Justice for Colombia is delighted to invite you to support the ‘Trucks for Peace’ fundraiser, launched by the Trademark trade union and anti-sectarian organisation based in Belfast. The fundraiser aims to support former FARC guerrillas as they transition to civilian society following the signing of the 2016 peace agreement.
You can find details below and also in this short film produced to promote the fundraising campaign!
In 2016, a peace agreement was signed between the FARC insurgency and the Colombian government. In transition towards building a future for communities, former FARC guerrilla members have opened a number of worker cooperatives producing coffee, clothes and beer, among many other products. A bottleneck for most of them is to bring their products to the market and sell them for a fair price.
De Mano en Mano (From Hand to Hand), a cooperative composed of former guerrilla members, aims to commercialise their products and those from surrounding rural communities. We want to start a pilot project in southwest Colombia and sell products in the city of Cali, with a marketing strategy based on fair prices, building relationships between consumers and producers and eco-friendly packages.
The project faces huge challenges, In remote areas of Colombia, inequality is an extremely serious and complex problem. Infrastructure is poor and transport is essential.
To build a viable network of Co-ops, we need access to decent transport. That’s why we are calling on friends across the world to help us and why we need your solidarity to help build peace and co-operativism.
Help us buy a truck!
By donating, you are helping build a more just and fairer Colombia.
The Trucks for Peace fundraiser came out of a Justice for Colombia (JFC) delegation of trade unionists and politicians that visited Colombia in May 2022. Trademark took part in the delegation and met with members of the De Mano en Mano cooperative who, along with more than 13,600 other former FARC guerrillas, were working to implement the peace process in the face of enormous challenges. There was a lack of funding and technical assistance under the then-government, while chronic insecurity saw more than 340 former FARC guerrillas killed in the first six years from the signing of the peace agreement. Initiatives such as De Mano en Mano provide long-term sustainable livelihoods for those in the peace process to contribute to a stable and lasting peace in Colombia.