Decolonize together: Indigenous activists send strong message at Occupy Toronto talk

By Vannina Sztainbok, Rabble.ca

(View videos from the talk here.)

“I’m hopeful to see you all here visioning a different future. A future based on equality, diversity and respect for the land. And I’m excited and I’m hopeful for the impact that you’re having on the world…. And so I say to you today…if you wish to align yourselves with the dispossessed and the marginalized, reject the language and ideology of colonialism, conquest and exploitation.” – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, January 23, 2012

Not long after protesters set up camp on Wall Street, indigenous activists began to question the use of colonial language to claim spaces that have been under occupation for over 500 years.

The unfortunate response, from some quarters, has been that Occupy Wall Street (OWS) should maintain a “united” front, disregarding the multiple hierarchies within the 99 per cent, as well as the rights and demands of indigenous peoples. Others, however, agree that there is a need to address this fundamental issue.

On Monday, January 23, Occupy Toronto sponsored a panel discussion, “Indigenous Perspectives on the Occupy Movement,” at Beit Zaitoun. The speakers provided a forceful yet constructive critique. They recognized the hopefulness of Occupy’s worldwide repudiation of capitalism, while also calling on activists to rethink the language and strategies of the movement so that it does not reinscribe colonialism by undermining Indigenous struggles. Furthermore, they proposed that a movement that seeks to seriously challenge economic inequality, environmental exploitation and other forms of oppression must stem from a commitment to decolonization.

Following a prayer by Daniel Beaton and a lively introduction by artist Tannis Nielson, the first speaker was writer, scholar and activist Leanne Betasamosake Simpson of Alderville First Nation. Currently, Simpson is an Adjunct Professor in Indigenous Studies at Trent University and an instructor at the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge, Athabasca University. She began her talk by establishing a sense of the history of this land and ongoing Indigenous struggles to resist occupation.

For Simpson, her community and her ancestors “occupation” has meant “400 years surviving under a system that has brought countless waves of gendered violence, colonialism, conquest and dispossession.” She noted that Indigenous people make up the longest-standing anti-capitalist social movement on the continent.

Simpson called for a broader conception of resistance, than simply arguing it’s more than just direct action. Given hundreds of years of genocidal practices, survival itself is a form of resistance for Indigenous peoples. Simpson explained:

“Resistance isn’t just direct action and protest, sometimes just surviving is resistance. Sometimes having the will to live is resistance. Building a cultural and political resurgence based on Indigenous values, philosophies and traditions is resistance. Giving birth to and raising our children to know their responsibilities as Indigenous peoples, to have a connection to their homelands, to speak their languages and to tell their stories is resistance.”

It is important that the Occupy movement recognize this history of resistance, so as not to erase Indigenous presence on, and protection of, the land. Simpson ended with a powerful suggestion: “If you want to be really brave and radical, place the concerns and the issues of Indigenous women at the centre of your de-occupation.”

The second speaker was Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, in Northern Manitoba. Thomas-Muller is an Indigenous rights and environmental justice activist. Among the many hats he wears, he is the Tar Sands Campaign Director for the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) and was named “Climate Hero 2009” by Yes Magazine.

Thomas-Muller urged Occupy activists to acknowledge and educate themselves about local and transnational grassroots activism to avoid sacrificing existing social organizations. To make his point, he told the audience about where he was when news of OWS emerged. He was attending the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance Congress in Raleigh, North Carolina. This alliance is a network of 86 Indigenous and people of colour social justice organizations from across the United States. Their platform for 2012 is: “No war. No warming. Build a people’s economy!” As news of OWS grew, people at the Congress were shocked that none of them — important activists from all over North America — were in the loop about this pivotal event. They asked themselves, “Why aren’t we there?”

For Thomas-Muller, this pointed to a major problem with the Occupy movement. Many of the young, white, middle-class occupiers lack a sense of history and accountability. While his own organization takes direction from, and answers to, grassroots Indigenous groups across Canada and the U.S., Occupy does not have a clear base. As a result, he fears that OWS may grow at the expense of long-term activism that is based in anti-oppression and anti-colonial frameworks. His own organization, the IEN, relies on a network of activists in different cities. This past fall, support for IEN’s campaign against tar sands exploitation in Alberta was detrimentally affected by activists whose energies were sapped by Occupy.

Thomas-Muller urged that, as it grows, Occupy needs to think through how to support and build on existing organizations, rather than create scenarios that detract from their capacities. Thomas-Muller was hopeful about the possibility for the “convergence” of movements. But, he insists, decolonization is the way forward, rejecting the movement’s language: “Occupy’s offensive.” Indigenous peoples “can’t just forget about it.”

The final speaker was Tom B.K. Goldtooth, Executive Director of the IEN. He is also an author, filmmaker and a policy adviser on environmental protection, climate mitigation and adaptation. Goldtooth raised a number of questions about where Indigenous peoples fit within Occupy’s agenda, interrogating the strategic frame of the “99 per cent” slogan. If Occupy is taking back for the 99 per cent, he asked: “Who are they? Who are we? Take back from whom? Where are we [Indigenous people] in that 99 per cent?” By asking these questions, Goldtooth pointed to the insufficiency of a framework that views the majority as equally oppressed, erasing a colonial history.

At the same time, Goldtooth emphasized the urgency for collaboration and solidarity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists who seek not to “fix the system,” but to get rid of it altogether. He proposed a protocol for collaboration. First, he called on Occupy activists to think about how they are reaching out to Indigenous people. He insisted that they must be approached as nations who have jurisdiction on this land:

“We are your older brothers and we are your older sisters… the ones who have immigrated here — by choice or not by choice. It’s very important to have opportunities like this to have dialogue….but we also have to take a moment to recognize that we have certain demands that we have put forward that are quite consistent.”

Furthermore, Goldtooth argued, Occupy activists should follow the protocols that all visitors to a village must follow. Visitors — those who are not Indigenous to the land — must enter the community gradually and respectfully. They must allow the hosts to address their own agenda first, before adding more items. When the time is right, the hosts will add the visitor’s items to the agenda. The ground is then set for dialogue and collaboration.

