Halalt First Nation holding blockade for the water
Posted by carnalizmo in General on March 18, 2010
March 10, 2010
For more than two weeks now, members of the Halalt First Nation, near the southeastern coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, have held onto their own “protective blockade” in defense of the Chemainus River.
The blockade officially went up on February 25, just two days after the Okanagan Band launched their blockade to defend the same prescious resource: their water.
More than half the First Nation is taking part in the effort, which is centered at a portion of Chemainus Road that runs through their territory.
Leading up the blockade, in September 2009 the Halalt began seeking a judicial review concerning the water project for the town of Chemainus. The project aims to tap into the Chemainus River Aquifer, which the Halalt and others depend on.
However, despite the effort, as well as an utter lack of consulation according to the Halalt, and the absence of a Watershed management plan, the local District of North Cowichan decided to push on with their construction of the project.
Several days into the blockade, on March 3 “the Halalt First Nation held an emergency General Band Meeting where Elders and band members unanimously supported the continuation of their protest to protect the Chemainus River and their Title and Rights, explains a Press Release from the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC).
“Water is the issue,” comments Okanagan Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of UBCIC. “Across this province, we are seeing Indigenous Peoples defending their territory and the health of their communities. Like the Halalt First Nation, the Okanagan Indian Band is protecting the Browns Creek watershed, the source of their drinking water. Like the Halalt First Nation, the Tsilhqot’in are fighting to protect their territory by opposing the draining of Teztan Biny by Taseko Mines,” said Grand Chief Phillip. “Like the victory of the Tsay Keh Nay, who prevented the destruction of Amazay Lake from the proposed Kemess North project, the determination and the knowledge that their actions are for the health of their children’s children, will ensure that the Halalt First Nation will prevail.”
“This is a last stand for our water,” said Halalt councillor Tyler George following the March 3 meeting. “It was powerful to see so many of our young people saying that they were committed to protecting our most valuable resource.”
“Our traditional lands have been taken away. Our fish have disappeared. Our clams are polluted. But we are drawing the line at our most valuable resource. No one is going to take away our water,” said George.
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Mexico: The Lacandon Rainforest Being Cleared of Its People
Posted by carnalizmo in General on March 18, 2010
The Mexican government is moving ahead with an ambitious new plan to surround the Lacandon Forest in Chiapas, Mexico, with oil palm plantations; while disguising the forest around the plantations with various eco-tourism sites.
In preparing for the two-faced project, the government—still in line with the old amibitous plan—and with the help of various corporations, is clearing the rainforest of its Indigenous people.
The most recent evictions took place on Jan. 21 and 22 at the indigenous Tzeltales settlements of Laguna El Suspiro and Laguna San Pedro—”the last one a base community of the Zapatista rebel movement,” explains the WW4Report.
The Zapatistas have since come forward to denounce the evictions, stating:
“The bad federal government, the PRD state government of Juan Sabines Guerrero and the municipal president of Ocosingo, Carlos Leon Solorsano Arcia, have carried out a military operation, including federal police accompanied by bad government officials of the Attorney General for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA). During the operation, four helicopters hovered over the community Laguna San Pedro, to scare the population.”
“Participating in this operation were police agents, the Mexican Army and government officials, as well as photographers and journalists of the government. They talked to the men and women, while the police took advantage of this to set the houses of the Zapatista support bases on fire.”
“How is it possible, that the bad government talks about dialogue, while its police and army burn down the belongings of the compañeros Zapatista support bases?”
The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center, Fray Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada Human Rights Center, Serapaz and others have also denounced the evictions and demanded that the communities be compensated for their heavy loss.
They also warn that seven more communities are facing imminent eviction, including Nuevo San Gregorio, Nuevo Salvador Allende, Nuevo San Pedro, 6 de Octubre, Poblado Laguna El Suspiro, Ojo de Agua el Progreso and San Jacinto Lacanjá.
Throughout the current and previous administrations in Mexico, nearly forty communities have been evicted from the Lacandon forest.
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Median Wealth for Single Black Women: $100, Single Hispanic Women: $120, Single White Women: $41,000
Posted by carnalizmo in General on March 18, 2010
The Insight Center for Community Economic Development released a report on the gender wealth gap to mark International Women’s Day. The report found nearly half of all single black and Hispanic women have zero or negative wealth, meaning their debts exceed all of their assets. The median wealth for single black women is only $100; for single Hispanic women, $120. This compares to just over $41,000 for single white women. We speak with the chief author of the report, Mariko Lin Chang and C. Nicole Mason, Executive Director of the Women of Color Policy Network.
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Earthquake in Chile: A Mapuche Indigenous Perspective
Posted by carnalizmo in General on March 18, 2010
March 15, 2010
Although the international media have reported on the enormous earthquake that struck Chile last week, almost all of the reporting has concerned the northern and central areas of the country. The central-southern region, where most of the indigenous Mapuche Indian territory is located, has been virtually ignored. The report below from José Mariman Quemenado, a Mapuche scholar residing in Denver, gives a glimpse of conditions in the Mapuche region, and methods for people to assist our indigenous relatives, who are being ignored by the Chilean government. Please post and distribute widely. –Glenn Morris, Denver
Denver, March 7th, 2010
Marri marri pu ladmien pu peñi! (Hello sisters and brothers!)
By Jose Mariman Quemenado
On Saturday, February 27, 2010 a mega earthquake 8.8 (Richter scale) affected the central area of Chile. Between the V region and the IX region of Chile, that is, the most populated area of the country and where the most important cities are located (Valparaíso, Santiago the capital, Concepción, and Temuco, the heart of the ancient Mapuche territory). Many people lost their houses completely or they are uninhabitable. But the worst part of this disaster is that after the earthquake a tsunami crashed into the coastal area, destroying several small towns. People there lost everything. Among those destroyed towns is Tirúa, in the border between the VIII and IX region, which was around 40% destroyed, and Puerto Saavedra in the IX region. Those places are inhabited principally by Mapuche Indigenous people (60 to 70% of the total population), and they are the poorest of the poor in Chile (principally artisanal fisherman or peasants). Today, a week after the earthquake, we don´t know exactly how much damage occurred in those areas, because the Chilean media are focused on informing about what happened between Santiago and Concepcion, and the government agencies are more concerned with those areas. However, we know from sporadic information (internet, local media, and Mapuche organizations), that people are living in improvised campgrounds on the hills, wearing only the clothes that they wore the day of the tragedy, without food and clean water (water wells in rural areas collapsed or are contaminated and public potable water is recovering slowly). In the short-term Mapuche organizations, firemen, churches, college students and Chilean NGOs are working to provide food and water for these people, but in the long-term nobody knows how long this may last. Because winter is coming very soon to a rainy south of Chile (April is the month when the rainy season starts), and because the Mapuche affected by the earthquake and tsunami are not confident in government help and efficiency, as a Mapuche immigrant to the States I am soliciting your solidarity with my people. Please, these people urgently need winter clothes for children, women and men. Also, they need blankets or sleeping bags and different size shoes. You can send your own parcel directly to Mapuche organizations in Chile or Chilean NGOs at the addresses at the end of this note. Thanks very much in the name of my people,
Pewkayal (Good bye)
Jose A. Mariman Quemenado, PhD. (Mapuche) (Affiliate professor, Metropolitan State College of Denver) 724 W, Sterne Pkwy, Littleton CO, 80120, USA E-mail: ppmariman@hotmail.com
Addresses to lend assistance, or to receive more information:
José Aylwin (Director)
Observatorio Ciudadano
Antonio Varas 428
Temuco, Región de la Araucanía, Chile
Fono: +56 (45) 213963
Fax: +56 (45) 218353
contacto@observatorio.cl – www.observatorio.cl
Marisol Huenuman L. (Secretaria)
Identidad Territorial Lafkenche
Los carreras N°152
Temuco, Región de la Araucanía, Chile
(001-56) 8-9961925 (cell)
marisol.huenuman@ gmail.com
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Billionaires and Mega-Corporations Behind Immense Land Grab in Africa
Posted by carnalizmo in General on March 18, 2010
By John Vidal
20+ African countries are selling or leasing land for intensive agriculture on a shocking scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era.
March 10, 2010 | Awassa, Ethiopia — We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon be Ethiopia’s largest greenhouse. Nestling below an escarpment of the Rift Valley, the development is far from finished, but the plastic and steel structure already stretches over 50 acres — the size of 20 soccer fields.
The farm manager shows us millions of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables being grown in 1,500 foot rows in computer controlled conditions. Spanish engineers are building the steel structure, Dutch technology minimizes water use from two bore-holes and 1,000 women pick and pack 50 tons of food a day. Within 24 hours, it has been driven 200 miles to Addis Ababa and flown 1,000 miles to the shops and restaurants of Dubai, Jeddah and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Ethiopia is one of the hungriest countries in the world with more than 13-million people needing food aid, but paradoxically the government is offering at least 7.5 million acres of its most fertile land to rich countries and some of the world’s most wealthy individuals to export food for their own populations.
