Military Coup in Honduras

A military coup is underway in this Central American country, in which Canadian capital is the second largest source of foreign investment. Here is an article from Plan Colombia and Beyond and also check out Upside Down World for all the latest news on these unfolding events.

School of the Americas Graduate and Coup Leader Romeo Vasquez

Troops have arrested President Manuel Zelaya this morning, the day that Hondurans were to vote in a referendum to change the constitution to allow him to run for another term. The apparent coup comes four days after Zelaya fired the chief of the armed forces for refusing to assist in carrying out the referendum. Zelaya was reportedly put on a plane to Costa Rica, where he may be now.

[Added 12:15PM: Zelaya, now in Costa Rica, told CNN that he was "kidnapped," and that "at the moment of his detention, they aimed guns at his chest and head."]

The military claims it was carrying out an order from “judicial tribunals” to arrest Zelaya because of an apparent presence of Nicaraguan and Venezuelan political operatives in the referendum. Nonetheless, this appears to be the first military coup attempt since the April 2002 uprising that came close to unseating Hugo Chávez (unless one counts the forced resignation of Lucio Gutiérrez in Ecuador in 2005, in which members of the armed forces played a supporting role).

Strike Anywhere – How to Pray

Since I am in a music video posting mood I thought I would like to dedicate this particular one in a fashionably late way to the memory of Dr. Tiller who was murdered by a theofascist for bravely standing up for women’s rights.

Strike Anywhere – To The World

In Memory of Stonewall, Oka, Ipperwash, Caledonia and every time those in power have tried to crush our spirit and our pride!

Two-Spirit History

Because of the upcoming 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion and next week’s dual colonial celebrations in North America’s settler colonies of Canada and the United States I thought to myself that it would be appropriate and interesting to take a brief look at where two main interests of mine, queer liberation and Native Indian liberation, intersect, specifically in the emergence of the modern Two-Spirit movement.

According to most descriptions the term usually implies a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit living in the same body (either biologically female or male) and was coined by contemporary gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender American Indians to describe themselves and the traditional, quite often sacred, roles they are reclaiming. The modern use of the term originated in Winnipeg, Canada in 1990 during the third annual inter-tribal Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference. It is a calque of the Ojibwa phrase niizh manidoowag (two spirits). It was chosen to distance Native/First Nations people from non-natives as well as from the words berdache and gay.

Prior to the arrival of the colonial pirate Christopher Columbus in 1492 Two-Spirit people were found in every region of North America, among every type of Native culture. A good example of the wide-spread presence and acceptance of Two-Spirit people in Colombian times is reports by Spanish conquistadors who observed the presence Two-Spirit people in almost every village they entered in Central America. However with the arrival of European (and later American and Canadian) imperialism and the subsequent imposition of Christian and patriarchal social norms and practices on the Native people of North America  entered a period of persecution. It is known that in certain nations a relationship between a two-spirit and non-two-spirit was seen on the most part as neither heterosexual nor homosexual (to use the modern Western terms) but more “hetero-gender,” the new European conquerors  however saw them as being homosexual and as such persecuted Two-Spirited people and their partners.

However the Europeans and their colonial daughter states were never ever to exterminate this part of our cultures, and like the rest our traditions it is experiencing a resurgence as LGBTI-Q Indians reclaim their traditions as part of the battle against colonialism. So on this intersection of two important dates I present a brief history of the Two-Spirit movement from NativeOUT.

To all who fought back and to all who fight still, for Native and queer liberation, and against all other forms of oppression, thank you from the depth of my heart, your sacrifices and all that you have given us will never be forgotten.

Oka and Stonewall Were Not Candlelight Vigils!

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

The Birth of Gay Power

Forty years ago, on June 28th, a police raid on an unexceptional gay bar, the Stonewall Inn in New York City, sparked nights of rioting and demonstrations. The Stonewall riots marked a new beginning and radicalization fore the LGBTI-Q movement against bigotry and for justice.

Veteran activist and SocialistWorker.org contributor Sherry Wolf is the author of a new book Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics and Theory of LGBT Liberation. Here, I publish an excerpt from the book that describes the events at Stonewall (courtesy of SocialistWorker.org).

The Stonewall Inn in New York City

IN A society filled with hatred, fear and ignorance of homosexuality, there was at least one public venue for socializing where gays and lesbians in most major towns and cities could go–the bars. But as with all public life for LGBT people, the bars also provided a place for police and authorities to harass and humiliate their victims.

From police entrapment in public cruising spots to raids on bars for perceived “disorderly” conduct within, the cultural openings and nascent activism of gays and lesbians was frustrated by state repression from California to New York. Despite there being no explicit laws against serving gays, many bars refused to do so, and there was no legal recourse since kissing or dancing with a member of the same sex and cross-dressing were considered disorderly.

It was in this context that the Mafia came to run many of the drinking establishments that catered to gays, lesbians and transgendered people in New York City. The Stonewall Inn was no exception.

Located at the crossroads of Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue South, near a major subway station and steps away from the former offices of the nation’s largest independent weekly, the Village Voice, the Stonewall Inn was dark, with two bars, a jukebox and an eclectic crowd of drag queens, gay street youth, cruising men, and a smattering of lesbians.

Hands Off Cuba, Hands Off Assata!

