Feature Photo by Weave News activists on the ground in Oaxaca
As more and more communities stand up for themselves and the land they are part of, they find themselves directly clashing with the existing capitalist, colonial system. And as more people are willing to put their bodies on the line, we have to anticipate that those who currently hold power within the dominant system will respond with force.
Just the other day we received a message from our friends at Talking Rivers (Blake and Tzintzun who did the CELDF Rights of Nature logo) about the military repression and eviction of the “Tierra y Libertad” (Land and Liberty) protest camp, which is located in the Mogoñe Viejo community, Huichicovi, Oaxaca. Mexico. The Mixe indigenous community had been maintaining this camp for 61 days, on the railroad tracks that are part of the hyper-capitalistic “Interoceanic Corridor” megaproject.
Several of the woman resisters were arrested, one was beaten and their whereabouts are unknown at this time. Read more about this from Weave News, Alert: Repression and Eviction of the “El Sur Resiste” (The South Resists) Caravan in Guichicovi, Oaxaca
And on Tuesday, April 25th, a group of protestors successfully disrupted a lithium mining project at Thacker Pass in Nevada. One member of the group was Dean Barlese, an elder of the Pyramid Lake Paiute-Shoshone, who told us “We’ve got to stand up for our ancestors, they gave their lives, they shed their blood fighting for this land.”
Our friend Max Wilbert of Protect Thacker Pass states, “This industrial culture is literally killing the planet and all living beings on Earth. It has poisoned every square inch of land and every ounce of water on the planet. If we want a future for ourselves, for our children and grandchildren, we MUST defend the land. Bulldozing a sacred mountain is not ‘green.’ It’s wrong to sacrifice biodiversity and cultural sites for greed and luxury cars.”
Read more about this action from Last Real Indians, Thacker Pass Lithium Construction Shut Down By Direct Action.
CELDF has been fighting to change the dominant corporatist system for over 25 years. Over those years we’ve come to understand and organize for multiple fronts, including direct action, for both taking down that system and for planting the new one. Do you believe it’s possible? And, how far are you willing to go to protect what you love?