The 2,500 acres of land which contain the Awassa greenhouses are leased for 99 years to a Saudi billionaire businessman, Ethiopian-born Sheikh Mohammed al-Amoudi, one of the 50 richest men in the world. His Saudi Star company plans to spend up to $2-billion acquiring and developing 1.25 million acres of land in Ethiopia in the next few years. So far, it has bought four farms and is already growing wheat, rice, vegetables and flowers for the Saudi market. It expects eventually to employ more than 10,000 people.
But Ethiopia is only one of 20 or more African countries where land is being bought or leased for intensive agriculture on an immense scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era.
Land rush
An Observer investigation estimates that up to 125 million acres of land — an area more than double the size of the UK — has been acquired in the last few years or is in the process of being negotiated by governments and wealthy investors working with state subsidies. The data used was collected by Grain, the International Institute for Environment and Development, the International Land Coalition, ActionAid and other non-governmental groups.
The land rush, which is still accelerating, has been triggered by the worldwide food shortages which followed the sharp oil price rises in 2008, growing water shortages and the European Union’s insistence that 10% of all transport fuel must come from plant-based biofuels by 2015.
In many areas the deals have led to evictions, civil unrest and complaints of “land grabbing”.
The experience of Nyikaw Ochalla, an indigenous Anuak from the Gambella region of Ethiopia now living in Britain but who is in regular contact with farmers in his region, is typical. He said: “All of the land in the Gambella region is utilised. Each community has and looks after its own territory and the rivers and farmlands within it. It is a myth propagated by the government and investors to say that there is waste land or land that is not utilised in Gambella.
“The foreign companies are arriving in large numbers, depriving people of land they have used for centuries. There is no consultation with the indigenous population. The deals are done secretly. The only thing the local people see is people coming with lots of tractors to invade their lands.
“All the land round my family village of Illia has been taken over and is being cleared. People now have to work for an Indian company. Their land has been compulsorily taken and they have been given no compensation. People cannot believe what is happening. Thousands of people will be affected and people will go hungry.”
It is not known if the acquisitions will improve or worsen food security in Africa, or if they will stimulate separatist conflicts, but a major World Bank report due to be published this month is expected to warn of both the potential benefits and the immense dangers they represent to people and nature.
Leading the rush are international agribusinesses, investment banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, sovereign wealth funds as well as UK pension funds, foundations and individuals attracted by some of the world’s cheapest land.
Together they are scouring Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Congo, Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana and elsewhere. Ethiopia alone has approved 815 foreign-financed agricultural projects since 2007. Any land there, which investors have not been able to buy, is being leased for approximately $1 per year per 2.5 acres.
Saudi Arabia, along with other Middle Eastern emirate states such as Qatar, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, is thought to be the biggest buyer. In 2008 the Saudi government, which was one of the Middle East’s largest wheat-growers, announced it was to reduce its domestic cereal production by 12% a year to conserve its water. It earmarked $5-billion to provide loans at preferential rates to Saudi companies which wanted to invest in countries with strong agricultural potential .
Meanwhile, the Saudi investment company Foras, backed by the Islamic Development Bank and wealthy Saudi investors, plans to spend $1-billion buying land and growing seven million tonnes of rice for the Saudi market within seven years. The company says it is investigating buying land in Mali, Senegal, Sudan and Uganda. By turning to Africa to grow its staple crops, Saudi Arabia is not just acquiring Africa’s land but is securing itself the equivalent of hundreds of millions of gallons of scarce water a year. Water, says the UN, will be the defining resource of the next 100 years.
Huge deals
Since 2008 Saudi investors have bought heavily in Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya. Last year the first sacks of wheat grown in Ethiopia for the Saudi market were presented by al-Amoudi to King Abdullah.
Some of the African deals lined up are eye-wateringly large: China has signed a contract with the Democratic Republic of Congo to grow 7-million acres of palm oil for biofuels. Before it fell apart after riots, a proposed 3 million acres deal between Madagascar and the South Korean company Daewoo would have included nearly half of the country’s arable land.
Land to grow biofuel crops is also in demand. “European biofuel companies have acquired or requested about 10 million acres in Africa. This has led to displacement of people, lack of consultation and compensation, broken promises about wages and job opportunities,” said Tim Rice, author of an ActionAid report which estimates that the EU needs to grow crops on 43 million acres, well over half the size of Italy, if it is to meet its 10% biofuel target by 2015.
“The biofuel land grab in Africa is already displacing farmers and food production. The number of people going hungry will increase,” he said. British firms have secured tracts of land in Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania to grow flowers and vegetables.
Indian companies, backed by government loans, have bought or leased hundreds of thousands of acres in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique, where they are growing rice, sugar cane, maize and lentils to feed their domestic market.
Nowhere is now out of bounds. Sudan, emerging from civil war and mostly bereft of development for a generation, is one of the new hot spots. South Korean companies last year bought 1.75 million acres of northern Sudan for wheat cultivation; the United Arab Emirates have acquired 1.875 million acres and Saudi Arabia last month concluded a 100,000 acre deal in Nile province.
The government of southern Sudan says many companies are now trying to acquire land. “We have had many requests from many developers. Negotiations are going on,” said Peter Chooli, director of water resources and irrigation, in Juba last week. “A Danish group is in discussions with the state and another wants to use land near the Nile.”
In one of the most extraordinary deals, buccaneering New York investment firm Jarch Capital, run by a former commodities trader, Philip Heilberg, has leased 2 million acres in southern Sudan near Darfur. Heilberg has promised not only to create jobs but also to put 10% or more of his profits back into the local community. But he has been accused by Sudanese of “grabbing” communal land and leading an American attempt to fragment Sudan and exploit its resources.
New colonialism
Devlin Kuyek, a Montreal-based researcher with Grain, said investing in Africa was now seen as a new food supply strategy by many governments. “Rich countries are eyeing Africa not just for a healthy return on capital, but also as an insurance policy. Food shortages and riots in 28 countries in 2008, declining water supplies, climate change and huge population growth have together made land attractive. Africa has the most land and, compared with other continents, is cheap,” he said.
“Farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is giving 25% returns a year and new technology can treble crop yields in short time frames,” said Susan Payne, chief executive of Emergent Asset Management, a UK investment fund seeking to spend $50-million on African land, which, she said, was attracting governments, corporations, multinationals and other investors. “Agricultural development is not only sustainable, it is our future. If we do not pay great care and attention now to increase food production by over 50% before 2050, we will face serious food shortages globally,” she said.
But many of the deals are widely condemned by both Western non-government groups and nationals as “new colonialism”, driving people off the land and taking scarce resources away from people.
We met Tegenu Morku, a land agent, in a roadside cafe on his way to the region of Oromia in Ethiopia to find 1,250 acresof land for a group of Egyptian investors. They planned to fatten cattle, grow cereals and spices and export as much as possible to Egypt. There had to be water available and he expected the price to be about 15 birr (about $1) per 2.5 acres per year — less than a quarter of the cost of land in Egypt and a tenth of the price of land in Asia.
“The land and labor is cheap and the climate is good here. Everyone — Saudis, Turks, Chinese, Egyptians — is looking. The farmers do not like it because they get displaced, but they can find land elsewhere and, besides, they get compensation, equivalent to about 10 years’ crop yield,” he said.
Man-made famine
Oromia is one of the centers of the African land rush. Haile Hirpa, president of the Oromia studies’ association, said last week in a letter of protest to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that India had acquired 2.5 million acres, Djibouti 2,500 acres, Saudi Arabia 250,000 and that Egyptian, South Korean, Chinese, Nigerian and other Arab investors were all active in the state.
“This is the new, 21st-century colonization. The Saudis are enjoying the rice harvest, while the Oromos are dying from man-made famine as we speak,” he said.
The Ethiopian government denied the deals were causing hunger and said that the land deals were attracting hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign investments and tens of thousands of jobs. A spokesperson said: “Ethiopia has [187 million acres] of fertile land, of which only 15% is currently in use — mainly by subsistence farmers. Of the remaining land, only a small percentage — 3 to 4% — is offered to foreign investors. Investors are never given land that belongs to Ethiopian farmers. The government also encourages Ethiopians in the diaspora to invest in their homeland. They bring badly needed technology, they offer jobs and training to Ethiopians, they operate in areas where there is suitable land and access to water.”
The reality on the ground is different, according to Michael Taylor, a policy specialist at the International Land Coalition. “If land in Africa hasn’t been planted, it’s probably for a reason. Maybe it’s used to graze livestock or deliberately left fallow to prevent nutrient depletion and erosion. Anybody who has seen these areas identified as unused understands that there is no land in Ethiopia that has no owners and users.”
