Workers rebel vs. Colombia’s capitalist crisis

As CHALLENGE goes to press, and mass protests involving more than one million workers in Colombia enter their seventh week, we are witnessing the power of the working class in real time. Initially triggered by a government plan to raise taxes on wages and basic necessities, the uprising has virtually shut down the country. It has channeled the class anger of young workers into a mass fight for basic income, opportunities for youth, and an end to police and military brutality. The working-class rage has exposed the weakness of the U.S. bosses and the rise of their rival Chinese capitalists in the imperialists’ sharpening competition for control of the country.
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is working to build a revolutionary communist movement in the heat of this struggle. However this battle plays out in coming weeks, our goal is to continue to grow and develop a young communist leadership for the struggles of the future (see front page).
Working-class power
The demonstrations began on April 28, in response to a proposed tax increase on basic goods and workers’ salaries. This came at a time when the working class in Colombia had  been devastated by Covid-19. More than 90,000 have died, according to the official count (worldometer.com, 6/5), with the true number likely several times higher. Over 3.5 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty (BBC, 5/31).
Though the bosses canceled the tax plan a few days later, the demonstrations have continued across the country. Young workers in the streets have shown courage and militancy in the face of brutal and deadly attacks by the police and military. Scores of protesters have been slaughtered (Washington Post, 5/20). On May 28, in Cali, 14 workers were killed by the police and civilian vigilantes while guarding roadblocks around the city (ABCNews, 6/1).
The power and bravery of the working class is inspirational. But without a revolutionary outlook, it will be impossible to liberate ourselves from the exploitation and brutality of capitalism.
Leadership and misleadership
The liberal leaders of the National Strike Committee are working hard to get the working class off the streets. A coalition of unions and student groups, including the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, the Teacher’s Union, and the Colombian Association of Student Representatives, are collaborating with the Ivan Duque government to negotiate an end to the protests and limit the struggle to narrow reforms, To this point, however, they have been unsuccessful. They are caught between the anger of the working class and the unwillingness of the Colombian bosses to make substantive concessions.
The division between the working class and the liberal leaders grew when the police and military brutally attacked the protests.  As the National Strike Committee called for peaceful demonstrations, young people responded by barricading the streets and burning police vehicles and even some police stations (Wall Street Journal, 5/22).
PLP has been on the barricades and leading marches, confronting the police and military, while at the same time recruiting workers into communist study groups and distributing CHALLENGE. We have also organized workers in our community to cook and distribute food to anyone who needs it. Theory and practice are working hand in hand. As we’ve engaged protesters in discussions on why we need to build a communist movement led by PLP, the struggle in the streets has built confidence in our class and helped people to see the possibility of a communist future. Our ties within youth groups have helped us organize militant demonstrations despite enforcement of bans on protests by the bosses’ cops. We’ve used these mass events to distribute PLP flyers and CHALLENGE.
Chinese bosses move in
The broader context to the rebellion is the weakening of the longtime alliance between Colombian and U.S. imperialist bosses. For decades, Colombia’s rulers have welcomed U.S. military training and police funding to counteract the political influence of opposition and guerilla movements within the country and across Latin America.
From mining and coffee to auto manufacturing and oil production, the capitalist bosses have lost over $2 billion from strikes and other disruptions (bloomberg.com 5/28). U.S. President Joe Biden is now being forced to confront the Mobile Anti-Disturbances Squadron (ESMAD), the government death squad he championed as a U.S. senator in 1999 (aljazeera.com, 11/18/20). During the current rebellion, the Biden administration called for peace from both sides—and then made its real position clear by asking for $453 million in assistance to Colombia—$41 million more than the U.S. aid package under Donald Trump. Biden’s request included more than $140 million for the murderous police (semana.com, 5/28). When push comes to shove, capitalism relies on state violence to enforce its rule.
Within Colombia’s ruling class, a competing set of bosses—led by liberal capitalists like Senator Gustavo Petro and Bogota’s mayor, Claudia Lopez—is trying to steer workers away from Duque, the right-wing “populist” sponsored by U.S. imperialism. This split provides an opening for the Chinese imperialist bosses.
After the mass workers’ movement forced Duque to revoke his proposed tax reform, Petro tried his hardest to end the protests. He declared that the cops are not workers’ enemies and pushed for an end to the strikes (AP News, 5/17). Petro has also criticized U.S. capitalism while praising Chinese capitalism for its help in the pandemic (Twitter, 3/10/2020). Lopez, like Biden, has called for an end to violence on both sides—as if there was no difference between the cops’ militarized terror and workers’ struggles for the basic necessities of life (Semana, 05/31). She alternates between empty apologies for the profit system and empty calls for social and economic transformation. Last October, in announcing the winning bid from a Chinese company on a multibillion dollar  metro project, Lopez celebrated the start of a new relationship with China (Harvard Political Review, 5/10).
 Fighting for communism
Whenever the working class acts collectively to seize control of a community or the streets, however temporarily, they provide glimpses of what it will take to build workers' power and a workers’ state—communism. The emerging generation of militant workers in Colombia reminds us that we have the power to make the bosses shake. As we fight in the militant reform struggle, we must make clear what is primary: to build PLP and a movement for communist revolution.
From Colombia to Gaza, in every neighborhood we live and work, we must refuse to be fooled by any and all bosses. There is no future for the working class under capitalism. Our fight is to organize for a world run by and for the working class. Join us!