The Occupy Movement and Other Views

This article by Ray Cook of Indian Times makes the following observation:

“A scholar of the Haudenosaunee, John Mohawk, wrote in 1977: “A strategy for survival must include a liberation theology-call it a philosophy/cosmology if you will-or humankind will simply continue to seek more efficient ways to exploit that which they have come to respect. If these processes continue unabated and unchanged at the foundation of the colonizers’ ideology, our species will never be liberated from the undeniable reality that we live on a planet of limited resources, and sooner or later we will exploit our environment beyond its ability to renew itself.”

I don’t hear that kind of thinking among the “Occupy Wall Street” activists. Their concern is money, its accumulation and its distribution. All derived from extraction economies and the economy of war.

Do not expect to see many Haudenosaunee people at Zuccoti Park except as non-committed observers.”

Read entire article here:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/a-haudenosaunee-observation-of-the-ows http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/a-haudenosaunee-observation-of-the-ows#ixzz1eEQzTbGh

AS Jessica Yee points out,

“Colonialism also leads to capitalism, globalization, and industrialization. How can we truly end capitalism without ending colonialism? How does doing things in the name of “America” which was created by the imposition of hierarchies of class, race, ability, gender, and sexuality help that?”

Read the rest of her article here: http://www.racialicious.com/2011/09/30/occupy-wall-street-the-game-of-colonialism-and-further-nationalism-to-be-decolonized-from-the-left/

When feminists talk about addressing institutionalized misogyny and legitimized sexism, and when North America’s Aboriginal people talk about decolonisation, they’re often scolded for being “divisive”, and admonished to put their own “special interests” aside for the greater good of all. But why can’t we talk about these things? Why can’t we talk about decolonization? Why can’t we talk about dismantling patriarchy and the treatment of women as rape toys, cheap commodities and reproductive chattel undeserving of rights over our own bodies? Why can’t we talk about racism, racial profiling, and the prison-industrial complex?

Accusing a member of an oppressed group of engaging in “oppression Olympics” is really just an excuse to prioritize your privilege to get a better deal for yourself at the expense of the least privileged and at the expense of more broad freedom. Anyone truly committed to any real social justice and transformative change  and sustainability would not think it is “divisive” to include anti-oppression in the discussion.

Tags: Aboriginal rights, anti-oppression, decolonization, OWS