Development experts are divided on the benefits of large-scale, intensive farming. Indian ecologist Vandana Shiva said in London last week that large-scale industrial agriculture not only threw people off the land but also required chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, intensive water use, and large-scale transport, storage and distribution which together turned landscapes into enormous mono-cultural plantations.
“We are seeing dispossession on a massive scale. It means less food is available and local people will have less. There will be more conflict and political instability and cultures will be uprooted. The small farmers of Africa are the basis of food security. The food availability of the planet will decline,” she says. But Rodney Cooke, director at the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, sees potential benefits. “I would avoid the blanket term ‘land-grabbing’. Done the right way, these deals can bring benefits for all parties and be a tool for development.”
Lorenzo Cotula, senior researcher with the International Institute for Environment and Development, who co-authored a report on African land exchanges with the UN fund last year, found that well-structured deals could guarantee employment, better infrastructures and better crop yields. But badly handled they could cause great harm, especially if local people were excluded from decisions about allocating land and if their land rights were not protected.
Water is also controversial. Local government officers in Ethiopia told the Observer that foreign companies that set up flower farms and other large intensive farms were not being charged for water. “We would like to, but the deal is made by central government,” said one. In Awassa, the al-Amouni farm uses as much water a year as 100,000 Ethiopians.
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Angry demonstrators demand Sarkozy pay up and return Aristide to Haiti
Posted by carnalizmo in General on March 18, 2010
by Kevin Pina
Port au Prince, Haiti – HIP — Thousands of supporters of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide took to the streets on Wednesday as French president Nicolas Sarkozy toured the earthquake ravaged capital of Port au Prince. Holding pictures of the ousted president aloft they chanted for France to pay more then 21 billion dollars in restitution and reparations and to return Aristide as Sarkozy’s helicopter landed near Haiti’s quake damaged national palace. Their demands stem from a long held dispute over compensation a nascent Haiti was forced to pay French slave owners in exchange for recognition of their independence and France’s role in ousting Aristide in 2004.
Aristide, who remains widely popular among Haiti’s poor, first raised the issue of restitution and reparations in April 2003. His government argued that an agreement reached in 1825 forcing Haiti to pay 90 million gold francs to compensate their former slave masters severely crippled Haiti’s economic development. The debt included massive interest and took 122 years to pay off with the final installment made in 1947. His government calculated that the total sum of the debt Haiti was forced to pay with interest, along with reparations for the unpaid labor of millions of slaves kidnapped from Africa and forced to work on French plantations in Haiti, came to more that 21 billion dollars. Aristide’s administration pushed the issue on the international stage while airing commercials several times a day in Haiti that said, “We demand reparations and restitution. France, pay me my money, $21,685,135,571.48.”
Aristide was forced out of the country in a coup ten months later on Feb. 29, 2004 and flown to the former French colony of the Central African Republic. Although the main author of the coup is still seen as the administration of George W. Bush, Haitians have never forgotten the role that France played in supporting the opposition movement to Aristide and their demands that he resign.
Several weeks before Aristide was forced onto a plane and flown into exile, the government of then French president Jacques Chirac dispatched Véronique Albanel and Régis Debray to demand that he resign. In an interview with writer Claude Ribbe one year after his ouster Aristide said, “These two French personalities came to the National Palace and asked me so. That is already known. The threats were groundless, they were evident and direct. As good Haitians, we are respectful but we demand to be respected and we replied with respect and dignity. The threats were evident and direct: you resign or you might be [killed]!”
Before his tour of the destruction in Haiti’s capital and during an address to Haitian dignitaries, French president Sarkozy offered $400 million dollars in emergency assistance, reconstruction funds, and support for the Haitian government’s operating budget. This was in addition to France’s earlier decision to cancel Haiti’s debt of $77 million dollars.
Paulette Joseph, a member of the Lavalas Mobilization Commission and one of the organizers of the demonstration responded, “That’s great that Sarkozy has come to give France’s support to the Haitian people in this difficult moment after the terrible earthquake that killed so many of our people and now forces us to live in greater misery.” Joseph continued, “But $477 million dollars doesn’t even come close to the damage France inflicted upon Haiti before the earthquake. We were suffering from poverty before this crisis as a result of the debt Haiti was forced to pay the slave masters to recognize our independence. If our country is not equipped to handle this crisis and we are suffering more after the earthquake it is a direct result of that debt.”
“We need Aristide to return!” shouted demonstrators as Haitian president Preval made a rare appearance on the lawn in front of Haiti’s destroyed seat of government following Sarkozy’s visit. Waving photos of Aristide they also began chanting, “If Aristide were here he would be suffering along with us!” as Preval turned his back on the crowd and withdrew to his luxury jeep amid tight security.
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Census: Masking Identities or Counting the Indigenous Among Us?
Posted by carnalizmo in General, indigenous on March 5, 2010
New America Media
Commentary, Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Mar 04, 2010
It was when I first stood atop the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, Mexico in 1976 that I was finally able to grasp something my parents first communicated to me when I was five years old; that my roots on this continent are not simply Mexican, but both ancient and Indigenous.
My red-brown face should have been enough to teach me this. However, that was not the message I received in school at the time, nor is it the message little red-brown kids receive today. I experienced a similar kind of reaffirmation this past month when I stood in front of the world-renowned, ancient Mayan observatory at Chichen Itza, on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.
Upon my return to the United States, I received a message from a colleague regarding the U.S. Census Bureau. My mouth soured; another decade and another story about how the bureau paradoxically insists that Mexicans are Caucasian. I will have to explain to them again that Mexicans are the descendants of those who built the pyramids at Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza – that it was not Caucasians who built them.
The genesis of this nonsensical “misconception” goes back to the era when the United States militarily took half of Mexico in 1848. At that time, the Mexican government attempted to protect its former citizens by insisting that the U.S. government treat them legally as “white,” so they would not be enslaved or subjected to legal segregation. That strategy only partially worked, because most Mexicans in this country have never been treated as “white,” or as full human beings with full human rights.
That era is long over, yet the fear, shame, denial, and semi-legal fiction of being “white” remains, perpetrated primarily by government bureaucrats.
Despite the bureau policy of racial categorization, the Indigenous Cultures Institute in Texas, a Census 2010 partner, has advanced an alternative: It asserts that Hispanics, Mexican Americans, and Indigenous people of Mexico are native or American Indian. After answering Question 8, regarding whether one is Hispanic or not, the institute suggests: “If you are a descendant of native people, you can identify yourself (in Question 9) as an American Indian in the 2010 Census… If you don’t know your tribe, enter “unknown” or “detribalized native.” If tribe or identity is known, fill it in, i.e., Macehual, Maya, Quechua, etc.
This may not be the best option, but the bureau has never made it easy to recognize the indigenous roots of “Mexican Americans/Chicanos” or “Latinos/Hispanics.” The long and sordid history of the census has been to direct or redirect them into the white category, even–and especially–when they have asserted their indigenous roots or when they have checked the “other” race category. (Since 1980, about half of Hispanics/Latinos have checked the “other” race category and are virtually the only group that chooses this category.) This has been a standard practice of the bureau since the second half of the twentieth century. Coincidentally, this is also when government bureaucrats imposed the term “Hispanic,” a tag that generally masks the existence of indigenous and/or African roots in many peoples of the Americas.
In 2000, the Census Bureau finally recognized a Latin American Indian category, but it did not create an educational campaign to go with it. The bureau now recognizes peoples who are traditionally viewed (using arbitrary criteria) as indigenous in Mexico, Central and South America, but it does not recognize those who are considered “mestizo” –- peoples who are at least part, if not primarily, native. The mestizo category, borne of a dehumanizing racial caste system in the Americas, is also a troublesome category, yet it is how most people of Mexican and Central American descent identify, comprising approximately 75 percent of all “Latinos/Hispanics.”
The Indigenous Institute promotes its idea as a means by which Mexican Americans or Latinos/Hispanics can honor their indigenous ancestry. If this option is widely embraced, it remains to be seen how the bureau will count this information. The same question arises if people choose the American Indian category and write in “mestizo.”
Traditionally, the bureau has taken a narrow view of who is indigenous, because the “American Indian” category was designed not to ascertain Indigeneity, but to count “U.S. Indians.” If a more expansive view is embraced widely –- as advocated by the institute -– it would result in an increase from 5 million (the 2009 census estimate) to perhaps 30 to 40 million people. (Not all of the nation’s close to 50 million Hispanics/Latinos can or would claim indigenous ancestry.) If done correctly, the institute’s suggestion need not negatively affect the allocation of resources to specific tribes. Neither should the way people identify be subject to government approval. Yet, the ramifications of exercising such an option should indeed be studied.
Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com
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UNESCO: Desaparecerán más de 200 lenguas indígenas en los próximos años
Posted by carnalizmo in General on March 5, 2010
por Erick Gutiérrez @ Mapuchenoticias.com
Según los datos publicados por la UNESCO en los próximos 100 años desaparecerán al menos el 90% de los idiomas originarios, y en los próximos años sufrirían esta suerte al menos 248 idiomas indígenas en latinoamérica.
