An Open Letter to UAW International President Rory Gamble, UAW Secretary-Treasurer Ray Curry, and UAW Local 2069 President Matt Blondino

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/05/21/vrfc-m21.html




Volvo Workers Rank-and-File Committee
21 May 2021







The following is an open letter written by the Volvo Workers Rank-and-File Committee (VWRFC) at the New River Valley Plant in Dublin, Virginia to UAW International President Rory Gamble, UAW Secretary-Treasurer Ray Curry, and UAW Local 2069 President Matt Blondino. Volvo workers can contact the VWRFC at volvowrfc@gmail.com or text to (540) 307-0509‬.

On Sunday May 16, we the workers at Volvo Truck in Dublin, Virginia voted down the tentative agreement you brought back and asked us to approve. The result was not even close. We packed the union hall to vote by 91 percent against the toilet paper you called a contract.

Despite your arrogant predictions that the contract would pass “by 60 percent,” the opinion of rank-and-file workers was loud and clear. All of us, core and non-core, skilled trades, assembly and salaried workers, said with a resounding voice: “No!”

Volvo Truck workers last month [Source: UAW 2069]

Your TA came after a series of rotten maneuvers. Before you began your “negotiations” with the company, you carried out a survey supposedly to find out what workers wanted, which you simply ignored. Then you called us out on a strike without proposing any demands that we were fighting for.

On April 30, you abruptly declared that the strike was over and that a tentative agreement was reached. You sent us back to work after two weeks of sacrifice on the picket lines without having a chance to look at, let alone vote on, the agreement.

Then followed the lies and bullying: Rosy “highlights” that painted over a rotten sell-out combined with threats that this was the best we could get. Only by demanding the contract details did we learn anything real about the agreement, and once we learned what you had really done, we swiftly and decisively rejected it.

Now you are carrying out a new “survey” of workers while we remain on the job stockpiling trucks for Volvo. No doubt you intend to send this survey to the same place you sent the last one—into the trash.

So that there be no mistake, we, the rank-and-file workers of Volvo, make the following declaration:

First, we will not accept any contract that is negotiated behind closed doors. All negotiations must be supervised by a representative of the rank-and-file workers. We will not accept another contract proposal cooked up behind our backs, for the simple reason that this would only produce another sellout.

Second, we outline here the minimal basis for an agreement that workers will accept:
A 25 percent across-the-board wage increase to restore income lost over the last three contracts.


Maintain current health insurance rates and coverage.


Fully paid health care benefits for retirees, with no copays or premiums.


End the multi-tier wage system and transfer all workers to top-tier pay and benefits.


Eliminate the Alternative Work Schedule and keep current overtime rules.


Implement a COLA clause to meet the soaring prices of consumer goods.


Five personal days for all workers, not just salary workers.


A $3,500 contract ratification bonus.

We are not interested in hearing talk about how the company cannot “afford” these demands. Even in the midst of our strike, Volvo reported $1 billion in profits in the first three months of 2021 alone. The stock price has doubled in the past 12 months. Martin Lundstedt, the CEO, makes $51 million a year.

Third, any resumption of strike activity cannot be used to starve us into submission in order to get us to agree to the same deal we already defeated. Strikers must be provided with full income for the duration of, and from the beginning of, any strike, paid for from the $700 million UAW strike fund that has been built up with our dues money.

Fourth, we will not accept another attempt to force a contract through with lies and threats. Any new agreement must be provided in full to all workers with two weeks for us to review and discuss before a vote.

The company is already saying that it is “confident” that “both sides” in this dispute can reach an agreement. But let us be clear: One of these sides is us, the rank-and-file workers of Volvo. It is our lives and livelihoods at stake. We have mouths to feed, bills to pay, and children to educate.

These are not requests but demands. And we are prepared to fight for them.

Sincerely,

The Volvo Workers Rank-and-File Committee

To all Volvo workers:

We cannot fight for our interests if we don’t have our own organization that is accountable to us, not to the company or the UAW officials. The Volvo Workers Rank-and-File Committee is this organization!

Join the VWRFC! Email us at volvowrfc@gmail.com or text to (540) 307-0509‬.

Republicans block investigation into January 6 attack

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/05/21/pers-m21.html




Patrick Martin
20 May 2021







The US House of Representatives passed a resolution Wednesday calling for the establishment of a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 attack on Congress. The bill passed the House by a vote of 252 to 175, but Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and other top Republicans declared their determination to block the passage of the bill in the upper chamber.

