Quick story I got in the email. African American pharmacists at Walgreens have launched a class action lawsuit against that corporation for racial discrimination. I’ve blogged elsewhere about Black Americans and health care. It is among the deadliest impacts of racism in the US, though it is not usually understood that way. It is also one of the easiest to fix – universal health care would do nicely. Of course, it is harder to campaign for such a thing when the notion of ‘undeserving poor’ is so deeply ingrained into the culture, and when ‘undeserving poor’ is actually code for ‘Black’, and relies on racism, that makes it still harder. This lawsuit shows some of the connections as well: corporate power, the health care industry, and racism, all coming together.
Haitian Blood on Canadian Hands, etc.
Devoted followers of this blog might remember a photo I posted of activist and writer Yves Engler confronting Canadian Foreign Minister and coupster Pierre Pettigrew with a copy of the University of Miami Human Rights report aka ‘Griffin Report’, a harrowing and meticulously documented piece that shows the devastation in the wake of the coup. Pettigrew dismissed this as ‘propaganda’, without responding to any of the claims or evidence or photos. I suppose that is what one would expect from a vicious liar and a gangster (sorry for mincing words, I’m trying to keep this a family blog).
At a recent conference on Haiti in Montreal (June 17-18) where the future of occupied Haiti was being planned, Engler had another encounter with Pettigrew, the beginning of which is shown here:
It ended with Engler splashing Pettigrew’s hands with fake blood (cranberry juice, I believe). Engler was wrestled to the ground and arrested, spending the night in jail (charges were later dropped, except for disturbing the piece – I suppose they don’t want a trial and for Engler to have a platform). Pettigrew, after cleaning up, tellingly quipped about his favourite Calvin Klein suit. At least one letter-writer wondered in a Canadian daily newspaper about whether the CK suit was made in a Haitian sweatshop, where the minimum wage had been lowered since the coup.
Naomi Klein was in South Africa a few days ago and interviewed ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide, asking him his opinion on the incident:
Naomi Klein:
Pierre Pettigrew just hosted a summit on the ‘transition’ and some Haitian
solidarity activists did an action where they put some red paint on [Foreign
Minister Pierre] Pettigrew’s hands to symbolize that Canada has blood on its
hands in Haiti. Does Canada have blood on its hands in Haiti?
President Jean Bertrand Aristide:
Some people in the Canadian government yes, they have Haitian blood on their
hands. But not Canada as all the people of Canada or as one country. I try
to make a clear distinction between the Canadian people who didn’t decide to
have their government going to Haiti, seeing Pettigrew and the others with
the Haitian blood on their hands.
Aristide also took some pains to distance himself from the action – no doubt wanting to avoid the constant propaganda about him pressing buttons from Africa and causing crimes halfway around the world. He told Naomi:
I don’t encourage people to go against any government in Canada or to go
against the de facto government in Haiti. I encourage them to resist in a
peaceful way while they are asking for my return.
There was a bit of tactical debate about Engler’s action, which I thought was wonderful. Some who wrote me wondered whether it would be counterproductive. I think not. I worry when tactics seem disproportionate – when the ‘punishment’ seems to exceed the crime. Pettigrew’s crimes so far exceed what Engler did or could do that it’s uncomfortable to make the comparison, so there’s no proportionality problem there. What about consequences? Because it was obviously a Canadian acting on his own initiative, it can’t be easily used to attack Lavalas or Haitians, so there is insulation for the victims. Engler made a calculation about the possible personal costs, and I think made a courageous decision. He could have faced jail time, etc. – but that would also have given him a platform from which to attack Canada’s horrendous actions in Haiti. As it was, he put the fact that there is opposition in Canada to what the Canadian government has done and is doing on the table in a way that had not been on the table before, despite efforts at mobilization and small (hopefully growing) efforts at organization and education. So, I’d have to say thanks to Engler, and look forward to seeing his book (with Anthony Fenton) on Canada in Haiti, which is coming out in the fall.
More on the Red Alert
First, if you only read english, you should know that Irlandesa, the main english translator of Zapatista material, has a new blog and will be posting her translations there, though that wasn’t her intention in starting the blog, as she says. She translates everything from the Zapatista command, and does so very fast.