The historic relationship between the Cuban Revolution and the Freedom movements in the US is very rich and proud.  The Freedom Movements of the United States have charted their own paths of relating with the people of Cuba.  We have shared resources and other forms of solidarity through out the years.  This history includes the welcoming of President Fidel Castro to Harlem in 1960 by Malcolm X, Cuba’s military assistance to the people of Angola and it’s stance against the apartheid regime in South Africa. We are indebted to the Cuban people for their solidarity and friendship with African people, in Africa and throughout the Diaspora, and for providing sanctuary to our beloved Sister Assata Shakur.

The support given to Assata by Cuba continues to be a point of contention for the United States Government.  Assata Shakur represents a sacred part of our lives and the struggle of African people for freedom in the US.  We recognize the pressure put on Cuba by the US government is a heavy load. We proudly applaud Cuba for standing firm in defending our sister.  The progressive people of the world understand and support the fundamental sovereignty of Cuba.  The actions of the United States and New Jersey state governments represent a continued attack on the sovereignty of the Cuban nation and its right to grant political asylum to those it believes are deserving of it.  We will continue to defend Cuba’s right to self determination and voice our support for the right of Cuba to grant political asylum to those freedom fighters currently being protected through their political asylum status.

We re-affirm our commitment to the people of Cuba and the principles of the Cuban Revolution.  We stand firm in our defense of our freedom fighters within Cuba’s borders.  We urge you to join with us in solidarity with the Cuban people and in solidarity with Assata Shakur.

US hands Off Cuba, Keep Assata Free!

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

June 2009

IF YOU SUPPORT THIS LETTER: PLEASE EMAIL YOUR NAME, EMAIL, ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER TO // keepassatafree@gmail.com

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Leonard Peltier: Update

Emergency Health Crisis Needs Response.

The following alert was released on June 19 by the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee.

Kari Ann Cowan, Peltier’s niece, reported from the prison at Lewisburg that Leonard may have suffered a heart attack. She stated, “He had a hard time breathing. He was in his cell and had an ache in his chest. He was kinda scared he was having a heart attack. He raised his hands, breathed slowly and finally felt better.”

We need to call the prison, and ask them to get Leonard to the hospital in Rochester (MN) as soon as possible for a check up.

Be polite and courteous and express your concern for his health and welfare. We gotta step up. Make reference to Leonard Peltier #89637-132, Call Warden Scott Dodrill at (570)523-1251. Fax numbers: (570) 522-7745 and (570)522-7745. E-mail address: LEW/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV.

In the spirit of Crazy Horse

Wanbli,

Co-Support Group Coordinator and LP-DOC Spokesperson

Time to Set Him Free. Because it is the RIGHT thing to do.

www.whoisleonardpelitier.info.

**Leonard Peltier has expressed thanks for all of those who have already called and asks for the calls to continue to him the medical treatment he needs. Get him to the Prison Hospital in Rochester.

This call out came from the International Action Center. For information on many other subjects of intrest see: http://www.iacenter.org/

Strike Anywhere – To The World

Look how the ruts cling to my footsteps
the fatal invisible tool
by which we define (we fight!) for our approval
and fear our removal from the safety of fools

From the tidal forces of our positions
not won (not one!) to take for granted
are our rebel hymns in canted
to sing in the mines of the fortunate sons?

Brothers in spirit, sisters in rage,
will we live out our lives in this concrete cage?
another heartbeat lost, another police murder
buried in the public eyes on the back page.
heartbeat lost in a new world order
hobbled and bound but still walking away

I pledge allegiance to the world
nothing more, nothing less than my humanity
I pledge allegiance to the world
searching for vision not invisibility
I pledge allegiance to the world
searching for vision not invisibility
I pledge allegiance to the world
until the last lock breaks none of us are free
none of us are free…

We fight to balance our minds
petty powers pushing profits over our lifetimes
world leaders mortgaging our lives with words
I don’t need to be reminded of whom you really serve.

Brothers in spirit, sisters in rage,
will we live out our lives in this concrete cage?
another heartbeat lost, another police murder
buried in the public eyes on the back page.
{Too many} heartbeats lost in the new world order
{while we’re} standing alone with our backs to the maze

I pledge allegiance to the world
nothing more, nothing less than my humanity
I pledge allegiance to the world
until the last lock breaks none of us are free
I pledge allegiance to the world
until the last lock breaks none of us are free
I pledge allegiance to the world
for nothing more, nothing less

In justice, in hunger united
searching for vision united
in justice, in hunger united
law and order {but} for whose order?

I pledge allegiance to the world
nothing more, nothing less than my humanity
I pledge allegiance to the world
until the last lock breaks none of us are free
I pledge allegiance to the world
under no nation will we ever be
I pledge allegiance to the world
for nothing more, nothing less
than my humanity, than my humanity, than my humanity (pledge allegiance!)
to our humanity, to our humanity, to our humanity (to the world!)

Anti-Colonial Responses to Gender Violence

This article was abridged and adapted from Andrea Smith’s book Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (South End Press, 2005). Andrea Smith is Cherokee and a professor of Native American  Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and co-founder of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence and the Boarding School Healing Project.

