indigenous

In all the midst of the tremendous and welcome attention to  the climate change conference in Copenhagen little attention has been given to a miraculous development in the Global South.   Not only has Evo Morales won an overwhelming majority as President of Bolivia but his party, the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) has won 2/3 of the Senate and a strong majority in the House basically destroying the strength of the right-wing parties.

On the left are Sam McKay and Chief Donny Morris at last Spring's rally for KI and Ardoch at Queen's Park

Today June 11 is an international day of action to stand in solidarity with the courageous people of the Amazon in Peru who are standing up against government and military forces to defend their land against oil exploration and environmental and cultural destruction.  To support them you can

Video from Democracy Now

Demonstrate at Peru Consulate today 1 pm 10 St. Mary's in Toronto or in Ottawa at the Peru Embassy at 11:30 am

Donate to the Amazonian Indigenous people through Rights Action who have promised that all donations marked Peru Indigenous will go directly to the struggle there http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm

Sign the Avaaz global petition and pass it along to your friends

Write or call  your MP to say we don't want to do business with Peru, a country that we have recently signed a free trade agreement with until they respect the rights of the Indigenous people there

Inform yourself.  A good place to start is with the reports from Ben Powless, an Indigenous activist from Canada, who is there on the ground and you can listen to Ben tomorrow morning on the Current CBC RadioOne

Bob Lovelace, who himself was in jail last year for defending his people's land against destructive development, has written a moving appeal which I reproduce below.  Please act to defend Indigenous Rights, stop the destruction of the Amazon and the economic, environmental and cultural  terror created by so-called free trade

I’ve just arrived at the head offices of AIDESEP, the Interethnic Association of Peruvian Rainforest Development, the representative body of Amazonian peoples of Peru, now at the centre of a developing emergency here in Peru. It is really a fight over who controls the Amazon and the lives of those who live there.

Evo's hunger strike worked and the Senate passed the electoral law.  "The people should not forget that you need to fight for change. We alone can't guarantee this revolutionary process, but with people power it's possible," he said before dawn, flanked by 13 union activists who joined him in the fast"

Bolivia continues to show new paths to the rest of the world in achieving progressive change.  What a wonder that the media ignores this positive example of a marginalized people fighting for inclusion and equality.