ZNet has republished two communiques explaining a little more about the Red Alert.
Red Alert
This communique from the Zapatistas took me by surprise…
Originally published in Spanish by the CCRI-CG of the EZLN
************************************
Continue reading “Red Alert”
Happy Birthday, OCAP
Yesterday was a good day. I spent the afternoon reading Ralph Ellison’s ‘The Invisible Man’. It’s a classic, and one I’d heard a lot about, but in my tastes of these things I have no ability to differentiate between great classics and cheap thriller novels, and the same goes for movies and music. But this was a really great book about race in the US, though not just about that. The main character, a young black man whose name you never learn, grows up in the southern US, I guess around the 1950s or early 1960s, goes to a black college there, gets expelled, goes to Harlem, falls in with the local Communist organization, which is fighting street battles with the black nationalist organization, and leaves that group in disgust of their inability to understand or see the reality right in front of them. He ends up living in a hole in the ground, surrounded by hundreds of lightbulbs. My summary abstracts out some extraordinarily painful and unforgettable scenes, some brilliant dialogue, and some amazing insights. The title comes from the fact that, because he’s Black, no one is able to see him. People are able to use him, and eager to do so. But not to actually see him. It’s also a brilliant book because you see the character grow and evolve over the course of the book.
Having read The Invisible Man, I went to a party organized by Toronto’s invisible: the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. In fact it is inaccurate to call them Toronto’s invisible. It is rather those who would be invisible if it weren’t for OCAP itself. But they are most certainly not invisible. As Eqbal Ahmad once said about the Palestinians, refuting Golda Meier’s famous atrocious remark (‘the palestinians don’t exist’) they damn well exist now.
The party was a fundraiser on the approximate occasion of OCAP’s 15th birthday (hence one of the slogans, ‘kicking the ass of the ruling class since 1990’). It was at a little bar in downtown toronto, but the back room had been taken over and made into an exhibit of an extraordinary history. Several walls were full of press coverage accumulated over 15 years of action – a large portion of which was truly absurd and hilarious for those who actually know what OCAP is about. There was a constant slideshow running of extraordinary photos taken by OCAP folks. And then there were toasts – on an open mic, about a dozen people spoke to celebrate what the organization has meant to them (and it has meant things like the difference between homelessness and housing, the difference between deportation and staying, the difference between wanting to get up in the morning and not). And unlike the organizations encountered by the main character in The Invisible Man, this one is not concerned with making reality fit its theory. It is concerned, first of all, with the survival of its constituents, who are society’s most vulnerable people. And it fights for this survival in the most dignified way – by actually fighting, intelligently, politically. Oh, there are problems, and they are serious, but they arise because this thing is alive.
I realized that it’s far too easy for someone like me to take an organization like that for granted. It is a blessing. It is also, for lack of a better term, the most civilizing influence in the city. That word usually isn’t associated with the kind of uncompromising anger one hears from OCAP – but that anger, as far as I’ve seen, is completely appropriate and proportionate. I wish those people OCAP always ends up fighting could understand that.
There were a lot of really moving toasts people made at the mic, and I can’t really do justice to all of them. So I’ll just quote the last line of the first toast, that went something like this: ‘OCAP is hated because it is a thorn in the side of the powerful. But it’s not enough to just be a thorn in their side. So in the next few years let’s go from being a thorn in their side to being a stake through the bloody bastards’ hearts!’
I could drink to that…
Solidarity Across Borders!
Some activist news from Canada. The Solidarity Across Borders march starts tomorrow. It’s an immigrant rights march – press release just below. Also below, a note from the Secwepemc indigenous nation (whose ancestral lands are in British Columbia and under encroachment from various tourist multinationals, which they’ve been fighting, which has led to repression). First the Solidarity Across Borders, then below that, news on the repression of Secwepemc activists.
——
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL!
