From ‘water-oil’ to popular protest: the civic strike of April 13, 1983 in Barrancabermeja

Abstract

This article studies the Civic Strike of April 13, 1983, in the municipality of Barrancabermeja, especially from the review, systematization, and analysis of the press that recorded the day of protest before, during, and after April 13, 1983 —Semanario Voz Proletaria, Vanguardia Liberal, El Espectador and El Tiempo—, in addition to reports,
public communiqués, and other documentary sources. The article is structured in four sections: initially, a brief contextual and theoretical approach to civic strikes in Colombia is presented, with emphasis on the decade of the 1980s; the second,
describes the historical causes, political debates, and the organization of the civic strike; in the third section, the development and outcome of the civic strike are presented, highlighting the collective actions, the cultural elements of the protest and the response of the political elites of the municipality; and in the fourth, the main positive aspects of the civic strike, the basis for the success of the protest and the elements of analysis that would allow further research on the civic movement and socio-environmental conflicts in the municipality of Barrancabermeja are described by way of conclusion.