Root Force logo

On May 31, the 4th Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples Abya Yala (”America”) called for a Global Mobilization in Defense of Mother Earth and the Peoples from October 12-16, 2009, “against [pollution], the commercialization of life … and the criminalization of indigenous and social movements.”

“We the peoples and our territories are one entity. [We resolve] to reject all forms of land division, privatization, concession, predation and pollution from extractive industries.”

Root Force is supporting this call and encouraging people throughout the Americas and across the world to answer it with actions targeting the infrastructure of global trade. Infrastructure expansion projects such as highways, mines, power plants, pipelines and telecommunications cables form the front lines of the assault on indigenous peoples and the Earth. They are the backbone of the system that is killing our planet and enslaving its people.

For more information about the call to action and why we think infrastructure projects are appropriate targets, see below.

For help planning and publicizing actions, contact Root Force: rootforce [at] riseup [dot] net. You can find direct action, strategy and messaging resources here.

Send action reports to rootforce [at] riseup [dot] net. If you can’t pull together a direct action, consider holding events that promote anti-infrastructure organizing and action.

Background

On May 31, the 4th Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples Abya Yala issued a closing declaration resolving, among other things:

“To proclaim that we are witnessing a deep crisis of the Western capitalist civilization — overlapping the environmental, energy and cultural crisis, social exclusion, and famines — as an expression of the failure of Eurocentrism and the colonialist Modernity that was born from ethnocide and which is now carrying all of humanity to its own slaughter.

“To offer an alternative lifestyle against the civilization of death, rescuing our roots in order to project ourselves to our future, with our principles and practices of balance between men, women, Mother Earth, spiritual beings, cultures and peoples, all of which we call Good Living / Living Well. We are a diversity of thousands of civilizations with over 40 thousand years of history, which were invaded and colonized by those who, just five centuries later, are leading us to planetary suicide. …

“To confirm the organization of the … Global Mobilization in Defense of Mother Earth and the Peoples, against the commercialization of life (including land, forests, water, sea, agrofuels, external debt), pollution (extractive transnationals, international financial institutions, GMOs, pesticides, toxic consumption), and the criminalization of indigenous and social movements, to be held from October 12 to 16, 2009.”

Read the full declaration here.

Why Infrastructure?

There are three primary reasons to target infrastructure as a way to defend the Earth and support indigenous sovereignty.

1. Infrastructure projects devastate ecologies and communities, whether it’s the massive fish kills caused by dams and oil spills, the stripped land and poisoned air left by highways and mines, or the dislocation of poor, rural and indigenous peoples caused every time a new dam, road, mine or power plant moves in.

2. Infrastructure projects facilitate further exploitation above and beyond their immediate effects: a road brings loggers and missionaries; a power plant brings industry and sprawl.

3. Infrastructure forms the physical basis of the global economic system — a system that is killing our planet and cannot function without the continued dispossession of indigenous land and destruction of Earth-based cultures.

This civilization will not change its genocidal and ecocidal trajectory willingly, and the Earth cannot be saved by half-measures. The system must come down, and its reliance on infrastructure — especially the infrastructure of trade — is one of its greatest weaknesses.

Learn More

The Root Force Strategy (taking down the system by fighting infrastructure expansion)

Infrastructure and Indigenous Sovereignty

Infrastructure and the environment

More infrastructure fact sheets (labor, global warming, etc.)

Take Action!

Join people around the world on October 12-16 to say NO to the commercialization of life and the criminalization of indigenous and social movements, and YES to a world based on respect for all life. Join Root Force in the struggle against the infrastructure of global trade, and help us demolish colonialism at its foundations.

For help planning and publicizing actions, contact Root Force: rootforce [at] riseup [dot] net. You can find direct action, strategy and messaging resources here.

Send action reports to rootforce [at] riseup [dot] net. If you can’t pull together a direct action, consider holding events that promote anti-infrastructure organizing and action.

Root Force Logo

A couple of articles reminding us how our struggles can make a real difference for the big picture:

1. Check out this article analyzing some of the connections between the push for expanded liquefied natural gas infrastructure in the United States and the recent massacre of indigenous protesters in Peru. The writer points out how increased infrastructure in consuming (First World) countries places more pressure on Third World (producing) countries to expand their own extraction/transport infrastructure.

2. This article on the history of resistance to the Xalala Dam in Guatemala notes that “In November 2008, the government offered the project to private investors, but failed to receive a single bid. Investors reportedly shied away due to the community opposition and the global financial crisis.”

This is an example of how concerted, no compromise resistance can cause even international investors to back off. It’s also an important reminder of why we must keep working for the system’s collapse — because even the relatively minor hiccup that is the current depression has already had a real effect in providing extra breathing room to communities and ecologies worldwide.

