Street
protest and the “direct action” approach—reflections in the wake of the
Quebec City
protests
Before,
during and after the FTAA protests in
Quebec City
, many people - both involved and not involved in the protests - talked about
“direct action”. There are many definitions as to what this term means or
implies, and it seems that each individual activist has his or her own view.
Often we see “direct action” portrayed in the media as violent acts of
resistance without a cause or vision for creating alternatives. For the Upstream
Journal, I asked several activists about what direct action means to them. - SC
In
the efforts for positive social change, there are several approaches, some more
confrontational than others. The
Social Justice Committee has repeatedly called for nonviolent, constructive
approaches that include dialogue, but with the knowledge that this does not mean
a compromising of our goals and our ideals.
During
the Quebec Summit protests, the media were filled with images of (mostly) young
people engaged in confrontation with police. To provide a better understanding
of these protests, we interviewed some of the people that were involved in what
is called “direct action” street protest.
Interviews
compiled by Stefan Christoff
-
Mike Gagne, a
trainer of direct action, took part in preparations for the protests against the
Summit
of the
Americas
.
What is your view on direct action?
Any time that one acts to take on a problem directly rather than lobbying the
government or waiting for someone else to do it. Any time that you directly
confront something that you see as an evil or an injustice. Direct action means
to either resist, or directly create an alternative to, these evils and
injustices.
Direct Action holds a huge realm of possibility. In terms of resistance there is
economic as well as political, there is boycotting, strikes, blockades, sit ins
and occupations and these are all forms of resistance. As well as direct actions
for creating alternatives such as “guerrilla gardening”, creating a
community garden or occupying a building and setting up a health clinic or a
food bank.
In
which ways are these two types of direct action necessary to further a movement?
It must be clear to us as well as to observers what we are against. Highlighting
what we oppose as well as what we are trying to create. The simplest
understanding of social change that I have and that I speak about is that social
change is about taking energy out of what we don't like and putting energy into
what we want to build more of. When people have this idea they can see that it
is really necessary to engage in both forms of direct action. That it's not
enough to try to build alternatives on the side while we let the machine run and
business to go a usual we must stop the machine as well.
How do people in regular communities conceive direct action? How is this
conception influenced by mainstream media?
Within those that are involved in political struggles there is a solid
understanding, but there are some limited ideas of the possibilities of direct
action within the protest movement. When we look to the FTAA protest the first
thing that comes to people minds is a blockade, and that is pretty much the only
option. Many activists do see the realm of possibilities for direct actions and
are putting their efforts into realizing these possibilities.
Do you often see individuals developing their own idea of what direct action
means to them?
Many people don't have it in them to lock down and blockade a building for a
couple of days. It may be that they’re interested in building a community
health clinic or something of the sort. In terms of how the general public and
the mass media portrays direct action, it seems that in many peoples minds
direct action is associated with violence; unfortunately.
The term “direct action” has become worrisome for the general public because
people tend to want business as usual. Even when the public sees problems with
the status quo, too often people are silent and accept the devil they know.
Activists have become the devil which the public doesn't know, and when we move
out of the realm of lobbying and talking to the realm of direct action this
frightens people. It frightens people especially because these actions are
mediated these situations are painted in a certain light, the mass media does
represent certain financial interests, the financial elite.
The media have portrayed people who take part in direct action as something to
the effect of the Visigoths coming down to attack. This just not the case. We
are looking toward a bright future though, we are doing a better job than ever
in reaching out to people with direct action and this is important.. But direct
action is a very important step in non-violent revolution.
It
is possible for people to engage in both the creative direct actions and actions
based on resistance. Direct action is extremely empowering, the big part of the
problem is this lack of democracy and this lack of participation and lack of
empowerment. People allowing things, injustices to move on without their
consent, without their involvement. Direct action gives you a real taste for an
empowering involvement. A taste of living for things that you believe in. Once
you make a habit of involving yourself in direct action it is really difficult
to go back to being passive.
