueza tomada a través de una historia violenta de genocidio, el engaño y la explotación. Es una riqueza que nunca ha sido devuelto.

Belgrave golpea duro el espiritu de humanidad . A mis ojos observan las mansiones blancas y 4x4 blindados y la mensaje visual de que la riqueza del mundo sigue concentrada en el centro de Londres. La vida dura de las amigos y muchos compañeras en Colombia y en otros lugares se forman por este poder que reside en el centro de Londres. Me siento una combinación de ser pequeños, enojados y decididos.

Miles de kilómetros de distancia la gente está despertando, emocionados y ansiosos. En pocas horas 12.000 personas se tomarán a las calles en la ciudad colombiana de Ibagué en el "Carnaval para la Defensa de la Vida".

AngloGold Ashanti ha dado luz verde para abrir lo que será - si no se lo impidamos - la mina a cielo abierto de oro más grande de América del Sur. Se trata de la tercera mas grande multinacional de de oro en el mundo, y fue así debido a su historia de hacerse rico por el colonialismo en África. El centro financiero de Londres invierte y saca las ganancias de sus minas.

Desde niños a personas mayores, 12.000 se llenarán a las calles con una perspectiva unida "Queremos agua, queremos vivir, Anglo Gold Ashanti salir de este país en paz."

Seis horas antes, estamos gritando las mismas palabras en el corazón de la bestia del capitalismo. "Queremos agua, queremos vivir, Anglo Gold Ashanti salir de Colombia en paz." Las palabras rompen el silencio de la falsa paz de Londres. Las palabras se extienden a través del tiempo y el espacio, unidos en nuestra sensación de horror de lo que pasaría al territorio de Cajamarca si la mina sigue adelante.

Las personas se oponen a la mina, ya que causará la destrucción de su medio ambiente - el agua, la biodiversidad, la tierra - en el que la vida en la región dependen. La Campaña de Solidaridad con Colombia acaba de publicar un informe "la búsqueda de El Dorado en Cajamarca".

Un amigo en la demostración de Londres acababa de regresar de la región de los Lagos en el norte de Inglaterra y la realidad de lo que La Colosa significaría se haga mas real imaginando si el oro se encuentra en nuestro region de lagos tan hermoso . Montañas destruidas para cavar, enormes montones de escoria y la contaminación con Cianide del agua de las ciudades de Liverpool y de Manchester ¿Sería esto aceptable? La gente de Manchester se debe sufrir para que unos pocos podrían beneficiarse? ¿Es que no esta bien en algunos pueblos de la tierra, pero está bien en otros? Será eso una postura racista?

Nuestro silencio sobre estas cuestiones podría costar la vida de gente. El silencio es complicidad en el asesinato. Y yo no uso estas palabras a la ligera. Pausa. Pare, por favor considere por un momento.

Por favor, considere esto por un momento.
En Colombia 24 millones de hectáreas de tierra están bajo amenaza de ser extraído.

El área en rojo es equivalente al tamaño del Reino Unido.

Personalmente me cuestra trabajo creer esto, parece más allá de la comprensión. No quiero creer que sea la verdad. pero es un hecho. Mis palabras parecen patéticamente insignificantes sin embargo totalmente necesario.

¿Dónde vivirá la gente? ¿Qué van a comer? ¿Qué aire respirarán? ¿Qué van a tomar?

Gran parte de la inversión que está impulsando este boom de la minería viene de Londres y el dinero obtenido de esta minera fluirá de nuevo a la zona financiero de Londres.

Mientras tanto, los pobres y los sin tierra en nuestra propia isla se les dice a aceptar la privatización de los recursos colectivos que nos queda, como las bibliotecas y el servicio nacional de salud. Dicen que el país está sin ni un peso.

Esta mañana en mi trabajo me dijeron que tengo que cortar el apoyo por una anciana discapacidatada a la mitad debido a que hay una crisis y "tenemos que ahorrar dinero". Esto es una mentira. Es una mentira brutal con consecuencias para muchas personas. Se nos está diciendo que tenemos que ahorrar dinero para que los que tienen el capital puede tener incluso más.
A los Colombianos se les dice que tienen que aceptar la privatización de su oro. Se nos está diciendo que tenemos que aceptar la privatización de nuestro sistema de salud.

Add caption

Un torrente de justificaciones se lanzan a nosotros, la creación de una ideología que nos convence de que la única opción es la privatización de nuestros recursos comunes. No es la única opción.

12.000 colombianos nos mostró que no es la única opción. La gente salió a la calle en Ibagué el viernes y gritaron "Sí a la vida, no a la mina".

Unamonos con nuestro propio toque pertinentes a nuestra situación.

