COLOMBIA, May 9—The ruling class here is in crisis and workers are fed up. Comrades  from Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. met virtually for a first-hand account of the resistance and work of the party's colleagues in Colombia who were involved in the National Strike. These comrades have been battling the already known repressive measures of the fascists who govern Colombia. Then we brought together  20 people from different collectives, and produced the following report:
In the last week, Colombia has experienced the most violent moments in its recent history. The criminal government of Ivan Duque, sponsored by the paramilitary Álvaro Uribe Vélez, has murdered at least 37 people and has disappeared 89. This has resulted in nearly a thousand wounded workers by the systematic brutality of ESMAD (anti-riot police) as a policy of state repression.
There is fear generated on the streets by the homicidal response of the police and other defenders of the dictatorial regime prevailing in Colombia in the face of marches and rallies against a new tax reform bill and other forms of government exploitation. Yet, thousands of students, workers, young people, and indigenous people, among others, have taken the streets  since April 28 to openly protest. They are rejecting the hunger policies imposed from the state, which proposed to tax multiple items essential to the survival of a working-class family up to 19 percent. Moreover, the incomes of millions in poverty, struggling daily for their survival would be able to afford even less.
Faced with protest—where singing, drumming, performance, and other artistic expressions predominate as a form of resistance—the police have opted for excessive brutality. They are using tear gas, stunners, and bullets indiscriminately against protesters. They have murdered those who called in unison for a dignified life for their families before the stunned but passive gaze of the international community. In addition, the use of unconventional weapons such as knives and hand-made guns by police and state-service paramilitary groups has been recorded by the protesters’ phone cameras. Workers have not only been beaten and repressed, but they are also forced to witness the massacre of unarmed people who cry out for justice.
Workers reject crumbs
Due to pressure from a people resisting, Ivan Duque withdrew his abusive reform proposal to propose a "new" one that is still not finished. However, faced with this strategy aimed at appeasing the crowds enraged in dignity, thousands of Colombians tired of the deceptions of politicians and warlords, decided to stay on the streets. They have declared themselves Anti-Uribist as a clear anti-fascist expression in the face of the recalcitrant fascism that has spread in the country. Which has made violence and hunger the law. Health reform, the systematic killing of social leaders in the countryside and the city, cuts to education, and state corruption have become the flag of struggle for thousands of people, besieged by the inequality of savage capitalism.
First they loot us, then they blame us
The marches and meetings have been infiltrated by policemen without uniforms and paramilitaries, who have looted shops, housing, and state entities, among others, seeking to delegitimize  the demands  of the oppressed masses. Useless pacifism spread through the media mouth-piece condemns the beaten and gasped population. Instead, their executioners are defended and are said to be covered by retrograde law and the corrupt establishment. They repeatedly say phrases such as “that is not the way to protest." At no time is the excessive use by  ESMAD (the anti-riot police) that attacks civilians with  firing bullets criticized. The defenseless population use sticks and stones as their only tools.
 In response to the servile media, owned by the big capitalists in Colombia, the cameras of the protesters' cell phones have become a weapon of resistance. Massacres in cities such as Cali, Bogota, Neiva, Medellin, and Pereira are being broadcast live to millions around the world. This is an X-ray of the archaic and dictatorial methods used to extinguish the voice of protest of oppressed  people in urban and rural areas. Homicides committed in the countryside have easily been hidden due to the absolute control exercised by paramilitarism and the absence of agencies defending the fallacy of human rights.
The false argument that workers’ protests are being “radicalized”  is used to divide the people from their struggle for decent living conditions. In this way, the police are made out to be the victims. So, while the protesters are beaten and shot, pacifism is presented as the correct path.
Faced with the force of the protests, Ivan Duque has contemplated the militarization of cities facing criticism from agencies such as the UN, whose response has been null. Decree a state of "inner shock," which gives the president unlimited power has become an option to apply to return to the calm that favors capital.  
Politicians have tried to seize the force of the strike, meeting with senior government officials to negotiate a way out. However, protest groups have shown they are not represented by these opportunists looking to sell out the fight in exchange for seats in parliament. A youth full of nonconformism have  tried to restore dignity to a country looted by archaic elites.
The protest and violent events that have been labelled as anarchist. However, in PLP, we consider that the revolutionary ideas of young and old and everything that makes them question capitalist exploitation should be valued as the first flame of a communist revolution.