- Jean-Francois Hamilton, active in the FTAA protests.
What is direct action to you?
Direct action is when someone puts his or her body on the line to prove a
political point or to show or illustrate an issue. For me direct action is
associated with politics in many ways. Direct action is necessary when the
forces opposed to justice are so strong that you cannot make your voice herd.
There is a point where people find it necessary to put their body on the line to
prove these political points.
At times direct action becomes a necessity. However, there must be a large build
up toward the action. You must have mass mobilization, community support and
education about the issues. You cannot live a life of only direct action. You
must have the infrastructure of popular support.
How do you think the mainstream media influences people’s ideas about what
direct action is?
The mainstream media is never focused on the issues. There was a noticeable
difference in the print media surrounding the issues of the FTAA and the
protests against it. The issues made it into the papers more often than on to
the television. Often there were horribly sensationalistic papers with awful
front page covers talking about the "violent protesters" and the
"uncivilized society" outside the fence. Most people when reading this
coverage can tell the difference, for all the efforts that the media have
focused on sensationalizing the issues I think the issues did get out there.
There was talk about these issues months before the meeting actually happened.
And some of these important issues actually made it to the front pages of
newspapers.
If there had not been that pressure of that day of direct action of April 20th,
I don't think the issues would have received such large coverage. People talked
about the fence and such but the day of action made the issues stand out and the
FTAA and capitalism were discussed.
In this case the direct action heighten the awareness of the issues. There were
only one or two days of action but there was a lot of work that went into the
mobilizing for the action. This work that went into the direct action
mobilization is what is much more valuable in the long term, even without the
media coverage. The networking between communities is what is important.
What kind of effect do you believe the FTAA protests have had on public
opinion?
The protests in Quebec City have had a positive effect, people see that it is
possible to mobilize on a large scale on these issues of economic injustice and
that there is a lot of support in the communities for a new kind of politics.
The people who where living in
Quebec City
saw how people were organized and came to the protests with real ideas backing
the actions. People were coming there informed they had strong opinions on
corporate capitalism.
People felt that this is a big movement that is not just one individual
criticizing the world but it is people coming together.
Quebec city
was the biggest anti-capitalist action in years in
Canada
.
An anti-capitalist action plays a large role it radicalizing the ideas around
opposing free trade or against corporate globilization or against the FTAA. It
not just fighting the FTAA that is important it is fighting the framework around
these agreements like NAFTA, the MAI or the FTAA which is important. This
framework, this system is much bigger than just one trade agreement. It is not
enough to be just against the trade agreements. If you want to change the world
and you do not want these trade agreements to appear than you must be critical
of more than just the trade agreement. The opposition to the FTAA only
highlights opposition on a much larger level. This opposition is always there
within our communities, ourselves and throughout the world.
We are talking about struggles that last a lifetime. I am very hopeful. Since
the WTO demos, there has been a radicalization of politics and people are seeing
that it is not just a fight against the FTAA or the WTO but it’s a fight
against something much bigger.
- Elena Johnson individual involved with the FTAA demonstrations.
What is direct action to you?
I would define direct action as taking a strong stand, not merely protesting
peacefully or protesting passively direct action is a matter of protesting more
actively. Direct action plays an important role in raising awareness, because
direct actions often get the media attention and raise an awareness of the
cause. It is all of the groundwork behind the direct actions themselves that is
very important and a crucial part of what a direct action is. The groundwork
behind the FTAA protest is what raised the awareness. The networking, the
outreach, the media outreach the build up to the event raised the awareness.
Direct action is not only throwing things at the police. I would consider this
part of direct action but I would also consider direct action marching with
placard near the fence.
How do you feel the media influences the public perception of what direct
action is?