Tired of waiting and being afraid: Montreal-area refugees and allies to
begin 200km march to Ottawa
-> Press point: SATURDAY, June 18th at NOON
-> Location: Atwater and Ste-Catherine (Montreal)
-> Contact numbers: 514-568-8283 (en.) or 514-298-9974 (fr.)
sansfrontieres@resist.ca – www.solidarityacrossborders.org
Montreal – June 17, 2005 – Solidarity Across Borders, a Montreal-area refugee rights coalition, will be marching tomorrow, from downtown and through the city’s immigrant neighbourhoods, embarking on a 200km walk all the way to Parliament Hill. The march is demanding a full and inclusive regularization program for all non-status people in Canada, as well as the abolition of security certificates and an end to deportations and detentions of migrants. The marchers have asked for a face-to-face meeting with Immigration Minister Joe Volpe.
According to a statement by march organizers :
” We are marching for the hundreds of thousands of people who live in Canada without status. These people – our friends, co-workers, schoolmates and neighbours – make up the social, economic and cultural fabric of cities like Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. Without status, and deemed “illegal”, thousands of migrants are forced to live in poverty, without sufficient access to health care or education, and in great fear of being detained or deported, all the while being the most exploited in the workplace.
” We are marching because there is no such thing as an “illegal” human being, only unjust laws and illegitimate governments.
” We will be marching on the 10th anniversary of the “Bread and Roses” March against poverty, organized by Quebec women, and the 70th anniversary of the On-to-Ottawa Trek, organized by unemployed workers during the Great Depression; we march in the tradition of those previous efforts for social and economic justice.
” This march is directly inspired by Shamim Akhtar, a Pakistani refugee claimant and active member of Solidarity Across Borders. Shamim first proposed the idea of a refugee march to Ottawa in the summer of 2003. Unfortunately, Shamim and her family (including 4 children) were deported in the summer of 2004.
” We march almost one year later with Shamim very much in mind, as well as all our other friends and allies who have been removed, detained, forced underground or forced into sanctuary in the past years; Wendy Maxwell, Sergio Loreto, the Cordoza family, the Daschevi family, Zahoor Hussein, Fahim Kayani, Tilo Johnson, Daniel and Irina Isakov, Mohamed Cherfi, Dorothy Dubé, Fatima Marhfoul, Ahmad Nafaa, Ahmed Abdel Majeed, Faraz Abu Zimal, Ali Naqvi, the Ibad family, the Butt family, the Syed family, Dawood Khan, Eduardo Perez, Gorka Salazar, Mourad and Nadia, the Vega family, the Borja family, the Ayoub family, the Ayele family, Sanya Pecelj, Samsu Mia, Amir Kazemian, Kobra and Hassan, Adrian Dragan, Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah, Hassan Almrei, Mohamed Harkat, Adil Charkaoui and many, too many, more. We refuse to be invisible and silenced”.
INTERNATIONAL STATEMENT
T’kumlups, Secwepemcul’ecw – Thursday, June 16, 2005 – 11 pm PST
SUN PEAKS RESORT CONTINUES DESTROYING SECWEPEMC LAND AND SENDING SECWEPEMC NATIONALS TO JAIL IN PROCESS
In Kamloops Supreme Court today, Justice F. Cole jailed four Secwepemc Nation members – Nicole Manuel, Rose Jack, Trevor Dennis and Mark Sauls for their participation in a 4 hour roadblock on August 24, 2001 at Skwelkwek’welt ( Sun Peaks Ski Resort )
Sentences ranged from 45 days for 28 year old Secwepemc mother of 2, Nicole Manuel, to 90 days for three other Secwepemc Nationals, Trevor Dennis 26, Rose Jack 25 and Mark Sauls 24.
Two other Secwepemc Nationals in today’s proceedings, Beverly Manuel and Miranda Dick were given suspended and conditional sentences, respectively.
Following an established pattern since December 15, 2004, Justice Cole denied all attempts by the defence to have numerous constitutional questions submitted to his court concerning the BC Lands Act dealt with before sentencing in this matter was administered. “Since December 15, 2004, we have targeted the patently unconstitutional 1874 BC Lands Act as the center of our legal actions and defense. Canada’s 1875 Duty of Disallowance reaffirms this illegal definition” stated defendant Beverly Manuel.
