By Berta Joubert-Ceci

"And surrounded by threats that give us courage... we will all participate in the work stoppage without fear or cowardice ... ."

Those are the only words in a beautiful poster announcing the Oct. 12 one-day general strike in Colombia. The main labor union associations--the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), the Unitary Workers' Central (CUT), and the Confederation of Retirees of Colombia (CPC)--together forming the Unitary Central Command, initiated the call for the strike.

Mobilizations and actions were planned throughout the country. The largest turn out was expected in the capital, Bogotá.

Walking 422 kilometers south from Bucaramanga, 300 health workers and labor unionists, more than 400 students of the Santander Industrial University, and several professors arrived in Bogotá Oct. 11 to join the strike. They had left on Oct. 4, and on their way they distributed 100,000 fliers explaining and calling attention to the critical situation of health services in the country. Privatization of the health service denies the population essential care, leaving many hospitals shut down.

Teachers from Boyacá, also to the north of Bogotá, were marching to join the strike too. Also, from the municipality of Soacha, indigenous people and peasants were coming. They planned to join together with other marchers and converge on the historic Plaza Bolívar in the afternoon.

What unites all these sectors of Colombian society? Bank and court workers, rice farmers and panela makers, teachers and students, health workers, Indi genous and Afrocolombian communities?

The terrible political and economic crisis that Colombia is suffering unites them.

As Carlos Rodríguez Díaz, CUT president, said, there are five core issues behind the strike: the struggle against the immediate presidential re-election; against the Free Trade Agreement (with the United States); against a proposed package of laws; for the defense of civil liberties and for humanitarian accords; and for a political negotiated solution of the armed conflict.

Just to say "the defense of civil liberties" sounds so understated considering its true meaning in this beleaguered country. Colombia's union leaders live under constant death threat. Nine of every 10 trade unionists killed in the world are killed in Colombia.

To survive, union and community leaders must be accompanied by bodyguards, ride in armored cars and be always aware. And yet, they can be assassinated at any moment, in front of their families or alone.

One example is the recent murder of Pedro Mosquera, the vice president of the Araucan Peasant Association. He was known for eloquent and consistent criticisms of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe's policies of "Democratic Security," which have increased repression against progressive activists. These statements brought him death threats and Mosquera attempted to flee to Venezuela.

Just this month Mosquera's dead body was found. There were signs of torture. No serious investigation has been conducted by the government.

Mosquera's assassins, most certainly paramilitaries--death squads that work hand in hand with the Colombian police and military and that are the main perpetrators of the crimes and violence against the social and trade-union movements--might not be found. Close to 99 percent of these crimes remain completely unpunished, even after years.

Labor unions in Colombia not only fight for better wages and benefits. They fight for the lives of their members, for the mere survival of their unions and for the peace of the whole population.

Uribe's policies that are benefiting big businesses, many of them United States-based corporations like Coca Cola, are decimating the unions.

Sinaltrainal, the food industry workers' union representing the Coca Cola workers, has lost nine of its members at the hands of paramilitaries working for the company. With the help of the government and paramilitaries, Coca Cola has closed plants and threatened union members to make them disaffiliate.

The bosses have gone to such extremes as keeping the workers hostage in hotels or plants with armed guards outside the doors until they renounce to their union membership.

As a result of this repression the union has lost many members. Most unions have seen their leadership killed and membership reduced.

A conference summoned by the Inter national Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the World Confederation of Labor took place in Bogotá in September. The conference report states that more than 670 union leaders have been threatened during Uribe's administration.

That is almost twice as many as the 357 threatened under the previous government. Sixty-three have suffered harassment; 98 have been displaced internally or are in exile.

The police carried out 14 illegal house searches as compared with two in a similar period under President Pastrana, and 104 arbitrary detentions as opposed to 10.

What is amazing is the workers' capacity to struggle in the face of this assault. President Uribe has even declared 29 of 33 strikes illegal. That is why among the Oct. 12 National Strike's demand is the return of rule of law that had been guaranteed by the constitution.

It's not only union leaders who are victims. Indigenous, Afrocolombian and peasant populations have been massacred and victimized at the hands of the same paramilitaries.

Entire families, including children, are made to witness the torture, rape and assassination of their parents, creating a real reign of terror. Whole villages have been forcefully emptied by this violence.

Once emptied, these territories are then developed by big corporations. One example is Pedro Mosquera's home region of Arauca, previously an agricultural and cattle-raising region. Once oil was discovered, it was the beginning of the end for the peasant and indigenous residents.

Now in the hands of U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum, Arauca is the most militarized region of the country. There the U.S.-trained Colombian army has as its emblem an oil tower.

That is why one of the strike demands is against the Free Trade Agreement. Uribe's policies are to sell Colombia to private and mostly foreign capital. And to carry that out he is first trying to decimate and suppress the unions and the progressive movement.

But as the strike slogan says: "Threats give us courage." The fight of the workers and the poor in Colombia is thriving, now with more determination and unity.

It is up to the international labor movement and progressive social organizations to take up that struggle and offer it the most energetic and unconditional support.