Because sexual violence has served as a tool of colonialism and white supremacy, the struggle for indigenous sovereignty and the struggle against sexual violence cannot be separated. In my activist work, I have often heard the following sentiment expressed in Indian country: “We do not have time to address sexual/domestic violence in our communities because we have to work on ‘survival’ issues first.” However, statistics show that indigenous women suffer death rates from domestic violence that are higher than any other group of women.

We are clearly not “surviving” as long as issues of gender violence go unaddressed. It has been through sexual violence and through the imposition of European gender relationships that Europeans were able to colonize Native peoples in the first place. If we maintain these patriarchal gender systems, we will be unable to decolonize and fully assert our sovereignty.

Conceptualizing sexual violence as a tool of genocide and colonialism fundamentally alters the strategies for combating it. When sexual violence is viewed in this light, it is clear that we must develop anti-colonial strategies for addressing interpersonal violence that also address state violence.

Criminal Justice

For many years, activists in the rape crisis and domestic violence movements have promoted strengthening the criminal justice system as the primary way to reduce sexual and domestic violence. Particularly since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in the US in 1994, antiviolence centers received a considerable amount of funding from the government, to the point where most agencies are dependent on the government for their continued existence. Consequently, their strategies tend to be government friendly: hire more police, give longer sentences to rapists, pass mandatory arrest laws, etc.

There is a contradiction, however, in relying upon the government to solve problems it is responsible for creating. Native people are the most arrested, most incarcerated and most victimized by police brutality of any ethnic group in the US. Given the oppression Native people face within the criminal justice system, many communities are developing their own programs for addressing criminal behaviour, which often draw on some of the principles of “restorative justice.”

Restorative Justice

“Restorative justice” is an umbrella term that describes a wide range of programs that attempt to address crime from a reconciliatory rather than a punitive framework. As opposed to the state criminal justice system, which focuses on punishing the perpetrator and removing him (or her) from society through imprisonment, restorative justice attempts to involve all parties (perpetrators, victims and community members)
in determining the appropriate response to a crime in an effort to restore the community to wholeness.

These models have been particularly well developed by many Native communities, especially in Canada, where the sovereign status of Native nations allows them an opportunity to develop community-based justice programs. During the time that the Hollow Water reserve in Canada used a community approach (from approximately 1984 to 1996), 48 offenders were identified. Only five chose to go to jail, and only two who entered the program have committed crimes since.

They are also most successful in small, geographically isolated areas where it is more difficult for the perpetrator to simply move to another area. Such programs are also more likely to be successful in addressing child sexual abuse. However, adult survivors of domestic and sexual violence are often pressured to “forgive and forget” in tribal mediation programs that focus more on maintaining family and tribal unity than on providing justice and safety for women. In addition, in cases involving an adult woman victim, community members are more likely to blame her instead of the perpetrator for the assault.

Imprisonment

Because of problems encountered with restorative justice approaches, some advocates argue that incarceration is the most appropriate way to confront sexual violence. The argument goes that if a Native man rapes someone, he subscribes to white values rather than Native values, because rape is not an indigenous tradition. Thus, if he follows white values, he should suffer the white way of punishment. However, Native antiviolence advocates also struggle with a number of difficulties in using imprisonment as the primary strategy to solve the problem of sexual violence. First, so few rapes are reported that the criminal justice system rarely has the opportunity to address the problem. Incarceration has been largely ineffective in reducing crime rates in the dominant society, much less in Native communities. In the words of sociologist Luana Ross, “The white criminal justice system does not work for white people; what makes us think it’s going to work for us?”

Policing under tribal control is not necessarily an improvement, as can be attested to by the countless charges of police brutality. For example, in the mid-1990s, indigenous children in Montana were calling the reservation police “terminators.” In 2002, the entire police force on the Rocky Boys Indian Reservation in Montana was placed on probation because of allegations of police brutality.

State Violence Against Women

State violence—in the form of the criminal justice system—cannot provide true safety for women, particularly women of colour, when it is directly implicated in the violence women face. Consider these examples:

• An undocumented woman calls the police because of domestic violence. Under mandatory arrest laws, the police must arrest someone on domestic violence calls. Because the police cannot find the batterer, they arrest her and have her deported (Tucson).
• An African-American homeless woman calls the police because she has been the victim of group rape. The police arrest her for prostitution (Chicago).
• An African-American woman calls the police when her husband, who is battering her, accidentally sets fire to their apartment. She is arrested for setting the fire (New York).
• A Native woman calls the police because she is the victim of domestic violence, and she is shot to death by police (Alert Bay, NWT).

Abused women often end up in jail as a result of trying to protect themselves. For instance, over 40 percent of the women in prison in Arizona were there because they murdered an abusive partner. The criminal justice system, rather than solving the problems of violence against women, often revictimizes women of colour who are survivors of violence. In addition, those who go to prison for domestic violence are disproportionately people of colour.

Increasingly, domestic violence advocates are coming to recognize the limitations of the criminal justice system. This recognition gave rise to the joint statement by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence and Critical Resistance, “Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex: Interpersonal and State Violence Against Women of Color.”

Solving the Dilemma

All women of colour, including Native women, live in the dangerous intersections of gender and race. Within the mainstream antiviolence movement in the US, women of colour who survive sexual or domestic abuse are often told that they must pit themselves against their communities, often stereotypically portrayed as violent, to begin the healing process. Communities of colour, meanwhile, often pressure women to remain silent about sexual and domestic violence in order to maintain a “united front” against racism.

