 Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. I'm Zoe and you're watching Around the World in 8 Minutes, where we bring you news from working-class and popular movements from across the globe. In our first story, we take you to Colombia, where on May 9th, unknown to our men, shot and killed filmmaker Mauricio Lesama in La Esmeralda Sector of Municipality Varaquita in the Department of Varauca, Colombia. Lesama was a departmental film advisor in Varauca and a promoter of culture and arts. At the time of his assassination, Lesama was working on a film about the life of Mayo Vieraial, a nurse and survivor of the genocide against the patriotic union in the 1990s. Vieraial witnessed the assassination of her husband at the hands of the Colombia's National Army, who accused him of being a guerrilla fighter. The film seeks to tell the story of Vieraial and also highlight the historic and current challenges faced by social and community leaders in Colombia, who are the targets of state and paramilitary violence. Lesama's assassination has been denounced widely, nationally and internationally, as a threat to those who seek to tell the stories of Colombia's victims and promote art and culture for social change to Colombia's rural areas. His assassination is further evidence of the grave humanitarian crisis in Colombia, wherein 600 social leaders and human rights defenders have been assassinated since 2016, despite the signing of historic peace agreements between the national government and the revolutionary armed forces of Colombia in 2016. As the number of assassinated leaders continues to climb, many point out that the government of Iván Duque is indifferent to the violence as he has largely ignored the crisis. The Department of Arauca, where the assassination took place, is located in the center east region of Colombia and lies on the border with Venezuela. The department has been one of the most affected by the violence of the armed conflict and is one of the most militarized. It is also home to a large oil field where U.S.-based company, Occidental Petroleum, operates. The company, whose operations have caused an ecocide in the region, has been accused of colluding with Colombian security forces to repress opposition and the civilian population. In 1998, the Colombian Air Force, with support from Occidental's private security company, AirScan, bombed the Santo Domingo Town in Arauca and killed 18 civilians, including six children, who the Air Force claimed were guerrilla fighters. We next take you to South Africa, where the African National Congress registered its worst performance since 1994, even while holding onto power. The party obtained 57.5 percent of the votes in the election held on May 8th. In 2014, the party got 62.15 percent. Experts say that the drastic and consistent decline in the ANC votes is a sign of people's unhappiness over its failure to correct inequities engineered by the apartheid state. Many of the party's traditional supporters have been left disillusioned. The ANC has pursued a policy of overt and covert privatization of public sector industries and facilitated the creation of an elite class of South Africans, including black billionaires. However, the majority of the poor have not benefited. Unemployment that mostly affects the black population has reached 27.5 percent. Another 10 percent are categorized as discouraged work seekers. There is also much unhappiness with the pro-corporate policies of the ruling party. The second largest party, the Democratic Alliance, saw a decline in vote share as well. The major beneficiary of these losses was populist economic freedom fighters, EFF, founded by Julius Malema in 2013, following his expulsion from the ANC. The party got 10.79 percent of the votes in these elections. In 2014, it got 6.35 percent. The country's largest trade union, the left wing, National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, NUMSA, launched the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party, SRWP, in March of this year. However, the 24,431 votes this party got indicates that the consolidation of trade union membership into a reliable vote block is still a long-term task. In our last story, we take you to France, where several French trade unions observed a national strike in staged demonstrations in different cities of France on May 9. They were protesting a new public reform bill by the Manuel Macron government. The bill aims to make enormous fun cuts in the public service sector and would result in the loss of 120,000 jobs over the next three years. It is currently under consideration in parliament. The unions also demanded an end to the pay freeze and a pay increase for all public sector workers. The strike was called for by various unions, including the Central Confederation of Labor, CGT, the Workers' Force, FO, Solidarity, French Democratic Confederation of Labor, French Confederation of Christian Workers, French Confederation of Management, General Confederation of Executives, FAFP, Federation Syndical Unitaire, and the National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions. The unions represent 5.5 million state employees across the country. The bill calls for extending the use of contract staff for managerial positions in French states and their public institutions. It would enable the mobilization of external expertise for the conduct or implementation of a project, as well as the authorization of contract recruitment for permanent jobs in certain sectors. According to reports, more than 30,000 people demonstrated in Paris and around 250,000 across the country. The marches were joined from people from different professions, including teachers, nurses, and clerks. The General Confederation of Labor, CGT, claims that all reforms affecting public services, their management, and operations are in fact a massive transfer of activities in the wage bill from the public sector to the private sector, that is, the merchant sector. All sectors of French society, especially the working class students and youth, have been reeling under the austerity measures of President Emmanuel Macron. The Gilets-Jean yellow vests protests that started in November 2018 as a spontaneous manifestation against the fuel price hike are still going on after 25 consecutive weeks, crystallizing the widespread anger against the policies of the government. That's all for this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. 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