This Saturday, October 12th, dozens of demonstrations will be held all over the US, Mexico and Central America to protest the 510th anniversary of Columbus day. Thousands of indigenous activists and supporters from Canada to Panama, will block borders, close highways and conduct various direct actions to demand basic human rights for all native peoples. They will call for an end to the new era of corporate colonialism driven by the forces of the free market and imposed on indigenous communities throughout the Americas.
American Indian Movement (AIM)’s Vernon Bellecourt puts this day into context, “October 12th marks the 510th anniversary of the coming of the colonial pirate Christopher Columbus and the beginning of the American holocaust that has claimed 16 million Indian lives in what is now called United States.”
Many of those organizing actions on October 12th throughout the Americas argue that the new era of corporate colonization brings the same old colonial promises for indigenous peoples: more poverty, violations of workers and human rights, environmental destruction and continued suffering. Justin Francese of Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America (ACERCA) explains, “Today, the model of corporate globalization promotes and upholds the relationships established during the initial colonization of the Americas. Instead of Columbus’ violent quest for gold, now transnational corporations, like Enron, form partnerships with government officials and transnational institutions, such as the World Bank. However, today these transnational institutions use the same old weapons as the first European colonizers, such as privatization, to exploit natural resources and native peoples in this second colonization of the Americas.”
The Columbus day weekend protests will kick off on Friday October 11th in front of Senator John Kerry’s office in Boston. David Amdur, of the Boston Chapter of CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) explains, “As constituents of Senator Kerry we raise our voices of indignation and hold him accountable for his votes in favor of Fast Track and Plan Colombia. We call on him to oppose military aid to Colombia which brutally supports the oppression of social movements and demand that he publicly oppose and vote against the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the Central American Free Trade Agreement.”
Regional coalitions such as the Southwest Network for Environmental & Economic Justice (SNEEJ) will mobilize activists from both the U.S. and Mexico to meet at the border demonstrating their unified rejection of the misery created on the border by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and promised in the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas). In Washington, D.C. demonstrations led by representatives of AIM will take place at a Christopher Columbus statue to demand, among other things, the immediate release of AIM’s Leonard Peltier, wrongfully imprisoned for the deaths of two FBI agents. Rachel Katz of the Students for Peace and Global Justice in Burlington, VT, explains why Vermonters will turn out against the second colonization of the Americas, “We are confronting the story of Columbus, rarely done in our culture, in attempt to illuminate the lasting impacts of colonialism on the Americas.” Other large demonstrations are planned in New York City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Columbus, Ohio among other cities. Also in the US, actions will occur at Federal Buildings, borders, military installations, trade offices, and multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola, Nike, Monsanto, and Citibank.
Demands of the U.S.-based Latin American Solidarity Coalition (LASC) and AIM co-sponsors of many of the U.S. based October 12th actions, are to end U.S. sponsored economic and military violence in the Americas including halting the U.S. Navy’s bombing of Vieques, Puerto Rico, shutting down the School of the Americas, and stopping the FTAA. Furthermore, these LASC actions will occur simultaneously and are in solidarity with Central America and Mexico-wide actions against the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America, a member of the U.S. based Network Opposed to the Plan Puebla Panama (NoPPP), and partner organizations in Mexico and Central America will exchange and read solidarity statements to demonstrate support of each others mutual struggles for global justice. Teodosio Angel of the Union of Indigenous Communities in the Northern Zone of the Isthmus (UCIZONI), in Oaxaca, Mexico says, “We will block roads, ports and borders and even dump the trash produced in multinationals like Coca Cola back on their doorsteps to demand that corporations and governments stop robbing our natural resources and basic rights. For 510 years, governments and corporations have ignored indigenous peoples and it continues today with industrial megaprojects like the Plan Puebla Panama.”
In Panama, indigenous activists are marching from Costa Rica to Panama City, a distance of over 200 miles, to protest the ecological destruction caused by mining on their lands. In Managua, Nicaragua, actions against the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will expose their role as a corporate welfare institution with activists their arguing that the IDB has never been interested in supporting grassroots initiatives for economic, environmental and social justice.
Andrea Carmen of Yaqui Indigenous Nation and Executive Director International Indigenous Treaty Council (IITC) says, “October 12, so called Columbus Day, is the day when terrorism began on our lands. Its ongoing legacy has continued for 510 years. We’ve seen our lands taken, cultures and sacred sites destroyed, treaties violated, families killed and imprisoned, and so-called ‘development’ imposed on us with no regards for our peoples’ ways of life. October 12, 2002 is a day not to despair about the past but to celebrate our continued resistance and survival as Peoples and Nations. We are coming together today to rededicate ourselves to the struggle for safeguarding our Mother Earth, the continued survival of our traditional cultures, and renewing bonds of solidarity with all peoples of this world who share our aspirations for a better life.”
By Brendan O’Neill and Justin Francese ACERCA (Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America) 802-863-0571, [email protected] or [email protected] .
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