What I learned after
Quebec
was that the media is very confused as to what direct action is. It seemed that
anyone who wore a gas mask was automatically part of the black block. The media
perception is that direct action by definition entails violence. We must educate
the media and the public. Often the media focused the violence of the protesters
but often it was the police who were being violent.
- Helen Hudson co-coordinator of QPIRG Concordia and active in the protests
against the FTAA.
What is direct action to you?
Direct action is acting directly to make change. Weather that is by resisting a
specific act which you disagree with say the FTAA, but direct action also
includes community garden projects, community kitchens; anything which directly
acts to bring about the changes in society which we are working for. As opposed
to asking other people to make these changes for us, like lobbying or letter
writing, direct action brings things into peoples own hands.
How do you think the media influences people perception of direct action?
The media tries to break things down into bite-sized terms and you cannot do
this without loosing a substantial part of the message. Even when the coverage
of direct action has been positive it's always over simplified you miss the
context of the action. This leaves a stereotype of people protesting for kicks
as opposed to people taking active roles in their lives.
There is no substitute to engaging with people directly. Doing grassroots
organizing with the people who we are trying to get the message to; going door
to door starting collective kitchens. Looking what the needs are in a particular
community and bring about the changes needed to fill those needs within your own
community and those around you. The stereotypes and barrier of what activism is
are broken down and suddenly the message that the corporate media is putting out
is not the only view of activist that people get.
The work that CASA did surrounding the summit site itself was very impressive.
Walking around
Quebec City
talking with local people walking down the street talking the buss. In
Quebec City
there was not such a barrier between the activists and the local community.
I think that it is important to have both a presence at such meetings like the
FTAA and within our communities. It is important to have these large
convergences, the numbers of people that you bring together and the connections
that are made by people from different parts of the world. The ideas that are
exchanged, in terms of protests but also in terms of community building. You
really learn a lot at these convergences.
Many of the people I met in
Quebec City
were people who were organizing within their own communities and these
connections are important. I am starting to see a cohesive movement, people
working together who are very effective at organizing within their communities
How strong do you see the link between activists in the North and South?
There is a long way to go in terms of building solidarity between people in the
north and south, in terms of building true solidarity but again I hope and
believe that this solidarity is possible. The grass roots activists that did
attend the Peoples Summit were able to strengthen the connections they already
had and make new ones. These networks are being built, there is the upcoming
People’s Global Action Network gathering which is happening the weekend of
June 1st. Things like this will start to build more of a base for true
North-South solidarity.
I hope for very sweeping changes within the next 20-30 years. So we might even
begin to see some changes within our own life times.
- Christina Xydous an individual involved in the
Summit
of the
Americas
I will begin by discussing direct action in the protest environment, because
that is what most people traditionally mean when they speak about direct action.
They are talking about a form of civil protest. It usually refers to acts of
civil disobedience, anything that involves people using their bodies in the
protests. It could be something as simple as a march, a sit in, scaling fences
and cutting them down.
Direct action in our communities can be understood in a far broader sense.
Instead of relegating to government officials and functionaries anything that is
of interest to the community, such as the management of people's affairs,
services, and general needs have citizens themselves do it. Have people of the
community manage their own affairs, taking back the power of their communities.
Do
you think direct action plays a substantial role in changing the perceptions of
the individuals involved in mass protest?
Absolutely. I don't think anybody can underestimate the real force for change
that participating in direct action is. You will always hear people's stories.
People who were sympathetic to leftist politics before they participated in
actions and then went to the demos in Seattle, Washington, Quebec, et cetera,
that's when the practical experience, and really seeing things through their own
eyes as opposed to keeping things in the abstract realm of books, films has a
profound impact on the way they see things. It becomes finally not so much an
intellectual game but part of the reality.