En Argentina las lenguas en peligro son el mapudungun de los mapuches, el choyote, el guaraní, el tapieté, el chaná y el tehuelche. Estos últimos se encuentran en un estado crítico, ya que el tehuelche es hablado por sólo 4 personas y el chaná por una sola persona.
Según el informe, en latinoamérica se encuentran a punto de desaparecer 64 lenguas en Brasil, 53 en México, 29 en Perú, 24 en Colombia y 18 en Bolivia.
Esto se puede revertir sólo si los gobiernos toman medidas urgentes, cosa que dificilmente harán, porque estos idiomas son considerados inútiles para el progreso y el desarrollo de los países.
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The Muslim Women of Hip-Hop
Posted by dubious4lyf3 in Art, Black/New Afrikan, Wimmin/Women on February 20, 2010
The Muslim Women of Hip-Hop
by Guest Contributor Duniya, originally published at Muslimah Media Watch
Although still a male-dominated realm, women have been an important part of the hip hop world both as artists and consumers. Anaya McMurray, in her journal article* Hotep and Hip-Hop: Can Black Muslim Women Be Down with Hip-Hop? explores the relation of Black Muslim women to hip hop music and asks the question, “Can Black Muslim women be a part of hip hop and Islam?”**
McCurray says that unique spaces in the discourses surrounding Islam are often ignored, consequently ignoring certain groups of Muslims, including Black Muslim women. Black Muslim women have become “agents in negotiating Islamic faith and hip-hop culture.” She aims to examine the ways in which Black Muslim women create unique spaces and negotiate Islam and hip hop in their music, as well as ways in which society represents Islam and hip hop which marginalize Black Muslim women. She does so by discussing the works of Erykah Badu, Eve, and herself as Black Muslim women hip hop artists.
When speaking of Erykah Badu we find out that the Islam McMurray tells us Badu follows is that of the Nation of Gods and Earths, or Five Percenters. Five Percenters are those who follow the teachings of Clarence 13x, a former member of the Nation of Islam. Five Percenters do consider themselves Muslims but not in the religious sense – in the political sense. Therefore, many mainstream Muslims do not consider them Muslims. And in reality their beliefs have very little in common with Sunni or Shia Islam. McMurray tells us how Badu does create a space for Muslim women in her songs by rapping about Five Percenter practices – practices which encourage men and women to remain within their respective, traditional roles. Beliefs which seem quite sexist but ones which Badu says are quite flexible, in her music. However, as Five Percenters have so little in common with mainstream Islam, and in fact consider themselves a part of a political movement rather than a religious one, using Badu to represent Muslim women in hip hop struck me as false advertising. She does not, from my understanding, represent the religion but rather the political movement.
The situation of Eve is not so clear. She has been quoted as saying that she finds Sunni Islam beautiful but cannot follow it properly. McMurray argues that, according to her calculations, Eve is a Muslim woman, though even McMurray admits she cannot be sure. McMurray reads Eve as a Muslim woman. Eve refers to Allah in her work as well as thanks Allah on her CD credits. Additionally, McMurray tells us that her own personal communications indicate that she is Muslim. McMurray makes an interesting observation about people’s assumptions about Eve and her religion. In one song Eve says “I thank Allah every night and pray there’s no turning back.” In many online lyrics sources this line is written as “I thank the Lord every night and pray there’s no turning back.” McMurray tells us that people, on all sides (within and without) just cannot fathom Eve as a Muslim so would never assume that she would use “Allah.” She tells us that people have never even asked the question of her being Muslim despite her use of “Allah”.
The author then presents her own creation of a unique space which proves to be the most fascinating of the three. She proves to be an intellectual rapper referencing not only academics such as Tricia Rose, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, and Fatima Mernissi, but also the Qur’an. McMurray states that it is her Islamic spirituality which guides her lyrics. For her Islam is a key source of inspiration for her work, in which she commonly critiques patriarchy.
McMurray presents another image of Muslim women. In her paper, she states that the images of Badu, Eve and herself challenge the traditional images of Muslim women and women in hip hop. She states that “Our images challenge the misrepresentation that all Muslim women are Middle Eastern and/or that Muslim women cover at all times, and don’t have the freedom to pursue careers in music and entertainment.” Additionally, she states that “we challenge the assumption that women who are not visibly marked as belonging to another faith are by default Christian.”
McMurray critiques the Muslim community, the hip hop community, and mainstream society for making assumptions about women in hip hop in general, and Black Muslim women specifically. Though at times her examples of Muslim women may seem weak, McMurray makes some very important points worth consideration about the space for Black Muslim women in hip hop. Muslims don’t see Black Muslim women in hip hop as Muslim because of what they wear and/or their controversial lyrics; many rappers don’t see them as Muslim because they would rather see women in hip hop as objects; mainstream doesn’t see them as Muslim because Christianity has been so important to the mainstream Black community. Therefore, Black Muslim women in hip hop are left in a difficult position where they have to struggle to create and maintain a space. Further critiques of their unique spaces would be interesting to see.
—
*Reference:
McMurray, A. (2008). Hotep and hip-hop: Can Black Muslim women be down with hip hop? Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 8(1), 74-92.
** Unfortunately I cannot post the article here but I have provided the reference so that if you have access to academic journals you can look it up. If you are interested in reading it and cannot access it please email us (at Muslimah Media Watch) and we can email it to you.
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Machetero POW Pleads Guilty
Posted by carnalizmo in General, News, Prisoners of War/Political Prisoners on February 12, 2010
HARTFORD, Conn.— A Puerto Rican nationalist has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to his involvement in a 1983 armored truck robbery of about $7 million in Connecticut _ one of the largest robberies in American history.
Federal prosecutors said Friday that 67-year-old Avelino Gonzalez-Claudio pleaded guilty in Hartford to foreign transportation of stolen money and conspiracy to rob federally insured bank funds.
Gonzalez-Claudio conspired with others to rob the Wells Fargo Armored Service Corp. in West Hartford and to transport the stolen money to Mexico, authorities said.
Authorities allege the robbery was committed to fund the activities of Los Macheteros, a clandestine organization that seeks Puerto Rican independence.
Gonzalez-Claudio was a fugitive for more than 22 years before he was arrested in 2008 in Puerto Rico, where he had been living under an assumed name. He faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced May 26. A plea agreement, subject to court approval, calls for a seven-year sentence.
“It’s a very fair and I would say favorable resolution,” Gonzalez-Claudio’s attorney, James Bergenn, said Friday.
Bergenn has said his client’s membership in the Macheteros was not a crime and accused prosecutors of making unsubstantiated claims about him.
The Macheteros, whose name translates as “Machete Wielders” or “Cane Cutters,” are suspected of using the stolen millions to finance bombings and attacks designed to promote independence for the U.S. territory.
Their alleged leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, was killed in a 2005 shootout with the FBI at a remote farmhouse in Puerto Rico.
The robbery was allegedly carried out by Victor Gerena, a Wells Fargo driver recruited by the independence group. Authorities say Gerena took two co-workers hostage at gunpoint, handcuffed them and injected them with an unknown substance to disable them.
Gonzalez is accused of helping to get Gerena and the half-ton of cash out of the United States.
Two suspects, Gerena and Gonzalez-Claudio’s brother, Norberto Gonzalez-Claudio, remain at large, and Gerena is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list.
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Stand beside us in defense of the land: Wet’suwet’en
Posted by carnalizmo in General, Turtle Island, indigenous on February 12, 2010
by Dawn Paley
Toghestiy (Warner Naziel) traveled from Smithers to Vancouver on Thursday in order to add his voice to the chorus of Olympic resistance.
He came with a message for activists gathered in Vancouver: he thinks the pressure for corporate development on Wet’suwet’en territory, which encompasses 22,000 square kilometers in central British Columbia, will increase when the B.C. government has to start paying down the deficit accrued because of the 2010 Games.
“When the time comes for them to actually pay off that bill, we know they’re going to start making their way into our territories, as well as other First Nations’ peoples territories that aren’t ceded yet, and they plan on paying off that bill by extracting resources from our lands, and doing it as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” he said.
There are two proposed oil pipelines that would cut through Wet’suwet’en territory: the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, and a separate Kinder Morgan pipeline, both of which to carry tar sands bitumen from Alberta to the BC Coast. The Wet’suwet’en have expressed their absolute and unconditional rejection of pipelines in their lands.
“The Wet’suwet’en want to protect our land, we want to protect it from any type of pollution, any type of industrial development, because we need to make sure the lands are available for our children and our unborn children,” Toghestiy told the Vancouver Media Co-op.
In the context of building post-Olympic movements in Vancouver, Toghestiy said that the Wet’suwet’en would like to have the support of people in the city as part of their struggle to defend their lands. “We’re looking at developing a larger network of people who can and will stand beside us,” he said.
