In Colombia, being a teacher and a trade unionist means your life is at risk. One courageous woman told her story, during a visit to Australia.

Gloria Ramírez has tears in her eyes as she tells a room packed with Australian teachers about the plight of Colombian teachers and trade unionists.

"Paramilitary groups have been developing in increasing numbers recently. These groups do the dirty work of the army," she says. "They may attend a meeting like this one, and they come with a list. They pick up the people who they are seeking from the list. Then they just take them out and shoot them."

Ramírez is the president of the Colombian teachers' union, Federacion Colombiana de Educadores (FECODE) and a member of the executive of the Central Trade Union Federation of Colombia.

She must have told this story countless times, but it hasn't dulled the impact on her captivated listeners. The situation for Colombian teachers is almost unthinkable for an Australian audience. In the midst of a 40-year civil war, unionists and human rights workers have found themselves in the firing line.

There are three parties to the war, the paramilitaries, the left-wing guerillas and the government, and none seem able to find peace.

Alongside the long-term conflict, teachers have been fighting against privatisation and for an improvement in human rights. "We oppose the intention to convert education to a market and be used as a business," says Ramírez.

A most dangerous profession

In its 2002 survey, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) reported that, "the violence perpetrated against trade union activists is preventing any effective exercise of freedom of association in Colombia." "As a result, for several years now the number of unionised workers in Colombia has been declining and freedom of association is being further undermined by the apparent impunity enjoyed by most of those who orchestrate murders and attacks. These two elements have made Colombia the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade union activist." And the situation is getting worse day by day.

Ramirez lives in constant danger of her life. "I am a target of the paramilitary because I organise strikes, protests and I represent the workers," she says. An attempt was made recently on her life. "A motorcycle passed alongside and sprayed the car I was in with machine-gun fire.”"

Since this threat, Ramírez has stopped spending time with her family in order to protect them and she travels everywhere with seven bodyguards and a bullet-proof car. Visiting public places or markets is not an option. As leaders in the community who are committed to human rights, teachers and health workers are particularly targeted in Colombia. "Many of the teachers in danger are in rural areas where schools become a centre for communities, and for any fighting," she says. The union wants schools to be declared 'territories of peace', says Ramírez. "At the moment many schools are centres of terror."

Murder and intimidation

Each year, more people are murdered. In 1999, 69 trade unionists were assassinated. The next year, there were 112. And in 2001, 192 unionists lost their lives.

"A lot of them are teachers, both men and women," says Ramírez. "They are executed in front of the school children. Other times they are dragged out of the schools to parks where they are assassinated. This is to intimidate and make an example to everybody."

Union membership is enough to mark a teacher as threatened, and yet 95 per cent of teachers in government schools are members of FECODE, 300,000 members in total.

Many teachers have also been imprisoned and there are lists of teachers whose lives are threatened. Most of these people flee in fear, some constantly on the move with their families to avoid death or kidnapping.

"We have close to three million displaced people in Colombia,” says Ramírez. She gives the example of Nariño, which is a region of Colombia with a population of less than two million. "There are 135 teachers in a list to be executed, so they have to abandon their areas of work and, as a consequence, those schools are not receiving the services required and have been closed," she says.

"We would love them to be there teaching children, and the government is trying to force them to go back to those areas, but we as a union have to demand that, if there are no guarantees to their lives, they shouldn't be there."

Protecting teachers

Ramírez says that, due to pressure from the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Colombian Government has put laws in place to protect teachers. The union is represented on a committee, which includes representatives of the government, the judicial system and teachers. "When the case comes where someone has been threatened, this case is studied and then a security plan is activated," says Ramírez. "If there is proof that this person is in danger, then the status 'person in danger to their life' is given to this person."

If the threat is local, the teacher can move to one of the big cities. But if the danger is greater, then the person must be moved from place to place. A person facing a national threat may be sent away to cooperative countries such as Canada and Switzerland.

But Ramírez is sceptical about the government's real intentions. "It's only on paper and whatever they can get away with, they get away with it," she says. She gives the example of teachers in danger having their salaries halved. "For a person in danger, just worrying about their survival is another form of attack."

According to the ICFTU's report, "there is no denying the fact that the paramilitaries (whom the Colombian Government itself describes as extreme right-wing) are hostile towards the unions. In cases where the motive is unclear, the reasons behind the violence could only emerge if the guilty parties were identified and brought to justice. "Yet here again, the Colombian authorities only very occasionally get to the bottom of killings, especially since in some instances government agents are among the accomplices. Reports published by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have demonstrated that, despite numerous complaints, there is still flagrant collusion between the paramilitary groups and the authorities."