In Goldtooth’s view, collaboration is essential. Indigenous peoples have already had many casualties resisting capitalist exploitation and colonialism. They should not, Goldtooth concluded, have to take on the corporations on their own. “It’s going to take all of us to resist.”

Vannina Sztainbok is a lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She teaches in the areas of gender, race, social inequality and citizenship studies.

Occupy Talks: Indigenous Perspectives on the Occupy Movement

Occupy Talks took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at Beit Zatoun, January, 23rd, 2012.  It was sponsored by the Canadian Auto Workers, Canadian Labour Congress, CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy Ryerson University, Environmental Justice Toronto. Below are several videos of speakers at the event.

Tom B.K. Goldtooth is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), headquartered at Bemidji, Minnesota. A social change activist within the Native American community for over 30 years, he has become an environmental and economic justice leader, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Tom co-produced an award winning documentary film, Drumbeat For Mother Earth, which addresses the affects of bio-accumulative chemicals on indigenous peoples, and is active with many environmental and social justice organizations besides IEN. Tom is a policy advisor on environmental protection, climate mitigation, and adaptation. Tom co-authored the REDD Booklet on the risks of REDD within indigenous territories and a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change — the indigenous caucus within the UNFCCC.

Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation also known as Pukatawagan in Northern Manitoba, Canada, is an activist for Indigenous rights and environmental justice. With his roots in the inner city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Clayton began his work as a community organizer, working with Aboriginal youth. Over the years Clayton’s work has taken him to five continents across our Mother Earth. Based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Clayton is involved in many initiatives to support the building of an inclusive movement for energy and climate justice. He serves on the board of the Global Justice Ecology Project and Canadian based Raven Trust. Recognized by Utne Magazine as one of the top 30 under 30 activists in the United States and as a “Climate Hero 2009” by Yes Magazine, Clayton is the Tar Sands Campaign Director for the Indigenous Environmental Network. He works across Canada, Alaska and the lower 48 states with grassroots indigenous communities to defend against the sprawling infrastructure that includes pipelines, refineries and extraction associated with the tar sands, the largest and most destructive industrial project in the history of mankind.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a writer, activist, and scholar of Michi Saagiik Nishnaabeg ancestry and is a band member of Alderville First Nation. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, is an Adjunct Professor in Indigenous Studies at Trent University and an instructor at the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge, Athabasca University. She has also lectured at Ryerson University, the University of Victoria, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Winnipeg. Leanne has worked with Indigenous communities and organizations across Canada and internationally over the past 15 years on environmental, governance and political issues. She has published three edited volumes including Lighting the Eighth Fire: The Liberation, Resurgence and Protection of Indigenous Nations (2008, Arbeiter Ring), and This is An Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Barricades (with Kiera Ladner, 2010, Arbeiter Ring). Leanne has published over thirty scholarly articles and raised over one million dollars for community-based research projects over her career. She has written fiction and non-fiction pieces for Now Magazine, Spirit Magazine, the Globe and Mail, Anishinabek News, the Link, and Canadian Art Magazine.

New Book: The (Un)Occupy Movement

Compiled and Edited by Mankh (Walter E. Harris III)

“Easy,” she said. “You got to have patience. Why, Tom—us people will go on livin’ when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we’re the people that live. They ain’t gonna wipe us out. Why, we’re the people—we go on…

“…we keep a-comin’. Don’t you fret none, Tom. A different time’s comin’. ”

—Ma Joad to her son Tom, from The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time.
But if you have come because your liberation is bound up
with mine, then let us work together.”

—attributed to Lilla Watson, yet probably from a collective process of Aboriginal activists’ groups, Queensland, Australia, 1970s

Introduction

Hearty thanks to all the wonderful People who wrote the prose & poetry that, assembled, make this an anthology reflecting both the work of the individual as well as the group. The Global People’s Movement or Global Revolution, call it what you will, provides the focal point that brought each piece of this anthology jigsaw puzzle together.

There ought to be another word for “jigsaw puzzle,” though, because when all the pieces fit together, it is no longer a puzzle, rather a whole, One Piece — an apt metaphor for what is going on with the world and why this book was put together: to help make people and situations whole, again. (Remember,  before there was a world-puzzle, there was One Peace.)

As the title suggests, there is an “Occupy Movement” (begun with Occupy Wall Street) that has stirred the so-called American melting pot from its backburner state. Suddenly, things are cooking and more and more People are getting a whiff of the spirited air. Yet, from the perspective of the First Nations or Natives, the land has been unjustly occupied since 1492. Indigenous Peoples around the globe are dealing with similar issues. Hence, “Unoccupy Movement.”

“Autonomy of Consciousness” is meant to encourage the awareness that: each person has the ability to be self-guided, to keep one’s consciousness unfettered, keep one’s lifestyle from being unwittingly dominated by outside forces — even if some of one’s physical conditions are fettered . . .  thus, “Practical Solutions.”

“Human Equality” does not mean that everyone has to have the exact same things (sharing would solve a lot of problems), or be exactly the same, rather, that all People have equal access to, at the very least, the basic necessities of food, water, clothing, and shelter. Also, that there be respect for the ‘divine nature’ common to all human beings. Knowing that every piece, no matter how oddly shaped, is part of the whole, is reason enough to treat others fairly.

While this anthology deals with timely subject matter, addressing conditions needing fixed yesterday, it is hoped that there are also long-lasting tips for improving People’s lives as well as the Earth’s life, because they, or really, we, are deeply intertwined!

What you are about to read reflects a mere facet of the multitudinous organizations and People working to improve world conditions, whether by gathering, protesting, problem-solving, meditating, and so on.

To this editor’s knowledge there is no official name for the overall “Movement,” and may never be, because, like the Tao, being both far and inwardly reaching…  it cannot be named.

May the words herein, and what is between the lines, reach you on some inner level as well as encourage you to reach out. And since this is  about a “Movement,” may you be emotionally moved as well as moved to take action.

—Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) – Editor
January 2012

Contributors include:
Austin Aoyagi; Dr. David B. Axelrod – Suffolk County, Long Island’s Poet Laureate from 2007-2009;  Ghada Chehade; Tiokasin Ghosthorse – host of First Voices Indigenous Radio; Stacey Gunnard;  Arya F. Jenkins ~ Tibetan Buddhist practitioner; Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Aric McBay of DeepGreenResistance; Jordan Krais; Maria Manobianco; A. Molotkov; Glenn T. Morris (Shawnee); Onan Musoy; Steven Newcomb (Shawnee/Lenape); Kaveri Patel; Ruth Sabath Rosenthal; Robert Savino; J R Turek; Waziyatawin (Dakota).

Turtle Island series # 4

Excerpt rom talk/essay by Waziyatawin:

I am Waziyatawin and I am a Dakota woman from Pezihutazizi K’api Makoce, or Land Where They Dig for Yellow Medicine. In English that place is called the Upper Sioux Reservation and it’s located in southwestern Minnesota. Before I begin my version of the talk today I just want to acknowledge that we are on Indigenous land. This land is already under occupation. And I want to acknowledge the Ohlone people, whose land this is.

I am here today to tell you that I share your rage. I’m here to tell you that I share your frustration. I am here to tell you that I share your disgust in a government that places profits above people, corporate interests above humanity’s interest, and exploitation over life.

Today I am here as an Indigenous woman to support your movement. And, I am here to tell you as an Indigenous woman that the roots of your pain and mine are the same.  It is my hope that you will use this opportunity to understand some deeper truths about that nature of the problems we are all up against. Since September 17th, Americans have taken to the streets to protest corporate greed, economic inequality, and to oppose what has become an increasingly fascist state. Occupy protestors around the country, and indeed, around the globe have labeled themselves the 99%, in contrast to the wealthy elites who continue to build wealth on the backs of masses.  But, the crises we are facing run much deeper than the economic inequality you are experiencing today. They reach back to the very foundations upon which this country was founded.

They reach back to the imperial roots of conquest, rape and plunder. As one protest sign proclaimed: The system isn’t broken, it was built this way.

Kindness
~ Kaveri Patel

What if there were no wars
and we were all good friends?
We’d still build fences and
lock our cars, maybe even get
angry and swear at one another.

But I’d remember your pain,
the way your cheeks tasted
as the sea inside me
moved to surround you —
an island in my arms.

You’d manage a small smile,
a crescent moon holding all
your darkness till the sun
rose again and you let yourself
feel the warmth around you.

What if there were no wars
and we were all good friends?
You’d remember that hug,
an island becoming a nation as
you opened your arms to another.

Excerpt from Glenn T. Morris’ “An Indigenous Platform Proposal for ‘Occupy Denver’”:

As Indigenous peoples, we welcome the awakening of those who are relatively new to our homeland. We are thankful, and rejoice, for the emergence of a movement that is mindful of its place in the environment, that seeks economic and social justice, that strives for an end to oppression in all its forms, that demands an adequate standard of food, employment, shelter and health care for all, and that calls for envisioning a new, respectful and honorable society. We have been waiting for 519 years for such a movement, ever since that fateful day in October, 1492, when a different worldview arrived – one of greed, hierarchy, destruction and genocide…..

8. To recognize that the settler state boundaries in the Americas are colonial fabrications that should not limit or restrict the ability of Indigenous peoples to travel freely, without inhibition or restriction, throughout the Americas. This is especially true for Indigenous nations whose people and territories have been separated by the acts of settler states that established international borders without the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous peoples

Excerpt from talk/essay by Lierre Keith:

Capitalism takes living creatures and their homes, it declares them private property, it turns them into dead commodities and then accumulates those commodities into wealth. It’s a pyramid scheme of death. The Occupy Movement—okay, let’s try it—the Resistance Movement, the Rise Up Movement—has staked a claim on being the 99 percent. I think that’s self-evident. Capitalism is the 1 percent taking from the 99 percent. Now add this. 98 percent of the world’s old growth forests are gone. 99 percent of the prairies are gone. That means 99 percent of the pasque flowers, 99 percent of the prairie dogs, 99 percent of the bison. The wealth is created from their dead bodies. The point isn’t to distribute that wealth—the point is to stop the death.

Excerpt from talk/essay by Derrick Jensen:

You can ask, then, if this means that I am calling for the overthrow of the United States government, to which I will respond that this question comes far, far, far too late. For the government was long since overthrown, and those who overthrew it are known as ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, Halliburton, Monsanto, ADM, WalMart, Massey Coal, Goldman Sachs, Citibank. They are the real governors, and the United States government is a wholly-owned subsidiary, brought to you by McDonald’s, Pfizer, and Lockheed Martin…..

Earlier I thanked you for being here. But I want to be clear that my gratitude does not extend to all of you. And I wish to now speak to the exceptions.

I have a different message for the police, which is this: there have been scores and then hundreds and then thousands of accounts of Egyptian and Syrian police and military personnel who not only refused to attack protestors but who joined them.

I have heard only one account of police officers in the United States who have refused to do violence to—to assault, to attack, to arrest—American citizens: it was in Albany, New York. Let’s be clear about what this means: with the exception of police in Albany, New York, I have yet to hear of a single police officer in the United States who has had the courage and the integrity to do what so many in Egypt and Syria have done. Let me ask it this way, of the police: How does it feel to be more repressive, less courageous, and to have less integrity and honor than security forces in open military dictatorships?

Let’s all think on that.

We Are the Ones
~ Ghada Chehade

This global recession… This new and creeping… economic…
depression

Is but a symptommm… of the systemmm… tearing at the seams

A system that has fed on oppression, and was built on human
dreams… is finally, but slowly, coming to its knees

It is the beginning of the end; but the end is A beginning;
their end is our beginning… and proof that humanity is winning

For while they might bail out the banks, you can’t bail out on
des-tin-yyy… they owe a debt to human his-tor-yyy… and we will
collect on all our misery…

You see; as the economy falls… the people must rise…

So I’d like to use my voice, to present you with a choice:
Do we want a world of misery, or an existence lived in har-mon-y?

