WILLIE HAMILTON,
Sir, - Mandate trade union has recently established a Colombian/Ireland Solidarity Group, the aim of which is to support Colombian workers' right to belong to a a trade union and to participate in trade union activity free from fear, intimidation, assassination and state oppression.
Colombian trade union leaders have been the leading advocates of peace, human rights and economic justice in a nation afflicted by internal violence and external economic pressure, and they have paid a heavy price for their advocacy.
In the past 15 years Colombia has emerged as the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists. Three out of five trade union activists killed worldwide every year are Colombian.
The CUT, Colombia's equivalent of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, estimates that over half of its 20,000 organisers have received death threats. Mere membership of a union can serve as a death warrant. The unions are targeted for their left-wing ideology and their advocacy of peace.
For years Colombia witnessed workers' rights being violated through repression and intimidation of trade union leaders. Trade unionists have been arrested, kidnapped, received death threats and denied their right to strike. Many have been murdered.
For all of the above reasons it is perhaps time for Irish people to show their solidarity with the workers of Colombia. - Yours, etc.,
WILLIE HAMILTON, Divisional Organiser, Mandate, Cavendish Row, Dublin 1.