Privatisation threats

It is hard to imagine how educational issues get any attention when the physical threats are so prevalent. But Ramírez says that the union must also concentrate on the non-violent threats to the education system. "This is part of everyday life for us and we must fulfil the requirements of teaching," she says.

"If not, we will have a country without education and our children will grow without any prospects of a good life." The threat of privatisation is rapidly increasing and it is the union's main campaigning issue. "In our country the demands of international business organisations, which say that education should be responding to the market, are being implemented," she says. "The government is giving contracts to the private organisations and not appointing teachers."

Ramírez says that the government is closing public schools and giving subsidies for students to go to private schools. Given that three-quarters of the Colombian population lives on less than US$2 a day, such schools obviously cater for a tiny minority.

And teachers who retire or leave, or are assassinated, leave, or are not being replaced. The result is class sizes of 40 students. Teaching is one of the lowest-paid jobs in Colombia, and in many countries this would mean recruiting difficulties. But in Colombia a new law has been introduced that eliminates the need for teachers to have any qualifications. "What is going to happen, like in England, is that migrants are becoming teachers," says Ramírez. "They get employed because they are cheaper labour, it doesn't matter what they know. This is the market: pay as little as possible and don't worry about what qualifications and what quality is there."

Ramírez says these attacks on the public education system and the professionalism of teachers is damaging the quality of education. But teachers have no option but to continue struggling for what they believe in.

"If we were to cease teaching, the only thing that would be left is the private sector which then would increase and will create an even bigger problem in Colombia," she says.

Use of aid money

While Colombia is rich in culture and natural resources, it is best known for its drug production and trafficking. The US has long been interested in Colombia because of its strategic geographical location and because it is a major supplier of drugs to the US market.

After Israel and Egypt, Colombia is the third biggest recipient of US aid. Most of the aid is spent on helicopters and weapons targeted towards fighting the drug war. According to Ramírez, this serves to hide the real struggles of the Colombian people. "It is a crime for the US to be providing Colombia with money for weapons when Colombians are dying of hunger," she says.

The amount of US aid to Colombia has recently been increased in the name of the 'war against terrorism'. But Ramírez believes it is being used for other purposes. "The government is passing laws targeting the trade union movement and other popular organisations." The new laws allow the military to detain people who are suspected of acting against the government for 72 hours with no contact or legal representation.

"They have criminalised protest and they have officialised suspicion," says Ramírez. "In this period of time anything might happen to you, you might disappear, you could be executed, they could torture you or do whatever they want." In November 2002, the ILO expressed "its deep concern once again at the situation of violence against trade union officials and members." Its report on the Americas went on to say, "even the government in its reply indicated that the situation is deteriorating rather than improving".

"And all this happens in a country that is supposed to be a democratic country," says Ramírez. "Teachers are struggling for peace and social justice, not more war. We want a political solution. We don't want a military solution to the conflict."

GLORIA RAMíREZ visited Australia in December last year to draw attention to the danger for unionists in Colombia and to appeal for support. She spoke to Australian Educator via an interpreter.

A dangerous place

"For several years now, Colombia has been rated the world's most dangerous country. The entire country is in a state of civil war, with government forces, guerrillas and paramilitaries constantly clashing. This infernal triangle, comprising the guerrillas, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) on one side, the paramilitaries, the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) on the second, and the Government on the third, is affecting all sectors of civil society, which is already hard-hit by poverty and destitution. Caught in the middle, unionists are often wrongly labelled as guerrillas by paramilitaries."
Source: ICFTU 2002 survey of violations of the trade union rights.

Stop press: Four teachers murdered, one missing

Since the beginning of 2003, four more educators have been killed in Colombia and one is still missing. They are: José Marcelino Díaz González, rector of the Florián Farias College and the president of the College of Rectors and Directors, affiliated with the Arauca Teachers Association (ASEDAR-FECODE). Assassinated 13 January 2003. Luis Eduardo Guzmán Alvárez, rector of the Polytechnic School Marco Fidel Suárez who played a prominent role as leader of the Antioquia Primary School Teachers' Association (ADIDA). Assassinated 3 February 2003. Luz Mery Valencia, teacher at the El Jardín school, active trade union member and mother of two young daughters. Assassinated 13 February 2003 on her own doorstep.

Martiza Ortega Serrano, teacher at College José Eugenio Martínez with 33 years of service. Shot in the face on 18 February 2003 in front of students and teachers, as she arrived at school. On 9 Febrauary 2003 Carlos Eduardo Velandia Callejas, 40-year-old teacher, was struck down by two armed and hooded people who handcuffed him and took him away.

His whereabouts are still unknown.

Education International (EI) are asking people to write to the Colombian Government to demand the culprits are captured and sentenced and to ensure teachers are protected in the future.