 "Sí a la vida, no a la minería de nuestro sistema de salud ni el sistema de bienestar social por el beneficio privado".

altruism while ignoring our own oppressions

Joyce is a shortish women with piercing blues eyes. She pulls up a seat next to me at the meeting in the working mens social club. I read her clothes and accent, working class. We are here to talk about how to fight back to prevent the rich from taking the little that remains of peoples means of survival. We begin to get to know each other with hushed conversations reflecting on what the bigger group is talking about.

We are talking about the divide between rich and poor on this island. She focuses her reflection, not on material wealth, but on relationships across class and how we get divided by them. She says with clarity “I wouldn't like to be rich because then the poor wouldn't like me”. A desire to live in a classless society because only then can we relate to each other as humans.

She was here, not because of herself “I am doing ok, I have a roof and my pension, I am getting by, but I came here to support my friends” pointing to two people she had came in with. She echos a sentiment I heard often in Colombia. Young women at a workshop in La Vega, Catatumbo, tell us how they are ok and they want to help the people less well off than them.

What is this pattern of people choosing to play down their own oppressions, to think they are ok and to be altruistic all about?

The altruism is uplifting. Rather than “charity which hands down from above” what both Joyce and the Catatumbero women seems like an “altruism that reaches across with solidarity and empathy”, as equals.

Playing down their own oppressions is to accept daily reality as it is, it is to not risk anything for fear of disappointment, it is to fear hope itself.

To name oppression is to dream of changing it. I ask the question against.

What is this pattern of us choosing to play down our own oppressions, to think we are ok and to be altruistic all about?

She goes on to tell me that she works as a cleaner a few hours a day. It is not worth the money she is paid but she enjoys doing it. She likes making the place clean. It gets her out the house. Again she does not question the shit wages which you can barely survive off for doing such an important job but rather she focuses on taking pride in what she does. Amelia, from Ciudad Bolivar, Colombia said the same. While society fails to value the cleaning work that her and Joyce and millions of other women do around the world through mass exploitation, on an individual level they strive to live with dignity by valuing it for themselves.

She shows me how I too have also been trying to create meaning and value, to be satisfied withh the work I have been doing in Health and Social Care at the council. I get why we do this. But valueing what we do each day seems to easily turn in to being satisfied with how things are.

I hope that young women in Colombia while valueing their role of keeping their family home clean can demand respect for the work they do and continue to push the boundaries of what their social role is. I hope that Joyce while valuing her cleaning work can demand respect from society for the work she does, which would be minimally reflected in better wages, and can have the opportunity to get out of the house to do other fun things. 

I hope I can value my skills assessing elderly and disabled peoples personal care needs and set up the care and support they need to have a dignified life while dreaming of being able to do this in a work place where my work is not so tightly controlled and monitored, and where I am not pressured to “save money”, words if more truthful would say “save money for the rich”. I am dreaming of us demanding that peoples needs must shape social services budgets, not the other way round.

* names are changed as I did not ask if I could write about them.

Construyendo territorio al regar la huerta de frutillas comunitaria

Tuve la hora del almuerzo para escapar de la oficina donde hago un trabajo mas o menos interesante y por lo menos con utilidad social y volver a oler la auto-gestión en vez del gris jerarcico de la alcaldía. Monté la bicicleta y fui subiendo aún mas la loma en el sur de la ciudad de Bristol. Hartcliffe y Withywood son como la Ciudad Bolivar de las ciudades de los paises advanced capitalist; barrios con altos niveles del desempleo y falta de oportunidades.

Paso una seria de tiendas, la mitad desocupadas y abandonadas, la otra mitad consiste de un local que vienda alcohol, una tienda de comida rapida y un bar. No hay negocios locales que vende las cosas que se necesita en la casa como hay en Ciudad Bolivar. El ordenamiento territorial impulsado por los poderosos consiste en grandes centros comerciales donde hay que tener un carro para llegar y hacer el mercado por que el transporte publico es carisimo y poco regular; y donde todo la plata que la gente relativament pobre gasta va para grandes cadenas de tiendas. No hay economia local, pues solo en las drogas me imagino, pero tampoco la plata de eso queda en el barrio.

Bajo otro calle, piedras grandes bloquearon el final, colocados para que los jovenes no pueden jugar en su motos en el monte. Pues el razon es para que no se destruyan las matas pero a la vez es otra regla autoritario para controlar la vida y para que los jovenes tienen menos opciones gratis de que hacer. Pues, el vandalismo queda una de las opciones viables para lxs jovenes.