Rising Tide North America is calling for a week of action starting Monday June 15th to show solidarity with the indigenous tribes resisting Peru’s attempt to open their lands to the oil, gas, and logging industries.

Last week over 85 people were killed by Peruvian police while protesting the governments plans revoke protections for traditional lands and allow for industrial exploitation of the Amazon. The new plans are a part of the new free trade agreement between the US and Peru. Since the Peruvian government announced these plans, tribes around Peru have been blockading roads, oil installations, and other critical infrastructure. But the government has begun to brutally crack down on the unarmed blockades, resulting in last week’s massacre.
There are signs that the protests in Peru, and international pressure, are beginning to work. Peru’s congress just voted to suspend two of the laws in question, in hopes of getting the situation under control. Indigenous communities and labor unions however have made clear that this is not enough, and are continuing the blockades and protests.

International solidarity is desperately needed to prevent further massacres. Starting Monday June 15th there will be a number of protests around the country. Please join in. If there is not a protest organized already in your community organize one at a Peruvian consulate or US federal building.

Remember to send us your action reports, too!

Below is a list of planned demos as well as Peruvian consulates in the US:

Planned Demos

Protest in San Francisco at Peruvian Consulate
Tuesday June 16
Details TBA email earthfirstroadshow@gmail.com

Protest in Boston at Peruvian Consulate
Thursday June 18
Details TBA
For more info: info risingtideboston.org 978.852.6457

Locations/Addresses of US consulates

http://peru.visahq.com/embassy/United-States/

Peru Embassy , United States
1700 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington D.C. 20036
Phone:
+1-202-833-9860
+1-202-833-9869
Fax:
+1-202-659-8124
www.peruvianembassy.us

Peru Consulate General , United States
1001 S Monaco Parkway, Suite 210
Denver, Colorado 80224
Phone:
+1-303-3558555
Fax:
+1-303-3558003
Email:
conper_denver@consuladoperu.net

Peru Consulate General , United States
4360 Chamblee Dunwoody RD. Suite 580
Atlanta, Georgia 30341
Phone:
+1-678-730-4161
+1-678-730-4162
+1-678-730-4163
Fax:
+1-678-730-4165

Peru Consulate General
20 Park Plaza, Suite 511
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
Phone:
+1-617-338-2227
Fax:
+1-617-338-2742
Email:
conper_boston@msn.com

Peru Consulate General
180 North Michigan Avenue Suite 1830
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Phone:
+1-312-7821599
+1-312-8536173
Fax:
+1-312-7046969
Email:
conperchig@aol.com

Peru Consulate General
250 Main Street, Suite \”D\”
Hartford, Connecticut 06106
Phone:
+1-860-5480266
+1-860-5480337
Fax:
+1-860-5480094
Email:
conperhartford@aol.com
Website URL:
www.conperhartford.com

Peru Consulate General
5177 Richmond Avenue, Suite 695
Houston, Texas77056
Phone:
+1-713-355-9517
+1-713-355-9438
Fax:
+1-713-355-9377
Email:
conperu@sbcglobal.net
Website URL:
www.conperuhouston.org

Peru Consulate General
3450 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 800
Los Angeles, California 90010
Phone:
+1-213-2525910
+1-213-2529597
Fax:
+1-213-2528130
Email:
conperla@winstamail.com

Peru Consulate General
444 Brickell Avenue Suite M-135
Miami, Florida 33131
Phone:
+1-305-3741305
+1-305-3748935
Fax:
+1-305-3816027
Email:
informacion@consulado-peru.com
Website URL:
www.consulado-peru.com

Peru Consulate General
241 East 49th Street
New York City 10017
Phone:
+1-646-735-3828
+1-646-735-3847
+1-646-735-3857
+1-646-735-3853
+1-646-735-3859
+1-646-735-3862
Fax:
+1-646-735-3866
Email:
userperu12@aol.com

Peru Consulate General
100 Hamilton Plaza Suite 1221, 12th Floor
Paterson, New Jersey 07505
Phone:
+1-973-278-3324
+1-973-278-2221
Fax:
+1-973-278-0254
Email:
consulperu-paterson@rree.gob.pe

Peru Consulate
6242 E, Arbor Ave Suite 118
Mesa, Arizona 85206
United States
Phone:
+1-480-834-3907
Fax:
+1-480-834-0948

Peru Consulate
2535 Kettner Blvd, Suite 1 A 1
San Diego, California
Phone:
+1-619-2486243
Fax:
+1-619-6601181
Email:
peruhcsandiego@cox.net

