5 Oct 2011

Veteran revolutionary leader Hugo Blanco says back 'Occupy Wall Street'

This is the editorial from 'Lucha Indigena' the newspaper 'Indigenous Struggle' published by the veteran indigenous leader Hugo Blanco.

Hugo is a friend and a mentor, he has even stayed with me here in Winkfield!

 In the 1960s when he was a member of the Fourth International he led a succesful peasant revolution in Peru which gained land rights.

No dogmatist he maintains relations with a variety of forces and tendancies including the FI, he argues that while left governments in Latin America have been a 'good' thing, yet they are still based on an extractivist model.

Even more so the economies of countries like the UK and US.

'Developmentalism' and 'Defence of Mother Earth' are contradictory projects.

Hugo argues that we must mistrust leaders and put our hearts into solidarity with grassroots movements including Occupy Wall Street.

Capitalism is destroying our very survival, the fight against capitalism is the fight for survival



Two contradictory projects
There are two mutually exclusive projects:The policies of "development" and the project of indigenous defense of Mother Earth (Pachamama).

 
DevelopmentalismThe criteria essentially Eurocentric "Development", in fact conceals the greed of multinational capitalist corporations to accumulate more money. Capitalists know that with the onslaught of nature is leading, among other things, to the extermination of our species, but do not care, all they care about is making more money.

Their attack on nature comes in many forms, the most dangerous is global warming caused by greenhouse gases. The international meetings to discuss the issue have not decrease temperatures even one degree. This heating produces more and more disasters, called by the media in the hands of big business "natural disasters." Dissolution of ice and snow, disappearing streams, rivers thinning, sea level rise, hurricanes, floods, droughts , colder winters, hotter summers, alteration of the rainy season, and so on.

Another attack is the open cast mining which destroys mountains, removes water from human consumption and small farming, poisoning the water, killing human beings, animals and plants. 
Another is the construction of hydroelectric evicts residents and their crops to make dams and also robs the water of small farming. Another is the "food industry" practicing monoculture, attacks the flora and fauna, kills soil with agrochemicals (fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides) and we use transgenic and chemicals that kill. Another is the depredation of the forest through the extraction of oil and gas, the removal of timber, biofuels and other growing industrial plantations, livestock, construction of "roads" as the Inter-Oceanic Highway and the TIPNITS attack, etc..The development policy is carried out mainly by the imperialist governments, but also is shared by progressive governments like Ecuador and Bolivia.
We recognize that the latter are progressive governments that have carried out the popular desire for new constitutions, have stated that they are 'plurinational' states, Ecuador recognizes the rights of Mother Earth, has expelled the U.S. base at Manta, Bolivia has expelled the U.S. agency DEA and even was forced to expel the ambassador of that country, and so on. Naturally we support these attitudes.
But then Ecuador extractive policy continues and the Bolivian government is part of the impetus to the project "Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America" ​​(IIRSA) headed by Brazilian pop imperialism.
They are imperialist governments or "imperialist" who inspires, leads to the development towards extinction of humankind.
 
The defense of Mother EarthIs exerted primarily by indigenous peoples in the world, but all of humanity depends on the nature, this dependence is a direct experience of the indigenous who least "enjoy the benefits of civilization" and now see it as destructive the environment, so die fighting in defense of nature, as in Bagua, as in the fight against the mine in Cocachacra Tia Maria, Arequipa, and at the airport of Juliaca, Puno.
It's not just Indians who fight in defense of nature, we have seen in Italy's struggle movement activists "No TAV" (High Speed ​​Train) which will link the cities of Turin in Italy and Lyon in France destroying forests of La Magdalena. We have seen the recent victory of the urban population of Mendoza, Argentina San Jorge to the mine, in Peru we are seeing the struggle of the urban population of Tacna and Moquegua in defense of water that robs them of mining.
The defense of indigenous rights is not guaranteed to be indigenous. The Indian Benito Juárez Mexico ruled against the Indians. In Peru we have had to Toledo, an indigenous president with a Harvard.

Boaventura de Sousa should talk, we are not against talking, we talk even with the enemy, much more with the progressive governments of Ecuador and Bolivia (apparently the "brother Evo" became a distant cousin), but bear in mind its development policy is irreconcilable with our defense of nature.
The consolidation of our front we need to develop in the struggle and in conjunction with all (indigenous and non indigenous) who agree that the key is the unconditional defense of nature, which is also the struggle for survival of the human species This will not strengthen the right and says De Sousa, what would strengthen our capitulation to the developmentalist.
In Peru, things are clearer: Ollanta Humala is developed statements from his campaign pledged to push open pit mining and agribusiness, both predatory nature. The fight in defense of water and life, and began Tacna.
Consequently defend nature but we are not against progress of the advantages of not affecting the environment, which threatens the continuity of our species.

We learn from Vallejo when he recommended that Spain: "Beware of your heroes!", "Beware the powerful new".

We have seen a courageous labor leader in Brazil ABC Paulista, Lula, become the driving time from the depredations of the Amazon rainforest for food production for cars, developed by large multinational companies. We've seen as key driver of IIRSA.

We have seen a brave leader who was expelled from coca parliament for its consequence in the defense of the Indians, becoming the president who ordered the repression of indigenous advocates of Pachamama, and also drives the IIRSA.

Do not trust in one fighter who has been fighting to date. All 'trust in Tahrir Square in Cairo, and in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, as in Syntagma Square in Athens, as in the movement "occupy Wall Street" in New York.

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