Secwepemcul’ecw Traditional Peoples Government spokesperson Janice Billy
said “ I deplore the imprisonment of my people for upholding our sacred responsibility to protect our land from destruction by Sun Peaks Resort Corporation.” She added, the “the imprisonment of our people is just one of the many immoral tactics used by the BC provincial courts, government, and corporations to continue the theft and destruction of our unceded lands. Rather than deal honorably with us, the government uses the RCMP, courts, and media to carry out their theft and destruction. The young people jailed have shown tremendous courage to stand up to this oppressive and racist system” Attending court for the sentencing, Bonnie Andrew, councillor of the Neskonlith Indian Band, said “The government has to respect our rights to this land as Indigenous People and quit it’s ‘business as usual’ approach” Despite the continuing desecration of our traditional territory and the governments refusal to respect our Title to Secwepemcul’ecw, Secwepemc Nationals will continue to ‘occupy, use and enjoy all lands within our Nation’. This is the exact principle which was mutually agreed upon by the Secwpemcul’ecw Traditional Peoples Government and the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council on September 20, 2004 prior to the arrests of three other Sewepemc Nationals on September 21, 2004 at Skwelkwek’welt.
For More Info contact
Janice Billy ( 250 ) 318 – 4290
jrbilly@mail.ocis.net
Enzo on Colombia Democracy Promotion
One of my Colombia mentors, let’s call him ‘Enzo’, discusses the electoral situation in Colombia:
Alvaro Uribe Velez is in power because of massive US support to his war initiative called Seguridad Democratica.
Freedom Summer and Violence
It’s another summer of intifada in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
And since there’s occupation, there’s resistance. The International Solidarity Movement is doing a freedom summer this year. The International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS) is involved in a campaign already. Below are some reports from the ground.
Saturday, 11 June 2005
IWPS House Report No.77
Week of Palestinian nonviolent resistance met with Israeli military violence
– Marda village, Salfit region, West Bank
Twenty kilometers east of the Green Line, the settlement of Ariel (population 20,000) looms above a village one tenth its size. Marda was one of the four villages named in a recent Israeli court decision that canceled all previous injunctions halting construction of the Annexation Wall in the area. The government is now free to uproot trees and begin to clear the path for the Wall, and the affected villages have been promised that in the case of a decision reversal on June 21, when the final path will be decided, the damage will be undone. Villagers of Marda recognize this empty promise for what it is, knowing that the damage done is irreversible.
On Wednesday, June 1, Israeli workers with chainsaws began to cut Marda’s trees, and in a five day period, they had cut more than 800 trees. Monday, June 6, bulldozers arrived to begin uprooting the cut trees, and they have been working every day since. After years of occupation, land theft, random arrests, and army invasions, this latest offense has caused Marda villagers to say, “Enough!” Ariel already has a fence surrounding it, they note. Why does it need another? And why on our land? Ariel has already stolen most of our land; why take even more? Determined not to sit quietly while their land is destroyed, Marda farmers, in cooperation with the Popular Committee against the Wall and the entire Salfit region, and Israeli and international groups, decided to reclaim their right to be on their land and on their roads.
Saturday, June 4, 2005
The march from Marda to Kifl Hares was supposed to be proactive, preventative. Little did Marda know, when they scheduled the demo two weeks in advance to coincide with the anniversary of the occupation of the West Bank, that their land would begin to be destroyed so soon. Little did they know that their march from Marda to Kifl Hares, along the main settler highway (which had been used by Palestinians for decades before Israel’s occupation), would be more than symbolic. That they would be marching not only for the impending land destruction, but for the hundreds of trees whose crop had been cut from them just two days before.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the center of Marda to begin their march to Kifl Hares, which would end directly next to the entrance of Ariel settlement. More than 50 soldiers met demonstrators at the entrance of Marda before they left the village, telling the crowd it could not proceed beyond a white ribbon the army had placed across the road. The front line marched directly through the ribbon with arms linked, and came face to face with a line of soldiers, also with arms linked. Soldiers were armed with guns and batons, demonstrators with flags and signs, proclaiming, “Build trust, not walls,” and “Uproot settlers, not trees.”