Peru Consulate General
870 Market Street, Suite 1067
San Francisco, California, 94102
Phone:
+1-415-362-5185
+1-415-362-7136
Fax:
+1-415-362-2836
Email:
conpersfco@aol.com
conpersfol@aol.com

Peru Consulate
3717 NE, 157th Street – Suite 100
Seattle, Washington 98155
Phone:
+1-206-7149037
Fax:
+1-206-3655378
Email:
consulateperu@msn.com

Peru Consulate
N?? 3 The Prado
St. Louis, Missouri 63124
Phone:
+1-314-9911750
Fax:
+1-314-9911750

Peru Consulate
2106 W. Busch Boulevard
Tampa, Florida 33162
Phone:
+1-941-6856221
Fax:
+1-941-9268044
Email:
vmvdoc@aol.com

Peru Consulate
2430 East 41 Street
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Phone:
+1-918-7439002
Fax:
+1-918-7421004

Astonishingly — but not surprisingly — the government is accusing the protesters of using tactics reminiscent of the 1980s internal conflict. Deploying racist imagery painting indigenous protesters as spear-wielding savages, President Alan Garcia has vowed a tough “response.”

Following the early-morning massacre, protesters took 38 police hostage at a pumping station for the national oil company, PetroPeru. A police raid to free the officers resulted in the deaths of nine of them. An Argentinian oil company, Pluspetrol, has halted oil pumping in one unit and will soon halt pumping in another due to the unrest.

The government has since issued an arrest warrant for indigenous leader Alberto Pizango (who was elected to represent the indigenous coalition by the leaders of 1,200 communities), charging him with “sedition.” Pizango has gone into hiding.

Please take action and urge the Peruvian government to halt the violence and repeal the controversial free trade laws that would open up indigenous land in the Amazon to increased development. Contact the US government and international agencies as well, and encourage them to place pressure on Peru. The Peruvian government is in a serious position of weakness right now and trying to cover it up with violence, and this is one of those rare cases where international pressure could deal a major setback to infrastructure expansion plans.

Read the full Root Force action alert on this issue here.

UPDATE (June 8 2009): Some of the stories linked above are in Spanish. Here’s an English link with the same info.

Background

Early this morning (June 5th), Peruvian police launched a violent attack on a nonviolent road blockade held by Amazonian indigenous protesters opposing 10 laws that would open up their territory to increased mineral, oil, gas and timber exploitation. Police opened fire with live ammunition, killing at least 28 people (see below).

Why Take Action?

The first reason to take action, of course, is simply out of solidarity with our fellow warriors in the struggle for a just and sustainable world. But why are we sending out this action alert as Root Force?

For nearly two months, thousands indigenous protesters have nearly paralyzed Peru’s Amazon region with blockades of critical transportation and mining infrastructure. They have sparked a national discourse over the limits to development and who owns nature, and have made it clear that they will not surrender any of their ancestral homelands.

At the heart of the issue are 10 laws passed by presidential decree that would greatly facilitate industrial exploitation of the Amazon. This is critical infrastructure, intended to supply new raw materials for the global market. This is one of those weak points of the system that we are always talking about.

The indigenous warriors fighting for their lives have pushed this issue into the global eye, and the Peruvian government has placed itself in a position of weakness by murdering unarmed protesters. Even before the recent killings, a congressional panel had already declared 2 of the laws unconstitutional, and only through procedural tricks has the president’s party been able to stall debate on repealing one of those laws.

This is one of those rare cases where sustained international pressure could tip the scales. If these laws are repealed, it will be a major setback for infrastructure expansion plans in a truly critical region of the hemisphere.

How to Take Action

You can email critical people in the Peruvian government through this page, provided by Amazon Watch.

You can also organize protests at Peruvian embassies or consulates, or take other actions that you think stand a good chance of making it back to the decision makers in Lima.

Make sure to express your outrage at the government’s strong arm tactics — even before the murders, the government had suspended civil liberties in 5 provinces and was calling indigenous people “terrorists” — and demand the repeal of the Free Trade laws and any law further opening the Amazon to mineral, oil, gas, timber, hydroelectric or agricultural exploitation.

In Solidarity,
Root Force

UPDATE (June 7 2009): Check here for more contact info for Peruvian decision makers and embassies/consulates and relevant US/UN contacts.

Some highlights (all emphasis ours):

The financial crisis began as turmoil in one small segment of the US mortgage market. Within months it had morphed into a global meltdown affecting almost everyone on earth.

“The speed at which these events unfolded was unprecedented,” said the World Economic Forum’s 2009 report on global risk. “It has demonstrated just how tightly interconnected globalisation has made the world and its systems.”

