[PEN-L:272] Mohawk internationalism

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

MNN Mohawk Nation News. 5 Sept. 98.

The Canadian government is putting on the "First Nations NAFTA
International Summit & Trade Show" at the Calgary Convention Centre
(Marriott Hotel) on October 17 to 19, 1998. Their prime concerns are trade
relations, creation of an Indigenous trade group, overcoming possible
barriers and opposition, making treaties and laws.

What a line-up of promoters! Selling the North American Free Trade
Agreement will be representatives of the Canadian Government's Indian Act
band councils; premiers of provinces; Jane Stewart, the apologetic Minister
of Indian Affairs; even US UN representative Bill Richardson; Phil Fontaine
head of the Assembly of First Nations, the main Canadian government
financed lobby group; Blaine Favel, the world ambassador on Indigenous
issues; Ron Allen of the US National Congress of American Indians. Featured
is Simon Reisman who made the NAFTA deal for former Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney; Ms. Nina Sibal of the UNESCO; and Kevin Grover, head of the US
Bureau of Indian Affairs. The keynote address will be given by the former
Mayor of Atlanta Georgia. Luminaries from Foreign Affairs and International
Trade will be paneling with some hard core indigenous band council persons
such as Chris Shade, Joe Norton, Marvin Mull, Willie Little Child, Deni
Leonard and Jessie Fisher.

Elijah Harper is billed as "Ambassador at Large". The Canadian government
loves him because he promotes his spiritual religious vision that
"Aboriginal people do not own the land, in fact, treaties were visions to
live and co-exist with each other and to share our land and resources ..
The land was created by God to benefit all people".

It looks like the Indigenous representatives are about to sign an internal
NAFTA trade deal on behalf of the Canadian government. It will look like
it's between the Indigenous people of Canada, the United States, Mexico,
Central and South American countries. Actually it is between Canada and
Mexico and Brazil and Nicaragua and get the picture? The true traditional
Indigenous sovereign nations have, of course, not been consulted on this
latest maneuver to sell off their resources to benefit the multinational
corporations who are behind this whole thing.

Either they've forgotten or don't care. Last February the traditional
Mohawk Nation condemned the human rights violations by Mexico against those
Indians who rebelled against NAFTA, murdering 45 men, women and children in
Acteal on December 22nd 1997. On March 16th they marched to the Kahnawake
band council office and presented Joe Norton with a letter of protest. They
were opposing the impending theft of Iroquois cultural symbols by these
nation states for worldwide marketing, to be made cheaply in labour camps
in Oaxaca, Mexico. As well, Joe Norton and the Canadian government
announced at that time the setting up of a trade commission to oversee the
use of Iroquois cultural symbols and intellectual property so that those
wishing to use their own symbols would have to go through this private
commission. Now it looks like this commission will control all Indigenous
trade.

The question comes up as to what can be done with Indigenous collaborators
who work with oppressive states to undermine Indigenous peoples' lives,
rights and possessions? They are helping Canada and the US find ways to use
NAFTA to exploit and sell off more Indigenous resources such as oil, gas,
forestry, mining, fishery and agriculture. Rather shouldn't they demand
that Canada and the US boycott trade with Mexico over their human rights
violations? The Mohawk tried to reach their brothers and sisters, the
Mayans, to tell them of their opposition. In fact, real nation-to-nation
agreements are possible between true traditional Indigenous governments
similar to international contracts which must be honoured. Band councils
can only exercise those rights delegated to them by the Canadian government
who created them.

Sovereignty can only be with the true traditional Indian governments. At a
1977 UN conference, Ross John of the Seneca Nation said, "What do these
trade agreements with our nations mean? Is it international trade, nation
to nation? Will it be manipulated by large businesses and certain nations?
If so, all the dollars will go back to international organizations".
Kakwirakeron of the Mohawk Nation asked, "Does the international community
and the UN define who a nation is? Or is it only the U.S. and Canada who
make the definition so that we shall be continually referred to by other
states as an 'internal' problem? This is intolerable". Kahn-Tineta Horn ,
President of the Canadian Alliance in Solidarity with the Native Peoples,
suggested that, "What we need is a structure with a process where true
indigenous nations can make decisions that become legal. What is the point
of this meeting if the government's policy is to not deal with Indigenous
sovereignty?"

Is this scheme how Canada and the United States avoids condemning these
states for genocide and human rights violations by getting their indigenous
nominees to go in and do the trading on their behalf? Dissenters, such as
the Zapatistas, have not been invited to give their views on NAFTA which
allows Canada, United States and Mexico and their business interests to
overrule any U.S. and Canadian laws adopted by any state, tribe, band or
local government if they interfere with investments or sale of services or
products by any multinational corporation. The Zapatistas and other
Indigenous people should give this conference a dose of reality. They
should tell these corporate fronts about the damage to workers, farmers and
citizens by allowing cheap goods from undemocratic countries to come in,
resulting from the murder of labour union and indigenous leaders, the
dominance of extremely corrupt military and paramilitary cliques, and the
raw exploitation of women and children sweatshop workers.


Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)