It must be one or the other, do you hear me my brother…

For they cannot co-exist… And our choice it comes to this: unite…
or cease… to exist!

There is no messiah coming to our rescue. The answer is and has
always beeeen…YOU–and the stranger sitting next to you,
and the power of what people can do

So look no further than you… united with a few, because one and one makes two, and two and two make four… till we have many billion more!

Yes, WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

For you are another me — the same fruit from one cosmic tree,
you see

Because unity is the universe’s gift… and once we reach it…
there’ll be a global con-scious-ness shift.

A new-world with a higher frequency…with no war, and love–
the new international currency…..
Forgive my sense of urgency, but there are still so many to reach,
so excuse me– if I preach…

About love and strength and unity
About resistance… and endurance… and serenity

About our common human family, who will unite and return
to harmony…

About a permanent end to war…
Yes, WE are the ones we have been waiting for

And so I weep these tears of ink in hopes that I have made you
think…Think of a time before you knew. When your spirit was
shapeless and your soul flew…

Into the souls of all the others…. into the minds of your sisters,
and the hearts of your brothers

Think of the connection you felt with ev-er-y-thing… before
words divided us into slaves……. or kings

And now think of the peace we can have forevermore…
Yes, WE are the ones we have been waiting FOR

For you see, salvation is not in the heavens… but comes from
within our common core… yes, WE are the ones we have been
waiting for!

WE are the ones…Yes, we are the ones…..

The Campaign to “Decolonize” Oakland

A group of protesters at the Occupy Oakland action to shut down the Port of Oakland on December 12, 2011. (Photo: Queena Kim)

Native Americans Say “Occupy” Terminology Is Offensive

By Queena Kim, Truthout | Report

The Occupy movement is known internationally for protesting the inequalities of the global financial system, so much so that in four short months, “Occupy” has essentially become a brand known the world over.

But now there’s an effort by Native American activists in Oakland to get rid of “Occupy” and replace it with “Decolonize” – as in “Decolonize Oakland.” They say the term “occupy” is offensive in light of the brutal history of occupation by early colonizers and the United States government. Native Americans in  Seattle,  Albuquerque,  Portland and Sedona have launched similar campaigns.

The name change is proving contentious at Occupy Oakland, with some protesters accusing Native Americans of  guilt tripping in the name of supporting the oppressed. But cut through the chatter, and the basic point seems to be this: Occupy doesn’t want to give up the brand.

“That name change could … alienate Oakland from the wider movement,” wrote John C. Osbourn, who has been reporting on the Occupy movement on his blog the Classist. “The brand recognition if you will.”

The irony of Occupy Oakland being captivated by “branding” isn’t lost on Morning Star Gali, a Native American activist from Oakland who’s helping lead the name change effort. The Occupy movement, in general, shuns the corporatization of society.

More to the point, Gali says that for many Native Americans, especially those who came up in the “Red Power” movement in the 1960s, the term “Occupy” has a lot of baggage.

Native Americans tribes were brutally “occupied” by Spanish and English colonizers. Later, the United States government waged war on the Native American tribes and forced them into camps or reservations. More than 90 percent of North America’s indigenous population was wiped out by “occupiers,” either through war or the spread of disease.

And Bay Area Native American activists believe the occupation continues. In California, many Bay Area tribes are still struggling to gain federal recognition as sovereign nations. In the absence of a treaty, or compensation for their land, Native American activists in the Bay Area say they continue to live under outside rule.

As a Native American, “it’s nauseating to hear the word ‘occupy’ over and over again.'” Gali said.  “We need to occupy this, we need to occupy that. It’s the modern day colonial language.”

The controversy highlights a wider criticism buzzing in the blogosphere about the Occupy movement’s use of political language. Some people of color feel that the movement at large is guilty of “linguistic” culture shopping. In other words, that the predominantly white Occupy uses politically charged words to adorn their movement like ornaments on a Christmas tree.

Jared A. Ball, associate professor of communication studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, has been blogging about the use of slave terminology in the Occupy movement.

“There’s an appropriation of the words of our struggles,” Ball said. “They’re claiming the language for their own political transcendence without any sensitivity to the history of this country.”

The casual use of “slave” terminology among Occupy protesters alienates African-Americans like Earl Black, a retired high school teacher, who drives from his home in Tracy to attend the Occupy Oakland protests.

On one of those drives, Black remembers hearing a radio interview of an Occupy protester who wanted to change the name of Zuccotti Park back to Liberty Park, the name protesters bestowed on their base. (Here’s a link to the full debate.)

“He said they need to change the name of the park because ‘Zuccotti’ is its ‘slave name,’” Black said recently at Frank Ogawa Plaza, the home of Occupy Oakland. “That hit me between the eyes. To use ‘slavery’ in that fast-and-loose fashion just to get the attention of an audience. I had to turn the radio off.”

Black knows the intent isn’t “malicious.” But as an African-American man in his 70s, he believes that equating financial inequality with our country’s legacy of chattel slavery is ignorant and threatens to push away African-Americans, who have been disproportionately hurt by the current economic downturn.

A younger generation of Occupy protesters have argued that marginalized groups often reclaim once-offensive terms. The gay community took back the derisive term “queer,” and a generation of younger African-Americans has flipped the racial slur “nigger” into a term of endearment,  said Davey D, a political blogger who often writes about hip-hop.

“Can that happen with Occupy? Can it be flipped?” Davey D wrote.

Some Native American activists say that question assumes that “occupation” is a remnant of the past that can be dusted off and reintroduced. Instead, they believe Oakland, which is the ancestral home of the Chochenyo Ohlone, is still under occupation because the tribe has been denied federal recognition.

