Declaration from Cali 6th May 2021

POLITICAL DECLARATION

Gathered on 6 May 2020 in auditorium 5 of the Universidad del Valle in the city of Cali, delegations from the concentration points of Calipso, Puerto Resistencia, Meléndez, Guapi, Siloe, Sameco, la Luna, Paso del Comercio, Loma de la Cruz, Univalle, Sindicatos, Portada del mar, CRIC, Minga Indígena, UP, Univalle Unida, Indigebous Cabildo at Valle University, ACONC (Association of Community Councils of Northern Cauca), Colombia Communist Party, Citizens in Movement (Ciudad en Movimiento), Sintraunicol, Youth Platform (Plataforma Municipal de Juventudes), TUC Valle (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores CUT Valle), the Strike Command for Cauca Valley Department (Comando Departamental de Paro Valle del Cauca) and other organisations, declare:

1. The current National Strike and its social and political mobilisation in Colombia, Valle del Cauca and the city of Cali is due to the explosion of popular discontent resulting from years of exclusion and structural inequality in Colombia, exacerbated by the uribista government, recognising that the Tax Reform was the spark that ignited popular indignation in the country and in the city.
2. It is recognised that in Cali and in Valle del Cauca there is no unified leadership of the STRIKE, that there are multiple social and popular expressions in all the points of concentration; for this reason it is recognised as a fundamental task to generate a coordination of the political, social and mobilisation between all the social, popular, youth and neighbourhood organisations, the communities at each point of concentration in Cali and the Indigenous Minga.
3. We warn that the Duque government intends to undermine the social mobilisation and disarticulate the National Strike with the invitation to multiple sectoral, trade union and local negotiating talks in order to atomise the strike and make it lose strength. Therefore, we warn the social and popular sectors not to fall into this trap and to build a single space of collective, plural and democratic coordination of the mobilisation in Cali that manages to condense a Unitary Statement of Demands.
4. It is mandated to establish a humanitarian corridor or cordon in Cali and Valle that allows the supply of food, medical missions, humanitarian aid, petrol and medical supplies in order to avoid shortages. This humanitarian cordon must be coordinated with minimum guarantees of non-repression of the points in the opening to humanitarian caravans.
5. It is identified as a priority task to make a common front against disinformation to stop the channels of disinformation, which seek to position the idea that in Cali the mobilisation is taken over by delinquency and that there is a hidden agenda, it is necessary to clarify that the people have responded to the repressive actions of the state security forces.
6. We unanimously reject the irresponsible declarations of the mayor of Cali Jorge Iván Ospina that play into the hands of the ultra-right-wing uribista and neo-Nazi theory of a dissipated molecular war or a ‘wasp’ operation, that denies the political character of the mobilisation.
7. We propose to the whole city convenes Popular Assemblies at each point of concentration that will allow us to come together in a great popular and citizens’ assembly of Cali, where we unify all the demands and build a single political and programmatic roadmap.
8. We call on the National Strike Command to open it up to genuine representations of the popular movement and to set the first negotiating talks with DUQUE in the city of CALI, as it is the territory that has been hardest hit and has seen the greatest resistance and mobilisation during the NATIONAL STRIKE.

POLITICAL AND UNITARY DEMANDS.

A preliminary list of demands is created to be discussed and nurtured in all the Popular Assemblies of all mobilisation points in Cali and social sectors.

National Demands.

Policies

1. Urgently and immediately withdraw the military from all cities in the country.
2. Guarantees must be given for peaceful mobilisation.
3. Withdraw military forces from the streets of Colombia, whose participation according to the IACHR (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) should be extraordinary, subordinate, complementary, regulated and supervised
4. Reform the Police and dismantle ESMAD
5. That there be a public apology for the deaths caused by the security forces during the mobilisation days of the National Strike, which began on 28 April 2021.
6. Implementation of the Peace Accord, which generates guarantees that the assassination of social leaders, signatories of the peace agreement and communities will cease.
7. Immediate resignation of the Minister of Defence from Zapateiro, the commander of the armed forces.

Labour

1. Withdraw the health, labour and pension reform bills.
2. Withdraw Bill 010 that threatens employment stability and elimination of decree 1174 that legalises hiring by the hour.
3. Eliminate life-long salaries, reduce the salaries of the president and vice-president of the Republic, senators, representatives, governors, deputies and mayors.

Economic

1. Repeal the 2019 Tax Reform and especially the (50%) discounts to ICA (Industry and Commerce) legal entities for the payment of corporation tax.
2. Universal Basic Income will be guaranteed for all persons and households in conditions of poverty and vulnerability.
3. Assistance for small traders and smallholders. Debt cancellation
4. Grants for the unemployed.
5. Housing for the people and debt cancellation for tenants
6. Control of speculation in vital supplies.

CULTURAL – EDUCATION

1. Free education and refurbishment of schools and universities to resume face-to-face education.
2. Increased investment in middle, basic and secondary education.
3. Fulfilment of the agreements on universal zero enrolment education
4. More study places for university students.
5. Day and night care for early childhood and children in need

HEALTH

1. Purchase of Covid-19 vaccines and acceleration of vaccinations.

LEGAL

1. Commitment not to take judicial, criminal or disciplinary proceedings against all those who took part in the National Strike in the country, including the front line, and the immediate release of all political detainees
2. Justice for all state crimes in the framework of the National Strike and that those responsible do not go before the military criminal justice system
3. Information and return of the disappeared and detained.
4. Reparation for victims and families of the strike (rapes, dead, wounded, disappeared, captured).
5. Guarantees that social leaders will not be assassinated.

ENVIRONMENTAL

1. Responsibility of the state and companies for the environmental liabilities that exist in the northern part of the Cauca as a result of mining, monoculture and industrialisation.

SOCIAL

1. Food for out-of-town places (GUAPI)
2. Fulfilment of the agreements signed with the black communities of the north of the Cauca ACONC
3. Corporate social responsibility in free trade zones in the north of the Cauca, in terms of social investment, employability agreements and impact mitigation.
4. Intervention of roads in the north of the Cauca.

Requirements for the city of CALI.

1. Demilitarise Cali.
2. Establish a standing commission [literally table] that guarantees a dignified life and non-repetition of violence in CALI
3. That a truth commission establishes what happened in all the places where state crimes were committed during the day of mobilisation of the national strike
4. Mayor Jorge Iván Ospina and Governor Clara Luz Roldan should apologise for their complicit silence, and name and shame the institutions he calls “death hawks”, and file a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office
5. Protect and guarantee the right to protest in Cali
6. Immediate release of all detainees and for the disappeared to be found.

ACTIONS AND TIMETABLE OF STRUGGLE IN CALI

1. A press conference will be held on Friday 7 May at 9 am at SAMECO, where this communiqué will be made known to the country and to public opinion.

2. On the 7 and 8 of May, popular and citizen assemblies will be held in all the concentration points in CALI, which will have as a base document for discussion the present political declaration and in which an agenda of a) Context of the Strike, b) Negotiation agenda (national and CALI) and c) mobilisation agenda will be proposed.

3. On Sunday 9 May, 2021, a Great Popular and Citizen Assembly of CALI will be held from 8am at the University of Valle Meléndez, in which the political declarations of the assemblies of each point and sector will be worked on.

4. On Monday 10 May, the Great March of a Million People will take place in CALI at 10am, from each point of mobilisation to the Governor’s Office of Valle del Cauca, where the Unitary Statement of Demands of CALI will be presented. This mobilisation will have a massive, family, artistic and civic character in support of the NATIONAL Civic Strike.

STOP TO ADVANCE, LONG LIVE THE NATIONAL STRIKE!