The first time I ever went to a march - which is not shocking in terms of a
direct action, and it is fairly well accepted. - walking in the street without a
special permit from the police I felt an understanding of the break between
rhetoric and reality. When you learn political science and you hear how people
manage their affairs, people are the government, and all that rhetoric. This
rhetoric, the nation is the people, really becomes a fact, or at least an
inkling in something as simple as a march. In more "intense" forms of
direct action it is really overwhelming. You really understand that its not just
verbiage it is fact: people are the ruling force in any nation's state or
community. At the end of the day, no pieces or paper, no rules, laws, can rule
over or dominate the force of the people who have enacted them in the first
place.
I think this played an important role in
Quebec City
. Many people's fear going in to
Quebec City
was that this debate between violence and non-violence, property destruction or
perfect Ghandian civil disobedience, would break the solidarity in the movement.
People were worried that the rift between all the factions of the movement was
going to be so broadened that
Quebec city
would be a bust. I saw the opposite happen. We can debate the details as to why
this was the case.
Quebec
, as province, has historically been more accepting of direct action, through
its particular history with regards to the separatist fight, the FLQ for
instance. One factor is indisputable in the importance of how accepted direct
action was in
Quebec City
, was the groundwork done by many organizers out in
Quebec City
, with regards to connecting with the community on the ground. What made or
broke the situation their was the fact that people worked for over six months,
building ties with community organizations in Quebec City, especially around the
areas were the protests were going to take place. The community was fully made
aware and politicized through events so that there was not that distance between
us and them. The residents did not feel like their city was invaded by a bunch
of yahoos. They understood what the issues surrounding the protests were. I
think that that was the most important thing in terms of the success of the
direct action.
Do you think that the media attention was a success or a defeat of the cause?
I actually do think that it was a success over all. Le Journal de
Montreal
and Le Journal de Quebec, and them along with the Globe and Mail, the National
post and all the smaller newspapers made an effort to portray the protesters as
these rabid little anarchists. But most Canadians do have a healthy dosage of
cynicism with regards to the media. The only problem is, when media dominates
discourse, when there is no other information that might come to challenge what
is being told, people will have a tendency to believe it.. I do not think that
most Canadian citizens thought that the protesters were hooligans, or were just
there to cause trouble. I think people, at the very least, understood that there
were legitimate reason or concerns that these protesters were expressing.
Peace
Community in Colombia still a target of repression
This
is an update on the problems faced by the people of a Peace Community in
Colombia
. The Upstream Journal reported on this community in the Nov/Dec 2000 issue,
with an article by Lucho van Isschot, who works with Peace Brigades
International. What is happening in the town of
La Unión
is all too typical of what people in Peace Communities have to deal with as
they struggle to maintain their opposition to violence.
By
John Lindsay-Poland, March 20, 2001
It
is early morning, and the town is waking up to roosters, the voices of children
working, a radio somewhere. The electricity is down.
I
am in the town of
La Unión
, which declared itself a Peace Community in 1997, refusing to aid any armed
actor in the war. People here have paid dearly - more than 80 members of the
community have been killed since 1997, mostly by paramilitary and Army soldiers.
In
the latest attack, on Monday March 5, the Army camped all day outside town. At
about 6:00 pm, they left, and an hour later 10-15 masked troops came in and
burned 13 homes, targeting especially those that had small stores. They ignored
the two Peace Brigades International volunteers present. And they told
residents: "Beginning tomorrow this must be a ghost town. The next time we
will respect no one, and we’ll start with women and children." The men
then left, and twenty minutes later uniformed Army troops came in, using the
same point of access by which the paramilitary troops left.
This
community has sought every nonviolent means possible to protect the lives of the
women, men and children, but all the killings have remained in impunity, despite
PBI`s presence, despite elaborate alarm systems, despite a ruling in November by
the Interamerican Human Rights Court demanding measures by the Colombian state
to effectively protect the community.
For
the last two days, we have accompanied the community and seen where a young man
lost his leg to a landmine left by the Army. While he cried, troops nearby not
only did not seek help, but laughed. We talked with a young man to whom the Army
offered money on February 25 in exchange for information, and more money or
other assistance. "Together with the paramilitaries we have to finish off
those dogs," they told him. "By blood and fire, sooner or later we
will take
San Jose
." The man refused their offer.