At least 10 Republican senators would have to join the 50 Democrats to overcome a filibuster against the bill, and only a handful have indicated they would support the bill after ex-President Donald Trump—the instigator of the January 6 coup attempt—demanded that congressional Republicans block the proposal.

The U.S. Capitol is seen as national guard members pass by on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)




It was Trump who invited the fascist mob to Washington on January 6 for a rally outside the White House, then gave a speech urging them to march on the Capitol and fight for him. At the Capitol, they broke through police lines that had been deliberately weakened and stormed into the building seeking to halt the congressional certification of the Electoral College votes that gave Democrat Joe Biden a sizable victory.

The pro-Trump attackers chanted in support of hanging Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, because he was presiding over the joint session of Congress. They voiced their desire to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats. The violence of the attack was such that 140 Capitol police were injured.

These events took place only 135 days ago, but already there is a concerted effort to bury them, to dismiss their significance, even to purge them from the collective memory of the American public. This was epitomized by the Republican House backbencher, Andrew Clyde, who declared that what transpired on January 6 was nothing more than a “normal tourist visit.” (There are photos from that day of Clyde joining other representatives in desperately barricading the House chamber against the attacking mob.)

The Democratic-led effort to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 attack is not, however, a genuine effort to expose the forces involved in the attempted coup d’état. That is demonstrated by the constant invocation of the 9/11 Commission, by Speaker Pelosi and other leading Democrats, as the model for the probe they wish to conduct.

The 9/11 Commission was an official whitewash of the events of September 11, 2001, which deliberately concealed the connections between US intelligence agencies and the Al Qaeda hijackers, who were permitted to enter the United States, enroll in flight schools, and prepare their coordinated assault, even as the CIA and FBI tracked their movements and did nothing to interfere.

The mindless excuse of “failure to connect the dots” was advanced to disguise the reality that the military-intelligence apparatus allowed the attacks to go forward because this served a definite strategic goal: creating a political climate in the United States in which the projection of American military power into the Middle East and Central Asia could be carried out, through the invasions first of Afghanistan and then Iraq.

If anything, the proposed January 6 Commission will be an even greater exercise in political cover-up, since the party that incited the attack—with baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen—would be given equal say in the conduct of the investigation. It is as though, in the aftermath of a multimillion-dollar bank robbery, when the gunmen were brought to trial, the getaway driver and the lookouts were seated in the jury!

As usual in the operation of the American two-party system, the Democrats pleaded endlessly with the Republicans, made one concession after another, only to have the Republicans arrogantly denounce the final result of the negotiations as insufficient. Thus, Pelosi conceded equal numbers on the commission, although the Democrats have majorities in both houses of Congress, and no subpoenas to be issued without Republican approval.

But after Friday’s announced agreement between the Democratic chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee and the Republican ranking member, who had been delegated by Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to work out the deal, the Republicans reneged on it in a matter of days.

As late as Monday, May 17, the House and Senate Minority Whips, Representative Steve Scalise and Senator John Thune, indicated that the Republicans were not seeking to block the establishment of a bipartisan commission. On Tuesday, however, came the intervention of ex-President Trump, who issued a statement denouncing the proposed commission and demanding, by name, that McCarthy and McConnell shut down all discussion of it.

McCarthy, evidently tipped off in advance from Mar-a-Lago, had already issued a statement Tuesday morning declaring his opposition. McConnell was still professing himself “undecided” about whether to back the commission and “willing to listen” to the proposal. But on Wednesday, hours after Trump’s statement was made public, McConnell announced himself flatly opposed to what he called “the House Democrats’ slanted and unbalanced proposal.”

The Democratic response during the debate on the House floor was to attack the Republicans from the right. Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan denounced the Republican position as “a slap in the face to every rank-and-file cop in the United States” because they opposed a bipartisan investigation of people “hitting the Capitol Police with lead pipes across the head.” He added, for good measure, that abandoning bipartisanship undermined the position of the United States “if we’re gonna take on China.”

Such comments are not only reactionary, they are a diversion from the central issue posed by the January 6 events. The fascist attack on Congress was an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, in which 81 million people voted for Biden, and to keep Donald Trump in the White House as a dictator in all but name.

While spearheaded by fascist groups like the Proud Boys, the attack was only possible because of a systematic stand-down by the massive military and police apparatus that surrounds the seat of the American government, including tens of thousands of National Guard and Army troops. One of the most critical aspects of the coup attempt was the deliberate delay in the deployment of these forces to the Capitol, despite appeals by congressional leaders and even Vice President Mike Pence that they be mobilized.