The Wet’suwet’en nation withdrew from the B.C. Treaty process last October, after spending 16 years at the table with the provincial government.
“Now that Treaty is dead in our territory, one of the discussions that the clan groups had, we’re made up of five distinct clans, and one of the discussions that the clan groups have been having is ‘what are we going to do about occupation,’” said Toghestiy. “We need to go out and begin actually occupying our lands again.”
One of the ways that the Wet’suwet’en are reoccupying their lands is through a cabin building project, where a group people are learning to cut trees, mill them, and build log cabins. “They’re building them out in our territories, without permits or licences or anything like that from the government.”
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Host First Nations Bite the Olympic Hand
Posted by carnalizmo in General, News on February 12, 2010
February 9, 2010
Will the government meet its funding obligations before the Games?
by ZOE BLUNT
Chief Bill Williams at Ut'sam, 2006. Williams and other leaders of the Four Host First Nations are demanding the federal government meet its financial obligations to the communities before the Olympic Games.
VANCOUVER—It looked like the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Committee had everything sewn up tight: new venues built to order, ads from corporate sponsors, bylaws against ambush marketing, and smiling Indigenous people welcoming the world.
Now, the committee must be wondering whether it misjudged its First Nations “partners.”
Hard on the heels of Indigenous protests during the Olympic Torch Relay, the Four Host First Nations (FHFN) surprised the province and its international partners with an announcement in January. Chief Bill Williams, chair of the FHFN, declared they will use the power of international media to shame the province into honouring its commitments to economic development.
Thomas Leonard, president of the BC First Nations Forestry Council, fired the first shot. In a letter to BC Forests Minister Pat Bell last December, he wrote, “The fact that your government and its federal partner are spending $3 billion to stage the Winter Olympics is merely exacerbating the frustration and anger felt by our communities as they continue to be told that there is no money in the pot to address their situations, which, as you are fully aware, are of a most desperate nature.”
Williams explained the consequences for ignoring the FHFN’s ultimatum. “There’s going to be some 14,000 media people running around [at the Olympics],” he told the Globe and Mail. “Some of them are already contacting us. They want to know, ‘What’s it like to be an Indian in today’s world? How do you live?’ We are going to start letting those reporters know the reality of the poverty we face.”
The host nations—the Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh, and Lil’Wat Nation bands—signed partnership agreements with VANOC years ago, and until now, they’ve submitted to the demands of the international committee on everything from cutting old-growth forests to wearing faux regalia. Some, like Kwakwaka’wakw activist Gord Hill, have accused the FHFN of selling out, and cheaply.
Raising the price at this late date doesn’t make it right, and Hill calls the latest move an “attempted cash grab” by “native sell-outs.”
“What is truly hypocritical is for Williams to now raise the issue of Native poverty, or to express concerns about the social conditions for Native people, after several years collaborating with VANOC and the 2010 Olympics,” Hill told The Dominion.
Indeed, with the Olympic spectacle upon us, Indigenous leaders have upped the ante. Thomas said, “Our communities are tired of being told there is no new funding available—and that they might have to make do with even less than they already have—and at the same time being told they should be excited about the 2010 Winter Olympics.”
Thomas asked the province for an urgent meeting to resolve the issue, and said if steps aren’t taken, “The FNFC and its member first nations will reluctantly, but without hesitation, take advantage of the intense international media interest that will be focused on BC before and during the Winter Olympics.”
Along with his position as chair of the FHFN, Williams is vice-president of the BC First Nations Forestry Council. He said the province is overdue in funding $6.2 million for developing aboriginal forestry businesses. According to a press statement, similar commitments from Ottawa for $135 million for mountain pine beetle salvage and recovery were pledged years ago but never materialized. A second letter to Federal International Trade Minister Stockwell Day requested a meeting to discuss the long-overdue funding from Ottawa.
Hundreds of reserves across Canada are mired in abject poverty, and thousands make do without safe drinking water, housing, health care, employment and education. Conditions for Indigenous people have only deteriorated since Vancouver and Whistler won the Olympic bid, Hill said. “During this period, hundreds of Natives have been made homeless in Vancouver, subject to police violence and harassment; yet where were Mr. Williams, the Four Host First Nations and their Olympic toad Tewanee Joseph? Kissing the ass of corporations, government and Olympic officials,” he charged.
Investing in forestry is a delicate issue for the Squamish and other First Nations who have fought to preserve the forests of their traditional territory from industrial clearcutting. But in many parts of the coast, unprecedented liquidation of old-growth and second-growth forests is underway, and raw log exports are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, unsettled Indigenous land claims languish in limbo.
Growing nations are desperate for jobs and economic development, and this is the trade-off they face. The Olympics represent development, but at the expense of traditional lands, foods, and wildlife.
Today, neither the province nor the chiefs are speaking to the media—likely because they are attempting to negotiate a truce. The chiefs are certainly aware that when provincial and federal governments are confronted by intractable First Nations threatening action, they often give in to the demands. That’s how Indigenous activists have won substantial concessions in the past.
In this case, the FHFN demands are dwarfed by the scale of the Olympic money-pit. The province’s $6.2 million debt to First Nations forestry amounts to one-tenth of one per cent of Olympic spending. Ottawa’s contribution to pine-beetle salvage in First Nations communities would be a little over two per cent of the budget for the Games. Clearly, the host nations have the position and the leverage to negotiate sweeping changes. But what they stand to win by what some have called “selling out” appears to only be crumbs from the master’s table.
Zoe Blunt is a journalism school dropout on Vancouver Island.
For up-to-the-minute Olympics resistance coverage, check out theVancouver Media Co-op, and the Convergence website. Follow the VMC on twitter!
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Celebrate Freedom With Me (Feb. 6 Statement by Leonard Peltier)
Posted by carnalizmo in General, News, Prisoners of War/Political Prisoners, american indian on February 12, 2010
Sat, February 6, 2010
34 years. It doesn’t even sound like a real number to me. Not when one really thinks about being in a jail cell for that long. All these years and I swear, I still think sometimes I’ll wake up from this nightmare in my own bed, in my own home, with my family in the next room. I would never have imagined such a thing. Surely the only place people are unjustly imprisoned for 34 years is in far away lands, books or fairy tales.
It’s been that long since I woke up when I needed to, worked where I wanted to, loved who I was supposed to love, or did what I was compelled to do. It’s been that long-long enough to see my children have grandchildren. Long enough to have many of my friends and loved ones die in the course of a normal life, while I was here unable to know them in their final days.
So often in my daily life, the thought creeps in – “I don’t deserve this.” It lingers like acid in my mouth. But I have to push those types of thoughts away. I made a commitment long ago, many of us did. Some didn’t live up to their commitments, and some of us didn’t have a choice. Joe Stuntz didn’t have a choice. Neither did Buddy Lamont. I never thought my commitment would mean sacrificing like this, but I was willing to do so nonetheless. And really, if necessary, I’d do it all over again, because it was the right thing to do. We didn’t go to ceremony and say “I’ll fight for the people as long as it doesn’t cost too much.” We prayed, and we gave. Like I say, some of us didn’t have a choice. Our only other option was to run away, and we couldn’t even do that. Back then, we had no where left to run to.
I have cried so many tears over these three plus decades. Like the many families directly affected by this whole series of events, my family’s tears have not been in short supply. Our tears have joined all the tears from over 500 years of oppression. Together our tears come together and form a giant river of suffering and I hope, cleansing. Injustice is never final, I keep telling myself. I pray this is true for all of us.
To those who know I am innocent, thank you for your faith. And I hope you continue working for my release. That is, to work towards truth and justice. To those who think me guilty, I ask you to believe in and work for the rule of law. Even the law says I should be free by now, regardless of guilt. What has happened to me isn’t justice, it isn’t the law, it isn’t fair, it isn’t right. This has been a long battle in an even longer war. But we have to remain vigilant, as we have a righteous cause. After all this time, I can only ask this: Don’t give up. Not ever. Stay in this fight with me. Suffer with me. Grieve with me. Endure with me. Believe with me. Outlast with me. And one day, celebrate freedom with me. Hoka hey!
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488
Fargo, ND 58106
Phone: 701/235-2206
Fax: 701/235-5045
E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
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Frente de Liberacion Animal (FLA): Mexico, Chile, Uruguay (Winter 2009-2010)
Posted by Nationalism.n.Matriarchy in Earth Liberation, General, Herbivores/Vegans of Color, News, Statement, animal liberation on February 12, 2010
(Part One of Two…)
*******
TWO JAILED FOR ELF ACTIONS
December 15, 2009 – Mexico
Abraham López Martínez (age 16) has been held since December 15, 2009 at a youth detention center in Mexico City. He is accused of damaging property and criminal association, related to the burning of nine privately-owned cars and a bomb attack against a Harley Davidson dealer, actions claimed by the Frente de Liberación de la Tierra [Earth Liberation Front]. He is awaiting trial. Abraham is vegan.
