Hemispheric "Globalization": Indigenous and Rural Backlash

 
Decades of development have urbanized social questions and left the rural poor to fend for themselves in most of the Americas. But, just as a backlash is being felt across the world in the broader arena of globalization, indigenous peoples are leading their own protests in Latin America. This movement even affected the US presidential campaign. At a Gore campaign event at Palm Beach County Community College, the candidate's daughter was interrupted by four demonstrators demanding that Occidental Petroleum respect the rights of the U'wa people of Colombia.

The U'wa conflict was also featured in Business Week's November 6, 2000 cover story on global capitalism. "Not long ago, the words of tribal heads such as (Roberto) Pérez would not have been heard outside the forest where they were uttered. Now they echo around the world - though a myriad of web sites and Western protest campaigns," the story noted. Despite the truth of its words, however, the article missed the point. Rural movements, especially those led by indigenous peoples, are having a profound effect on national political agendas with or without the international spotlight.

Throughout Latin America, rural indigenous movements are on the march, demanding their rights, but also questioning the values of globalization. The Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico was merely the tip of the iceberg; rural and indigenous movements are affecting domestic politics in many countries. Ecuador has experienced organized indigenous political pressure and protests, as has Bolivia. Chilean indigenous rights movements have been rekindled recently. And in Central America, indigenous groups in Honduras and Guatemala have launched growing efforts at political expression, while the organization Yatama, representing indigenous peoples in Nicaragua's Atlantic region, blocked a major highway to protest their lack of political rights.

These incidents are small when taken individually, but they represent a trend that relates the needs of small rural producers who live in poverty to human rights questions. The campaigns are bridging urban and rural social protest. In some cases, such as in Mexico, the focus is human rights and political activism; in others, such as Colombia, it is environmental issues. In both of these examples, as well as others, critics accuse international connections and support of blowing the movements out of proportion. This attitude errs by discounting the importance of the local support base.

Perhaps the most impressive example of a movement of the rural poor that has bridged the gap between urban and rural protest and become a symbol of a new national social conscience is Brazil's Movimento Sem Terra, or Landless Movement. Less than a decade ago this organization was considered a fringe group of the extreme (and violent) far left. Today, it is a nationally respected vehicle that speaks for the poor. The Movimento Sem Terra's popularity, like that of other rural and indigenous movements that have gained wide national and international support, may indicate a desire to return to values of simplicity and individual freedom that are undermined in the new global economy.

At the hemispheric level, concern for the rural poor and indigenous peoples is at the heart of a movement called Cry of the Excluded (http://movimientos.org/grito/index.html.es). This rolling program of protests, supported by the progressive Catholic Church in Latin America, is made up of a diverse group of organizations based on the poor and exploited, including landless peasants, rural workers, the homeless and the unemployed. Cry of the Excluded aims to be the link between the urban and rural poor of the continent. These groups came together on October 12 (Columbus Day) in a series of national protests that included sending a delegation to the United Nations in New York. Originally, a meeting was scheduled with Kofi Annan, but due to the crisis in the Middle East Gillan Martin Sorensen, head of the International Relations Office of the Secretary General, received the group.

AmericasNet will continue to follow the efforts at cooperation between rural and indigenous movements. Some peasant groups, such as Vía Campesina, are already playing an active role in the Hemispheric Social Alliance, along with several indigenous organizations. Future analysis will examine how indigenous movements are coalescing around the question of rural rights. For the moment, it is important to note that the agrarian question is an increasingly controversial civil society theme in most of the Americas. Obviously, it is not getting the attention its defenders believe it deserves.