A critical role was played by Trump’s appointees at the Pentagon, acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller and Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who controlled the activities of the D.C. National Guard and for three hours and 19 minutes (199 minutes) rebuffed pleas from the Guard commander, General William Walker, that he be allowed to send his troops to rescue those besieged in the Capitol.

In a statement published March 5, 2021, the WSWS explained:


The events of January 6 were far from a surprise. For months prior to the insurrection, there was an ongoing political crisis during which the president of the United States made clear that he would not accept the peaceful transfer of power. The intelligence agencies and military were well aware of the plans and threats targeting the date of January 6, in particular.

Rather, a decision was made not to act as a definite political strategy was implemented. For more than three hours, the fascistic groups had virtual free rein over the Capitol building. The militarily trained elements within the rioters knew that they were being given time to seek out hostages among the Senators and Representatives.

In that event, Trump would have declared a state of emergency, shut down Congress, delayed indefinitely the certification of Biden’s victory, and opened negotiations that would have resulted, in one form or another, in a Democratic capitulation to the continuation of his presidency. The military only stepped in and secured the Capitol after it became clear that the attack had failed to achieve its objectives and Trump had publicly called it off.

The WSWS statement drew the following conclusion:


No investigation carried out under the auspices of the Democratic Party will serve to expose the forces involved in the conspiracy. As a party of Wall Street and the military itself, the Democrats are terrified of the political and social consequences of the revelations.

The one hundred and ninety-nine minutes of January 6 are a warning. As serious as the event was itself, no less significant is the response. Democratic rights cannot be entrusted to any faction of the ruling class or its political representatives. The working class cannot be left unprepared for the next stage. It must organize itself independently, on the basis of its own program, in opposition to the capitalist system.

The impending demise of the Democrats’ political fig leaf of a bipartisan commission into January 6 only further vindicates this assessment.

China: demographic crisis?

Michael Roberts




https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2021/05/23/china-demographic-crisis/




Much has been made recently of the slowdown in population growth in China. China’s population grew at its slowest rate in decades in the ten years to 2020, according to the latest census data, which also showed that births declined sharply last year. The nation’s once-in-a-decade census, which was completed in December, showed its population increased to 1.41bn in 2020 compared with 1.4bn a year earlier. The population grew just 5.4% from 1.34bn in 2010 — the lowest rate of increase between censuses since the People’s Republic of China began collecting data in 1953. Those over-65s now make up 13.5% of the population, compared with 8.9% in 2010 when the last census was completed.

This has led many China observers and Western economists to argue that China’s phenomenal growth rate that has taken over 850m Chinese out of poverty (as officially defined) is now over. The argument is that living standards have only risen for the average Chinese because China brought its huge workforce from the land and into the factories in the cities to produce goods for exports at low prices. Now with an ageing population and falling working-age population, China’s economy will flag. Given falling working population, along with an intensifying campaign by the US and its Western allies to isolate China economically and technically, China’s growth story is over.

But is that true? Real GDP growth depends on two factors: more employment and more productivity per worker. If it is true that China’s workforce is not going to rise but even fall over the next decades, that means sustaining economic growth depends on raising the rate of productivity growth.

In a previous post, I have argued against the sceptics who reckon that China cannot achieve growth rates of say 5-6% a year over the remainder of this decade, or more than twice the rates forecast for the major capitalist economies (the US Congressional Budget Office forecasts just 1.8% a year for the US).

For a start, while China’s labour productivity growth rate has declined in the last decade, it was still averaging over 6% a year before the pandemic struck. That compares with just 0.9% a year in the advanced capitalist economies. Even if you accept the revisions made by The Conference Board to China’s productivity record (which I don’t: – see the post above), China still achieved an over 4% a year productivity growth in the last decade, some four times faster than in the advanced capitalist economies.

So even if the labour force does not grow in this decade (or even decline by say 0.5% a year), real GDP growth in China is still going to be at a minimum of 3.5% a year, and much more likely to be 5-6% a year, close to the Chinese government’s forecast in its latest five-year plan.

Ah, but you see, China cannot maintain previous productivity growth rates because its economy is badly imbalanced, so the latest argument of Western China ‘experts’ goes. What is this imbalance? Well, up to now China has grown fast partly because of its labour supply (which is no longer rising) and partly because of massive investment, led by the state sector, in industry, infrastructure and technology.