As villagers and supporters continued to move forward, soldiers lunged at the crowd, beating several people, including one Israeli who had to be taken to a hospital. After Palestinian village leaders and officials like Mustafa Barghouti and Kadura Fares spoke with the army commander, the army finally allowed the crowd to walk through the olive groves and across the main road to get to a new road that Israel is building on Palestinian land. Villagers slowly made their way across, happy to see that the army had closed the road completely, to both Palestinian travelers and Israeli settlers. One boy who stayed in the road longer than soldiers wanted was grabbed and taken to a jeep, only to be taken back by three Palestinian leaders just minutes later.
Demonstrators successfully made their way to Kifl Hares, followed the whole way by soldiers who continued only to let one lane of traffic pass on the settler highway. The demonstration was a huge success: Villagers completed their intended walk, closed the settler highway for some time, and made a statement to the settlers and soldiers of Ariel that their land could not be quietly stolen from them.
Sunday, June 5, 2005
Sunday morning, villagers saw Israeli workers with their chainsaws once again, cutting trees near the top of the hill as they had been the previous week. Again, farmers would not let this destruction happen without trying to stop it. About 20 adult men and one IWPS woman started up the hill, and were quickly followed by about 30 boys who ignored their elders’ order to stay below. We made our way towards the cut trees, and shortly before arriving, security guards and soldiers, whom most of us still could not see over the terraces and through the olive trees, began yelling at us not to come any further. When villagers advanced, one of the security guards fired a shot towards the ground directly in front of the crowd. “Do not move!” they screamed. “Can we talk to you?” people asked. Each time the response was, “Do not move!”
Despite the fear inspired by the private guards and army, Israeli workers had left the area quickly upon the group’s arrival, a major victory for the farmers, who had also stopped the work with a quiet confrontation the previous week.
The standoff continued for a while, with occasional pushing and shoving on the army’s part and chanting on the young men’s part (“hayalim labayta” – “soldiers, go home”). One man was hit on the arm and leg with the butt of a guard’s gun.
Soldiers briefly entered the village, throwing sound bombs and leaving quickly. The villagers stayed above, surveying the damage to their land. No soldier would claim responsibility for the situation or for the other soldiers’ or guards’ behavior, so there was no person to speak or negotiate with until Gilad from the DCO arrived. After brief negotiations, Gilad promised that the work would stop for the day and that the army’s lawyer and the village’s lawyer would have a meeting the next morning to decide how to proceed.
About a half hour after we returned to the village, the work resumed. The army had broken its promise.
Monday, June 6, 2005
At 7:30 Monday morning, farmers gathered in hopes of walking to their land to sit and stop the cutting of their olive trees. 10 farmers, 8 internationals and Israelis, and approximately 40 young men and boys walked up the hill towards the settlement of Ariel where 100-200 soldiers were spread out across the land, concentrating in two different locations on the hillside.
No Wall work was happening at first, but the farmers quickly noticed that a bulldozer had begun to uproot trees near the top of the hill east of where we were standing. The group walked towards the olive trees and was immediately met by tear gas. Soldiers fired approximately 200 canisters of tear gas in the next two hours, hitting two Palestinians directly. One farmer was taken to Rafidiya hospital and two Red Crescent ambulances treated 20 Palestinians.
At 11:00, 3 army and police jeeps entered the village and began to throw sound bombs. Palestinian boys threw stones, hitting a jeep, and four border police entered a Palestinian home, presumably looking for the stone throwers. Many cameras filmed this and the police left quickly without arresting any one.
The uprooting of olive trees continued unobstructed.
Wednesday, June 8, 2005
At 5:30 Wednesday morning, curfew was imposed on Marda, and the entire area of Marda, Iskaka, and Salfit was declared a closed military zone. The army and border police repeatedly entered the village from 5.30 am, throwing sound bombs and firing tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition into the air. Three internationals attempted to enter Marda at 6:45 am, but were stopped by soldiers and border police and threatened with arrest. Later, 5 Israelis and 2 internationals were able to enter the village and were also ordered to leave and threatened with arrest.