Write to Abraham via Anarchist Black Cross-Mexico: cna.mex@gmail.com
*******
INCENDIARY ATTACK ON MEAT MARKET
December 26, 2009 – Chile
reported on Liberación Total:
“La noche del 25 de Diciembre se instaló un artefacto incendiario en una carnicería de la asesina empresa Friosa, en Santiago.
El artefacto que consistía de un bidón con bencina adosado a esponjas, activado mediante un simple temporizador químico y fue oculto en el techo del centro de exterminio, porque así el fuego se propagaría de mejor manera.
El fuego logró encender y con ello destruir parte del techo de ese asqueroso cementerio, donde seres son vendido como simples objetos de consumo.
Prendímos fuego a este lugar por que en el reconocemos un claro sintoma de las relaciones de poder que en la sociedad existen e impone a fin de mantener un sistema basado en el aniquilamiento y la explotación, así como también lo son las cárceles, las escuelas, las empresas, los cuarteles, etc…
Este ataque es en apoyo a lxs compañerxs que se encuantran en huega de hambre, no como sacrificio sino como un gesto de amor y agitación, demostrando que la cárcel no lxs aniquila y que la guerra se pelea tanto adentro como afuera.
A la memoria de todxs lxs compañerxs caídxs en esta guerra, como es el caso de la querida compañera Soledad Rosas, quién tomo la decisión terminar con su vida estando detenida. Así también el querido compañero Mauricio Morales, quién murió al detonarle accidentalmente el artefacto que llevaba consigo para atacar la escuela de carceleros.
En esta guerra, hace siglos declarada, ningún compañerx esta solx ni olvidadx!
A Diego Ríos, tú fuga, que la hacemos nuestra, es una continua acción por la destrucción de todas las cárceles y las jaulas. Tus palabras son fuerza y energía para todxs quienes atacamos al poder y es por esto que con estas llamas te acompañamos en la huida.”
English:
“On the night of December 25 an incendiary device was placed in a meat market belonging to the murderous Friosa company in Santiago.
The device consisted of a can with gasoline, attached to sponges, activated by a simple chemical timer, and which was hidden in the roof of the extermination camp, because this way the fire would spread better.
The fire was lit and it destroyed part of the roof of that filthy cemetery, where beings are sold as mere objects of consumption.
We set fire to this place because in it we recognize a clear symptom of the power relations that exist in society and to put an end to the support of a system based on annihilation and exploitation, as are the prisons, the schools, the companies, the barracks, etc …
This attack is in support of our comrades in the midst of a hunger strike, not as sacrifice but as a gesture of love and agitation, showing that prison has not annihilated them and that the war is fought both inside and out.
To the memory of all our comrades who have fallen in this war, as is the case of our beloved comrade Soledad Rosas, who made the decision to end her life while under arrest. As our beloved comrade Mauricio Morales, who died when the bomb he carried with him accidentally detonated.
In this war, declared centuries ago, no comrade is alone or forgotten!
To Diego Rios, your escape, which we have made ours, is a continuous action for the destruction of all prisons and cages. Your words are strength and energy for all who attack power and that is why with these flames we accompany you in flight.”
*******
FIVE HENS LIBERATED
December 29, 2009 – Mexico
received anonymously:
“El día 27 de diciembre el frente de liberación animal libero cinco gallinas en un poblado del sureste de DF. Esta vez entre la oscuridad nos infiltramos a la propiedad de una persona que mantiene una pequeña producción avícola, fueron arrancadas de sus manos antropocentristas y puestas en libertad donde ahora pueden correr, y revolotear entre la tierra. El frente de liberación animal ha demostrado que la acción directa es una herramienta cuando no existe la valoración de que un animal quiere y anhela la libertad tanto como nosotros, estar en un ambiente ausente de civilización, ausente de dominación, ausente de toda practica antropocentrista. Porque no nos quedaremos con las manos cruzadas viendo como el tiempo consume nuestras ansias de libertad. La civilización esta por venirse abajo, la vida y la libertada ya no pertenecen al sistema industrial.
¡Abolición total a las cárceles, a las jaulas!
¡Por una vida libre y salvaje! ALF-suroeste
Accion dedicada a los presos por la liberacion de la tierra en Mexico
Abraham y Fermin.”
English:
“On December 27 the frente de liberación animal liberated five hens in a small village southeast of Mexico City. This time in the darkness we entered the property of a person who maintains a small poultry farm; the chickens were taken from anthropocentric hands and given freedom where they can now run and flit around in the earth. The frente de liberación animal has shown that direct action is a tool when there is no value given to the fact that an animal wants and longs for freedom as much as we do, to be somewhere away from civilization, away from domination, away from all anthropocentric practices.
We will not remain, with arms folded, watching as time consumes our yearning for freedom. Civilization is about to collapse, life and freedom no longer belong to the industrial system.
Total abolition of the prisons, and the cages!
For a free and wild life! ALF-southwest
Action dedicated to the earth liberation prisoners in Mexico
Abraham and Fermin.”
*******
ATTACK ON MEAT TRUCK AND PSYCHIATRIC CLINIC IN SANTIAGO
January 4, 2010 – Chile
anonymous communique:
“La noche del martes 29, teníamos planificado atacar la maldita tranquilidad de algunos explotadores. Es por eso que salimos con lo necesario para llevarlo a cabo y no quedar solo con las intenciones.
Lo primero que hicimos fue dirigirnos a la casa de un carnicero asesino (valga la redundancia) donde en el patio guardaba un camión transportador de cadáveres, hacia el cual apuntamos nuestra rabia. Las luces de la casa ya estaban apagadas cuando decidimos actuar, roseamos un acido muy corrosivo (que corroe metal y plástico, entre otros) sobre el parabrisas, la parte del motor y dos ruedas laterales, al mismo tiempo se lanzaba pintura roja sobre la gran publicidad a un costado, la que incitaba al consumo de animales, dejando arruinado todo el camión. También quedo manchada la entrada de la casa con pintura.
Con la misma rabia nos trasladamos a una Clínica Psiquiátrica, la cual lucia unos grandes ventanales que a pesar de estar reforzados, estos fueron reventados a piedrazos, en horas donde aun se encontraban los verdugos de traje blanco trabajando.
Ambos ataques fueron apuntados contra propiedad de explotadores, gestores/defensores de la dominación y la alienación, de unos seres por sobre otros.
Las prácticas autoritarias se encuentran por todos lados, tú decides, ser cómplice o atacarlas, haciendo de la vida una propaganda por el hecho.
Estas acciones son un gesto fraterno para todas/os las/os compañeras/os presas/os que se encuentra en huelga de hambre del 20 de diciembre al 1 de enero, porque la actitud inquebrantable de cada una/o de ustedes nos llena de orgullo y nos anima a emprender la ofensiva.
Un saludo lleno de fuerza para todas/os las/os salvajes e insurrectas/os que han (y seguirán) accionando en el territorio denominado, méxico. A seguir atacando compañeras/os que en la guerra contra la dominación nos animamos y reconocemos en cada acción.
Como ya lo habíamos mencionado antes, cada ataque va a la memoria guerrera de Mauricio Morales, compañero aquí seguimos buscando acertar golpes contra el enemigo.
Querido Diego, tu ausencia en las jaulas nos llena de alegría. Tu fiereza y convicción nos da fuerza en esta guerra a muerte. Adelante compañero cada día que pasa en un golpe contra el poder.
Banda Salvaje e Insurrecta en Guerra Contra la Dominación”
English:
“On the night of Tuesday the 29th, we had been planning to attack the evil tranquility of some exploiters. That’s why we left that night with what was needed to do it, rather than just sitting still with only the intention to do something.
The first thing we did was to go to the house of a murdering butcher (forgive the redundancy) where in the yard he kept a truck for transporting corpses, and we directed our rage at it. The lights in the house were off when we decided to act, spraying a very corrosive acid (which corrodes metal and plastic, among other things) on the windshield, part of the engine and two wheels; at the same time red paint was thrown on the large advertisement on the side, which advocated consumption of animals, leaving the truck completely ruined. The entry of the house was also stained with paint.
With the same anger we moved to a psychiatric clinic, which stood out because of some large windows which despite being reinforced, were smashed with stones, where it would remain until discovered by the executioners in white suits a few hours later.
Both attacks were aimed at the property of exploiters, agents/defenders of the domination and alienation, of some beings by/over others.
Authoritarian practices are found everywhere; you decide to be complacent or to attack them, making life an example through action.
These actions are a fraternal gesture for all our comrades in prison who are on hunger strike from December 20 to January 1, because the unwavering attitude of each of you fills us with pride and encourages us to undertake the offensive.
A greeting full of strength for all the wild and insurgent ones who have been (and will continue) acting in the territory named Mexico. Comrades continue attacking because in the war against domination we encourage and motivate one another with each action.