But now, continued expansion of investment can only be achieved by credit injections and rising debt. And that lays the basis for either poor productivity growth or a debt crisis, or both in the next decade. The answer, according to these experts, is that China should reduce its investment ratio (successful in boosting the economy) and switch to raising consumption and expanding service industries.

You might ask, how successful have capitalist economies been while their investment ratios have fallen back and consumption has dominated? Not at all. So this all smacks of the crude Keynesian view that it is consumption that drives investment and growth, not vice versa. And behind this is also the ideological aim to reduce China’s state sector domination and push for a service sector dominated by capitalist enterprises (including foreign ones), particularly in banking and finance.

I have presented the arguments against this consumption model in a previous post on China, so I won’t repeat them here. Suffice it to say that they don’t hold water. Indeed, as Arthur Kroeber, head of research at Gavekal Dragonomics, has put it: “Is China fading? In a word, no. China’s economy is in good shape, and policymakers are exploiting this strength to tackle structural issues such as financial leverage, internet regulation and their desire to make technology the main driver of investment.” Kroeber echoes my view (as above) that: “On a two-year average basis, China is growing at about 5 per cent, while the US is well under 1 per cent. By the end of 2021 the US should be back around its pre-pandemic trend of 2.5 per cent annual growth. Over the next several years, China will probably keep growing at nearly twice the US rate.”

So there is no reason for China to abandon its growth model based on state-led investment in technology to compensate for the decline its workforce.

It has been the reason for its high productivity growth compared to the West in the last few decades and will continue to be so, as long as the government does not buckle to the siren words of the Western experts. Those siren words have already led to the further opening-up of the financial sector to foreign companies and an increasing reliance of portfolio capital flows (namely financial investment) rather than productive investment. Since 2017, foreign investors have tripled their holdings of Chinese bonds and now own about 3.5 per cent of the market. Equity inflows have been comparable. That makes for an increased risk of a financial bust and damage to China’s productivity performance.

The move to investment in technology rather than heavy industry and infrastructure is key to China’s sustainable growth rate and to reducing the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, where China is now the world leader.

According to a recent report by Goldman Sachs, China’s digital economy is already large, accounting for almost 40% of GDP and fast growing, contributing more than 60% of GDP growth in recent years. “And there is ample room for China to further digitalize its traditional sectors”. China’s IT share of GDP climbed from 2.1% in 2011Q1 to 3.8% in 2021Q1. Although China still lags the US, Europe, Japan and South Korea in its IT share of GDP, the gap has been narrowing over time. No wonder, the US and other capitalist powers are intensifying their efforts to contain China’s technological expansion.

Asian, Black, and Palestinian Protesters Unite Against Militarized Police, Occupation

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n-ROYZUC7Y

Prof. Richard Wolff On Credit, New Money, And The Road To Fascism

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRVZRIWL-Zk

‘THE HAMAS’ ARE COMING: A VIEW OF THE VIOLENCE FROM INSIDE ISRAEL

By Miko Peled, MintPress News.

May 22, 2021




https://popularresistance.org/the-hamas-are-coming-a-view-of-the-violence-from-inside-israel/



There Are Never Palestinians, Never People, Only “The Hamas.”

The Hamas thinks;” “The Hamas believes;” “The Hamas should know;” “When the Hamas understands, he will stop;” and finally, “When The Hamas is hit hard he will never dare to attack Israel again.”

**Occupied Jerusalem — After less than 48 hours in Jerusalem, it’s clear to me that the slaughter in Gaza will not end anytime soon. There is broad popular support in Israel for the endless bloodshed and Benjamin Netanyahu is as strong as ever both domestically and internationally.

According to the Israeli press, Netanyahu and his cabinet all received calls from President Joe Biden and members of his cabinet demonstrating their undying, never-ending, and unconditional support for the bloodletting of Palestinians. As hard as this is to see — particularly from Jerusalem, where I am less than an hour drive from Gaza — there should be no surprise.

When Joe Biden says he is a Zionist, he means he supports apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine. It means that he will give unlimited money and weapons to Israel to execute the cruelest, bloodiest, most racist policies against the Palestinians, no questions asked.
“The Hamas”

All morning long (and it’s only 9 a.m.) the Israeli TV (all channels) displays guests of expert panelists, former IDF generals, and colonels (who knew there were so many?) who spew lies to excuse, justify, and even glorify the IDF actions in Gaza.