Sunday
afternoon, while we watched boys catch catfish in the little river that leads
toward the peace community settlement of La Union, soldiers told community
members further up the path returning from the town that they would leave
orphans like the last time. They were referring to the massacre of five men in
La Unión last July 8, carried out by masked troops while an Army helicopter
flew overhead.
Last
week, two members of the community went to
Bogota
to meet with government authorities. Possibly feeling confidence from the
massive inflow of
U.S.
assistance to the Colombian armed forces, most of the authorities were not
receptive, and some urged the community to accept the presence of the Army in
their community to "protect" its members. The Fiscalia (an
office that acts like a district attorney) said that to investigate the crimes
against the peace community, witnesses must testify in the presence of the Army,
and that the security of those witnesses cannot be assured.
John
Lindsay-Poland was in La Unión as part of a Fellowship of Reconciliation and
Global Exchange delegation to San Jose de Apartadó, Urabá,
Colombia
.
Canada sells helicopters for
use in Colombia drug war
Between
September 1998 and February 2000, the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND)
sold 40 twin-engine CH-135 Huey helicopters from surplus stock* to the US State
Department. The sale of the
helicopters took place just as the
US
was negotiating a massive and controversial military aid package to
Colombia
that included the delivery of helicopters to
Colombia
’s armed forces.
After being
refurbished in the
United States
, 18 of the helicopters were shipped for use by the First Counter-Narcotics
Battalion of the Colombian Army in November 1999. An additional 15 upgraded
helicopters are to be sent to
Colombia
during the first quarter of 2001. These 33 helicopters are part of a $1.3
billion contribution from the
United States
to an “aid” package called "Plan
Colombia
." Three quarters of the
US
aid will be in the form of military aid.
The initial
phase of Plan
Colombia
, which began in January 2001, includes a two-year "Push into
Southern Colombia
" carried out by the Colombian Army. The operation establishes three
battalions of about 900 soldiers, each to receive helicopters, logistical
support, intelligence, training from US Special Forces and other assistance.
According to an October 2000 White House report, the refurbished Canadian
helicopters will be used to "establish the security conditions
necessary" for police and anti-drug activities, including aerial
fumigation.
Human
rights organizations fear that "establish security conditions" will
involve major armed confrontations between the new US-aided military units and
FARC guerrillas who live in the area. Indeed, in a March 18, 2001 interview
published in El Espectador, Rand Beers, Assistant Secretary of State of
the US Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said that
"the government of Colombia and the United States do not distinguish
between drug trafficking and insurgency. They are the same thing."
Human
rights groups also are concerned that through their use by the Colombian Armed
Forces – forces that have demonstrated a pattern of gross and systematic human
rights violations – the helicopters will contribute to a worsening human
rights situation in
Colombia
.
*The
helicopters were part of a fleet of 50 twin Hueys manufactured in the
United States
, sold to
Canada
in 1971-72, and declared surplus by DND in December 1994.
Information
from the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, and from Project Ploughshares
Drop
in coffee prices brings misery for some Nicaraguans
The
three hundred families of the community of La
Mora
,
Nicaragua
, who depend on the coffee plantations for their income are now desperately
looking for food, due to the crisis in the coffee industry. Coffee
farm owners have said that they cannot even offer food in lieu of a salary.
There are about 700 children in the affected families.
The leaders of the community, who have sent urgent calls for help, expect that
the government will not do anything for them. Some people are leaving, with
little more than the clothes on their back, going to the nearest town, La Dalia,
where they now live like beggars, their children looking in the garbage for
food. Some people in La Dalia have helped but the municipality does not have the
resources to assist the new arrivals. In the last two months it has been asking
its employees to work only half-time because its resources are severely strained
too due to the coffee crisis. The "World Program for Food", present in
many communities in the region with a program called "Food for work"
has said that it has known about the crisis for a month, but it does not have
the resources to help.