We face a dilemma: on the one hand, the incarceration approach promotes the repression of communities of colour without really providing safety for survivors. On the other hand, restorative justice models often promote community silence and denial around issues of sexual violence without concern for the safety of survivors.

I argue for the need to adopt antiviolence strategies that are mindful of the larger structures of violence that shape the world in which we live. When we centre women of colour in the analysis, it becomes clear that our strategies must be informed by approaches that also combat violence directed against communities, including state violence—police brutality, prisons, militarism, racism, colonialism and economic exploitation. The issues of colonialism, race, class and gender oppression cannot be separated. By centring women of colour in the analysis, we may actually build a movement that more effectively ends violence not just for women of colour but for all women.

A Call for a Peaceful Protest Against the Formation of an Anti-Native“Militia” in Caledonia

Tuesday, June 23rd
6pm
Outside the Lion’s Club in Cayuga, Ontario.

—-

Dear Friends,

As you may have heard in the mainstream media already, things are escalating again in Caledonia. Doug Fleming (an associate of anti-native sovereignty activist Gary McHale) has announced that he is now forming a “militia” to directly confront “native lawlessness” in Caledonia. According to Fleming, the militia would patrol areas in Caledonia by car and by foot wearing uniforms and communicating with radio equipment. If alerted to an instance of “native lawlessness” the militia would then use “reasonable force” to effect a citizen’s arrest and would hold the native person until such time as the OPP arrived to take the “prisoner” to jail.

Needless to say, this represents a major escalation in regard to the conflict at Six Nations. In addition to the OPP having already laid over 120 charges against Six Nations activists, the formation of this militia — with a primary target of removing “illegal” native “smoke shacks” near Caledonia — points directly to the increasing of the possibility of violent conflict between natives and non-natives. Fleming has called for a public meeting for founding of the militia to happen on June 23, at 7 p.m., at the Lion’s Hall in Cayuga. The announcement of the formation of the militia has received widespread publicity in the mainstream media. (Links to the coverage can be found below).

Although Gary McHale and his supporters have avoided making public racist comments towards natives, there is no doubt that the formation of the militia will draw explicitly racist individuals who have long wanted to physically confront native protesters into activity. Neo-Nazi groups have long participated in McHale’s various protests since at least the fall of 2006, and there is every likelihood that they will be drawn to this meeting if they are not already involved in organizing it.

Put simply, this meeting cannot be allowed to happen unopposed. As non-natives who have long supported indigenous struggles in general and the Six Nations struggle in particular, we are issuing a call for all who are opposed to escalation and violence inherent in Flemming’s call for a “Caledonia Militia” to peacefully protest the holding of this meeting.

Transportation to the protest will be organized by activists in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph. Please contact 3903fnswg@gmail.com for more information, to endorse the protest, or to reserve a space on the buses. Buses will be leaving from Toronto at 4:30pm sharp and should return by 10pm that night at the latest. You must contact us over email to reserve a space on the bus. Please reserve a spot immediately so we can get a sense of how many people require transport. There is a suggested donation to help cover the cost of transport is $10 although no-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

In solidarity,
The CUPE 3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group.

****

Sources on the formation of the “Caledonia militia”:

http://www.marchforfreedom.com/smf/index.php?topic=466.0 This is a discussion board run by Gary McHale where the event was first announced.

http://www.westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2009/06/caledonia-militia-looking-for-a-few-good-men.html This right-wing magazine ran a story on the issue. The comments section is quite informative.

http://voiceofcanada.wordpress.com This is the website of Mark Vandermas an associate of McHale’s.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/652121 This is a Toronto Star article on the issue. If you look at the comments, you’ll see that almost 90 of the 100 are strongly in support of the forming of the militia.

http://caledoniawakeupcall.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/caledonia-militia-draws-criticism-from-cowards/ This is another blog by the McHale supporter in Caledonia.

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=604501 This is the world’s most popular English-language neo-Nazi website. Here is a discussion thread that is discussing McHale’s various activities and protests in Caledonia and provides some information about neo-Nazi participation in them.

http://www.caledoniawakeupcall.com/election/ElectionResults.pdf And in case you thought that McHale was simply an irrelevant right-wing agitator, here is a link to the federal election results from last year when he ran as an independent candidate in Haldimand Norfolk. As the results indicate, he polled 10% of the riding’s votes, nearly getting 5000 votes (neck and neck with the NDP, and double the Green party votes). He won most of the polls in the non-native communities near to Six Nations, indicating that he has a significant base of anti-native support there.

Resist 2010: 8 Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics

Blackfire – [Silence] is A Weapon/The Possibilities

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos to Leonard Peltier

I am posting this now ten year old message from the EZLN to Leonard Peltier in solidarity and hope for his latest parole hearing.

Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional México
October of 1999
From: Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

Leonard,

Through the NCDM and Cecilia Rodriguez we extend greetings from the men, women, children and elders of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

Cecilia has told us about the grave injustice the North American judicial system has committed against you. We understand that the powerful are punishing your spirit of rebellion and your strong fight for the rights of indigenous people in North America.

Stupid as it is, the powerful believe that through humiliation, arrogance and isolation it can break the dignity of those who give thoughts, feelings, life and guidance to the struggle for recognition and respect for the first inhabitants of the land over whom, the vain United States has risen. The heroic resistance that you have maintained in prison, as well as the broad movement of solidarity, that your case and your cause have motivated in the U.S. and the world reveal their mistake.

