Colombia Teachers Strike, Bosses Counter with State Terror

BOGOTA, Colombia, July 20—Three hundred and fifty thousand public school teachers went on a 37-day strike demanding better healthcare, more funding for school maintenance, supplies, student meals, higher salaries and the end to racist policies against working-class teachers and students. The bosses, falsely promised that the money that went to fighting the fake left Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) would now be used for education, and now owe the teachers several billions of pesos. Teachers’ quality of life is suffering as they work in subhuman conditions for millions of students.
The bosses’ response to the striking teachers has been to deny funding. But they spend money on war, repression, corruption, high salaries for politicians and generous interests for the World Bank.  One such boss, Juan Manuel Santos, the warmongering mayor of Peñalosa, uses his fascist squadrons to repress the educators.  Three teachers have been killed and several injured in the demonstrations.  
Knowing that the bosses lie and betray workers, the teachers intensified the struggle and have been courageously fighting back in near-daily marches, blocking busy roads in the capital.
Progressive Labor Party has been present at all the marches and meetings. Two teachers, readers of CHALLENGE, have been leading the struggle, and keeping it militant and being vigilant about the decisions that are made.
Many unions and political organizations have displayed solidarity with the teachers. This is a step forward in the political struggle. Our work is to create a mass base for communism and to train new leaders so the bosses will not be able to control us. PLP knows that this reform struggle will not itself bring down capitalism. Our friends also understand this and many teachers are fighting for advances in the revolutionary process by talking about and distributing our literature.
Today’s struggles, from farm workers, to healthcare workers, to bus drivers, to conductors, construction workers, the unemployed, and street vendors, should be turned into united workers’ struggle. We have to win workers to working-class consciousness and advance the struggle for revolution. Capitalism will not stop attacking us.  We are fighting to destroy capitalism, we have no other option.  We will build the international PLP and create a system that serves the interests of the working class: communism.