Burning
coffee for fuel in
Guatemala
; thousands of farm labourers out of work in
Mexico
The $5 one
might pay for a grande latte could buy almost 6lbs of coffee beans on the
over-supplied commodity markets. That margin allows a company like Starbucks to
more than triple its profits over the past five years. Coffe plantation workers,
on the other hand, all day for wages that would not cover the cost of that cup
of coffee, and prices have now fallen so sharply that, in
Guatemala
, growers are being forced to burn their crops as industrial fuel.
Officials
in
Guatemala
are experimenting with burning the lowest-grade coffee rather than letting it
rot unsold. If that fails, they will compost it and sell the mulch to nurseries.
The reason is that the cost of producing the labour-intensive coffee crop is now
at least double the wholesale price. “We hope that it is feasible to use
coffee beans as fuel,” said Manfredo Topke, the president of Anacafe, a
society for 61,000 private Guatemalan growers. “We are not asking farmers to
destroy their coffee beans.”
The
popularity of coffee pushed growers to produce greater and greater volumes
and now there is too much.
Brazil
, the largest of the world's producers, had a bumper harvest last year and
Vietnam
a relative newcomer to the game has surged from a low-level grower to one
of the world's largest.
This has
led to a glut. "Everyone is in a panic," said Esther Eskenasy, an
Anacafe official. "It's forcing farmers to get rid of workers."
Across
the border in
Mexico
, at least 30,000 coffee labourers have put down their machetes and left the
countryside since the December harvest. Most are destitute Maya Indians.
Maquilas
and mega-projects—the struggle of the indigenous people in the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec,
Mexico
By
Karen Rothschild
There
is an older married couple in
Oaxaca
who used to sell the unprocessed coffee from their small farm, for a
satisfactory price, to a local buyer in the village. The
buyer in turn shipped out the crop by rail. The train was recently privatized
and no longer provides service. Local coffee buyers lost their occupation and
the railway-side village became a ghost-community. The older couple are obliged
to do the extra work of processing their coffee at home. With no other
commercial outlet, the wife, at seventy years of age, has been forced to become
a door-to-door saleswoman, travelling by bus to different towns in an effort to
sell her processed coffee. On days when sales are good, she makes approximately
five dollars.
The
existing railway was privatized in anticipation of the construction of a
high-speed railway line connecting the ports of Salina Cruz and
Coatzacoalcos
. This meant the end of local rail service, which had had an important social
and economic function. Local villages that were railway stops had served as
gathering points for people selling cooked food and other articles to passengers
on the trains. Very importantly, the local train had been an affordable and
efficient means of transporting locally produced goods to regional centres and
sometimes even to
Mexico City
. The construction of an ultra-modern railway system is part of what has become
known as the “Isthmus Mega-project” planned by the government of
Mexico
.
Impacts
on people
People
in the region are fighting the mega-project with the assistance of organisations
like UCIZONI*, an indigenous rights group. Visiting
Canada
recently as a guest of the Social Justice Committee, UCIZONI representative
Juan Garrido made it very plain that residents of the Isthmus are already
suffering from the results of more than eighteen years of neo-liberal social
policies - of which the NAFTA is an integral part.
Mr.
Garrido described the impacts to public gatherings throughout
Quebec
and
Ontario
. One example is what the practically unrestricted access to the Mexican market
of cheap
United States
corn has affected campesino farmers. Mexican import duties on corn have been
dramatically reduced at the same time that meaningful government support for
small corn producers has ended.