As we have already mentioned, each attack is in fighting memory of Mauricio Morales, comrade we continue to strike blows against the enemy.
Dear Diego, your absence from the cages fills us with happiness. Your fierceness and conviction give us the strength in this battle to the death. Continue forward comrade, each day that passes is a strike against power.
Banda Salvaje e Insurrecta en Guerra Contra la Dominación [Wild and Insurgent Band at War Against Domination]”
*******
EXPLOSIVE ATTACKS AGAINST BANK AND CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
January 14, 2010 – Mexico
anonymous communique:
“Alrededor de las 3 de la madrugada del día 24 de diciembre hemos dejado un artefacto explosivo relleno de dinamita en la sucursal bancaria BBVA en Ecatepec Estado de Mexico, así mismo simultáneamente dejamos otro de nuestros regalos frente a la fachada de la empresa Kengoord la cual estaba siendo resguardada por dos patrullas de la policía estatal, los dos blancos sufrieron daños en sus ventanales.
Esta acción la hemos hecho sobre la misma avenida (José López Portillo) en la que unas semanas antes las “Brigadas de Eco saboteadores por la Venganza Nunca Olvidada” detonaran una bomba compuesta con latas de gas butano en un Banamex en el municipio de Coacalco. Las autoridades no se imaginaron que otros grupos atacarían otra vez sobre el mismo “perímetro controlado” y dejaron tales blancos vulnerables y listos para colocar nuestros paquetes dinamiteros.
La destrucción de su paz social fue inevitable cuando la mecha se encendió y activo el artefacto, dichas explosiones con un sonido fuerte retumbaron en los oídos de lxs que sustentan el poder y el autoritarismo ganado a costa de la destrucción del planeta en el que ahora subsistimos por causa de los catastróficos avances del cambio climático, que a su vez es causado en gran parte por tales empresa como las que atacamos esta madrugada.
BBVA vista como una empresa engañosa y que administra un dinero resultado de la explotación animal, humana y de la tierra y Kenworth vista como una empresa ligada a la industria de la construcción que tiene contacto con empresas como CAT o Carso, responsable directa de la desolación medioambiental, recibieron nuestro mensaje no con palabras sino con acciones, porque desde que afrontamos de una manera radical temas como lo son los tomados en este comunicado hemos decidido ya no hablar y empezar a actuar.
Al siguiente día de nuestra acción la prensa vendida no mencionó nada de lo acontecido, todo estaba plegado de mensajes hipócritas y sin ningún sentido común sobre las”felices fiestas navideñas”, fecha fatídica admirada por el capitalismo insaciable como la recuperación socioeconómica de su impero en el mundo. La conspiración entre medios y las autoridades que vislumbraron nuestra acción ocultada fue clara, su fin es mantener tranquila a la sociedad sobre lo que pasa en estos días festivos ¿a que persona tranquiliza ver en las noticias que en fechas tan importantes de “convivencia familiar” bombas están estallando en el país? Nosotrxs tiramos sus expectativas, ellxs saben que el descontento no solo esta en nuestras cabezas sino también en nuestros sabotajes, aunque lo oculten o lo tergiversen.
Con estos estallidos queremos solidarizarnos con los detenidos el pasado 15 en Tlalpan DF, en especial con Abraham y Fermín que aunque sean menores de edad, su gran compromiso por la liberación de la tierra es mas que visible y es una de las maneras para emprender la ofensiva para la solidaridad directa. Aguanten compas, que el fuego incinere y que las bombas estallen en sus nombres!
¡Solidaridad directa con Víctor Herrera, Emmanuel Hernández, Abraham López y Fermín Gómez!
Frente de Liberación Animal
Frente de Liberación de la Tierra”
English:
“Around 3 in the morning on December 24 we left an explosive device stuffed with dynamite at the BBVA bank branch in Ecatepec, Mexico City. We simultaneously left another one of our gifts in front of the facade of the Kenworth company which was being guarded by two state police patrols. The two targets sustained damages to their windows.
We’ve carried out this action on the same street (José López Portillo) where a few weeks before the ‘Brigadas de Eco saboteadores por la Venganza Nunca Olvidada’ [Unforgettable Vengeance Eco-Sabotage Brigade] detonated a bomb made with cans of butane gas at a Banamex in Coacalco. The authorities did not imagine that other groups would again attack in the same ‘controlled perimeter,’ and they left such targets vulnerable and ready for our dynamite.
The destruction of their social peace was inevitable when the fuse was lit and the device activated. These explosions echoed with a sound loud in the ears of those who support power and authoritarianism won at the cost of the destruction of the planet on which we survive, caused by the catastrophic encroachment of climate change, which in turn is caused in large part by such companies as we attacked this morning.
BBVA is a deceitful company that manages money earned from the exploitation of animals, humans and the earth. Kenworth is a company bound to the construction industry and which has contacts with companies like CAT or Carso, which are directly responsible for environmental devastation. They received our message not with words but with actions, because we are facing in a radical way issues such as those noted in this communique; we have decided not to talk and to start to take action.
The day after our action the sell-out press mentioned nothing of what happened; instead it was full of hypocritical messages about ‘Merry Christmas’ festivities, the appalling day admired by insatiable capitalism as the socio-economic reclamation of its rule over the world. The conspiracy between the media and the authorities who have hidden our action was obvious; its purpose is to maintain calm in society during the holidays, and what person calmly watches the news seeing that during such important days of ‘family life,’ bombs are exploding in the country? We have defied their expectations, they now know that this discontent is not only in our heads but also in our acts of sabotage, although they hide or distort it.
With these explosions we want to express our solidarity with the detainees of December 15th in Tlalpan, Mexico City, especially with Abraham and Fermin, although you are still young, your great commitment to the liberation of the earth is more than obvious, and one of the ways to undertake the offensive for direct solidarity. Hold on comrades, the fire burns and the bombs explode in your names!
Direct solidarity with Víctor Herrera, Emmanuel Hernández, Abraham López y Fermín Gómez!
Frente de Liberación Animal
Frente de Liberación de la Tierra”
*******
SABOTAGE AT MEAT RESTAURANT
January 17, 2010 – Chile
reported on Liberación Total:
“Sabotajes a restaurant de carne y construcción inmobiliaria en Santiago, $hile
En la madrugada del jueves 14 de enero, cobijadxs por el silencio nos encaminamos a un local de venta de carne muy popular en santiago conocido como ‘Parrilladas Argentina’. Ahi donde se lucra con la muerte de animales y además se reproduce con esplendor la práctica especista de comer cadáveres.
En el lugar, ubicado en la calle principal de la capital, se quebraron sus ventanales, se lanzaron bombas de pintura roja y además se rayo ‘FLA’ en su fachada.
También la oficina de una nueva construcción inmobiliaria, se llevó un regalo de nuestra parte y quedo con varias de sus ventanas destrozadas.
Nuestro entorno se ve cada vez mas infectado por la expanción de la civilización con edificaciones y asfalto que asesinan la tierra. La destrucción de ecosistemas es la forma en que estas empresas se llenan los bolsillos, por esto solo deseamos su destrucción.
El sabotaje contra los promotores de la explotación, es una herramienta eficaz para frenar la debacle del entorno y de quienes en él habitamos.
La costante amenaza desata el caos, capaz de acabar y alzarse contra lo que nos oprime.
Con estos actos saludamos a los compañeros Abraham López y Fermín Gómez, enjaulados por el Estado mexicano y a Matías Castro enjaulado por el Estado chileno. Fuerza compañeros, desde aquí nos hermanamos con sus ideas y práctica, multiplicando las acciones.
’si no vives como piensas, acabaras pensando como vives’
FLA/FLT”
English:
“Sabotage against a meat restaurant and real estate office in Santiago, $hile
At dawn on Thursday, January 14, protected by the silence we went to a very popular place where meat is sold in Santiago called Parrilladas Argentina[Argentina Grill]. There they profit from the death of animals and also re-create with splendor the speciesist practice of eating corpses.
At this place, located on the main street of the capital, their windows were broken, red paint bombs were thrown and ‘FLA’ was graffitied on the facade.
A new construction real estate office also received a gift from us and was left with several of its windows shattered.
Our environment is increasingly infected by the expansion of civilization with buildings and asphalt that kill the earth. The way these companies are lining their pockets is through the destruction of ecosystems; because of this we desire only their destruction.
Sabotage against promoters of exploitation is an effective tool to confront the collapse of the environment and of those who inhabit it.
The constant threat unleashes chaos with the capacity to put an end to what oppresses us.
With these acts we salute our comrades Abraham López and Fermin Gómez, caged by the Mexican State and Matías Castro, caged by the Chilean State. Strength comrades, we are brothers in ideas and practice, multiplying the actions.
