MIM Notes, Issue 69: October, 1992
500 Years of Resistance to Colonization and Imperialismby MC86 Throughout the continents called by the Kuna people "Abya-Yala," people are celebrating the first 20 days in October with more than 100 events and demonstrations dedicated to reaffirming 500 years of mass resistance to capitalist might. The burning issues of the movement concern what forms of independent power and leadership the revolutionary masses can best use to achieve national liberation. The First Continental Gathering of Indigenous Peoples in Quito, Ecuador in 1990 set in motion a political rolling stone that has swept through Latin and North Amerika -- leaving in its wake a heightened debate among grassroots and sectarian activists. The common theme of the 500 Years Movement is exposure of the vile pirate Cristobal Colon's invasion of Haiti in 1492 as the model for 500 years of capitalist "development." The common debate is about the most effective way forward. Defining victory Prompted by fear of a massive civil disobedience campaign planned for October 12, the government of Spain and the Amerikan Quincentenary Commission cancelled a three-ship reenactment of Colon's "discovery" scheduled for San Francisco Bay. The C.D. was planned by a coalition of anarchists, communists, Maoists, environmentalists, social-democrats and indigenous groups -- momentarily united around the single issue of disrupting the neo-colonialist pageantry. A spokesperson for the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners (NCFPRP) calls the cancellation of the ship's visit "a victory." NCFPRP and the American Indian Movement (AIM) are joined in a broad 500 Years coalition sponsoring _The International Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nations_, October 1-4, as well as numerous cultural events, marches and rallies. The Tribunal has prepared a detailed 40-page indictment of Amerikan imperialism to be juried by people such as Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the United States. Cultural nationalism vs. sectarianism According to a spokesperson for the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations and Nations of the Continent (CONIC), indigenous people must "organize around their traditional cultures" as a means of resistance. CONIC says it strives to provide the "means of communication" for the 39 million indigenous people of 1,000 nations in Abya-Yala. CONIC is a typical split from the indigenous-inspired movement that originated in Quito, an outgrowth of the antagonism over the "usurpation" of the Quito movement's direction by "parties and syndicalists of the [urban] left."(1) The CONIC spokesperson told MIM that, "Just because a person has read one book by Marx does not mean they know better than us how to achieve our own liberation." The Kuna Nation in Panama states, "We do not tolerate those non-indigenous organizations that want to capitalize on the 500 Years campaign for political purposes. They want to use indigenous peoples without understanding and recognizing the nature of our struggles ... our continent will be free only when all sectors are free."(2) Learning from experience On December 16 of last year, 20 members of the indigenous community "El Nilo" in northern Columbia were "massacred by landlords at a routine planning meeting."(3) On February 27, Salvadoran police, accompanied by "three representatives of the United Nations Observation team, reporters from a local television station, and a group of local landowners arrested 60 Indian men, women and children of the Corte Azul Cooperative, [ripped up their crops, and destroyed their tools and homes]."(4) Most of the organizations affiliated with the 500 Years movement call for "land reforms" blessed by parliaments. In December 1991, the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Columbia (ONIC) negotiated six points in the new Columbian Constitution "recognizing" the legal and cultural "autonomy" of indigenous peoples within their current reservations inside Columbia. This temporarily put an end to indigenous-led mass demonstrations.(5) Maoists recognize that capitalist states are only capable of accomplishing land distributions that are in the interests of the propertied classes. Actual redistribution of land to the tiller was best practiced in China -- when China was socialist -- and it is currently practiced in the liberated base areas of Peru administered by the People's Guerrilla Army of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP).(6) MIM believes that it is a very good thing for diverse groups to unite in exposure of patriarchal imperialism's exploitative history and the horrible global war it currently wages. Establishing communications networks between oppressed groups, sharing experience, plotting against the oppressor's institutions -- all of these are positive steps when practiced on a mass scale. But to set no higher goal than co-existence with imperialism will perpetuate imperialism for another 500 years. History demonstrates that the actual achievement of national liberation from imperialism has been brought forth only by organized and disciplined armed forces of the people guided by the science of revolution and the lessons of all the revolutions to date. Revolutionary example in Peru The bright star in our hemisphere is the Maoist-led revolution in Peru. The PCP cuts no deals with capitalism. The PCP knows that the United Nations is an unalterable and vicious enemy of the people. The PCP recognizes that political power does not grow from Constitutional amendments or the "right" to starve in one's own language on a reservation. The backbone of the Maoist movement in Peru has always been the revolutionary indigenous people of the Andes region. The essence of all "rights" is the power to enforce them. The Arawak and Taino peoples exterminated by Columbus learned this quickly. As their repeated offers of friendship were betrayed, the Tainos took to the hills and began slaying the Spanish invaders. Ultimately, the nations of Abya-Yala were defeated by an advanced system of production and millions of European settlers who invented a system of "property-rights" to cloak genocide. In 1992 we have choices for political organization that were not available to the Tainos and the Arawaks. A dominant trend in the 500 Years Movement is represented by the Organization of Indigenous Nationalities of Columbia (ONIC) which says, "We have to generate many alternatives such as appropriation of technology, credit possibilities, adaptation of an economy proper to us. We want a strong United Nations presence so that human rights violations can be watched carefully. We want protection."(7) Bearing these friendly criticisms of the 500 Years Movement in mind, MIM urges our international readership to be out there in force during October agitating amongst all the trends for the self-determination of the oppressed and indigenous nations of Abya-Yala while organizing a revolutionary Maoist movement in your own country.
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