CALL FOR A GATHERING OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF THE AMERICAS

www.encuentroindigena.org, informes@encuentroindigena.org

Considering that 515 years after the first invasion of our ancestral territories, the war of conquest, the plunder, and capitalist exploitation have not altered their course, but rather have become a new war of extermination, a war designed for the destruction and utter plunder of all the original peoples of the Americas;

Considering that the long history of wars of independence and numerous revolutions that have taken place on our continent have not yet changed the condition of colonized people, nor have they allowed for a full recognition of …

Today, April 17th, is the International Day of Peasant Struggle, as called for by la Via Campesina International — a day of action which commemorates the Massacre of Carajas on April 17, 1996 where 19 Peasants were killed and 69 injured while demanding land to live and work on.

In Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Mozambique, Congo, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Cameroon, Thailand, Colombia, Bangladesh, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada , Bolivia, and France - Peasants and small farmers have organized events for this day.

From a Via Campesina Press Release:
This year, the African organisations will mainly protest against the EPAs (Economic Partnership …

The Following Article is from http://www.movimientos.org/ - Turning legitimate protest into a crime is one of the preferred strategies of power groups when trying to contain social struggles and diminish responses to their demands. This strategy is most effective when it has the support of mass media, which lend themselves to discrediting protestors and undermining the support of public opinion. In recent years, indigenous struggles in particular have been the target of such tactics, a situation which was harshly denounced during the Continental Meeting of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala, which took place in Bolivia in October …

note: as mentioned here, Rick Kearns is going to try to send me updates about what’s happening at the Summit. I will post what he sends in the comments area, below the following…

III Continental Indigenous Summit Abya Yala - Tecpan, Guatemala March 26-30, 2007

NAHUACALLI
Embassy of the Indigenous Peoples
Izkalotlan, Aztlan

March 21, 2007

Nohuanyolqueh,
Brothers and Sisters of the Indigenous Nations of the Continent:

Good greetings once again from the Nican Tlacah of Izkalotlan, Aztlan. May the powers of Memory, Conscience, and Will of your altepetl continue to guide the life of your nations, and also that we may collectively define with greater …

India Is Colonising Itself
Arundhati Roy & Shoma Chaudhuri
26 March, 2007, www.tehelka.com

Arundhati Roy in conversation with Shoma Chaudhury on the violence rending our heartland

There is an atmosphere of growing violence across the country. How do you read the signs? Do you think it will grow more in the days to come? What are its causes? In what context should all this be read?

You don’t have to be a genius to read the signs. We have a growing middle class, being reared on a diet of radical consumerism and aggressive greed. Unlike industrializing western countries which had colonies from which to …

Dear rebellions and movements against neoliberalism all over the world!

We are sending you laud and screaming warning, red alert for Guatemala. We are talking from our personal experiences of incredible brave and resistant society of San José las Légrimas we would like to encourage you to support their struggle and prevent more victims inside the peasant movement!

We are doing research militancy for several years, from Baghdad, Balkan, to Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. We were collecting and sharing alternative practices, actions and theories with the movements and inside the movements all over the Planet. We are …

The Withering of the American Environmental Movement
By Jeffrey St. Clair,February 3 / 4, 2007
www.counterpunch.org

“The Dark Ages. They haven’t ended yet.” –Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

A kind of political narcolepsy has settled over the American environmental movement. Call it eco-ennui. You may know the feeling: restlessness, lack of direction, evaporating budgets, diminished expectations, a simmering discontent. The affliction appears acute, possibly systemic.

Unfortunately, the antidote isn’t as simple as merely filing a new lawsuit in the morning or skipping that PowerPoint presentation to join a road blockade for the day. No, something much deeper may be called for: a rebellion of the heart. …

Bombing Venezuela’s Indians - By Nikolas Kozloff, www.counterpunch.org

For Hugo Chavez, large, industrial mega projects could turn into a political mine field. The contradiction between Chavez’s rhetoric stressing social equality, on the one hand, and environmental abuses on the other, was driven home to me over this past summer when I attended the first ever environmental conference of Lake Maracaibo. The event was held in the city of Maracaibo itself, the capital of Zulia state, and organized by the government’s Institute for the Conservation of Lake Maracaibo (known by the Spanish acronym ICLAM).

Somewhat oddly, outside of the dining hall where …

The following was written by Ivan Booth, and was published at www.quixotic1.com on January 18, 2007

Saif Rahman writes in the latest Foreign Policy in Focus about the United for Peace and Justice march planned for Jan. 27, and why everyone should attend.

In response, I wrote the following comment.

Since the pre-war demonstrations, I have been to relatively few marches (though to be fair, there have been few demonstrations to attend). This is pretty significant considering I was active nearly full-time prior to the start of the war and was a part of several national

…

By Kent Paterson, Americas Program, International Relations Center (IRC) www.americaspolicy.org

Nearly one thousand people gathered in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Oct. 12-15, 2006 at the first ever Border Social Forum (BSF). Modeled after the massive World Social Forum that draws tens of thousands of people every year, the Ciudad Juarez gathering featured dozens of workshops, a border “reality tour” and street demonstrations against the Bush administration’s planned series of new border walls and the North American Free Trade Agreement. At the conclusion of the BSF, delegates from U.S. and Mexican non-governmental organizations issued a 23-point declaration that calls for sweeping changes …