“We all support the IDF and its commanders,” they say as reports of more death and destruction come out of the Gaza Strip. There was some memo no doubt that told everyone on TV to say “The Hamas” whenever they talk about Palestinians in Gaza.

There are never Palestinians, never people, only “The Hamas” — and “The Hamas” is, by the way, male and singular (in Hebrew). “The Hamas thinks;” “The Hamas believes;” “The Hamas should know;” “When the Hamas understands, he will stop;” and finally, “When The Hamas is hit hard he will never dare to attack Israel again.”

Needless to say, none of the panelists are Palestinians. Instead, Israeli news programs have their “Arab Affair” experts on, their “The Hamas” experts, and their experts on the “Arab community in Israel.”

Israeli Jews know enough to analyze, explain and mostly justify Israeli violence against Palestinians everywhere, yet nowhere does one hear that the indigenous people of Palestine — the people to whom this country belongs, and who have been wronged in so many ways — are speaking up.
Regular People — Enormous Suffering

This morning I received an email from a friend in East Jerusalem. In this email, she poses a question that is perhaps impossible to answer:


Yesterday my youngest grandson who turned 15 at the beginning of this month was walking in our neighborhood towards the barbershop to have a haircut when he was stopped by 10 soldiers who beat him up before letting him go. Why? Can anybody who has any common sense answer me? There were no demonstrations, and the people in our neighborhood were going about their own business. The soldiers were in their full gear and were not in any danger.”

How can one explain the actions of armed, racist gangs who wear an official uniform, who represent the State and use their power and status and weapons to beat and intimidate people who want to live a normal life? It is not unlike trying to understand the actions of former Minneapolis police officer and now inmate Derek Chauvin, who calmly and coldly murdered George Floyd in broad daylight, in front of people holding cameras and taking videos. Can a rational, healthy mind explain any of this?
General Strike

A general strike was declared in Palestine on May 18 and the subsequent rallies and protests that took place throughout Palestine left several Palestinians dead and wounded. In advance of the strike, some Israeli employers already said that any Palestinian not showing for work that day would be fired. About one-third of the Israeli economy relies heavily on the Palestinian citizens of Israel. In Israeli hospitals, large numbers of doctors, nurses, and maintenance staff are Palestinian citizens of Israel. They have the capacity to bring the hospitals and the Israeli economy to its knees.

It was reported that the supervisor for Palestinian schools within 1948 Palestine in the Northern District already requested the names of any teachers who did not show up for work in Qalasawe and Taibe, two large Palestinian cities. According to Israeli law, the firing of an employee must be done in person and the employee may have a representative and the various unions to provide legal representation free of charge. The big question mark remains: Will Palestinian citizens of Israel be able to avail themselves of this service and this law?

I was also warned by friends that when I come to visit people anywhere in the area of the “Small Triangle” — or the cities of Qalansawe, Taibe, and Tira — to come during the day. After dark, I was warned, the roads are closed because of protests and the police arrest, beat up, and shoot indiscriminately.
Jerusalem

Towards the end of the 1967 Israeli assault on Arab lands, the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem was occupied by Israel, including the Old City and the al-Aqsa Mosque. This assault had enormous consequences and in Israeli collective memory there is one sentence that is the most iconic of the entire war. When the Haram al-Sharif was taken by Israeli forces, the commander reported “Har Ha’bait Beyadeinu” — The Temple Mount is in our hands. The most iconic photo from that war is that of the conquering soldiers by the Western Wall.

The commander, Mordechai Gur, was not a religious man. His soldiers were not religious people and in those days one did not see the religious Zionists that one sees in Israel today. This comment was made because even secular Israelis look at the Haram al-Sharif — the al-Aqsa compound — and believe it should be used as a national symbol, a place that represents something that Israel lost and deserves to take back. And so, the desire to see al-Aqsa destroyed and a structure they call a temple built instead is not merely a religious sentiment but a neo-fascist and nationalistic one as well.

Violence, racism, neo-fascist attitudes, and a toxic mix of religion and nationality make Zionism very dangerous. From Gaza to al-Aqsa, from the Naqab in the south to the Wadi Ara in the north, we are seeing the dangerous elements of Zionism at work.

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES IN COLOMBIA

By Gearóid Ó Loingsigh, Left Voice.

May 22, 2021




https://popularresistance.org/the-struggle-continues-in-colombia/



Colombia’s Wave Of Protests Continues Unabated.

This is a first hand account from a comrade living in Colombia.