La vista desde la huerta de frutillas

Subo un sendero y llego a las huertas. Es un lote grandote, medio parte es cultivado por varios vecinos quienes tienen sembrados cultivos de papa, zanahoria, frijoles entre otras cosas. El otro parte es abandonado y las matas de mora lo han invadido. Pero hoy hay otro invasión. Un grupo de gente quienes ya tienen una huerta comunitaria mas abajo lo estan ocupando y recuperando para hacer un huerta de frutillas

Al llegar les veo sudando en el trabajo de Minga para hacer huecos profundos en la tierra densa de arcilla, se meten arboles de manzanas, peras, cereza y castaños y un compañero compromete a regarlos. El tiene como cincuenta años y su padre trabajaba la tierra cuando era joven. A pesar de que hay una desconexión masiva a la tierra en este pais que se manifiesta en un desconocimiento de los cultivos, de la alimentación, en donde vienen todos los productos que consumimos, a pesar de eso me da alegria seguir encontrando gente popular con historia de cultivar enn las ciudades. No es facíl. Una compañera me cuenta que acá hay que hacer las cosas como tres veces, los primeros dos veces los jovenes lo destruyan pero la tercera vez no les da la ganas y te dejan en paz.

Estes barrios populares fueron construidos en los sesentas como parte de la politica estatal de destruir los barrios populares antiguos. En mi región de nacimiento los politicos del partido laborista también tenían interes (en el inglés de dice los dedos en la torta – hay un expresión parecido en español?) en empresas de viviendas y ganarons mucha plata en la construción de los nuevos barrios. Desalojaron a mucha gente y los dispersaron a casas por toda la ciudad, destruyendo el tejido social y en muchos casos las 'nuevas' casas no eran de mejor condición. Las estrategias para lograr el desplazamiento de comunidades toman muchas formas pero como siempre los interés por las ganancias los motivan. Estos 'nuevos' barrios como Hartcliffe sufren de ser una comunidad sin comunidad, es decir mucha gente viven juntos pero con muy poco tejido social y con un construción colectivo del territorio muy debíl.

Han llegado proyectos del alcaldial como proyectos para jovenes pero no ofrecen ningun espacio para hablar del por que sus vidas son así, promuevan la confianza y auto-estima para poder encontrar trabajo sin nombrar los limites a la confianza cuando desempleo es politica estatal. De lo que me han contado la gente de allá tienen poco confianza en la gente que llegan de fuera para ayudar. Tienen razon ser sospechoso. 

Productos de la huerta comunitaria

Grupo de acción por el salud y el ambiente de Hartcliffe (www.hheag.org.uk en inglés) es una de las pocas organisaciones populares allá. Quiero conocer la gente de allá y conocer mas de su localidad y las formas en que la gente se relacionan. Puede ser que no hay organisación formal pero hay apoyo mutuo en la cotidianidad?

Raúl Zibechi en su libro sobre movimientos sociales como fuerza anti-estatal describe que no era tanto las organisaciones conformadas antes de las mobilisaciones quienes formaron la columna de las mobilisaciones en El Alto, Bolivia sino las relaciones cotidianas entre familias, amigos y vecinos que respondieron a las circumstancias y las nuevas posibilidades en el contexto de un levantamineto y lograron actuar y formar el movimiento en el sentido de verbo. Y parece que tambíen en Bristol sirve una huerta comunitaria para fortalacer los lazos solidarios entre la gente y para construir territorio.

Que nuestra movimiento sea una advertencia a cualquier regimen brutal

Desde acá hemos mirado el levantamiento en Egipto con admiración y emoción. Quieren presentar el levantamieno como algo de los arabes, de los musulmanos, para tratar de contener su impacto y inspiración. Pero sabemos que es un levantamiento contra la opresión y como dicen las letras de esta canción ..."Que nuestra movimiento sea una advertencia a cualquier regimen brutal."

Dedico a todxs mis companerxs en colombia

Mi tradución rapida:

Puedes tomar el latido de mi corazon pero no puedes llevar mi alma
Todxs seramos libre

Revolución no es un acto
Es un hecho real
Un idea que quema hasta que se vuelve mas negro que negro
La portadora de la verdad una nueva era como el fondo de tu capuche
El verdadero terror quien te asustará sin llevar una pistola
Por los barreras un portadero y luego extiende como malaria
Hundirnor sin temor de oppression
Cada lagrima es una arma
Cuando dios lo escuca es una bendicion
Cada tirano conectedo a aggression violent es destinado a morir.

