underreported struggles 51

Ahni at Intercontinental Cry has some very important underreported struggles this month.

Citizens from the Yurok, Hoopa, Karuk and other Indigenous Nations, essentially turning a traditional practice into a protest, came together to gather seaweed, mussels and clams along California's North Coast. If the state of California pushes through its proposed MLPA Initiative, the customary practice of gathering these and other subsistence resources would be outlawed.

Local populations around the world are standing up to the coal-fired power industry, resisting private and public-sector pressure to cast aside their rights, homes and livelihoods for projects that are clearly not intended for their benefit. As Grist.org highlights, hundreds of thousands of people in Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Australia, Colombia and elsewhere are standing up and saying NO.

Despite Argentina's blanket ban on evictions of Indigenous communities, the Quilmes community of Colalao del Valle is facing its third eviction attempt in three years. Police officers already tried to disperse the community on April 29th; but the community, which is attempting to reclaim ancestral lands, resisted.

Word got out that the Canadian government started spying on Indigenous people almost immediately after Prime Minister Stephen Harper took office in January 2006. Information obtained by Access to Information requests revealed that the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) was permitted to start monitoring First Nations engaged in direct action to protect their lands and communities and to gather and share intelligence on "First Nation leaders, participants and outside supporters of First Nation occupations and protests." 

Communities in the Transkei Wildcoast's Xolobeni area of South Africa successfully pressured the government to halt mining operations in the area. The Xolobeni area is considered the traditional home of the AmaDiba people who claim to have occupied the land for centuries. The AmaDiba Crisis Committee (ACC) said that, if the Xolobeni Mineral Sand mining project had proceeded as planned, the AmaDiba would have "faced permanent and significant changes to their traditional way of life and their connection to the land."  

And many more - please visit Intercontinental Cry and read about these struggles.