FRANCAISFrères des Hommes - History
1980-1989
-Since 1980, France: the director leaves and is replaced by a management committee while Charles Condamines becomes the public relations officer. These developments contribute to FDH’s politicisation and to its denouncing the exploitation of the Third World. According to the slogan of the time, “the cow of the rich eats the grain of the poor.” In 1981, the electoral victory of the Socialist Party and the nomination of a progressive minister of International Co-operation, Jean-Pierre Côt, make the work of FDH easier. The organisation is now able to air its views officially in a daily television programme on the problems of the Third World. FDH blames the rich and informs against the exploitation of the poor countries by multinational companies. This vision is criticized by MSF as being too simplistic.
-Since 1982, Peru: FDH supports the development of labour unions with the Asociación Laboral para el Desarrollo, ADEC-ATC (Association for Economic Development – Association Work and Culture). From 1994 on, FDH also helps training those unemployed after industry privatisation and the closing down of the copper mines.
-Since 1983, Colombia: in the Bucaramanga province, FDH supports the communeros who want to recover their land with ASOFIQUE and SINTRAFRIQUE, two trade unions that bring together craftsmen and peasants working the agave fibber. In 1982, the communeros joined the Popular Alliance of workers and peasants of Colombia (AOCP) which defends the masses against the paramilitaries and "North-American imperialism" in Santander, a region where the agave culture is in crisis. The struggle against big property owners is often risky. In October 2000 in the Sogamoso region, Manuel Torres, a FDH partner since 1986, is assassinated by the paramilitaries who disliked his Fundación Integración Campesina (FINTEC).
-1984, Philippines: in order to facilitate the agrarian reform undertaken by the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, FDH supports the NFSW (National Federation of Sugar Workers), a member union of the communist KMU (Kilusang Mayo Uno, or Movement of May 1st) well established in the strongholds of the NPA (New People's Army) guerrilla.
-December 1985, Ethiopia: unlike MSF, which is expelled from the country, FDH chooses not to denounce the abuses of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam's junta and the forced population transfers to the South. At the time of the 1984 famine, FDH had set up a group called "Hope-Ethiopia", which brought together CIMADE, CCFD, CFCF, Emmaüs International, Solidarités Internationales, Terre des Hommes, and Peuples Solidaires to charter a ship loaded with food and medical supplies.
-1986-1995, Spain: FDH opens a section in Barcelona. Ten years later, the office is closed down for financial reasons.
-From 1987, South Africa: FDH campaigns against apartheid and provides material assistance to black children in prison. After the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994, FDH gets a programme started to support the creation of micro-businesses in partnership with the NGO Isibani Soluntu.
-1988, Bolivia: in the Altamachi and Totolima regions of the Cochabamba department, FDH starts a programme of resettlement of peasants in partnership with a trade union, the Agricultural Farmers Corporation CORACA (Corporación Agropecuaria Campesina). One of the objectives is to facilitate the diversification of coca producing zones.
