MPs and Trade Union leaders assassinated before Westminster death squad

The mock execution was organised by campaign charity War on Want and trade union solidarity group Justice for Colombia. General Secretaries from 12 trade unions and former foreign office minister, Tony Lloyd, highlighted the terror campaign being waged against the Colombian trade union movement on College Green opposite Parliament.

Participants were handcuffed, gagged and brought to their knees in a show of solidarity with the Colombian trade union movement which saw 184 of its members killed last year alone.

The executions were timed to coincide with the opening day of a UK-convened aid summit on Colombia, which NGOs and trade unions in Colombia fear will channel humanitarian assistance away from civil society and poverty alleviation.

Speaking at the protest, Frances O’Grady, Deputy General Secretary of the TUC, said: “We are calling upon the Government to listen to the working people of Colombia and their trade unions and to end military aid to the Uribé regime, which is the most anti-democratic, anti-worker, neoliberal government in Latin America. Instead the UK should be concentrating on providing assistance for sustainable social development and to promote dialogue instead of conflict."

Nick Dearden, campaigns officer at War on Want, said: “The situation in Colombia grows more serious every day and it won’t get better until the Colombian government deals with the violence of the paramilitaries which its own armed forces collude with. Today’s aid summit today is particularly worrying. As long as the government in Colombia has links with the terror we’re supposed to be fighting, giving the same government control over aid is like putting a shark in charge of a swimming pool.”

Liam Craig-Best, convenor of Justice for Colombia, added: “It’s not surprising that the UK government has maintained a veil of secrecy around its military assistance because the Colombian military is implicated, through its collusion with the paramilitaries, with the murder of around 3 trade unionists every week. It seems that the UK is now the second biggest donor in the world of military aid to Colombia. If the government is really concerned about fighting terrorism, let’s start where we can really make a difference – by ensuring the British taxpayer is not directly contributing to the terror faced by the trade union movement in Colombia.”

High resolution pictures available for download from 2pm

Full list of participants as follows:

Trade union leaders:
Frances O’Grady (Deputy General Secretary TUC), Ken Cameron (Chair of Justice for Colombia and Vice-President of War on Want), Bob Crow (General Secretary RMT), Kevin Curran (General Secretary GMB), Mick Rix (General Secretary, ASLEF) Jeremy Dear (General Secretary NUJ), Sally Hunt (General Secretary AUT), Roger Lyons (General Secretary Amicus/MSF), Rory Murphy (General Secretary UNIFI), Doug Nichols (General Secretary, CYWU) Eamonn O’Kane (General Secretary NASUWT), Mark Serwotka (General Secretary PCS), Tony Kearns (Deputy General Secretary CWU), Steve Sinnott (Deputy General Secretary NUT).

Members of Parliament:
Tony Lloyd (former Foreign Office Minister), Mike Gapes, Kelvin Hopkins, Rob Marris, Michael Conarty, Valerie Davey, Alice Mahon, Sandra Osborne, Rudi Vis, Kelvin Hopkins, Lynne Jones, Paul Flynn, Christine McCafferty, Alisadair Carmichael, David Hamilton, Ian Davidson.

For more information contact:
Marc Lopatin, Media Officer, War on Want on 07739 186640 or 020 7620 1111
Liam Craig-Best, Convenor, Justice for Colombia on 020 7794 3644 or 07931 374 379

Click here for further background to Colombia and trade union killings