Puedes tomar el latido de mi corazon pero no puedes llevar mi alma
Todxs seramos libre
Si te detienen queda callado un aprendizaje sabio
Libertad es la expression mas alto de vida en el presente
Y por eso los disturbios mundiales extienden un mensaje justificado
Como dios mandó los incendios del paraiso
Levantamiento, basta no mas lagrimas lxs jovenes corriendo
Cuando la gente tiene el poder los dictaduras va huyendo
Solo queremos vivir como seres humanos
Cuando protestamos en paz la policia nos disparan
Mirar la pantalla, lo puedes ver
Que nuestra movimiento sea una advertencia a cualquier regimen brutal


Puedes tomar el latido de mi corazon pero no puedes llevar mi alma
Todxs seramos libre


Es una equación sencila, es scientifico
Ponga el poder en la gente, su liberación
y aun si quita algo hay multiplicación
repression genera resistencia y eso es nuestra situacion
soy un expert en explotación, maestro de miseria del guetto
un milagro de esclavitud modern
el incendio a las balas y bombas y los mentirosos
los sapos la contrainsurgentes locos
Nos matan lxs guerrillerxs pero no pueden matar la revolución
llevan bazuca a nuestra communidad riendose
Pero no me parece gracioso los que ganan la plata
Nos quieren ver mal educado
Ven como nunca nos rendimos y no saben como lo hacemos
ni somos una cucaracha, somos el escarabajo en las ruinas
lo puedes escuchar en nuestra muscia
es Resistencia parte de nuestra experiencia
Lo puedes llamar el experimento en libertad
lo escuchas pero lo sientes?
unéte o temerlo
pero lo quiero una vez en la vida
punto 

mi lucha y tu lucha: empatia y autencidad

Me despierto con dolores por mucho del cuerpo, otro turno se acabó, miles de libras recogido y yo salgo con el salario minimo despues de otra jornada exploitada en un restaurante de lujo en el centro de mi ciudad.

Una compañera tenía que exigir un descanso para comer algo durante su jornada de diez horas. Se lo dieron como si fuera un favor especial que debiéramos recibir con agradecimiento en vez de darnoslo por ser un humano y no una maquina. Adémas, a pesar de ser un restaurante y se botan mucha comida no nos dan comida para no gastar las ganacias, así nos toca salir a comprar algo y comerla en el camino al volver al trabajo.  La compañera, a quien conozco desde solo dos semanas, volvió con un sandwich para mi, muy solidaria ella. Conversamos con los otras empleados quienes nos miraron criticamente por exigir el descanso pero luego aceptaron que aun que se han acostumbrado no significa que sea justo. Los actos pequeños de agitatación son necesarios, tanto para mantener mi propia dignidad como para despertar la gente a no seguir siendo maltratando.

Le pregunté a otro compañero de trabajo si recibieran un bono por haber hecho jornadas muy intensas durante la runup a la navidad. "No,....pero tuvimos una buena fiesta de navidad" fue la respuesta verbal. Los expresiones de su cuerpo me mostraron tristeza, resignación y luego un esfuerzo a mirar lo positivo de la situación. Es como si no se atreviera a pensar que merezcara mas, tiene como mucha gente la idea de que uno puedo sobrevivir la exploitación si no te imagines algo distinto. En vez de soñar y pensar en algo mas justo por ti mismo y la gente alrededor, aceptas las migas que los jefes los echan. Al recurrir a lo que mucha gente en Colombia me han enseñado de lo que es vivir con dignidad, le planteé algo distinto, sembrando unas semillas de resistencia.

Cual es la diferencia entre luchar en este contexto, en la cual siento la exploitacion tambien en mi cuerpo y en el contexto de Colombia donde lucho pero las opresiones en la mayoria se sientan en forma empatica, es decir me duelo por que te duele, pero no lo vivo tan vida?

Aca es mas autentica, nace de mi propia respuesta a ser estampada diarimente daily por el trabajo tanto en los musculos de mi cuerpo como en los ritmos de pensamientos. Puedo relacionarme como iguales con las compas del restaurante. Si propongo algo, sufro las consecuencias y vivire las ganancias (medida mas en dignidad propia que en libras). ya estoy sonando de un parito para que nos den las propinas.....


Alla, en los espacios de procesos populares estoy luchando no tanto por mi liberacion sino por la liberacion de otras aunque reconozco los lazos humanos. A pesar de querer estar en la mitad de los esfuerzos de organisarnos, no soy la nosotrxs. Alla con ustedes en Ciudad Bolivar hay un limite al papel que puedo jugar. las propuestas deben nacer de ustedes como respuesta a sus situaciones compartidas agradientes y como parte de la busqueda de hacer sus vidas mas hermosas y menos dolorosas. Es su lucha! pero claro, con solidaridad muy cerca.

La tetera: una tactica de la policia de Inglaterra en contra los movimientos sociales

El lugar de luchar cambia, las formas de opresión cambian, pero la necesidad de luchar para liberarnos no cambia.