One young Palestinian man had his identity card taken but it was later returned to someone else in the village. Just before midday occupation forces arrested a 25 year old Palestinian. After many hours of confusion and concern, his family discovered that he had been taken to Qedumim. He is still being held.
Approximately 20 Palestinians were injured, among them a Red Crescent ambulance worker.
Friday, June 10, 2005
As villagers in Marda tried to make their way to their fields to pray the Friday midday prayers on their land, accompanied by media, internationals, and Israeli peace activists, tear gas clouded the skies. Four bulldozers that had been uprooting Marda’s trees stopped working as soon as the villagers began their march.
Mere minutes into the ascent upwards and only a few hundred meters up the slope, Israeli soldiers began firing tear gas and sound bombs at the villagers. While a number of soldiers fired from the hill, other military vehicles made their way into the village. Tear gas and sound bombs turned into rubber bullets, and the rubber bullets into live ammunition, reportedly fired directly at children. Soldiers shot tear gas towards the mosque and into a sewing factory where dozens of women were working. Four were taken to the hospital for gas inhalation.
Three Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets, one in the stomach, one in the leg, and one in the arm. One Palestinian’s thumb was broken when a tear gas canister hit his hand. Others were treated for tear gas inhalation. One international was detained for several hours and taken to Ariel police station, but was later released.
The DCO later claimed that the Israeli army fired only one rubber bullet and no live ammunition, and that a Palestinian had been shooting a Kalachnikov rifle. Villagers and Israelis collected the bullets and casings, however, and they were clearly from M16s, the rifles that the military uses.
Israeli soldiers threatened to return later that night.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
It is now Saturday, Shabbat, the day that most Israelis do not work. This apparently includes the chainsaw and bulldozer operators who have been coming daily from Ariel to destroy Marda’s land. It is a quiet day. The Israeli holiday of Shavuot begins tonight and will last for two days, hopefully ensuring that the work in Marda will not resume during this time. Shavuot commemorates Moses’ ascent to Mount Sinai where he received the Ten Commandments. Will the villagers of Marda be able to ascend their own mountain and receive anything other than tear gas and bullets?
Text: Hannah, Joy, Suraiya
Date: June 11, 2005
International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS)
Hares, Salfit
Telephone: 09 251 66 44
The Z Media Institute
Just back from the Z Media Institute (ZMI), a 9-day summer school where students learn about vision, strategy, and media skills. I was there as a teacher, doing topics of international solidarity and cultural vision. In addition to teaching, I had the chance to attend classes by Sonali Kolhatkar of KPFK, who taught radio skills; a play by Lydia Sargent, co-founder of Z Magazine; a talk by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, and of course talks by Noam Chomsky. That was just a tiny slice of the huge program students went through. While I didn’t get the chance to attend their classes, I did get to spend time with Jessica Azulay and Brian Dominick, editors of the New Standard, who taught students about the kind of journalism they do at TNS.
I also spent time with Chip Berlet from Political Research Associates. Berlet monitors the right-wing, and it was interesting to hear his perspective, since his outfit (PRA) predicted the rise of the right about 15 years ago, and then had to watch it happen, partly because the left couldn’t get its act together. Instead of integrating diversity, those in power in the left refused to give it up and helped keep the left separate, so that left constituencies could be attacked piecemeal. Those conversations made an impression on me: questions of balancing autonomy and integration and flattening structures of power that seemed like idealistic dreams for the future would also help us survive the onslaught. There were many other interesting conversations from a remarkable group of students. In my own classes we talked about Haiti, Venezuela, Israel/Palestine, and difficulties solidarity movements have and have had.
ZMI is still going on, for another few days, and I suspect so are the conversations…
Open Letter from Colombia
The Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN) read this ‘open letter’ from various internationals who volunteered to help a negotiated solution between the combatants who are currently fighting in indigenous territory in Cauca, Colombia. ACIN read this letter at a press conference yesterday: it was written some time ago. The hope is that the government and/or FARC will respond with a demonstration of willingness to dialogue.
An Open Letter to the Combatants in the Colombian Conflict, FARC and the Government of Colombia.
