2006 February | Intercontinental Cry

Monthly Archive for February, 2006

Feb

CHILE: Mapuche Political Party to Pursue Autonomy

By Daniela Estrada - SANTIAGO, Feb 28 (IPS) - The first Mapuche political party will be founded this year, to seek autonomy and self-government for the largest group of indigenous people in Chile. But a rocky road lies ahead.

“We want to form a political party in order to win elections and govern in the Wallmapu (Mapuche country), so as to improve living conditions and lift up the dignity of our people,” Pedro Gustavo Quilaqueo, “wiritufe” (political secretary) of the incipient “Wallmapuwen” (party), told IPS.

Wallmapuwen, which means “fellow citizens of the Mapuche country,” is aiming to become legally established in the second half of this year, so that it can field candidates for mayors and town councillors in the 2008 municipal elections.

The party is described by its leaders as regionalist and pro-autonomy, democratic, progressive, secular and pluralistic. They said it would “fight political battles with peaceful means.”

Twenty-five citizens of Mapuche origin …

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February 28, 2006

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Feb

Mutual Aid and Mutual Trust

The following is essay 5 of the series: Building the Global Grassroots Infrastructure by George Salzman written on December 29, 2001 . You can find the original here

MUTUAL AID AND MUTUAL TRUST

In the Introduction to his timeless classic, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, Peter Kropotkin wrote, “[A] lecture ‘On the Law of Mutual Aid,’ which was delivered at a Russian Congress of Naturalists, in January 1880, by the well-known zoologist, Professor Kessler, the then Dean of the St. Petersburg Unversity, struck me as throwing a new light on the whole subject [of 'survival of the fittest']. Kessler’s idea was, that besides the law of Mutual Struggle [nature red in tooth and claw] there is in Nature the law of Mutual Aid, which, for the success of the struggle for life, and especially for the progressive evolution of the species, is far more …

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February 26, 2006

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Feb

Strategies that have failed

The following text is a section from the book Getting Free, by James Herod. Titled “Strategies that have failed,” this particular text provides several critical insights into the ways conventional strategies have prevented us from achieving our long-term goal of ending capitalism (you could just as well say Colonialism.)

More and more people are calling ‘conventional actions’ into question today, and this text is an excellent and straightforward examination into the reason why.

to contact the author, jamesherod @gmail.com

From the Introduction of Getting Free

In listing all the strategies that have failed it isn’t my intention to denigrate the revolutionary efforts of past generations. Resisting and defeating capitalism has been an historical project of enormous scope; revolutionaries have poured their lives into strategies they considered best at the time. I’m simply trying to take stock, and to reflect on where we’ve been and what we’ve tried, and on where ought …

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February 26, 2006

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Feb

Regarding Projects Between First Nations and Israeli People

An Open Letter Regarding Projects Between First Nations and Israeli People
By Ahniwanika (John Schertow)

A few months ago I read a news article about a project to create a Native Embassy in Israel (link to article below). I was suprised and confused at this development, and that in the comparison of Jewish and
Native People, there was no mention of Palestinians, or for that matter, the frequently volatile relationship between them and the Israeli People.

I also shared a concern with others in that, it doesn’t make any sense for Tadoule Lake First Nation to get an embassy in Israel - not while First Nations here are being disenfranchised by the Canadian Government, exploited by numerous Corporations, and even harmed by their (government-appointed) ‘Leadership’.

Only when Natives in Canada first have their own government; and then having built an embassy in Ottawa, can an embassy in Israel even be considered. And we would most …

Published on

February 24, 2006

0 Comments 1,018 views

Feb

Former Braceros and Zapatistas Unite

By Bertha Rodríguez Santos
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign, Reporting from Tlaxcala
February 21, 2006

ZACATELCO, TLAXCALA: As old workers of the fields, as guardians of the knowledge that makes them part of that other Mexico that jumps to defend its land and territory, more than a thousand former “Braceros” publicly joined the Other Campaign, led by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation yesterday, while Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos showed the warmth, respect and support that the indigenous Zapatistas hold toward this struggle.

During the meeting with members of the National Assembly of Braceros (ANB in its Spanish initials), held in the esplanade of “El Dorado” (once a local strip club), Marcos said that the Zapatistas will unite their struggle with the movement of the former Braceros, who since the late 1990s have sought the restitution of a savings fund created by the Manuel Avila Camacho and Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations as part …

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February 21, 2006

0 Comments 751 views

Feb

Media advisory - First Nation trip to Israel

Dear Friends, Ref: First Nation trip to Israel (see press release below)
The Canadian Jewish Congress has organized a trip to Israel with leading members of Canada’s First Nation people.
Phil Fontaine, National Chief, Assembly of First Nations stated, “Indigenous people in Canada have much in common with the people of Israel, including a respect of the land…” Perhaps Mr. Fontaine and other native leaders are unaware of Israel’s well documented practices of polluting or stealing water from stolen Palestinian land, uprooting, destroying and stealing olive trees, destroying farmland and olive grows in the process of building Israel’s illegal wall on stolen Palestinian land and poisoning Bedouin land in Israel’s Negev. It should be additionally noted that unlike Canada, Israel’s native people (Arabs) do not share the same rights as the country’s Jewish majority. It is astounding and so sad to witness Canada’s own native people accepting to visit Israel, a country …

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February 17, 2006

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Feb

The enigma of the International Criminal Court’s success

(In this article William Schabas is reviewing Marlies Glasius, The International Criminal Court: A Global Civil Society Achievement, Routledge, 2006)

Almost eight years since it was established with the adoption of the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court continues to gain inexorable momentum, surpassing the expectations of even its keenest supporters. In November 2005 it reached the important threshold of one hundred member states. Back in 1998, when the Statute was adopted following a dramatic and unprecedented diplomatic conference, it was thought it would take a decade to reach the magic number of sixty member states required for the court to actually begin to operate. Now it is a thriving institution, with arrest warrants for suspects in Uganda, and ongoing investigations in Darfur and eastern Congo.

Surprisingly, even what looked like the biggest obstacle to the court’s success, the opposition of the United States, seems to …

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February 17, 2006

0 Comments 742 views