Recently, Native American activists put forward a proposal to change the name to “Decolonize Oakland” in a general assembly meeting that lasted three hours. The proposal received 68 percent of the vote, but failed to get the 90 percent approval needed to pass. Native Americans have been holding teach-ins on the subject and say they’ll put the proposal up for a vote again.

“If there was a big sign over Gaza that said, ‘Occupy Palestine’ how would the Palestinian people feel?” asked Gali. “But somehow it’s OK if that happens here” on occupied Chochenyo Ohlone land.

An Open Letter to The “Occupy” Movement: The Decolonization Proposal

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Occupy Wall Street Stirs Up Radical Ideas in Indian Country

By Dina Gilio-Whitaker, Indian Country Today

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement may be the most significant social movement in the U.S. since the pre–Iraq War protests in 2002, which saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets in some cities. But OWS has more in common with the activism of the civil rights era than the antiwar protests because it exposes the imbalances of American society, and while Native people are acutely aware of those imbalances, many of them are questioning the terms of the OWS debate—they wonder, for example, what it really means to “occupy” Wall Street, or any place else in America for that matter?

As many Native bloggers and activists have pointed out, Wall Street is already occupied—it was (and is) the territory of the Lenape and other First Nations. That’s why some Native activists see decolonization as a more appropriate framework for any discussion of the current economic crisis. This has been expressed in many ways throughout Indian country. In Albuquerque, the OWS movement based on the campus of the University of New Mexico that had been calling itself “Occupy Burque” voted to adopt a new name: (Un)Occupy Albuquerque, linking corporate greed to the theft of Native land.

In early October, the Albuquerque (un)occupation movement enjoyed vigorous participation by the community, fueled in large part by energetic students skilled in the art of street activism. A blogger on the website DailyKos.com identified only as “evergreen2” noted that New Mexico, which is one of the most diverse states in the nation and is one of only four U.S. states with a majority-minority population—that is, less than 50 percent white—has a “very strong and vocal indigenous population” for whom the term occupy is problematic: “For New Mexico’s indigenous people, Occupy means 500 years of forced occupation of their lands, resources, cultures, power and voices by the imperial powers of both Spain and the United States. A big chunk of the 99 percent has been served pretty well by that arrangement. A smaller chunk hasn’t.”

Indigenous People’s Resistance Day 2011

The message is clear: While the OWS movement decries the corporate state which for decades has politically and economically disenfranchised the bottom 99 percent, there are some stunning differences among those 99-percenters. Alyosha Goldstein, an associate professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, argues in a recent article published on Counterpunch.org that the OWS movement would do well to remember the messages of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign—that poverty and inequality were directly related to conditions of colonialism, racism and militarism. The coalitions that formed within a diverse spectrum of the poor and people of color coalesced during a six-week encampment in Washington, D.C. that became known as Resurrection City. Goldstein writes that “the disparate circumstances that motivated people to participate in the campaign produced multiple perspectives that could not be adequately expressed in a single set of demands—something that perhaps The New York Times today would deride as a ‘lack of clear messaging.’ But the form of the campaign itself—with its multiple contingents and numerous demands—underscored the irreducibility of its parts to a unified whole.”

The legacies of slavery, war and international trade agreements that favor corporations over people reverberates today in the widespread social displacement and poverty for African Americans, Mexican Americans and the ever-growing numbers of other ethnic minority populations. For them, the American Dream has turned out to be more mythology than reality. And the same is true for American Indians, and has been for more than 500 years now. Any American Dream—real or imagined—built on Indian lands obtained through violence is a constant reminder of the historical reality of colonialism and, from an indigenous perspective, shifts the terms of the OWS debate.

Put another way, perhaps OWS isn’t radical enough. Journalist and best-selling author Christopher Hedges, for example, believes that liberals who once stood for values like civil rights and equality for all have been co-opted by the corporate state “by having refused to question the utopian promises of unfettered capitalism and globalization and by condemning those who did.”

Hedges argued in a column on TruthOut.com that “hope in this age of bankrupt capitalism comes with the return of the language of class conflict and rebellion, language that has been purged from the lexicon of the liberal class, language that defines this new movement. This does not mean we have to agree with Karl Marx, who advocated violence and whose worship of the state as a utopian mechanism led to another form of enslavement of the working class, but we have to learn again to speak in the vocabulary Marx employed.”

Invoking the M word is enough to send most liberals scurrying, but for others it heralds a welcome return to the radical politics of the civil rights era. For Indian country (and arguably all Indigenous Peoples) Marxism can send a mixed and confusing message because of varying interpretations of Marx’s writings. His early work is often criticized as being Eurocentric and espousing a view of the inevitability of the development of the nationalist state, which assumes the necessary (if unfortunate) subjugation of Indigenous Peoples. However, his later work, after he had done an in-depth study of Haudenosaunee societies, reflects his admiration for American Indian cultures and their superiority to the industrialized West. For Marx, capitalism’s biggest threat was its obsession with turning land into private property, a conversion the West accelerated by dispossessing Indians of their lands. Since colonialism paved the way for capitalism to flourish in the New World, a Marxist critique of capitalism can be instructive for Native communities. Pointing out that colonialism made possible the institutions of today’s corrupt capitalist system naturally leads to a talk of decolonization. In the Bay Area, Native activists and intellectuals have seized upon this as part of their campaign to Decolonize Oakland.

But decolonization is not part of the OWS movement, which is why Native people must demand that they are included in this public dialogue now swirling around OWS. Decolonization is inevitably connected with capitalist exploitation, especially when Native lands are at stake. The Keystone XL Pipeline is a recent example of Indigenous Peoples alerting the public at large to problems created by capitalism in the context of colonial domination, and in a way that was significant for everyone concerned. In early November, people in Vancouver, British Columbia, led by First Nations people, marched in a protest against the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell mine on the Unuk River in Canada. One banner read defend the land—frack capitalism, a reference to the environmental risks posed by the mining practice of fracking. Also in November, a summit of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Hawaii sparked large protests and counter-summit meetings held by Native Hawaiian intellectuals and academics to address the abuses of transnational trade agreements in Pacific Rim and Asian nations and their impacts on indigenous populations. Many Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) raised the issue of U.S.’s illegal annexation of the Hawaiian Islands and demanded that lands be given back.