The
corn imported from the
United States
does not dry properly and tends to rot in storage, which makes it undesirable
for the preparation of tortillas – the staple food of many Mexicans. The
couple described above also grow corn. They plant their corn crop in May and
harvest two tons in November, getting only five or six hundred dollars for their
crop now that there are no government price supports and the market is flooded
with cheap US corn. This is their main cash income, in addition to the receipts
from the door-to-door coffee sales, on which they must survive for the rest of
the year.
The
increasing poverty in the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
has meant constant migration from the region. Twice a week, a bus leaves the
town of
Matías Romero
for the maquila factories of
Ciudad Juarez
on the Mexican-United States border. Most of those who leave on the buses are
younger men. Many do not return.
Young
women also leave, and occasionally a family is broken by the departure of a
married woman. When married men leave, their wives are left alone to assume the
entire responsibility for the home, adding the work of subsistence farming to
their usual household duties. In consequence, small children are sometimes
neglected, and older children have to shoulder part of the burden of maintaining
the household. In the absence of their fathers, boys of ten or twelve years of
age may have to fulfill the family’s responsibility to contribute to community
public works projects.
Without
having a clear idea of the exploitative nature of the work or of the extremely
unhealthy living conditions that await them, many young boys in the Isthmus hope
to go to
Ciudad Juarez
to become maquila workers when they grow up.
Environmental
contamination
Residents
of the Isthmus and the surrounding area have had to face other very serious
negative effects of existing development in the region. Between May 1999 and
July 2000, there were nine serious spills from PEMEX oil installations. Already
in 1998, more than two thousand fishing families in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
had lost their livelihoods as a result of pollution of the
Coatzacoalcos
River
.
Water
sources in Santa María Zaniza, in the Sierra Sur mountain range, have been
contaminated as a result of iron mining by the Mexican company Grupo Acerero del
Norte. Local indigenous fishermen were evicted from their coastal villages so
that the tourist resort of Huatulco (which Canadians can see pictured in glossy
brochures from their neighbourhood travel agency) could be built. They have been
left with no other possibility but to leave the area or to try to get a menial
hotel job.
The
government’s forestry policy provides for financial incentives to
trans-national lumber companies operating commercial forest plantations,
especially eucalyptus. Settlers and small landowners are promised seasonal jobs
on these plantations in exchange for renting out the land on which the trees
will be planted. Serious environmental damage from these plantations include the
depletion of water sources, pollution from herbicides and pesticides, and
long-term damage to the soil. UCIZONI and others are alarmed by the damage that
can be expected with the planned dramatic extension in the amount of land to be
planted with eucalyptus and other exotic tree species.
Privatisation
of land
The
privatization of socially-owned land, both ejidal land, which legally
belongs to the nation and the use of which is granted to members of campesino
landholding communities, and communal land, based on traditional historic
landowning rights, has led to an increase in disputes over ownership.
Mr.
Garrido estimates that about half of collectively-owned land in the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
has now been privatized. Having title to your land is becoming a prerequisite
for the receipt of commercial farm credit. UCIZONI and other groups fear that,
for many campesino communities, privatization will become the first step in a
process that leads to the loss of their land – either through direct sales at
times of family financial crisis, or, if the land has been mortgaged in order to
obtain farm credit, through foreclosure on a mortgage following a poor harvest.
(Before 1992, it was not possible to mortgage ejidal land.)
The
local struggle
Mr.
Garrido explained UCIZONI’s efforts to resist government development plans for
the region, beginning with opposition to the arrival of the maquila industry in
their region. Besides the low wages, poor working conditions, and environmental
destruction that characterize the maquila industry, the struggle is based on the
wish of local people to continue to be communities of small farmers rather than
to become agglomerations of factory workers. They see the arrival of the
maquilas as part of a process in which indigenous communities will be divested
of their land in order for trans-national companies to gain complete access to
the natural wealth of the region - as well as to cheap labour power for
industry, agro-industry, and commercial forestry.
