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The renewed initiative for a peaceful and decent Colombia is facing fatal hurdles as assassinations and assaults are being unleashed against the Revolutionary Alternative Force of the Commons, FARC, the political party formed by the former guerrilla leaders and activists.
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Blood of progressive activists is being spilled by the ultra-rightist forces in the land with immense possibilities.
The FARC is trying to convey its message of democracy, dignity and decent life to the people. The party is carrying on its participation in the electoral process although it was recently compelled to suspend its election campaign in the face of increasing violence.
FARC announced its leader, Rodrigo Londoño, popularly known as Timo as short for his nom de guerre 'Timochenko,' as a candidate for the coming presidential election.
In late January, Timo launched the “With the Force of the Common” campaign. The speech outlined the existing politics and the FARC’s vision for a new Colombia. It’s not only a significant message on behalf of the exploited in the country, but also an indicator to other exploited peoples in other lands.
It indicated the message to be conveyed to the poor and exploited instead of getting bogged down into a sectarian trench – concerned only with a particular community or sect.
Overwhelmed by concern only for a sect or a community makes the community more vulnerable as that group isolates itself from the people. Timo addressed the broader constituency – the people, the poor, the marginalized, the victims of inequality and exploitation. His message was against the exploiters, the rich, the privileged.
The FARC leader sketched a context in his speech: "Dirty propaganda is being carried out against those defending the poorest and the forgotten. Our country occupies second place in the ladder of inequality between the rich and the poor in our continent. In addition to poverty and misery here is a situation full with dangers and evils."
"Armed gangs, drug, trafficking, paramilitarism, forced displacement and all types of violence are here. Communities are threatened by unemployment. Irresponsible mining is threatening the environment. The state enriches the elites, the privileged of always, the owners of the greatest fortunes. Big capital, banks, large landowners and the mafias increase their fortune daily."
He described the state machine and dominant politics of the powerful: "Here is the control exercised by politicians of deceit and lies. A corrupt ruling machine has been built up. Here is a market of favors. Here are the corrupt parties."
"They plunged politics deeper into the mud of rot. Only 40 percent of Colombians participate in politics, that is, only four out of 10 compatriots decide the future of all the rest. We know many of them sell their votes, or change it for small favors. It is urgent that 60 percent of absentees make presence and be respected."
Timo presented further facts: "Millions of Colombians lack minimum possibilities of getting ahead. The peasants migrate to the cities swelling misery while the large agro-industrial export projects multiply profit. The profiteers blame the poor: “The fault is in the poor’s laziness.”
A voice of hope resounded as he said: "It’s a collective struggle for survival, for a dignified life. We are an immense stream of women and men dreaming a better future."
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He vowed to break the present logic in politics that enriches oneself with the people’s money.
“The FARC arrives to inaugurate a new way of politics that puts people at the center of the state.”
The FARC leader reminded: “We obtained the right to make politics with full guarantees of our life and freedom. Despite the guarantee, persecution does not stop.” He cited murder of more than 50 and imprisonment of more than 500 of his comrades.
The former guerrilla leader added: “Only by liberating the state from the hands of the elites can the poor have a future. Colombia needs a new policy that puts emphasis on the working people, on their dignity, on their economic, social, political and cultural rehabilitation.”
He stated: “Our party does not present a magic formula of salvation. We propose a general awakening, in the sense that changing things is possible. Politics will be transformed into a noble activity, when ordinary Colombians will be its real protagonists.”
He explained: “If we do not get engaged with politics, we will always be dominated by the minority that deals with it. We offer ourselves for organization and unity of the people. We are the Colombians who left everything to fight for the people. We risk everything, even life, to change the reality in people’s favor.”
The FARC leader said: “There is no peace with hunger; we are going to fight it. Every Colombian has the right to a dignified life, and a Vital Income of Existence; and we will guarantee it. No Colombian’s work go unrecognized. Domestic work will be recognized with economic retribution. This invisible and silent work of so many mothers deserves a payment.”
He said: “We do not want a country of hatreds and resentments. We want a reconciled country, which debates in a civilized way. To achieve this, we will make effort to practice science, art and culture. Sport and recreation are rights, not luxuries. Efforts will be made to materialize this.
He said: Enough of the death strolls. The people need health centers, housing, schools, power, roads and other transportation systems, water system. These require a great national effort, in which the armed forces can contribute. Health, a vital right, is not a business for private capital. The class that governs Colombia has converted health care into a business of private capital. Education should be public and free.”
The FARC leader said: “We stand for a government that will represent the interests of the poor, will work for them without any truce; equitable redistribution of the product of national labor; fighting corruption; obtaining the resources that the poor require to live with dignity;
never allowing the state to serve the richest; an effective change from war and violence to a state of peace, reconciliation and social justice that ends the murderous hand in politics; and opposing traditional politics.”
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The revolutionary leader said: “Colombia requires a true democracy. May the voice of those below, those poor people who have never been counted, never been heard and never been allowed to decide their future, that their clamor for social justice be echoed, that their defense of their rights as women, as sexual diversity, for water and healthy environment, be taken care of and remedied.”
He cited Colombia’s great poet Carlos Castro Saavedra’s dream of villages, “where lives shine brighter than weapons, where freedom enters homes with bread, with beautiful letter, where the people meet, where we can say: we have a homeland.”
But, the forces of exploitation and privilege are intensifying their assaults.
The FARC National Political Council said on Jan. 27 in Bogota that “the FARC is against all forms of violence. FARC was born out of the country’s greatest effort to obtain peace. The party defends peace.”
But the question that haunts us is, “Shall the blood-thirsty rightists allow people to participate in political process?”
Note: Londoño's speech has been edited and recast without distorting his message. Farooque Chowdhury writes from Dhaka.
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