also in this section Statement of the Journalists Union of Panama The strange ways that governments talk Remarks by US President George W. Bush The work of a hemisphere Chile: Congress repeals "disrespect" statute

Leonard Peltier's statement on the FTAA

I know many of you are already familiar with the FTAA, NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank. I know many of you are working hard to expose what these organizations and agreements are all about and how they are taking over the world and violating human rights, labor rights, Indigenous rights, environmental protections, and sovereignty rights, in each and every place they set foot. Therefore, what I would like to address is the bigger picture — the real roots of the FTAA and ways which we can obstruct it.

Where did the FTAA get its start? Not in a conference room and not in an office. The FTAA is a continuation of the imperialism that began thousands of years ago in Europe with the domination of Indigenous Peoples whose self-subsisting land and way of life were taken away so that greedy feudalists could reign. Ever since, Indigenous Peoples have been forced into submission, if not obliteration, in the name of civilization and progress all over the globe. Here we are in the 21st century, and the world has far from benefited. I do not need to explain the Earth's devastation, the overwhelming poverty, and the wars that have resulted from practices that put profit before the very survival of Mother Earth and the human race.

Advocates of the FTAA would not dare refer to their policies as forms of colonization or feudalism because these practices are now widely scorned. Instead they will justify their actions in the name of "development" for the "poor" countries of Central and South America. Development? What the first peoples of the Americas need is "recovery" not development. Recovery from the very same colonization, domination, and genocide that multi-national corporations want to perpetuate for their own gains today.

Now we must continue, not only to condemn the practices of these trade organizations and policies, but also to implement and support means of self-sufficiency both in our communities and abroad. We must support Indigenous movements like that of the Zapatistas and the Uwa who are fighting to maintain their land base and self-sufficient way of life. We must support the small farmers and farm workers who provide their communities with healthy foods to eat. We must create and support innovative projects on Indian reservations, in inner cities and in third world countries that promote self-sufficiency and better living conditions.

But in doing this, we must unite beyond the boundaries of race, class, belief systems, and age that all too often divide us. If we do not unite, we will be defeated one by one, just as they destroyed the American Indian Movement who fought so hard for Native sovereignty, the Black Panthers, who developed much needed community based programs and struggled for self-determination, the movements in Central America that sought to implement schools, social programs, and land reform, and the unions who fought for humane working conditions. Most important, we must break down the barriers that divide us in our own backyards.

We need to develop a global culture that teaches us, as my ancestors did, to think carefully about the impact our actions and policies will have on Mother Earth, on each other, and on future generations before we act upon them. If we can do this, then surely we can win.

Leonard Peltier, who is listed by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, is serving a life sentence in Leavenworth for the alleged murders of two FBI agents who died while attacking a traditional indigenous camp on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.