While it’s unlikely that Hawaii will be returned to the Kanaka Maoli and the Kingdom of Hawaii restored anytime soon, such demands from Indigenous Peoples demonstrate their tenacity and commitment to justice in a capitalist world build on colonial exploitation. If OWS aspires to bring on truly radical change, it should take a cue from Indigenous Peoples and rethink the idea of occupation altogether.

To Occupy or Decolonize? That is the Question… Is there an Easy Answer?

By Davey D., Hip Hop & Politics

Here’s some thoughts to the debate around the use of term Occupy vs Decolonize that’s been taking place at some of the Occupy sites Most recently here in Oakland.

The term ‘Occupy‘ is a loaded word that has long been problematic in many communities of color. To put it simply many have long felt they have been the victims of Occupation…. Those of Native background understand that Occupy has led to genocide.  During the Civil Rights and Black Power struggles of the past we’ve heard term Occupy as one that rallied people together..This was especially true with the Black Panthers who noted that the police were ‘occupying forces in our community….With all that being said, in the end, one can see why there’s been a push for name change..

On the flip side, many feel that this a movement that is growing and folks know the name Occupy..Like it or not, its an identifiably brand now. From here to South Africa there are over 1300 Occupy Movement sites and damn near all including the ones in South Africa use the term ‘Occupy’.. The question arises why change the name midstream?

The attempt of those in the Occupy Movement was not to use any term that would be incendiary… If anything the term was used to signify reclaiming space, taken over by the 1%… In the case of Wall Street, it was recognizing that those financial institutions had been cut off to the 99% and hence there was a need to ‘Occupy’ that space in all dimensions..

In a recent discussion someone once noted that we have long taken terms once offensive and changed the meaning, why can’t the same be applied to Occupy. In the past folks have fought vigorously to take offensive terms like ‘Queer‘ in the Gay community and flip them. The word ‘Nigger‘ has been argued to no longer be an offensive term but now one that is a term of endearment. Efforts to shut down those words have been met with scorn, ridicule and folks claiming those taking offense are out of touch.. Can that happen with the term Occupy? Can it be flipped?

There is no ignoring the fact that the word Occupy cuts deep in many communities and last week in Oakland there was a push to change the name.. from Occupy to Decolonize.. A vote was taken and 63% voted yes to name change vs the 37% who opposed. 90% is needed for a measure to pass at a General Assembly in Oakland.

In Seattle a similar discussion unfolded last month.. The proposal to change the name was also defeated, but a statement was issued which can be found here.

In New Mexico similar discussions and proposals were put forth as outlined here.

One of the concerns raised was that folks who came out to push the Decolonize proposal in Oakland were not regular attendees of GAs.. However, many if not all are long time activists in the community who been fighting the 1% long before there was any sort of Occupy Movement..

Also from the footage shown in the video below, many have been down at GAs in the past and in support of Occupy Movement..So it’s not like we have a group of folks who just showed up on the scene..What wasn’t shown in the film were those who don’t want to change the name.. Contrary to popular belief, quite a few were people of color who are down at GAs all the time.. so it’s not an across the board black or white issue..

The other criticism is most people don’t understand what the term Decolonization means… I know from talking to students in my class it’s not a term that most are aware of… Does an unfamiliar name kill the momentum of a movement just started? Why not take a bold stance, change the name and use this as a learning opportunity? After all the term Occupy within two months has become part of the American lexicon, can’t the term Decolonize follow the same trajectory?

In any case, this is an important discussion and hopefully it continues with the aim of building community, raising awareness and opening hearts and minds.. Will such discussions at time be contentious? Absolutely, but what political discussion in the city has not been?

It was just last month that folks in various Occupy sites had to grind it out around discussions of  Violence vs Non violence and the diversity of tactics.. One result was folks getting educated to what Anarchists are about. One got to understand that among those who identify as Anarchists/ Black Bloc there’s a politic, various perspectives and a movement that’s been around for long time and is not centered around simply breaking windows.  In short people were able to have their horizons broadened.. And yes, the debates were testy, the discussions not always pretty, but necessary..

The discussion is the term Occupy vs Decolonization is just as important in fact it may be even more because of the sheer numbers of people who live in cities like Oakland who are affected by 1% economic policies who are being urged to join the Occupy Movement, but have hesitated because the a bothersome term..

What I personally have found problematic is how folks have been dismissive of this concern.. There have been some, that have expressed indifference and impatience with both the proposal and discussion. Some have suggested that this is slowing momentum and they didn’t show up to be apart of Occupy to debate name changes.. I say that’s the fault line where everything comes to halt and we work it out.. That’s where the real work needs to be done. Wall Street and their 1% cronies are not going anywhere…

Healing and understanding how that 1% and its tactics of divide and conquer has resulted in class privilege and lots of negative presumptions is something that needs to be addressed immediately and for as long as it takes…To not do so will have us all fall victim to some of the same tactics that netted us behind the proverbial 8 ball in the past.

One of the strength in the Occupy Movement has been the forging new relationship and building new alliances. That’s not something that can be easily packaged and explained in a neat 30 second soundbite that we all immediately get, but as those relationships take hold, folks involved start to understand the importance of them and how its essential for any and all work moving forward.

We often talk about having a world devoid of ism and schisms..Many find that desirable. In order to get there will require some long hard soul searching discussions. Its the birthing pains of new world..That’s the challenge before us lets embrace it with courage and whole lotta love.

