Indigenous struggles
Washington threatens reprisals against Nicaragua’s voters
Nicaraguans celebrate the re-election of Daniel Ortega as president.
John Riddell interviews Felipe Stuart Cournoyer
February 2, 2012 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, also available at http://johnriddell.wordpress.com/. First published in Axis of Logic -- In a fit of petulant anger, the US government lashed out on January 25 against the outcome of Nicaragua’s recent presidential election. To understand the context of the US threats, I talked to Felipe Stuart Cournoyer, a Nicaraguan citizen and member of Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).[1]
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John Riddell: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that Nicaragua’s November 6, 2011, election “marked a setback to democracy in Nicaragua and undermined the ability of Nicaraguans to hold their government accountable”, but offered no particulars. What has roused Washington’s ire?
Part 1: In the belly of empire
“There must be some way out of here’, said the
joker to the thief,
There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, ploughmen dig
my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is
worth.” -- Bob Dylan[1]
Indigenous peoples condemn climate talks fiasco and demand moratorium on REDD+
By the Global Justice Ecology Project
Durban climate talks: ‘Forests are not for carbon stocks’ -- climate justice activists condemn REDD
Photo: Anne Petermann/GJEP-GFC.
Rapa Nui/Easter Island: Blaming the victims -- Jared Diamond's myth of ‘ecocide’
Sculpture of the flag of independence for Rapa Nui, featuring a representation of the rongorongo script, unique to the island, in the shape of a boomerang, and headstones of Moai at either end. Photo by Coral Wynter.
By Coral Wynter
November 5, 2011 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- I have always been fascinated by the story of Easter Island, the European name for Rapa Nui, due to a complete accident in my childhood education, when at age 10, I did a school project on the strange, mysterious statues on the island, known as Moai.
[Please note: Rapa Nui refers to the island and Rapanui is used when it refers to the people or the language.]
My partner has always laughed at my obsession, referring to the Moai as those weird statues of Malcolm Fraser, adding why would you want to see that? (Fraser was the archetypal right-wing leader of Australian politics in the 1970s, who had dismissed a prominent Labour Party leader, Gough Whitlam, in shonky circumstances).
In fact, the 887 statues represent ancient and revered leaders of an ancient island society and the sculpture on top of their heads represents a hairstyle -- a red coloured topknot and not a hat. They bear little resemblance to Malcolm Fraser, wearing a hat.
October 30, 2011 -- Ecosocialists Unite -- Hugo Blanco led a successful peasant revolution in Peru for land rights in 1961 when peasants were being killed by landowners. Praised by Che, Blanco -- then a leader of the Fourth International -- was captured and placed on death row. He lived due to an international campaign of solidarity launched by figures like Jean-Paul Sartre.
Now in the his late 70s, he publishes Lucha Indigena ("Indigenous Struggle"). The uprising in Peru of the Awajan and Wampis and other Amazon people, of the Aymara and Quechua, have shown that Indigenous and workers can organise to challenge the destruction of the Earth and to build a democratic alternative to capitalism.
Hugo Blanco argues that the revolution must be global and that the Occupy movement shows that people in the global North are joining the revolt against the 1% and for a democratic, ecological society for the 99%.
This Lucha Indigena editorial on the occupy movement and the global fightback against neoliberalism has been roughly translated by Derek Wall and Martin O'Beirne.
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Bolívia: As ONGs equivocadas com relação a Morales e à Amazônia
[Available in English at http://links.org.au/node/2512 and http://boliviarising.blogspot.
Federico Fuentes
28/09/2011 -- Horadopovo.com.br -- Declarações, artigos, cartas e petições circularam na Internet durante o mês passado pedindo o fim da "destruição da Amazônia".
O objeto dessas iniciativas não têm sido as corporações transnacionais nem os poderosos governos que as respaldam, mas o governo do primeiro presidente indígena da Bolívia, Evo Morales.
No centro do debate está a proposta do governo boliviano de construir uma estrada através do Território Indígena Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS).
O TIPNIS, que cobre mais de 1 milhão de hectares de florestas, obteve o estatuto de reserva indígena do governo de Evo Morales em 2009. Cerca de 12.000 pessoas de três grupos indígenas diferentes vivem em 64 comunidades dentro do TIPNIS.
Bolivia: NGO's geven verkeerd beeld over Morales en Amazonewoud
Mars in Trinidad tegen de snelweg op 15 augustus.
[Available in English at http://links.org.au/node/2512 and http://boliviarising.blogspot.
Federico Fuentes, vertaald uit het Engels door Sabrina Verswijver
28/09/2011 -- DeWereldMorgen.be -- Het doelwit van de acties waren deze keer niet de transnationale bedrijven of machtige overheden die dergelijke bedrijven steunen, maar wel de eerste inheemse president van Bolivia, Evo Morales.
Aan de basis van het debat ligt het controversiële voorstel van de Boliviaanse overheid om een snelweg aan te leggen door het Isiboro Secure Nationaal Park en Inheems Gebied (TIPNIS).
TIPNIS beslaat meer dan één miljoen hectare aan bos en kreeg in 2009 de status van inheems gebied toegewezen door de regering-Morales. Ongeveer 12.000 mensen van drie verschillende inheemse groepen leven in 64 gemeenschappen in TIPNIS.
Bolivia: le ONG sbagliano su Morales e l'Amazzonia
[Available in English at http://links.org.au/node/2512 and http://boliviarising.blogspot.
di Federico Fuentes
25/09/2011 -- Radiocittaperta.it -- Dichiarazioni, articoli, lettere stanno circolando in Internet chiedendo la fine della "distruzione dell'Amazzonia".
L'obiettivo di queste iniziative non è rappresentato dalle corporazioni transnazionali né dai potenti governi che le appoggiano, ma il governo del primo presidente indigeno della Bolivia, Evo Morales.
Al centro del dibattito c'è la controversa proposta del governo boliviano di costruire un'autostrada attraverso il Territorio Indigeno del Parco Nazionale Isidoro Sécure (TIPNIS).
Il Tipnis, che copre una superficie di più di 1 milione di ettari di foresta, ha ottenuto lo statuto di territorio indigeno dal governo di Evo Morales nel 2009. Circa 2.000 persone vivono in 64 comunità all'interno del TIPNIS.