Estoy en la marcha con un grupo de amigos, formamos un hermoso grupo de afinidad donde nos cuidamos uno al otro. Me siento fuerte, empoderada, rodeada por gente con quien hemos caminado las calles mucho. La marcha es en contra los nuevas leyes del gobierno britanicó que aumentan la matricula a las universidades a $27,000 pesos colombiano por año! Si los salarios son mas altos acá pero la gente de la clase trabajador acá tan poco tienen este cantidad de plata. Este precio hace la univesidad aún mas privado y menos asequible a la mayoria de lxs jovenes. Y lxs jovenes estan molestos, bastantes.

La marcha va por una calle principal cuando vemos más camionetas de la policia llegando. Las con experiencia sabemos que quieren bloquear el camino de la march y acoralarla en una tacticá de acá que se llama “kettle”. Un kettle es una tetera literalmente, en la practica nos rodean por una cerca solída de policia con sus batones por horas. Si no respondemos rapidó lo lograrán y allá estaríamos hasta que nos morimos del frio o nos rebellamos y tratamos de salir a la fuerza y nos golpean. 

La marcha no tiene camino fijo ni organisadores ni voceros. en vez de enfocar la marcha en la llegada a un lugar simbolico se enfoca la marcha en construir poder entre la gente que marchen. en vez de la participacion pasiva comun en las marchas de aca todas participan activamente en decidiendo por donde vamos en el camino experimentando con la democracia directa. Es fundamental que experimentemos con otros formas de democracia como miramos la farsa de democracia de los partidos politicos que dicen una cosa para ser elegidos y luego hace el contrario. Tenemos un gobierno de coalicíon, una de los partidos ganaron puestos diciendo que iban a estar en contra el aumento de las matriculas. Menos que un año despues hacen el contrario.

Al ver las camiones llegando, la gente gritan propuestas de que hacer, se escuchan contra propuestas. La policia bajan de sus camionetas (hasta ahora no se mueva por moto como en Colombia) y gente con astucia muestran propuestas concretas. Corren para pasar antes de que hagan un muro inpenetrable. Lo demás siguen, animada por la idea. Este capacidad para responder rapidó y autonomá (sin que nadie te manda a hacer algo) a la situación que se desarolla nos permita sacar mucha ventaja a la policia. 

 

Para mi, es un ejemplo precioso y un metaforo al camino hacia nuestra propia liberación. Sin jefes orquestrando el movimiento de la gente, le gente mueven por su propia rabia y deseos sea en una marcha o en nuestra organisación. Si, compartamos experiencias del pasado y construyamos teorias desde nuestras observaciones, pero solo nosotras mismos quienes viven el presente deciden el que hacer en el presente. Ofrezco mis observaciones y ideas de acá como un aporte para el trabajo organisativo de ustedes allá.

Mas tarde ganaron la policia :( Unos de nosotras lo vimos venir pero la muchidumbre tenía un velocidad y no logramos cambiarla a tiempo. Rodearon todo la gente con una cerca de policia. Allá los detuvieron por 4 horas. En otras protestas en Diciembre era por 8 horas. No puedes salir para orinar, comprar comida, ir a una cita. No hay legislación que permite que te retengan sin detenerte formalmente. Es un secuestro masivo y siempre salen impunes.

Hasta ahora no se usa los gases lacrimogenos en mi tierra. Pero si te hacen morir de aburrimiento, orinarte o perder tu trabajo por llegar retarde. A veces la gente explotan con rabia y frustración por la situacíon y estás atrapado entre un conflicto.

Con este tactica quieren disuadirte de manifestar. Marco, un anarquista colombiano escribío algo que me parece cierto:

“uno deduce ....que si acá nos matan de manera menos higiénica… a punta de bala o motosierra, allá, en Europa, los mecanismos de represión son más tecnificados y asépticos y el control social juega un factor decisivo en ese aspecto.” ver articulo

La tetera es un mecanismo de control de protesta, entre otras. Tanto como en Colombia se usa la sistema de justicia para dar condenas severas a lxs que opongan las politicas violentas del Estado. Un joven quien participó en la ocupación de la sede del partido de los Conservadores (el gobierno actual) fue condenada a 2 años de carcel por tirar un extinguidor del techo sin causar daño a nadie mientras que 2 años despues del asasinato de Ian Tomlinson por la policia aún no hay ningun condena.

Otro mecanismo de control es el uso de la policia secreto. Fue revelado que un compañero, alguien de confianza politica de acá quien participó en movilisaciones sociales y ambientales, es tombo. Da una sensación de nausea pero por lo menos nos confirma que nuestras ideas y practicas de solidaridad, de acción directa y de la horizontalidad son una amenaza a los elites de este pais. Así nuestras actos acá son actos continua de solidaridad con ustedes. El mismo supragobierno económico que quiere encarcelar nuestras vidas acá para callarnos es la misma esctructura que hace la guerra a ustedes. Pero también es el misma deseo humano que nos motiva en cualquier rincon del mundo a liberar nuestra espiritu de la sumisión y levantar la cabeza con orgullo y luchar.