You Say OCCUPY, I Say UMMM…

your occupation is nothing new,

you’ve been occupying since 1492.

so now that you’ve found something to occupy you
answer this, zhaaganaasheg*, who’s occupying who?

native roots of resistance are deeper than the streets,
and aren’t fed by the marginal soil these movements give us,
what keeps us comes from within, direct line to the deep heart
of us, power comes from the land, not these castles of sand.

if we expected the white middle class to struggle on our behalf,
and turn their organizational ship 180 degrees toward decolonization,
we might as well just ask them to turn that ship
right back to europe but hey, at this point,

that’s like asking someone who shit all over your livingroom
to just leave, instead of telling them to clean up the mess that’s left.
and down on wall street, bay street, main street we the 99%
saw the 1% step on this turtle’s back and call their own what can’t be owned,
and it’s at that point the games began.

not when they started foreclosing your homes cos believe me,
they already foreclosed ours and that’s exactly what keeps making it possible
for them to pull the same moves, what they did to us, they’re doing to you.

you say you want a revolution…

but the game won’t end if the rules stay the same, and the number one rule is
“ssssshhhh…don’t talk about revolution too loud..the Indians will hear you..”
because we have thoughts of revolution too, and they don’t involve any further occupations,

cos we have dreams beyond colonization. but you don’t want to hear about that.
so this is not our movement, and the roots of biskaabiiyang* go miles further down
than today’s pounding of feet on pavements, whose streets, our streets, the words
jarred my nish ears and jammed my nish heart, whose streets indeed.

so stay out in the streets, fight the power and keep it real
this ain’t a call to pull back or a bid for inclusion
but a revolution turning a blind eye to genocide is a revolutionary illusion
so fuck white power on wall street, and the border pigs too
cos the earth and her movements are gonna get you.

your occupation is nothing new,
you’ve been occupying since 1492.
so now that you’ve found something to occupy you
answer this, zhaaganaasheg*, who’s occupying who?

By Jen Emm, from POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE. To contact Jen Emm email her at indigenouscollective@gmail.com. Artwork by Erin Marie Konsmo of Toronto, Canada.

Waziyatawin Speaks to Occupy Oakland

Waziyatawin is a Dakota writer, teacher, and activist committed to the development of liberation strategies that will support the recovery of Indigenous ways of being, the reclamation of Indigenous homelands, and the eradication of colonial institutions.

Waziyatawin comes from the Pezihutazizi Otunwe (Yellow Medicine Village) in southwestern Minnesota. After receiving her Ph.D. in American history from Cornell University in 2000, she earned tenure and an associate professorship in the history department at Arizona State University where she taught for seven years. Waziyatawin currently holds the Indigenous Peoples Research Chair in the Indigenous Governance Program at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Her interests include projects centering on Indigenous decolonization strategies such as truth-telling and reparative justice, Indigenous women and resistance, the recovery of Indigenous knowledge, and the development of liberation ideology in Indigenous communities.

She is the author, editor, or co-editor of five volumes including: Remember This!: Dakota Decolonization and the Eli Taylor Narratives (University of Nebraska Press 2005); Indigenizing the Academy: Transforming Scholarship and Empowering Communities (University of Nebraska Press 2004); For Indigenous Eyes Only: A Decolonization Handbook (School of Advanced Research Press 2005); In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors: The Dakota Commemorative Marches of the 21st Century (Living Justice Press 2006); and, her most recent volume, What Does Justice Look Like? The Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland (Living Justice Press 2008).

Waziyatawin is also the founder and director of Oyate Nipi Kte, a non-profit organization dedicated to the recovery of Dakota traditional knowledge, sustainable ways of being, and Dakota liberation.

She can be found online at waziyatawin.net

Occupying Solidarity with Indigenous Rights

By Krystalline Kraus, rabble.ca

When I first heard of the Occupy movement, the first thing that popped in my head was: “Wait a minute, North America/Turtle Island is already occupied; it has been occupied for the past 400 years.”

So in case you’re wondering, the answer is no, I don’t like the title of this movement and the least I can do is refer to the different cities involved as Occupy cities, as opposed to occupied cities because, well, like I said, they are already occupied.

I also use the term “are” in that last statement as opposed to “were” when referring to this land’s occupation status since racism and colonization in Canada is not something of the past, but an ongoing, destructive process that Canadians need to admit to.

As an activist who walks in both worlds here — allied with both the Indigenous rights struggle and the anti-capitalist, Occupy movement — it’s been a challenge. Let me explain why. Because this struggle is about more than just the use of a word: “occupy.” Forgive me for my honesty.

I feel sad that as a “movement connected,” we did not foresee how problematic the term “occupy” would be when referring to land on which settlers live — and where the 99 per cent plans to demonstrate — since this land has been occupied for the past 400 years. With this truth intact, how is it possible for us to occupy already occupied land?

I am disappointed that an understanding of Indigenous issues within the Occupy movement wasn’t entrenched enough in our hearts to flag the word “occupy” as problematic when it was first suggested by the Canadian activist and publishing group Adbusters. But this is not the first time the movement has been called to account for its marginalizing of Indigenous issues. For more on this, please see Zainab Amadahy’s article: Why indigenous and racialized struggles will always be appendixed by the left

And for anyone from the Occupy movement reading this to simply claim that a cobbled-together “solidarity statement” is alone enough to apologize for this oversight, I’m sorry, you’re missing the point all together. For it is the 1 per cent who treats Indigenous issues as a necessary oversight to making money off the tar sands or a government’s refusal to deal with land claims and/or acknowledge unceeded territories. Let’s not act like them, shall we? Solidarity means real work on ourselves to decolonize ourselves and decolonize the movement.

It’s nice to see the movement embrace First Nations concerns, it’s another thing to humble yourself to do the necessary bridging work between the two communities. It’s not enough to say you support Indigenous land claims and that you know how to say “thank you” in an Indigenous language, if you’ve never been on a reserve or worked with urban Aboriginals on their turf.

We can together read the work of B.C. activist Harsha Walia in her article: Letter to the Occupy Movement where she eloquently and humbly wrote:

“While occupations are commonly associated with specific targets (such as occupying a government office or a bank), Occupy Vancouver (or any other city) has a deeply colonialist implication. Despite intentionality, it erases the brutal history of occupation and genocide of Indigenous peoples that settler societies have been built on. This is not simply a rhetorical or fringe point; it is a profound and indisputable matter of fact that this land is in fact already occupied.”

