TRUE DEMOCRACY SPRING 2001 TABLE OF CONTENTS
political prisoners
Leonard Peltier
STATEMENT OF LEONARD PELTIER ON THE FTAA
FTAA stands for Free Trade Area of
the Americas
Dear Brothers, Sisters, Friends and Supporters,
I know many of you are already familiar with the FTAA, NAFTA, the WTO,
the IMF and the World Bank. I know many of you are working hard to
expose what these organizations and agreements are all about and how
they are taking over the world and violating human rights, labor rights,
Indigenous rights, environmental protections, and sovereignty rights, in
each and every place they set foot. Therefore, what I would like to address
is the bigger picture - the real roots of the FTAA and ways which we can
obstruct it.
Where did the FTAA get its start? Not in a conference room and not in
an office. The FTAA is a continuation of the imperialism that began
thousands of years ago in Europe with the domination of Indigenous
Peoples whose self-subsisting land and way of life were taken away so
that greedy feudalists could reign. Ever since, Indigenous Peoples have
been forced into submission, if not obliteration, in the name of
civilization and progress all over the globe. Here we are in the 21st
century, and the world has far from benefited. I do not need to explain the
Earth's devastation, the overwhelming poverty, and the wars that have
resulted from practices that put profit before the very survival of Mother
Earth and the human race.
Advocates of the FTAA would not dare refer to their policies as forms of
colonization or feudalism because these practices are now widely
scorned. Instead they will justify their actions in the name of
"development" for the "poor" countries of Central and South America.
Development? What the first peoples of the Americas need is "recovery" not
development. Recovery from the very same colonization, domination, and
genocide that multi-national corporations want to perpetuate for their own
gains today.
Now we must continue, not only to condemn the practices of these trade
organizations and policies, but also to implement and support means of
self-sufficiency both in our communities and abroad. We must support
Indigenous movements like that of the Zapatistas and the Uwa who are
fighting to maintain their land base and self-sufficient way of life. We
must support the small farmers and farm workers who provide their
communities with healthy foods to eat. We must create and support
innovative projects on Indian reservations, in inner cities and in third
world countries that promote self-sufficiency and better living
conditions.
But in doing this, we must unite beyond the boundaries of race, class,
belief systems, and age that all too often divide us. If we do not
unite, we will be defeated one by one, just as they destroyed the American
Indian Movement who fought so hard for Native sovereignty, the Black
Panthers, who developed much needed community based programs and struggled
for self-determination, the movements in Central America that sought to
implement schools, social programs, and land reform, and the unions who
fought for humane working conditions. Most important, we must break down
the barriers that divide us in our own backyards. We need to develop a
global culture that teaches us, as my ancestors did, to think carefully
about the impact our actions and policies will have on Mother Earth, on each
other, and on future generations before we act upon them. If we can do this,
then surely we can win.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
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