They said it was empty and stole it

Great to have this from James, just to say the indigenous people in Peru, inspire people right across the world, they fight for ecology and for their collective, they always win but they always face huge repression...keep up the good work James.

The global ecosystem is under severe threat and one of the few parts of the world, where people have fought back and won is in Peru.....unfortunately they have paid in death, injury and repression (no surprise).

Viva Santiago Manuin and Viva my comrade Hugo Blanco!....James if you don't follow it yet do look at Hugo's newspaper...Lucha Indigena..



James Pliny has left a new comment on your post "Resisting the rainforest oil speculators":

This poem has been published to mark the recent conflict in Bagua, northern Peru. It condemns the failure of people, principally in the West, to speak out against the crimes committed against indigenous peoples over the last 500 years. It is a reworking of a poem attributed to a German pastor called Martin Niemoller. Please forward to anyone who would be inspired to read it.

'They came'

First they came for the tribes' land,
said it was empty and stole it,
but we did not speak up because we were not tribesmen,
and our laws encouraged it.

Then they came for what was under the tribes' land,
said it was rich and dug it up,
but we did not speak up because we were not tribesmen,
and our economy needed it.

Then they came for the tribes' culture,
said it was primitive and destroyed it,
but we did not speak up because we were not tribesmen,
and our own culture confirmed it.

Finally, they came for the tribes themselves,
said they weren’t real people and killed them,
but still we did not speak up because we were not tribesmen,
and our science proved it.

There was no need to come for us
because we were on their side.

No longer!
Now we will speak up!

James Pliny 2009