UCIZONI
has played a leading role in efforts to oppose official development plans for
the region. To get more information from the government, especially with regard
to the Isthmus Mega-Project, and to share existing information, it has held
large-scale forums in the region and in
Mexico City
. It also holds grassroots workshops in which groups of primary producers,
women, young people, and even children, analyse the prevailing socio-economic
conditions in their region and begin to discuss alternative forms of
development.
Together
with other regional organizations, UCIZONI is taking a leading part in groups
working to address specific problems and issues - in particular the local
pollution caused by the oil industry, the effects of railway privatization, and
the environmental consequences of existing and planned commercial forestry and
shrimp farming proposals for the region.
Juan
Garrido Cayetano is a community organizer for UCIZONI (the Union of Indigenous
Communities of the Northern Zone of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec) and a member of
that organization’s steering committee. Sr. Garrido was the Social Justice
Committee’s guest during the last two weeks of April, speaking at the SJC’s
General Assembly on April 25th and to other groups in Montreal,
Kingston, Ottawa and the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
He
took part in the People’s Summit in Québec City, and joined the SJC in a
meeting with Finance Minister Paul Martin and his staff to discuss appropriate
ways of financing development.
*UCIZONI
is a regional organization with offices in Matías Romero, Oaxaca, in the very
centre of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Most of UCIZONI’S ten thousand members
are small farmers of the Mixe indigenous nation. Its members also include people
from the Zapoteco, Mixteca, Zoque, and Chinanteca nations and other people from
eighty-four villages, hamlets, and towns in the region.
"Land
pirate” making big bucks on Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast
By
Dalia Al-Kury
Peter
Tsokos, a Greek “land pirate” now based in the
US
, is offering illegally-purchased islands on the Caribbean coast of
Nicaragua
for sale. He
paid armed thugs to guard the islands with AK-47 to keep out indigenous people
who had been coming there for centuries to fish and to obtain fresh drinking
water. Now, Tsokos is selling the islands on the Internet for upwards of
$400,000.
On
his web-site - www.tropical-islands.com - Tsokos claims that the seven cays that
he is selling are among the few left in the world that have freehold titles, and
that non-Nicaraguans can acquire property in
Nicaragua
, like a Nicaraguan citizen, and can form a company and can acquire the property
through that company. Tsokos adds that the area is not subject to any kind of
zoning restrictions. ACays can be used as private residences, resorts of any
kind, or businesses. The local government is supportive of any kind of
residential or commercial development.”
Tsokos
does not mention is that he is in violation of an ancient indigenous law which
was incorporated into the Constitution of 1987 and the Autonomy Law, both
approved during the Sandanista government administration. The constitution
states that the lands, waters and islands of the coast belong to the
Nicaraguan
State
, while the Autonomy Laws accord them to its indigenous peoples as “communal
property which cannot be given away, sold or embargoed in any way.” Officials
of the Defense of the Environment said that, based on the constitution, the
sales might well be annulled, and those responsible could be charged with
trafficking in state property according to Paul Baker-Hernandez writing in the
Nicaraguan News Service.
The
Miskitu indigenous community has been working hard fighting Tsokos' land theft
in the Nicaraguan courts. Their actions resulted in the firing of a local police
chief fired who was paid $1,500 a month to provide Tsokos with armed enforcers.
As a result of their persistence, the Nicaraguan government filed an injunction
against Tsokos to reverse the sale of the islands he "purchased," as
well as two that he had already sold for a profit of almost a million dollars.
Despite
his setbacks, Tsokos cut down a forested area to build beachfront condos on the
southern
Atlantic
Coast
at Punta de Aguila, which belongs to the Rama people. They use the area to fish
and to gather fruits and traditional medicines. Not only are the indigenous
peoples being intimidated daily by armed men who are cutting down their forest,
but their fishing rights are being debated with foreign investors who claim that
their private property rights supercede the traditional indigenous use of the
land and sea resources.
Natives
of the region continue to report human rights violations, and complain that
their traditional way of life is being destroyed.