Knowing of your existence and history, no woman or man if they are honest and conscious can remain silent before such a great injustice. Nor can they remain still in front of a struggle, which like all that is born and grows from below, is necessary, possible, and true.

The Lakota, a people who have the honor and fortune to have you among their blood, have an ethic that recognizes and respects the place of all people and things, respects the relations that mother earth has with herself and other living things that live and die within her and outside of her. An ethic that recognizes generosity as a measure of human worth, the walk of our ancestors and our dead along the paths of today and tomorrow, women and men as part of the universe that have the power of free will to choose paths and seasons, the search for harmony and the struggle against that which breaks and disorders it. All of this, and more that escapes because we are so far away, has a lot to teach the “western” culture which steers, in North America and in the rest of the world, against humanity and against nature.

Probably the determined resistance of Leonard Peltier is incomprehensible to the Powerful in North America, and the world. To never give up, to resist, the powerful call this “ foolishness”. But the foolish are in every corner of the world, and in all of them, resistance flourishes in the fertile ground of the most ancient history.

In sum, what the powerful fail to understand is not only Peltier’s resistance, but also the entire worlds, and so they intend to mold the planet into the coffin the system represents, with wars, jails and police officers.

Probably, the powerful in North America think that in jailing and torturing Leonard Peltier, they are jailing and torturing one man.

And so they don’t understand how a prisoner can continue to be free, while in prison.

And they don’t understand how, being imprisoned, he speaks with so many, and so many listen.

And they don’t understand how, in trying to kill him, he has more life.

And they don’t understand how one man, alone, is able to resist so much, to represent so much, to be so large.

“Why?” the powerful ask themselves and the answer never reaches their ears:

Because Leonard Peltier is a people, the Lakota, and it is impossible to keep a people imprisoned.

Because Leonard Peltier speaks through the Lakota men and women who are in themselves and in their nature the best of mother earth.

Because the strength that this man and this people have does not come from modern weapons, rather it comes from their history, their roots, their dead.

Because the Lakota know that no one is more alive than the dead.

Because the Lakota, and many other North American Indian people, know that resisting without surrender not only defends their lives and their liberty, but also their history and the nature that gives them origin, home, and destiny.

Because the great ones always seem so small to those who can not see the history that each one keeps inside.

Because the racism that now governs can only imagine the other and the different in jail…or in the trashcan, where two Lakota natives were found last month, murdered, in the community of Pine Ridge. This is justice in North America: those who fight for their people are in jail, those who despise and murder walk unpunished.

What is Leonard Peltier accused of?

Not of a crime he didn’t commit. No. He is accused of being other, of being different, of being proud to be other and different.

But for the Powerful, Leonard Peltier’s most serious “crime” is that he seeks to rescue in the past, in his culture, in his roots, the history of his people, the Lakota. And for the powerful, this is a crime, because knowing oneself with history impedes one from being tossed around by this absurd machine that is the system.

If Leonard Peltier is guilty, than we are all guilty because we seek out history, and on its shoulders we fight to have a place in the world, a place of dignity and respect, a place for ourselves exactly as we are, which is also, very much as we were.

If the Indian people of the North and Indian people of México, as well as the indigenous people of the entire continent, know that we have our own place (being who we are, not pretending to be another skin color, another tongue, another culture), what is left is that other colors that populate the entire world know it. And what is left is for the powerful to know it. So that they know it, and learn the lesson so well that they won’t forget, many more paths and bridges are needed that are walked from below.

On these paths and bridges, you, Leonard Peltier, have a special place, the best, next to us who are like you.

Salud, Leonard Peltier, receive a hug from one who admires and respects you, and who hopes that one day you will call him “brother”.

Vale, and health to you and I hope that injustice disappears tomorrow, with yesterday as a weapon and today as a road.

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast, Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos México, October 1999

A Protest Against Peru’s Repression

The following statement issued by the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin is in response to attacks by the Peruvian government on indigenous Peruvians defending their lands against “Ordinance 1090,” a government decree that opens lands to multinational business interests.

THE COORDINATING Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin–COICA–is outraged over the recent events in the cities of Jaen, Bagua Chica and Bagua Grande in Peru.

We express our profound rejection of the repressive methods used by the Peruvian government, which are criminal and undemocratic. Since last May, the government has declared a state of emergency and repression in several districts of the Amazon in response to a strike called by Peruvian indigenous organizations demanding the legal and legitimate respect of their territories, and respect of their rights, which have been violated by a dozen of legislative decrees that promote the entry of multinational companies into Amazonian lands to the detriment of local indigenous communities.

We condemn the killing of more than 30 indigenous brothers (Awajun and Wampis) and dozens wounded, including farmers, mestizos and whites attacked for their solidarity with indigenous peoples.

We accuse the government of Alan Garcia of political manipulation and authoritarianism given the Constitution Committee of Peru’s National Congress’s declaration that the legislative package which provoked the strike-signifying environmental, labor, intellectual property and biodiversity management reforms–is unconstitutional.

We accuse the government of Alan Garcia of failing to find a timely and legitimate solution to AIDESEP’s proposal to repeal Ordinance 1090 and other decrees (to facilitate the Free Trade Agreement between Peru and United States), which could have prevented this massacre.