…

Network theory suggests that complex diversified systems can often bring greater stability. But only to a point. … In network theory, one key finding is that complex interconnected systems organise themselves around key nodes. If one of these is hit, the whole house of cards can collapse. This is one reason the damage done by the subprime crisis to major global investment banks had such a devastating impact. And while specialisation in global supply chains has brought significant efficiency gains, it has also brought vulnerability. Disruption to a key node in the supply chain can cause dramatic and unpredictable turbulence in the whole system.

…

In his book “The Black Swan”, which examines the impact of major unexpected events, Nassim Nicholas Taleb noted that the appearance of stability in complex systems can be illusory:

“Random insults to most parts of the network will not be consequential since they are likely to hit a poorly connected spot. But it also makes networks more vulnerable… Just consider what would happen if there is a problem with a major node.

“True, we have fewer failures,” he wrote. “But when they occur… I shiver at the thought…”

…

And beyond the immediate catastrophe, an overriding risk from both the financial crisis and any pandemic is that it causes a worldwide retreat from globalisation, with profound long-term consequences for the world economy.

In its 2007 report on global risks, the World Economic Forum imagined the consequences of a simultaneous pandemic and global liquidity crisis – a scenario that was purely speculative then but which now seems eerily prescient.

The result, it said, would be “a backlash against globalisation, which in turn compounds the hit on global demand.”

Healing the Earth

Rabble.ca

We talked about the Root Force analysis and strategy, how infrastructure projects are interconnected, how to oppose infrastruture in the climate of  “economic stimulus,” and more. Check it out!

The database currently contains information on companies involved in the expansion of I-69, I-10 and I-95, and we’re told that more information will be added in the coming weeks. There are a few glitches that still need to be ironed out, but the site is fully useable as-is.

To use the site, just enter your zip code to see if there’s a company or institution in your area that is involved in one of the included projects. You can also browse by specific company.

If you have information that you think should be added to the site, send it to rftargetshushmail (dot) com.

Note that there is no secure connection available to this site; if you want to browse anonymously, use a proxy server such as Tor (if you have your own computer) or Anonymouse (for public computers). For more information about Internet security, see here.

“In an attempt to cause a shitload of economic damage to the infrastructure of the CP rail main-line, we cut down two telephone poles across the tracks just to the north of their main intermodal yard outside Toronto. A pile of fallen trees was ignited with gasoline across the tracks, and we molotov’d one of those weird grey box things that look pretty important and are full of electrical shit. We also tied copper wire across the tracks to signal the blockage so no one would get hurt. That was way more exciting than a turkey dinner!”

The communiqué references recent resistance to the Olympic Spirit Train, a cross-country train tour designed to promote the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. A wide variety of direct actions, from protest to sabotage, continue to take place in opposition to the colonialism inherent in the 2010 Olympics. These have included disruptions of the Spirit Train and protests targeting destructive projects affiliated with the highway, such as a July arson in opposition to the Sea to Sky Highway.

“For us the Spirit Train is every train,” the communiqué  reads. “They’re all spreading ‘Olympic spirit,’ or more like the spirit of capitalism…. Every ride on the rails is a ride for the same invasion that’s been goin on since the railway was built to colonize this whole place. This rail system has been developed and is utilized to serve our exploiters and enemies. As long as the exploiters exist, infrastructure will always be their weapon. So we wanna destroy it all… their railway, highways, cameras, telecommunications, it’s all serving the masters and their police.

“We’re not interested in expressing our dissatisfaction at a symbolic part of the problem. We want to actually dismantle the whole system and hit these cracker-ass-capitalists where it hurts. It’s not just the Spirit Train; it’s every train, the tracks and the social structure they maintain! …

“This chaos was for the warriors everywhere who are still facing charges for their involvement in acts of resistance quite like this one. It don’t matter how hard they come down on us cause there are too many of us waiting to explode. Let’s show ’em what we can do and aim for our actual objective!

“Every train – stopped; every track- untied; every jail- destroyed!”

Read the full communiqué here.

The Navy claims the fleet will help fight “narcoterrorism” in the region.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead said that the Navy is re-establishing the fleet out of recognition of “the immense importance of maritime security in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere…. This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests.”

While 11 naval vessels are currently deployed in the Southern Command (”Southcom“) region, Stevenson said that number will probably increase.

The announcement comes as the number of leftist governments in the region — less accommodating to US corporate interests than many of the area’s regimes have been in the past few decades — continues to increase. It also follows news that Venezuela and Brazil have begun discussions for a South American defense council, in which the United States has been asked not to participate.