'Indigenous Insurgency'

Hugo Blanco kindly sent me a chapter from his new book published in Peru, I have roughly translated this section (google translate took most of the strain) which surveys the indigenous movement. The future is now, climate change is with us, the indigenous are fighting for our planet, will the Green movement support them? Its a key part of my political commitment to translate material like this, challenge face to face those who attack the indigenous, to make links with those in parliament supporting the indigenous and to look for ways of extending the solidarity.

Hugo Blanco the great Peruvian revolutionary, will be in the UK, will post up dates soon!


The Indigenous Movement

What is indigenous movement, its current struggle, their characteristics,
its relationship with other struggles and the rest of society

How Could We?
by Eduardo Galeano, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone, pp. 4
To be mouth or mouthful, hunter or hunted. That was the question.
We deserved scorn, or at most pity. In the hostile wilderness no one respected us, no one feared us. We were the most vulnerable beasts in the animal kingdom, terrified of night and the jungle, useless as youngsters, not much better as adults, without claws or fangs or nimble feet or keen sense of smell.
Our early history is lost in mist. It seems all we ever did was break rocks and beat each other with clubs.
But one might well ask: Weren’t we able to survive, when survival was all but impossible, because we learned to share our food and band together for defense? Would today’s me-first, do-your-own-thing civilization have lasted more than a moment?o

The long distance route for humanity, on the one hand, has created many good things that are very useful, but it has also suffered a degradation ethic that has greatly damaged the majority of humanity to such an extent that is now threatening the survival of the species.
We must find a way to recover the ethics that allowed us to survive, noted by Galeano, conserving and improving the products of acquired knowledge that do not threaten the survival of the species that benefit all humanity.
Capitalism, heir of slavery and feudalism in the domain of a minority over the majority of mankind, can practice this oppression because we have domesticated to accept it as a natural truth, undeniable.
Capitalism has its mastery of the media, education, law enforcement and other instruments.
Lately, due to so-called technical and scientific advances, the attack on humanity as a whole in a frightening increase in the undeniable global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases and other assaults on nature, so that neither advertising, nor all the power of media and can hide it.
Those who govern the world are not States, but are large multinational companies that use capitalist rulers of countries like their servants, but not only them, they also have under their command to parliaments, judiciary, armed forces, police and, as previously stated, the media.
The social and economic inequalities are growing, more and more millionaires are getting richer on the other hand more and more are going hungry. There is increasing ease of movement of goods in the world and more barriers to the movement of poor people.
Social services and health and education are not, are increasingly the business of large companies.
They are not interested in the health of people, what matters is the health of large food companies, drug manufacturers and private clinics.

Education is increasingly a concern of big business and is also increasingly a business in itself.

Indigenous Insurgency
The unlimited expansion of big business are attacking all of humanity, but with greater force are attacking the indigenous peoples of the planet. These, mainly in Abya Yala (Tierra Viva) (Latin Kuna language) and are the least domesticated by the system, they resist.
Not only in Latin America, in British Columbia, Canada, I met with brothers Kaniengehaga (Flint locals) known as Mohawk, who fought hard against the Winter Olympics held earlier this year. Predatory corporations broke the indigenous environment and the government suppressed the protests.
The Navajo of the Grand Canyon in the United States protested, with other peoples, against attempts to re-extract uranium from the bowels of the "Big Momma" (the Grand Canyon).
In Latin America the first to rise up were the Mayas of Chiapas, Mexico, who after their armed uprising have as "Zapatista" been self-governing in a democratic way for over 16 years against the "misrule" of Mexico.
In South America Ecuador, can be highlighted, where there is a unifying organization of indigenous forest, mountain and coast people. Recently, as environmental protection, is facing the inconsistency of the progressive government of Correa, which was a bulwark in its dispute with the pro-imperialist right.
In Bolivia the indigenous people were the main driving force behind Evo Morales and now begin to seriously confront inconsistencies of his government, both in the highlands and in the tropics.
In Colombia, despite the severe repression, the organization is strong enough to counter the attack from the government, the paramilitaries and the FARC.
In Chile and Argentina, the Mapuche. The Mapuche fight hard in Chile, w hile the Spanish respected treaties Chileans do not. They were opposed by the previous 'socialist' government, which used the laws of Pinochet.
In Argentina, which claims to be a white country, in May there was a march of several ethnic groups demanding recognition of their existence and that, like Bolivia and Ecuador the country is declared multinational state.
In Peru, also has strong indigenous struggles. The rainforest organizations, most combative, are grouped in the Inter-Ethnic Association of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP). They are described disparagingly as "redskins" and wild, have proven to be better organized and more militant. Andean Indians also develop important struggles, but scattered, none of the core group that can claim to lead them.
In Paraguay the indigenous were a major driving force of the current president who is betraying them.
In Honduras, the most organized sector of the People's National Resistance Front (FNRP) is the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH).
The remarkable self-organization of the Kuna of Panama, was achieved thanks to the revolution of 1925. Unfortunately now, with global warming, the land of the islands are being flooded, they know very well who is responsible for his misfortune. In the same country as indigenous are also struggling.
It is known that a major weakness of the Sandinista revolution that favored the enemy of the Sandinistas was a failure to recognize the autonomy of the Miskito.
In Guatemala there is also strong resistance against mining.
In all countries where there are indigenous, they are rebelling against the depredations of capitalism.
The indigenous are not only fighting in America. The Bushmen in Africa, the Palawan in the Philippines. The historical and current struggle of the Noongar and Wiradjuri in Australia (after having been one of the four countries that voted against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the government apologized to the aborigines because of the historical oppression they were victims.)
When I listen to a teenager Dongria Kondh saying that India is willing to give their lives in defense of the sacred mountain against British mining company, I think I hear a Ocongate Quechua, Cusco, Ausangate talk.
I recommend reading the Internet for "SERVINDI" in Peru and "SURVIVAL" worldwide.

Hugo Blanco.