We regret and condemn the reactions of the Peruvian government, its ministers and the media for blaming the disgrace in Bagua on Peruvian indigenous bothers, and their concealment of information regarding indigenous peoples killed (by hiding their bodies). This only shows that the government of Alan Garcia fears being accused of crimes and human rights violations.

We appeal to the independent press and human rights institutions to investigate, monitor and report on actual events actually taking place in Peru, as opposed to relying on information in the national press manipulated by the government.

We urge the international community create a commission to investigate and review the facts, and urge the government of Peru to implement the International Labor Organization Convention 169 and other international treaties on indigenous peoples and human rights.

We demand that the government of Alan Garcia be tried before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and respond to the international community about the massacre that occurred in the Amazon territories, where the armed forces confronted unarmed indigenous peoples.

We call on the indigenous movement of the world to show solidarity with our Peruvian brothers and to demand that the government of Alan Garcia immediately stop this repression and murder wave in the Peruvian Amazon.

We urge the whole world to recognize that the environment is not only “biodiversity” but also the people that co-exist with biodiversity. Therefore, it is very painful for us that the celebration of World Environment Day, June 5, has been stained with the blood of our brothers, who were the keepers of the land in their struggle for environmental protection.

We emphasize our position as peaceful Amazonian indigenous peoples, although we will respond courageously in defense of our rights, our lives and the environment.

For the respect of life and integrity of the people! For the protection of our Amazon! For a common front in support of indigenous peoples!

Blood at the Blockade: Peru’s Indigenous Uprising by Gerardo Rénique

Gerardo Rénique teaches history at City College, New York. He edited “The Uprising in Oaxaca,” a special section in Socialism and Democracy 44, July 2007 (vol. 22, no. 2).

This was originally posted on nacla.org.

On June 6, near a stretch of highway known as the Devil’s Curve in the northern Peruvian Amazon, police began firing live rounds into a multitude of indigenous protestors – many wearing feathered crowns and carrying spears. In the nearby towns of Bagua Grande, Bagua Chica, and Utcubamba, shots also came from police snipers on rooftops, and from a helicopter that hovered above the mass of people. Both natives and mestizos took to the streets protesting the bloody repression.

From his office in Bagua, a representative of Save the Children, the child anti-poverty organization, reported that children as young as four-years-old were wounded by the indiscriminate police shooting. President Alan García had hinted the government would respond forcefully to “restore order” in the insurgent Amazonian provinces, where he had declared a state of siege on May 9 suspending most constitutional liberties. The repression was swift and fierce.

By the end of the day, a number of buildings belonging to the government and to García’s APRA party had been destroyed. Nine policemen and at least 40 protestors were killed (estimates vary). Overwhelmed by the number of wounded, small local hospitals were forced to shutter their doors. A Church official denounced that many of the civilian wounded and killed at the Devil’s Curve were forcefully taken to the military barracks of El Milagro. From Bagua, a local journalist told a radio station that policemen had dumped bagged bodies into the Utcubamba River.

Indigenous leaders have accused García of “genocide” and have called for an international campaign of solidarity with their struggle. Indigenous unrest in the Peruvian Amazon began late last year. After an ebb of a few months, the uprising regained force again on April 9. Since then, Amazonian indigenous groups have sustained intensifying protests, including shutdowns of oil and gas pumping stations as well as blockades of road and river traffic.

The Devil’s Curve massacre is not the only instance of repression. García recently sent in the Navy to violently break through indigenous blockades on the Napo River, also in northern Peru. But few expected such a violent reaction from the government. García says the response was appropriate and blamed the indigenous for thinking they could decide what happens in their territories: “These people don’t have crowns. They aren’t first-class citizens who can say… ‘You [the government] don’t have the right to be here.’ No way.” The president called the protestors “pseudo-indigenous.”

Indigenous representative Alberto Pizango called Devil’s Curve the “worst slaughter of our people in 20 years.” And added, “Our protest has been peaceful. We’re 5,000 natives [in the blockade] that just want respect for our territory and the environment.”

Protestors’ top demand is the repeal of a series of decrees, known collectively as the “Law of the Jungle,” signed by García last year. The President decreed the legislative package using extraordinary powers granted to him by Peru’s Congress to enact legislation required by the 2006 U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement. Indigenous groups are also demanding the creation of a permanent commission with indigenous representation to discuss solutions to their territorial, developmental, health and educational problems.

One of the most controversial aspects of the decrees is that they allow private interests to buy up indigenous lands and resources. Following a colonial logic of “progress,” García’s decrees foster the commodification of indigenous territories, ecological reserves, communal and public lands, water, and biogenetic resources to the benefit of powerful transnational interests. What’s more, the “Law of the Jungle” implicitly conceives of indigenous Amazonia as an open, empty, bountiful, and underdeveloped frontier and its inhabitants as obstacles to neoliberal modernization and investment schemes.

History of Plunder and Resistance

Neoliberal elites are apparently oblivious to indigenous historical agency and political activism in Peru, where there is a long-standing trajectory of Amazonian insurgency. Since the eighteenth century, indigenous groups in the rainforest have successfully rolled back the incursions of colonial missionaries, rubber barons, gold miners, lumber contractors, Sendero Luminoso guerrillas and others whose expansion represented a direct and serious threat to their cultural autonomy and territorial integrity.

