People hold posters in support of Colombia's President Gustavo Petro during a rally backing his proposed reforms at the Bolivar Square in Bogota, Colombia, September 19, 2024
COLOMBIA’S first left-wing government is battling to deliver reforms and peace in the teeth of entrenched opposition from the ruling class, Labour delegates heard on Tuesday evening.
Visiting Colombian Congressman Alirio Uribe described the ambitious social projects of the Gustavo Petro administration, including redistribution of land to poor farmers, lifting 1.6 million people out if extreme poverty and rolling out public healthcare.
Above all it was committed to a complex peace process, not just involving rehabilitating former guerillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), which disarmed in 2017, but ongoing talks with left-wing militias which are still fighting (like the ELN) and right-wing paramilitary and mafia groups such as the Gulf Clan.
CWU leader DAVE WARD tells Ben Chacko a strategy to unite workers on class lines is needed – and sectoral collective bargaining must be at its heart
Morning Star editor Ben Chacko speaks to JON FARLEY – the retired headteacher whose arrest in Leeds exposes the grim absurdity of the Palestine Action ban
