Indigenous Peoples, Fight for our future! Intensify the fight against imperialist war, plunder, and oppression!
ILPS Commission 10
Indigenous Peoples are now facing a great challenge– wars of aggression are erupting worldwide, as Global North powers like the United States ramp up military capacity to defeat rivals like China and Russia and emerge as the world’s most powerful. In order to realize their aspirations, imperialist powers are colluding with fascist and tyrannical governments forcing nations to align with the most powerful camps, quell our resistance as Indigenous Peoples, and force the oppressed and exploited to be cannon-fodders for war.
In an effort to salvage a system deeply entrenched in crisis, war and militarism are utilized not only to assert and redraw territorial divisions of the world, but to heighten the plunder of the world’s natural resources, mostly found in our ancestral lands.
In many countries across different regions, Indigenous Peoples suffer the loss of their ancestral lands in place of foreign corporate interests and profit. Large-scale megadams take over our lands and squeeze our rivers dry while foolishly hiding behind “green energy,” colonial conservation projects are put in place against the right to ancestral lands, and reforestation and climate resilience are used as cover-ups for environmental plunder. This is the case for countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, India, and many others.
The defense of ancestral lands is now being criminalized under the pretext of “counter-terrorism”. Such narratives aim to paint Indigenous Peoples resistance as invalid, criminal, and terroristic, and thus erases the need to address the question of ancestral lands and self-determination.
Since 9/11 in 2001, over 140 countries have passed “counter-terrorism” laws– a pretext muddled with racism and ethnic oppression. Laws are being weaponized to silence Indigenous Peoples’ resistance, cut off access to financial resources and paralyze organizational operations, imprison Indigenous leaders, and reduce Indigenous Peoples to mere common criminals. The worst of these are seen in Chile, the Philippines, Manipur, and other Global South countries wherein there are strong Indigenous Peoples movements.
These laws should be exposed as tools of corporate power, land monopolists, and fascist states. Push for the repeal and scrapping of these laws, and hold accountable the powers behind the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples’ resistance.
At its worst, tyrannical governments ramp up their military capacities, the global arms industry is exporting war in the Global South, and people’s taxes are used to hold Indigenous Peoples at gunpoint, bomb our communities, and destroy our lands. Where Indigenous Peoples resistance is strongest, so is the onslaught of imperialist-backed counterinsurgency wars and repression. Armed encounters are staged to justify the murder of civilians, hors de combat, and widespread displacement in the name of Indigenous Peoples.
In India, the Modi regime’s Operation Kagaar has killed 300–400 people in two years, most of them Adivasi peasants. Indigenous Adivasis are uprooted from ancestral lands for military expansion. The Modi government now rushes to fulfill its pledge to end Maoism by year’s end.
In the Philippines, the Marcos government’s National Action Plan continues the previous regime’s Whole of Nation Approach. Indigenous communities in Southern Tagalog, Mindanao, and Visayas face aerial bombings, strafing, hamleting, forced evacuations, harassment, and coerced surrenders, while the war serves as a cover for corruption of public funds.
Technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have been used to further up the ante of fascism and state terrorism. Surveillance systems and intelligence units are reinforced with AI and are utilized to map networks of Indigenous activists, track online and mobile activity, and force fascist propaganda into our daily lives. In areas of conflict, AI powers unmanned drones and satellite systems that conduct reconnaissance operations, track gatherings, and assist in target selection for airstrikes and ground assaults. Not to mention the fact that AI operation severely impacts the environment.
These facts warrant an extra critical and nuanced approach to AI and technology, and must be done to weigh its supposed benefits vis a vis its role in the bloody wars against Indigenous Peoples and civilians.
Counterinsurgency and “anti-terrorism” wars carry out a bloody rampage against the people, not only those engaged in armed resistance, but more so civilians and unarmed dissenters. The blurring of lines between the civilian population and armed freedom fighters are clear violations of International Humanitarian Law, and shows how these governments will shoot at anyone in sight. Yet these never-ending wars against liberation movements are never-ending precisely because they fail to address historical injustice, oppression and exploitation – the roots of why Indigenous Peoples and most marginalized populations take up arms in the first place.
The combined onslaught of imperialist-led wars, land theft and plunder, and rights violation however seemingly insurmountable are but reflections of a global system in crisis. We must use this as an opportune time to greatly advance our work in consolidating our movement, strengthening our unities, and moving forward in our national struggles and building global solidarity as Indigenous Peoples.
Indigenous Peoples, Fight Back Against Imperialist Wars of Aggression!
Fight for the right to ancestral lands! End imperialist plunder!
Pushback against criminalization! Oppose terror laws!
Fight for the right to resist! Uphold International Humanitarian Law! Read with translations: https://www.ipmsdl.org/statement/indigenous-peoples-fight-for-our-future-intensify-the-fight-against-imperialist-war-plunder-and-oppression/
JUST PEAce COMMITTEE 