‘If you do not live like you think, you end up thinking as you live’
FLA / FLT”
*******
COCA-COLA TARGETED BY ALF/ELF
January 22, 2010 – Mexico
anonymous communique:
“La noche del 17 de enero decimos salir para demostrar una vez mas que esta guerra no ha acabado, que nuestro actuar no se he detenido y que seguimos sintiendo esa rabia que convertimos en acción cada que nos decidimos a morder al enemigo.
Esta vez hemos puesto dos cargas limitadas de dinamita forradas de turcas en los ventanales delanteros de las oficinas de canjeo y compra-venta de la embotelladora femsa, propiedad de la asquerosa multinacional coca cola, los cuales quedaron completamente destrozados por la explosión. El atentado fue hecho en el municipio de Ecatepec en el Estado de Mexico.
Coca cola una de las empresas destructoras de la tierra, que expande cada vez mas la extinción de especies animales y que usa la súper explotación humana para producir mas mercancías como refrescos que hacen suyos los recursos naturales y los privatizan; coca cola una de las empresas que son responsables directas del deterioro medioambiental, ha sido visitada por
nosotrxs, lxs molestxs eco anarquistas y liberacionistas, las células que hemos decidido pasar a las acciones de calidad, esforzándonos para expandir de una manera mas violenta nuestros actos de sabotaje.
Si bien es cierto que 2008 y 2009 fueron años de expansión cuantitativa, ahora 2010, nuevo año, nuevas estrategias, nuevas tácticas pero el mismo coraje cuando actuamos.
Esta acción fue dedicada con todas nuestras ansias de libertad para lxs presos Víctor, Emmanuel, Abraham, Fermín y Socorro de Tijuana. Que la solidaridad directa se multiplique en cada acción clandestina, por su liberación incondicional.
¡Preparemos nuestras armas para la cumbre del cambio climático!
¡Golpeando fuerte y huyendo!
Frente de Liberación Animal
Frente de Liberación de la Tierra”
English:
“On the night of January 17 we decided to go out to once again prove that this war has not ended, that our actions have not stopped and that we continue to feel the rage that we have put into every action.
This time we put two packages of explosives in the front windows of the offices of the bottler FEMSA, owned by the filthy multinational Coca-Cola. The windows were completely destroyed in the explosion. The attack was carried out in Ecatepec, Mexico City.
Coca-Cola is an earth-destroying company that causeS the extinction of animal species, that uses extreme human exploitation to produce goods like soft drinks, and that claims and privatizes natural resources. Coca-Cola, one of the companies directly responsible for environmental deterioration, has been visited by us, anarchists and liberationists; we have decided in these cells to focus on quality actions, strengthening ourselves to expand our acts of sabotage.
While it is true that 2008 and 2009 were years of quantitative expansion, now it is 2010, a new year, with new strategies and new tactics, but with the same courage to act.
This action is dedicated with all our desire for freedom to the prisoners Víctor, Emmanuel, Abraham, Fermín, and Socorro of Tijuana. We hope that direct solidarity multiplies in clandestine actions, for their unconditional liberation.
We prepare our weapons for the climate change summit!
Hitting hard and fleeing!
Frente de Liberación Animal
Frente de Liberación de la Tierra”
*******
FREEDOM FOR 8 DOVES
January 24, 2010 – Uruguay
received anonymously:
“En el correr de la madruga del lunes 18 , ingresamos en un ‘mini zoologico’ ubicado en un balñeareo turistico en Uruguay , con la lluvia y el frio de nuestro lado , tomamos cartas en el asunto .
Dentro de esa prision se escuchaban gritos de libertad , naturaleza oprimida por el maldito especismo establecido por el estado el cual encierra , tortura y asesina millones de animales no-humanos . Y nosotros no lo podemos permitir , es por eso que nos acercamos hacia esa ‘mini prision’ , esperamos que se distrajera el seguridad bajo la tranquila y serena noche , y actuamos , dando asi en una jaula de palomas blancas ( alrededor de 25 ) , cortando su reja y pudiendo liberar a 8 palomas , las cuales liberamos metros mas adelante.
En esta prision , se encontraban a Monos , conejos y una gran variedad de aves ( incluyendo a un tucan siendo la ‘atraccion’ principal ) .
Hoy solo liberamos a las palomas , otro dia , seran a todos !
Frente de Liberacion Animal , Uruguay
Queremos saludar con un calido grito de lucha y resistencia ,a todos los compxs que luchan alrededor del mundo , a todos aquellos que fueron secuestrados por el maldito sistema y que hoy en dia estan siendo perseguidos, interrogados y golpeados por las fuerzas del orden establecido , como a los compas Abraham López Martínez y Fermín Gómez Trejo ( de mexico ) a todos los que luchan dia a dia por la Liberacion Animal .
Y a todos aquellos compxs Uruguayos , que se levantaron del sillon y empezaron a luchar !”
English:
“During the early morning of Monday the 18th, we entered a ‘mini zoo’ located in a tourist resort area in Uruguay, and with the rain and the cold on our side, we intervened in the matter.
Inside this prison shouts of freedom were heard, nature oppressed by the speciesism established by the state which imprisons, tortures and murders millions of nonhuman animals. We can not allow it; that’s why we came to this ‘mini-prison’, hoping that security would be distracted by the calm and serene night, and we took action, opening a cage of white doves (around 25), cutting open the wire cage and freeing 8 doves.
In this prison, monkeys, rabbits and a large variety of birds were found (including a toucan who is the principal ‘attraction’).
Today we only released the doves, another day it will be all of them!
Frente de Liberacion Animal, Uruguay
We want to send greetings with a warm cry of struggle and resistance, all of our comrades in this struggle around the world, to all those who were kidnapped by the damned system and who this very day are being persecuted, interrogated and beaten by the forces of the established order, like comrades Abraham López Martínez and Fermín Gómez Trejo (from Mexico) to all who struggle day by day fighting for animal liberation.
And to all those Uruguayan comrades who have risen from their chairs and have began to fight!”
*******
22 BIRDS FREED
January 25, 2010 – Uruguay
received anonymously:
“En la madrugada del viernes 22 ingresamos en un criadero de pájaros, más especificamente de cotorras comunes, y con nada más que pinzas en mano (sí, asi de simple) comenzamos a abrir las jaulas. Habían 22 aves encerradas y fueron liberadas todas ellas. Nos hubiera encantado destruir cada una de las jaulas antes de irnos, pero por razones obvias fue imposible.
Nos alejamos del lugar rápidamente al mismo tiempo que lo hacían los pájaros, volando…..
Queremos mandar un saludo a todos los compañeros que últimamente por estos lados se han atrevido a armarse de valor y en medio de la noche han salido a hacer de la liberación animal una realidad.
¡Fuego a todo aquello que nos convierte en esclavos!
¡Liberación animal!”
English:
“Montevideo, Uruguay.
In the early morning hours of Friday the 22nd we entered a large bird breeding farm, more specifically of common parrots, and with nothing more than pliers (yes, that simple) we began to open the cages. There were 22 birds locked up and all of them were released. We would have loved to destroy each of the cages before we left, but it was impossible.
We left the place quickly at the same time as the birds did, flying….
We want to send a greeting to all our comrades around here who have recently dared to gather up the courage and in the middle of the night have gone out to make animal liberation a reality.
Fire against everything that makes us slaves!
Animal Liberation!”
*******
WINDOWS SMASHED AT PET STORE
January 31, 2010 – Mexico
received anonymously:
“A mediados de este mes de enero nuestra célula salió a las calles a
destruir la propiedad de las personas que se lucran a costa de la
explotación animal.
Llegamos cargados de rabia contra una tienda de mascotas y le dimos una
respuesta a su explotación contra animales, la acción directa. La tienda
quedo con sus vidrios destrozados.
En solidaridad con la jornada de agitación anti carcelaria en solidaridad
con los presos mexicanos y del mundo.
Seguiremos actuando, esto no para aquí!
Célula contra la explotación animal de Guadalajara
México”
English:
“Around the middle of January, our cell took to the streets
to destroy the property of people who profit from
animal exploitation.
We arrived filled with rage at a pet store and we gave them
our response to their exploitation of animals: direct action.
The store was left with their windows destroyed.
In solidarity with the day of anti-prison agitation,
in solidarity with prisoners in Mexico and throughout the world.
We will continue taking action; this does not stop here!
Cell against animal exploitation in Guadalajara
México”
*******
Disclaimer: illvox (www.illvox.org) , illvox administrators and illvox editors are not affiliated or associated with the Frente de Liberacion Animal (FLA) [Animal Liberation Front (ALF)], Frente de Liberación de la Tierra (FLT) [Earth Liberation Front (ELF)], Liberacion Total, BITE BACK, BITE BACK Magazine or any other group or organization and do not conduct or incite any illegal or unethical activity. The above information is not meant to incite or request any illegal actions or illegal activities of any kind. If you have any questions about the legality of any act, we encourage everyone receiving this (or the) action alert(s) to check your local laws and ordinances before proceeding to do anything.
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