An ecological experiment with bamboo and pop bottles

“Please carry us” shouted the women to the bus driver that went slowly past us heading up the dusty unpaved road. The laughter filled the air even as it looked like the driver wasn't going to let us on but then he signalled us to climb on through the back door. The ten of us piled on, amidst “god bless you” and numerous jokes about how he would be a good husband. Solidarity on the normal buses is ever present and they always let you travel for less than the official price and sometimes when near the end of the line, they let you ride for free.... all ten of us.

Meanwhile the Transmillenium bus system, the multimillion dollar transport system never lets you on for less than the official price, imposing an altogether different culture of 'rights for those who can pay'. Several students have been run over and killed this year alone as they didn't have the money to pass through the barriers so instead tried to jump through the bus access doors. Students poured out of colleges on mass blocking the bus routes and demanding that a student price be introduced so that the city's poor students don't have to choose between eating, transport or risking their life. The response was the riot police but the political space seems to have been created for the debate.

Back to our day out. We scrambled excitedly out of the bus at the end of the line and headed toward the plot of land. It is a plot right on the edge of the city, you only see fields and trees and most importantly you only breathe clean air, high up in the mountains above the smog level.

Wilson, a young lad from the organisation “Jovenes Proponen” -Youth Propose – from Ciudad Bolivar explains the project to us. “We want to have a place where young people can come and learn new skills, choose a different route in life to joining gangs and learn about the relationship between humans and our environment and how this capitalist way of building is destroying our environment, our home”

They are building a education centre out of guadua, clay mixed with horse shit and plastic bottles filled with plastic bags. Seven thousand plastic bottles roughly. The women from Paraiso got excited and inspired “so many of us had to work so hard to buy the bricks for our house, they are so expensive. If only we had known about another way to build.....”. They offered immediately, only to happy to help, to collect bottles to contribute to the project,

Local neighbours have been inspired by the project and have got involved, coming down to help with work in their free time. They proudly tell us how they have planted peas, potatos, peppers and lettuces and about their irrigation system, again using plastic bottles. In return the women from Paraiso introduced themselves and shared their thoughs:

“I like to be nosy and find out what is happening in other places, but not to be nosy for the sake of it but to learn new things. I am very happy to be here today” says Elvira

“For me it is very important that people are building again with bamboo and clay. That's how they build in my region. And it is a great idea to use the rubbish from this city so we don't have to exploit more natural resources” says Carmen

“It brings back memories being here, where I come from we used bamboo a lot. We used it to carry water in, and I use to hide avocados inside them” says Gratiniano. I didn't find out quite who he hid the avocados from.

Maria presents the women's project “We are a smallish but solid and determined group of women from Paraiso who want to organise ourselves so that we don't keep being exploited. We have a small allotment where we have strawberries and peas and arachacha planted and also we have a wormery so that we can make good compost from our waste products. If you wanted to come and visit us one day it would be good. So we can continue sharing experiences of how to produce food. Also it would be wonderful if we could come here and begin to cultivate some of the unused land around this plot.”

The land around the plot belongs to either Victor Caranza or Forrero Fetequa, we aren't sure which but we are sure that they are both part of Colombia's landowning class.

Colombia has one of the most unequal land distributions in the world, achieved through violent dispossession of the lands and wealth of first indigenous peoples and now also of peasant farmers and afro-colombian communities. At the end of 2009 there were up to 4.9 million internally displaced people (IDP) in Colombia, bringing it alongside Sudan as one of the two largest internal displacement situations in the world. In 2009 alone there was a reported 290,000 people displaced. This massive displacement has resulted in over 6 million hectares of productive land being abandoned by campesinos.

“The current Internal Displacement Situation situation has to be seen in the context of a historical movement of expansion by the land-owning elites, an agrarian and structural problem, complicated and compounded since the 1970s by drug-trafficking and the presence of large international corporations.” [1]

Using this land above the urbanised part of Ciudad Bolivar for growing food on would definately ease the problem of hunger but the land is earmarked as part of the Mining Industry Park, which will not ease problems of hunger.

As we walked back to El Paraiso the women commented to me how many of the houses, built from tin, plastic and wood, that we passed on our way home were not their a year ago. Signs of displaced peasant farmers trying to find a patch of land where no one will violently kick them off.

