Learning to Win: Exploring Knowledge and Strategy Development in Anti-Privatization Struggles in Colombia

Abstract

On Christmas Day 2001, several hundred workers began an occupation of the headquarters of EMCALI, the public service provider of water, electricity, and telecommunications in Cali, Colombia’s second largest city. The occupation was a response to a government announcement to privatize the company. Thirty-six days later, the workers emerged victorious after signing an agreement to keep EMCALI public. During the occupation, marches, strikes, protests, and blockades were carried out in Cali by EMCALI workers affiliated with the trade union SINTRAEMCALI, with support from local trade unionists from the region and supporters from the local communities. In Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, toward the end of the dispute, a second one-day occupation took over the headquarters of the government ministry responsible for implementing the privatization process. The second occupation was defended by local trade unionists from the region who surrounded the building. Meanwhile, in London, regular protests were held outside the Colombian embassy, and several live video link-ups took place between leaders of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) and workers inside the Cali occupation, alongside a range of other transnational solidarity activities, with letters of support and solidarity arriving from all around the world.