García and his predecessors have tried to give transnational companies – logging, oil, mining, and pharmaceutical etc. – unfettered access to the Amazon’s riches. The potential plunder not only poses a threat to the very existence of indigenous peoples, but also presents a serious danger to the region’s diverse and fragile ecosystems.

Protests have occurred in the past, but this time is different: The scope of the ongoing mobilizations, which cover almost the totality of Peru’s Amazonian territories, is historically unprecedented, as is the government’s violent reaction. Coordinating the mobilization effort is the Inter-Ethnic Development Association of the Peruvian Amazon (Aidesep), an umbrella group of indigenous organizations. Established almost three decades ago through the incorporation of more than 80 federations and regional organizations, Aidesep’s reach and strength rests on its 1,350 affiliated communities representing 65 different Amazonian peoples.

Under mounting pressure from the protests, the government finally agreed to a closed-door meeting held the morning of May 27 in Lima with indigenous representatives. (Aidesep had demanded such a meeting for years.) Prime Minister Yehude Simon – himself a former leftist and political prisoner – and Aidesep representative Alberto Pizango held a brief press conference after the sitdown announcing the start of formal negotiations.

Following weeks of a racist and dirty government campaign against indigenous leaders, a subdued Simon acknowledged both the García administration’s “bad communications” and – more importantly – “the lack of a state policy towards Amazon communities for over a century.” He also emphasized government willingness to revise and modify Garcia’s decrees.

Meanwhile, a defiant Pizango maintained that Aidesep’s campaign of civil disobedience would only be lifted with the total repeal of García’s “Law of the Jungle.” Pizango also announced a platform of issues that indigenous representatives planned to bring to the table, including points on indigenous territorial rights, self-determination, health and education, development, and cultural integrity.

Failed Talks, Failed Government

The last time the government agreed to negotiations in August 2008 – again, under pressure from an indigenous uprising – the talks collapsed due to government unwillingness to engage indigenous representatives in a respectful and honest manner. Aidesep withdrew from the talks when the government tried to undermine the group’s position by inviting (unannounced) groups of indigenous leaders and academics aligned both with the government’s discredited Development Institute for Andean, Indigenous, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples (INDEPA) and the Confederation of Amazonian Nationalities (CONAPA), which groups together a small number of opportunistic Indigenous leaders.

Using INDEPA and CONAPA, the government has initiated “cooperation agreements” between friendly indigenous communities and foreign oil and gas companies. Outraged by their presence at the negotiating table Aidesep denounced the move as a “smoke screen” covering up the government’s spurious collusion with the gas and oil industries.

Meanwhile, Aidesep kept open negotiations with members of Congress, where its demands received support from the left-of-center opposition and even some members of García’s ruling party. With the start of formal negotiations (Mesa de Diálogo), Aidesep honored the compromise and halted protests on August 20, ending the 11-day uprising. With growing popular sympathy with indigenous demands and support from the political opposition in late September, congress passed a law that canceled two of the most odious presidential decrees that sought to diminish indigenous territorial rights and political autonomy.

Aidesep’s direct action campaign marked the emergence of Amazonian indigenous peoples as an influential and autonomous force in Peru’s current political landscape. The mobilization also sparked a public realization that the defense of Amazonian resources is an issue of national importance and not only a regional or indigenous problem. The indigenous uprising has also increased public awareness of the predatory nature of free trade, the prevalence of public good over private interests, and the meaning and importance of citizen participation in the formulation of a sustainable and democratic future. All of this constitutes a healthy questioning of the toxic neoliberal paradigm based on the commodification of life and resources as the only possible alternative to “progress” and “modernization.”

In October 2008, video recordings surfaced of conversations between high-ranking officials from the García administration and a lobbyist for transnational gas and oil companies. The recordings show the men negotiating the fraudulent concession of oil rights in natural reserves and indigenous territories. The video not only starkly revealed the real intentions behind the “Law of the Jungle” and Peru’s handful of recently negotiated free trade agreements, but also further boosted Aidesep’s legitimacy and the moral authority of its struggle. The scandal also helped catalyze the current Amazonian insurgency, coalescing an emerging popular and autonomous anti-systemic bloc and further diminished García’s popularity, which has been abysmally low. (Approval ratings have hovered at 30 percent in the city of Lima and are even lower in rural areas, especially the Amazon.)

Amazon ‘Insurgency’ Declared

By late March, triggered by renewed incursions into their territories, abusive labor conditions in the gas and oil industry, high levels of contamination and government reluctance to address their demands, indigenous peoples in various Amazonian localities staged a number of marches, demonstrations, blockades, and hunger strikes. Incensed by the government’s repressive response to their demands and its threat to declare a state of emergency in the most combative Amazonian provinces, Aidesep renewed mobilizations, blocking ground and river traffic, and occupying hydrocarbon installations.