Since April 14, 2005, the territories and communities of Northern Cauca have been transformed into battlefields. Only the representatives of armed factions have been heard. Civilians have been displaced, wounded, and killed; their houses, churches, schools, and hospitals have been destroyed. Their voice, the most important voice in the conflict, has been drowned out.
The indigenous of Northern Cauca have struggled and sacrificed much in order to attain and build autonomy. In the process they have become an example of sustainable development, according to the United Nations Development Program, which granted their ‘Proyecto Nasa’ the Equatorial Initiative Prize last year. They have become an example to the nation of Colombia and were recognized with the National Peace Prize. One of their leaders, Arquimedes Vitonas, is the mayor of Toribio. He was recognized as a UNESCO ‘Master of Wisdom’ and by Colombia’s daily newspaper, El Tiempo, as ‘Person of the Year’ in 2004. Their achievements in land reform, participatory democracy, and indigenous law and justice are no less impressive. In recent years, their ideas have become important throughout Colombia. Their leadership in a march against President Uribe’s ‘Democratic Security’ policy, against the various Constitutional Reforms proposed by the current administration, and the Free Trade Agreement in September of 2004 mobilized tens of thousands of people and opened an important debate on this crucial issue at the national level. Their Popular Consultation on the FTA in March 2005 was a model of transparency and democratic participation in which the FTA was rejected by nearly the whole population, in an election with record participation. This, too, raised crucial questions for debate at the national level, and a political initiative for such a consultation at the national level is growing. The consultation, like the earlier one in Brazil in 2002, set an important precedent for the continent, showing how people can convene transparent and valid electoral processes that have credibility and legitimacy that governmental electoral processes often lack.
Today these communities are again forced to raise their voices and make demands at the national level. In this case their demands have to do not with crucial questions of democracy and economic development, but war and peace. Their autonomous communal processes have been disrupted by war in their communities, a war in which their views and their rights are not respected.
An outgrowth of the ‘Minga’ of September 2004 was the ‘Indigenous and Popular Mandate’. This mandate included the following:
With regard to the armed conflict, the violation of human rights and the politics of “democratic security”
-To design and put in place popular mechanisms for a negotiated solution to the armed conflict.
-To demand truth, justice, and reparations for the victims of armed conflict.
-Promote popular and autonomous mechanisms of civil resistance, peace and security that include the recognition of the Guardia Indigena as a popular force for peace.
-Demand and design mechanisms of civil resistance with national and international pressure, support, and observation to win the exit of armed groups from our territories and respect for the civil population, respect for indigenous autonomy and indigenous organizations.
-Design mechanisms of resistance and civil disobedience against the politics of “democratic security” of the Colombian government.
In accordance with this Mandate, the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca has made three demands of the armed actors in their territories:
1) An immediate ceasefire
2) The complete demilitarization of their territories
3) The opening of dialogues between the armed actors toward a negotiated solution to Colombia’s armed conflict
Nobel Peace Prize winner and indigenous activist Rigoberta Menchu Tum has supported this call with a call of her own to “the armed groups in this conflict, the FARC and the government, to stop the war, silence the guns, and listen to the words and make redoubled efforts to continue dialogue and search for a negotiated solution to the conflict. Colombia must not have a future of eternal bloodshed imposed upon it.” Rigoberta Menchu also declared that she would “answer the call of the Regional Indigenous Councils of Cauca to form a diplomatic mission to aid in the facilitation of a dialogue towards a negotiated solution” and join an Indigenous Peace Initiative led by the Indigenous of Northern Cauca.
We echo Rigoberta Menchu’s support for the indigenous communities of Northern Cauca in their call for a ceasefire, the demilitarization of their territories, and the opening of dialogues. We will accompany the process of the Indigenous Peace Initiative created for these ends.
Sincerely,
Manfred Max Neef (Chile), economist, spokesperson for the Indigenous and Popular Congress
Noam Chomsky (United States), linguist and author
Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina), Nobel laureate
Baltazar Garzon (Spain), jurist
Arturo Escobar (Colombia), researcher
Naomi Klein (Canada), author