[1] Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/countries.nsf/%28httpEnvelopes%29/7994964F3955C802C125719200585B76?OpenDocument

Building Popular Power: CISCA's regional assembly Part 2

My memory of assemblies are of day after day sat cross-legged
on school hall floors singing hymns from the Come and Praise hymn book and listening to fables and school news. Here in Latin America assemblies have a very different collective historical meaning.

Lets re-imagine the school assembly. Gone is the lifeless out of tune sound of childrens voices repeating kumbayah. Instead the space is alive with groups of teachers and students discussing the governments policy on education. Each group feeds back to the plenary and people listen eagerly for consensus from which school policy will be built. Others listen for unresolved questions and makes suggestions for how each class can work on exploring further the question so that for the next assembly the ideas will have been matured and advanced. This is the type of assembly I wish was in our collective memory.

As I try to bridge different cultures I will continue with the metaphor a little longer.... the Come and Praise hymn book where each song carried the same message of thanks to god is like the Colombian daily news which presents lots of different news but that all converges to the same idea: Democratic Security is good and necessary and anyone that opposes it is the enemy.

In CISCA's assembly the hymn book is replaced by presentations on topics related to the reality of the participants, the prayers replaced by group discussions, and the lecture by the head teacher replaced by large group discussions to make decisions and decide the ongoing strategy.

Some notes
No.1: National Current Situation

National, international and mafia capital mixed together in most investment projects. Free Trade Agreements with the EU and the US give more space for mafia profits to be “lost”. Huge accumulation of all three capital continues through three strategies:

1. Over-exploitation of workers achieved through violating human rights. For example the majority of those lucky enough to find work in the formal sector will only have work for three months and then can now legally sacked so that the company can avoid all social security costs Companies have saved 75% in labour costs.

2. Exploitation of Natural Resources and Peasant, Indigenous and Afro-Colombian Territories

3. Financial Speculation

Colombia has been condemned to fulfil three roles in the global economy.

1. Provider of fossil fuels
   

2. Provide non strategic primary agricultural materials (fruits, rubber, cocoa)

3. Transport Infrastructure so that global capital can circulate more quickly.

Santos, as the new president and part of Colombia's oligarchy, may decide to prioritise legal capital over mafia capital. Most worrying for the assembly of CISCA is his call for 'National Unity'.

“The so called National Unity is an effort to remove all oppostion from the map and build an empty consensus through the power of the media that gives him complete freedom to advance however he wants without debate or even justification” [1]

In groups people discussed how this would mean a continuation of the State strategy of criminalising oppostion and expressed worries that the next four or eight years would be the same if not worse than what they have already lived through under the ex-President Uribe.

“We are against the politics of the Santos government because they go against our Planes de Vida - our Community Development Plans” declared the assembly.

No.2: Mining in Colombia

“Mining is a reality and I am not going to oppose it” stated the new Environmental Minister. “Well at least we know we can count on no support there, then” said Aramides. While the Environment Ministry bans the Bari indigenous people from entering the national park within their reserve to collect wood in the name of conservation, they are not going to put any obstacles in the way of plans for a 20,000 hectare open cast coal mine in the same park. After listening to a presentation about the negative and supposed positive impacts of mining we returned to groups again to discuss what CISCA's position on mining should be.

“As peasant farmers we aren't trained to work in mines, the jobs will go to people from outside the region. We are skilled at getting a good crop. We should oppose the mine and increase food production to combat poverty.”

After much discussion, which began in 2007 and has been ongoing in CISCA's consultivas, the assembly reafirmed its commitment to oppose all extractive mining in its territory as part of the defense of their own community development plans.

No.3 Impacts of US Southern Command 2018 Strategy for Integrated Action

The USSOUTHCOM is implementing a military-civil strategy in 9 regions of Colombia, one of them being Catatumbo in order to win full territorial control. This included control of the economy, the physical area, the social organisations, the peoples mind. According to their Strategic Document 2018 “the region will not win the war against poverty increasing their participation in the reduced global agricultural sector. They should use their energy in producing more sophisticated exports.” This means that in Catatumbo the economic model that is already being imposed is production of non-basic food crops for export, such as palm, cocoa, tropical fruits. So where does the food come from? The so called unsophisticated exports, that is basic staples such as wheat, rice and maise, is now being exported to Colombia from.....the USA.

In practice, the doctrine of integrated action may mean that brigades of soliders begin to provide basic health cover or play the role of teachers in the region. Leaders expressed disgust that the USSOUTHCOM, with the full support of the Colombian State, is taking advantage of the overwhelming need for better health care and education to coopt and control the region through the use of government handouts, and is going against international humanitarian law to not involve the civilian population in the armed conflict.