We can also together read the work of Indigenous rights activist Shiri Pasternak who provides much needed context of Indigenous struggles in her article Occupy(ed) Canada: The political economy of Indigenous dispossession in Canada when she asks:

“The political economy of Canada rests on claims of ownership to all lands and resources within our national borders. So, what, in concrete terms, does it mean to talk about Occupy(ed) Canada to express the demands of the 99 per cent?”

In fact, in my heart I know two things:

1. I want to decolonize the movement.
2. I want to stop the ongoing colonization of North America.

This said, one of the reasons why I back the Occupy movement is that is it an anti-capitalist movement. And colonialization is one of Mama capitalism’s best handmaidens.

Remarking on the Occupy Wall Street movement, financial inequality and the 99 per cent, Robert Desjarlait writes:

“As far as financial inequity is concerned, we, the red and the brown peoples of the Americas, have suffered financial inequity ever since the oppressors first invaded our shores. Socio-economic inequity began with the subjugation of our lands through treaties.”

In an open letter to the Occupy movement, John Paul Montano writes that as an a person of Indigenous descent, he does not feel included as part of the 99 per cent the Occupy movement claims to embody, because the crucial link to colonialism is missing.

“On September 22nd, with great excitement, I eagerly read your ‘one demand’ statement. Hoping and believing that you enlightened folks fighting for justice and equality and an end to imperialism, etc., etc., would make mention of the fact that the very land upon which you are protesting does not belong to you — that you are guests upon that stolen indigenous land.

I had hoped mention would be made of the indigenous nation whose land that is. I had hoped that you would address the centuries-long history that we indigenous peoples of this continent have endured being subject to the countless ‘-isms’ of do-gooders claiming to be building a “more just society,” a “better world,” a “land of freedom” on top of our indigenous societies, on our indigenous lands, while destroying and/or ignoring our ways of life. I had hoped that you would acknowledge that, since you are settlers on indigenous land, you need and want our indigenous consent to your building anything on our land — never mind an entire society.”

There are bright examples of where the issue of colonization has had a prominent place within Occupy’s heart. I am proud to be a part heartbeat here in Toronto, as we stand on the Indigenous land of the Mississauga of the New Credit.

Let me call to your attention.

Occupy(ed) Canada is a place to share decolonization viewpoints with other like-minded activists involved in the Occupy Canada movement because “this land is already under occupation. CANADA IS AN OCCUPATION.” There is also a sister site on Facebook called Decolonize Vancouver.

Toronto, ON — I am very proud of my Occupy Toronto community for their honesty and humility as we work together, share and learn new ways of approaching activism from the lens of various First Nations communities (there is no such thing as pan-Indian). I think we have all learned a lot over this past week and a half regarding how to work together, understand and really listen to one another. Taking the time to acknowledge and honour the traditional land we stand on, making safe place for Sacred songs and drums at the site and on marches, and allowing the truth about colonization to be spoken even when it makes us uncomfortable are all promising signs.

New Mexico: In response to concerns over the term “Occupy Albuquerque,” the protest movement has renamed itself “(Un)occupy Albuquerque.” The decision was made in a general assembly meeting of protesters at the University of New Mexico campus. On rejecting the term occupation, it validates the “…500 years of forced occupation of [Native American] lands, resources, cultures, power, and voices by the imperial powers of both Spain and the United States. A big chunk of the 99 percent has been served pretty well by that arrangement. A smaller chunk hasn’t.”

Occupy and Decolonize

By People for Social Sustainability (PSS) San Diego

Like a tsunami, the “Occupy Wallstreet Movement” has been growing bigger and bigger. This leaderless movement has been expanding since its inception.  As this movement of the 99% against the greed and corruption of the 1% gains exposure throughout the world, many social issues are being brought to the forefront.  People in general are starting to take a serious look at how the top 1% continually exploit and hoard the resources of our earth.  Now more than ever before, people are beginning to see what’s going on and seek alternatives to the current materialist society we live under.  People are looking for things that are beyond the old philosophies and so called solutions of the past.

For the first time since the protest era of the 1960s people are starting to care about the world around them.  People are waking up to the harsh realities of the current system and that something is seriously wrong.  In some places people are even directing their anger directly at the Federal Reserve and the very monetary system which is the cause of their misery.  It’s a fact that governments of the world have sold out the people of their country to the bankers by allowing individuals to fall into debt even more.  In fact the current money system relies on ever increasing debt to create more money, for every person that’s in debt the world wide reserve banking system can create more money.  Basically it is important for the banks to keep us all in debt with credit and loans so they can keep producing more money.

Its because of the growing economic realities created by the materialist system and its physical paper expression the monetary system that people have rallied behind the occupy Wallstreet movement.   As these movements gain momentum however a specific aspect of organization is missing as well as a unified message that is all inclusive.  What this causes from time to time is people of color to feel left out of the process. However even as we can critique the movement on this basis still we must support this movement.  Support that is criticizing yet active and engaging in the movement, can help to bring things forward.  In the current term while we have all this talk of occupy this and occupy that we must also not forget that talk of decolonization is just as important.  The United States is historically a land that has been stolen from indigenous people who lived on the continent centuries before colonists from Europe arrived with rifles and dogma to force onto people.  Let us also remember that in general the social constructs of racism have ultimately intermingled into the policies of the bankers and their front line agents (governments and ceo’s). Let’s be very clear  on this matter governments and ceo’s are the pawns of the banks, who have never ending amounts of debt.  For those who believe ceo’s have the power its truly the bankers who pull the strings of ceo’s, what’s more is the top corporate positions tend to be held by those privileged white individuals with the right connections willing to play the game of global extortion with the bankers.  Its a very old game that banks have been playing with the world, whether we speak of East India Trading Company in the late 1800’s or the various countries which have taken their turn at being parasites over the Philippines, in many cases the feudal relationship between baron states and their vassal states deplete the people of natural resources.  This continues to turn the people of third world countries into modern day serfs and corporations into petit-barons.