‘At the root of the misery of the cane cutters and their families is the loss of land ownership.The pursuit of “green technology,” the conversion of sugarcane and palm oil to the bio-fuel, ethanol, has led to this displacement of Afro-Columbians from their traditional lands.’

When negotiations failed, the impoverished workers, now operating as the Movimiento de Coteros de Cana de Junio 14, shocked the land owners by striking on Sept. 15 and holding out until some concessions were granted on December 4, 2008.

     NEWS ANALYSIS    

At the root of the misery of the cane cutters and their families is the loss of land ownership.The pursuit of “green technology,” the conversion of sugarcane and palm oil to the bio-fuel, ethanol, has led to this displacement of Afro-Columbians from their traditional lands.

Bio-fuel is often promoted as a means of saving America and other Western nations from total dependency on oil controlled by non-Western nations, and being environmental friendly at the same time.

However, according to investigative reports by human rights groups, Columbia's bio-fuel production means economic and physical displacement of indigenous people, reduction of arable land, promotion of mono-crops that destroy the soil, defilement of sacred, spiritual areas critical to the culture of the people, severe health issues from the contamination of air, water and soil by chemical fumigation and the burning of sugarcane fields, and, most of all, the reduction of people to a subtle form of modern day slavery.

The rich soil of Valle de Cauca, a section of the state of Cali, has attracted the agro-businesses in pursuit of sugarcane and palm oil plantations.This is also where the highest concentration of Columbia's Black population live on lands passed down from ancestors.A progressive law exists, “Ley 70,” which states Afro-Columbians can collectively title their land, are guaranteed sustainable development of their land, the right to be consulted on development projects that may affect their land use and the right to be free of discrimination.

The guarantees exists just as the United States Constitution has guarantees for all of its citizens, but, discrimination against Afro-Columbians is common and, “the Columbian government finds ways to not enforce the points of “Ley 70 and sell the land from under the Afro-Columbians,” says Janvieve Williams Comrie, executive director of a human rights organization, the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center, based in Atlanta.“The corporations then come to the area to negotiate with the people for the land they've already acquired from the government. And, by one means or another, the people are forced to move off lands where their ancestors had lived for decades.”

The lands that provided sustainable family farming, clay and metallurgy for craft trade, fish industry and a secure home-base is now converted to sugarcane or palm oil development, all in the name of “green technology.”The men are now forced to look for work on these plantations where the work day is from 13 to 16 hours resembling that of the slave plantations of America's south before the Civil War.“If you seek work on the plantations, you go to ‘associated labor co-operatives,' a union sounding name, but established for the benefit of the employer, without protection of labor laws, health benefits, or hourly wages,” Ms. Williams explained.“The co-operative has contracts with the plantations to harvest a specific amount of cane and quotas are assigned to each cane cutter who usually cuts 1,100 lbs of cane per hour.Deductions for their children's education, work clothes, tools, and transportation to the fields come out of their pay.”

Ms. Williams, a young Panamanian, who travels extensively to bring information about the plight of Blacks in Latin America and the Caribbean to the attention of voters and lawmakers in North America, has inherited her dedication to human rights from her father. “We lived in Panama in a border area with Columbia and I got a first-hand view of Afro-Columbians displaced by wars and land grabs at an early age.My father's work as a human rights advocate made it natural for me to see value in helping people.”

Ms. Williams feels what is happening to the Afro-Columbians and Haitians is a model to be used by exploiters elsewhere, and already has parallels in America.“Black people displaced by Katrina had land sold by the government after tax and sale notices were sent to their addresses in New Orleans while they were living elsewhere,” she states.“Farm workers in Immokalee, Fla., suffered the same slave-like conditions as the Afro-Columbians.And people have to watch the plight of workers in the hog factories of North and South Carolina. And, also important is the free trade agreements between developing countries and the West; the aim of these agreements is cheap labor.”

Afro-Columbians comprise 25 percent of Columbia's population.In 2007 the infant mortality rate in Afro-Columbian areas on the Pacific Coast was four times that of the rest of the country.In the same period, it was reported that dozens of Afro-Columbian children in the Choco section of Columbia died from malnutrition.And, as the war on drugs in America is a cover to imprison tens of thousands of Black males for nonviolent crimes, the war on drugs in Columbia is used to paint union organizing of any kind as manipulation by FARC guerillas.And, paramilitary groups are used against the organizing of Afro-Columbians and Indigenous Indians trying to keep their lands. Forty-five unionists were killed in 2009 and at least 114 Indians were murdered in 2009 while thousands were subject to terror and displacement.

(Leroy Shabazz is a veteran writer based in New York.)