In my group, men spoke about the hard work needed to convince their communities of the long term strategy behind these handouts which goes against the needs of the people in the region and to take a dignified position. They spoke about the need to not allow these programs to enter their communities in the first place. They reminded each other that it is the Colombian State that has a legal obligation to provide these human rights. The different groups later converged and there was a shared view in the assembly that they need to be more organised and mobilise to confront these programmes. Concrete proposals were put forward to reclaim community spaces such as schools, health centres from military occupation by marking them as 'peace spaces' (eg signs banning the entrance of arms, organising on mass to ask them to leave.) The need for this was marked by the (un)timely illegal arrival of the army to the assembly. They were politely but firmly asked to leave and reminded that we have the right to assembly without interference by the armed forces.

This is a just a snippet of the four days of discussion and decision making, a taste of a collective way to analyise what is going on and a way to come up with huge amounts of concrete actions to confront this (though I do fear they came up with way too many proposals and the collective decision making should have narrowed these down).

As we are leaving the assembly we hear news on the radio from the community of El Tarra, who are also particpating in the assembly. The army had been shot at in their barracks and in response, according to witnesses, they had shot at all young lads they found in the street at that moment, killing one and injuring three others. They had tried to place a gun by the side of the dead una joven aprendiendo como grabar
16 year old which caused indignation by those who saw and people
spontaenously rose up to oppose this injustice. Three army vehicles were burnt, the mayor's office and bank, and with sticks and stones the army was forced to retreat to their base admist shouts accusing them of murdering over 5000 people in the region.

Militry check point at entrance to El Tarra (2009)

While the assembly demanded the demilitrisation of the region and of civil life, the people of El Tarra were expressing with their bodies the urgent need to demilitrise their territory. And winning.

Thanks to J for the photos

[1] 'A dragon dressed as a dove', Editorial Periferia (in spanish)

Building Popular Power: CISCA`s Regional Assembly

Part 1

As the bus bumped along the unpaved roads, recently eroded yet more by the ongoing rains, I ask Ismael to update me on the security situation in Catatumbo. “Since the elections in May things have been quiet, calm. What is really bad are the ongoing rains. There have been lots of floods, and many parts of the region have been cut off due to landslides blocking roads.” We hold our breath as we go slowly round a tight curve with half of the road fallen away - bendy buses might be the solution we joke!

We are making our way to the third assembly of CISCA – Committee for the Social Integration in Catatumbo, a peasant farmer grassroots organization which emerged in 2005 to rebuild the community organizations that were wiped out by more than 7 years of para-military occupation.
I delight to meet with old friends but notice the lack of some. “Many people from Asserrio haven´t come because two girls from the village drowned last week. There was a flood which swept away the houses. They haven´t found the bodies, disappeared” Miriam tells me matter of factly as is her way. “One was my half cousin, but I still wanted to come to the assembly. What can you do. Nothing. She is gone.”

Yet Miriam is a fighter, while we don´t make the connection in this moment, she knows there is much that can be done and is doing it. While the militrisation of this territory rich in natural resources and of geostrategic importance continues to kill, the lack of social development is also killing; roads, hunger, mal nutrition, curable health problems cause unnecessary deaths each day. CISCA´s community life plans are a concrete response to both these realities. They are about deciding together what social development means for us Catatumberos and then implementing concrete autonomous projects to begin this experiment in self-governance. Supporting Miriam as she blossoms into a young talented leader is a joy. She is beginning to take on the huge challenge of actively dreaming of a Catatumbo where deaths like that of her cousin are something of the past. She became involved in CISCA last August through some street theatre we put together as part of the pilgrimage to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the worst massacres in Catatumbo.

The assembly began with a ritual. In groups we wrote down an injustice which prevents children from becoming community leaders. The messages “they don’t know the history of our country” “domestic violence” “fear because of all the violence that has happened to those who spoke out” “education which is technical and lies about the reality” were then ceremoniously burnt on the fire while positive messages were read out.

This was followed with stories about local indigenous resistance to colonization. Up to the 1930´s it was a sport for the white Americans who had arrived to exploit oil in Catatumbo to hunt the “savages” at the weekend. By savages they meant the Bari indigenous community. We heard how indigenous fought back. We heard how they fought back to defend their territory; bows and arrows against lead. Catatumberos are a mix of german, Spanish and Bari heritage yet colonial racist views of the indigenous as being inferior and the European as superior are still embedded strongly in people. These stories play such an important role in challenging this internalized racism. And Luis Antonio, a Bari leader present ended the evening with some important words “The histories that you have heard of persecution, displacement, and resistance is not what it was like. It is what it is like.”

Part 2 to follow. For now I am going to return to the group. I can hear the evening´s cultural activities and the clapping of many compañeras as local musicians, dancers and actors share their local cultures and traditions in opposition to mass produced homogenous entertainment.