In an April 9 declaration, Aidesep demanded that Congress rescind the “Law of the Jungle,” establish a genuine Mesa de Diálogo, and promote the creation of new branches of government charged with implementing “intercultural” solutions to indigenous health and education problems. The document also calls for the recognition of indigenous collective property rights, guarantees for special territorial reserves of communities in voluntary isolation, and the suspension of land concessions to oil, gas, mining, lumber, and tourism industries. Indigenous organizations are also demanding a new constitution that incorporates the United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, both of which guarantee indigenous rights to territorial and cultural autonomy. Finally, the April declaration also calls for the suspension of the government’s free trade agreements with the United States, the European Union, Chile, and China, all of which endanger indigenous territorial rights and Amazonian biodiversity.

As indigenous groups escalated their direct action campaign, the government declared a state of siege on May 9 in four of the most militant provinces of Amazonia. Despite the crackdown, Aidesep has gained sympathy and solidarity from broad sectors of Peruvian society. Unions, popular organizations, and highland peasant and indigenous groups have staged “civic strikes” and other protest actions. Elected municipal and regional authorities across the country have also expressed their support. While Catholic bishops across the Amazon region have called on the faithful to support indigenous demands, stating the “rich cultural and biological diversity” of the region represents a “source of life and hope for humanity.”

On May 27, Peru was rocked by a national day of protest called by the country’s largest trade union federation and other social movement umbrella groups. Thousands took to the street protesting García’s neoliberal policies and to express their solidarity with Aidesep’s struggle. In Lima a massive march arrived to the steps of Congress, demanding that the Law of the Jungle be declared unconstitutional. Meanwhile, the just-concluded Fourth Continental Indigenous People’s Summit of Abya-Yala, which was held in southern Peru, called for an international day of action in solidarity with the Amazonian uprising. The Communitarian Front in Defense of Life and Sovereignty established by Aidesep together with labor, Andean indigenous, campesino and popular organizations have called for a day of protest and mobilization on June 11.

The Law of the Jungle

A report from the government’s Ombudsman Office not only declared the unconstitutionality of García’s decrees, but also noted the legitimacy of indigenous people’s campaign of civil disobedience. In Congress, the Constitutional Committee declared two of the presidential decrees unconstitutional. But under pressure from the executive, García’s APRA party, with support from followers of jailed former President Fujimori and other right-wing political parties, has blocked discussion of the Constitutional Committee’s resolution.

At the beginning of June, the situation deteriorated. Aidesep walked away from the incipient talks with the government, citing the executive’s refusal to acknowledge broadening public rejection of the decrees. The government responded with increased repression that culminated – so far – with the Devil’s Curve massacre. García also lashed out against Radio de la Selva, an Amazonian radio station that has been critical of the government. The attorney general is considering charging the station with inciting public unrest. When the military violently broke up the river blockade on the Napo River, spontaneous protests erupted against the Navy.

The declaration of martial law in the provinces of Bagua and Utcubamba, where the bloodiest repression took place, and the trumped-up charges of rioting have forced many of Aidesep leaders underground. But the repression drove many non-indigenous sectors into the fold of the Aidesep-led resistance. A newspaper report interviewed a teacher who described how many non-indigenous locals joined the June 6 protests after the Army blocked villagers from attending to the wounded and bringing water to the natives at Devil’s Curve. The indiscriminate shootings only fueled further hostility toward the government. The growing unrest among a broad range of popular forces has coalesced into the Communitarian Front in Defense of Life and Sovereignty, formed on June 4. Among other actions, the new coalition has called for a national general strike if the Law of the Jungle is not repealed by June 11.

Catholic clergy have rejected the repression and reiterated their support for indigenous demands. In a joint-letter the Ombudsman’s Office and high-ranking clergy called on the government to privilege peace and negotiation over repression and violence in resolving the conflict. In a previous statement the priests expressed their discontent with the “attitude taken by the government, foreign and national businessmen and a large sector of the media” against “the just demands of Amazonian indigenous peoples.” (These conservative sectors have ridiculously dismissed the protests as the work of presidents Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales.)

La Lucha Sigue

The outcome of this current crisis is highly uncertain. Indigenous are calling for García to resign, while a chorus of groups (newspapers, unions, opposition figures) are at least demanding that García sack cabinet members, particularly Prime Minister Simon and the Minister of the Interior. The police union issued a statement lamenting the death of both the officers and their “Indian brothers,” while placing the blame for these deaths squarely on García.

One thing, however, is certain: The recent repression laid bare García’s naked slavishness to foreign capital investment and his double-talk of feigning negotiation and dialogue, while implementing an evidently well-planned counter-insurgency operation. Much of the national media has obediently obliged with a fear-mongering campaign. Under the government’s current plan, oil and gas concession blocs alone would cover 72 percent of Peru’s Amazon, according to a recent study by Duke University.

Will energy, agribusiness, lumber, and mining corporations gain exclusive benefit to one of the largest repositories of fresh water, biodiversity, and other resources? Will the indigenous succeed in protecting their lands – a final frontier – from the rule of global capital? The answers to these questions will depend on many things, including indigenous people’s ability to sustain protests and their growing allegiances with other sectors as well as the government’s willingness to use brute force.

Indigenous peoples in Peru have reconfigured – perhaps irreversibly – popular anti-systemic forces in the country from their weakness and dispersion of recent years. In the immediate future, however, the next weeks will be crucial for determining the outcome of the crisis. International solidarity with the Aidesep struggle will be central in deterring the predatory advance of the government and capital. The defense of Amazonia, as Peruvian clergy pointed out, “is not of the exclusive concern of Peruvian citizens but of all humanity.”