Colombia’s wave of protests continues unabated. On May 12th, there were massive demonstrations throughout the country, indicating that the movement shows no immediate signs of waning.

Between the last national mobilisation and this one there were numerous smaller protests around Bogotá and some big ones in other cities. It is clear from these demonstrations how popular the revolt is. Walking back from the north of the city, I encountered just such a demonstration a few days ago, one of many throughout the city that day. What struck me was the number of cars, motorbikes, and commercial vehicles sounding their horns in support. A Coca Cola supply lorry even joined in.

At 6.40 PM, after sunset the Police attacked what can only be described as revellers — the protest was over and they were just enjoying themselves. Elsewhere in the city, in working class neighborhoods, such as Las Americas, people stood their ground against the repression, applying lessons learnt from Chilean front-line youth, who crafted homemade shields to protect themselves from stun grenades and other missiles launched by the police.

Since the uprisings began, state violence has not eased. The indigenous organisation CRIC (Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca) joined in the protests in Cali and were shot at by armed paramilitaries, some of whom were quite brazen about it. In Pereira, Lucas Vila, a young student, was shot dead. Videos of him from the days preceeding his murder circulated on the internet showing how he spoke with members of the community on buses and public transportation explaining the reasons for the strike. This is a common practice here. There were other videos of him dancing and even greeting cops. His good nature didn’t stop the police shooting him dead. Medical missions in Cali, which provide first aid to injured protestors, were shot at with live rounds also.

This violence follows on from the call by former president and the man pulling the strings of Duque, to militarise the situation and called on people to “defend” themselves. However, the threats of violence and use of live rounds has not deterred protestors so far. If anything the sense of injustice amongst the youth has grown. People have never had a favorable opinion of the police, but this seems like a turning point in that relationship. In 2019, in Bogotá the police tortured Javier Ordóñez to death. In the ensuing protests, a further fourteen people were shot dead and numerous police stations in Bogotá were burned to the ground, even in some middle class areas. Now, these state murders are happening around the country, with a heavy concentration in working class areas of Cali. It is clear to most that this is the new normal. Colombia has long been governed by murderous elites and the danger of them responding with the full force of the state’s official and unofficial murder squads is never far from the surface.

One of the great strengths of the current rebellion is that it is very spontaneous and organised at a local level. However, that is also one of its weaknesses, as it does not have a national or even regional unified leadership. The Comando Nacional del Paro (National Strike Command) is the public face of something it does not control. Comments by youth are quite clear — this body represents no one. It’s most useful purpose has been to set the dates for the major national demonstrations. However, this lack of real leadership saw right wing figures like Sergio Fajardo and his new turncoat allies such as Jorge Robledo and Angela Robledo (running as a liberal feminist for next year’s presidential elections) try to usurp the leadership and negotiate an end to the protests. Even more left-wing politicians such as the former mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Petro, had initially called for the strike to end, following Duque’s withdrawal of the tax reform. But no one was buying it and he has let his proposal die the ignominious death it deserves.

Duque is desperately trying to find a solution short of stepping down. He even invited the sister of Dilan Cruz, murdered by cops in Bogotá in 2019, to take part in a dialogue. She refused. Like many, she knows what grandstanding looks like. When her brother was murdered, Claudia López, mayor of Bogotá, turned up at a vigil and tried to use their grief to her own political advantage, even though as mayor of the city, she has ultimate control of the police.

The calls for dialogue and an end to the protests and the attempts to portray the temporary withdrawal of the tax measure as a definitive victory have only led to more demands. These include the full and complete end of the tax reform, the health reform, and the pension reform. As one placard held aloft in the protests said “It is not just the tax reform. It is everything.” There is a long history of Colombian governments “negotiating” deals and then when the protests have died down, not implementing them. Just in the last few decades they have done hundreds of such agreements with regional movements that were never or only partially implemented.

Duque is on the ropes and the people know it. Colombia’s elite and the reformist left are fearful of the outcome. In Colombia, there is no history of mass movements forcing presidents to resign. It is not something the average Colombian thought they could do, unlike in other Latin American countries that have some experience of this. The last thing the elite want is people to feel that this can be done, as it would set a precedent for the future. One of the most oppressive regimes in Latin America has always been able to forcefully deal with revolt through violence and buy off the leadership. They don’t want people to see an alternative to that tired old formula.

Those reading this might wonder what can be done from afar. There are a number of things including a blockade of Colombian coal and coffee beans. Workers in Europe and the U.S., where most of these exports are shipped, should refuse to unload them.