Protests set for Columbus Day celebrations in S.F

Scan page 6

specifically, to destroy the legacy of Columbus- convicted of seditious conspiracy to overthrow the including social and cultural values—which the U.S. authority of the U.S. government in Puerto Rico-and San Francisco has been designated the country's offi- government is obviously interested in perpetuating."

If past "celebrations" of this event are any indication, "along with the political and economic system that up between self-determination and the history of the official ceremonies will continue to bonize Colum- began in 1492 in the invasion of Columbus. The sys- resistance that we've had for the past 500 years." bus, while depreciating the cultures of the Native tem was imposed that said: We are better in every American peoples that Columbus and his descendants sense of the word," and it has continued unabated for cies of Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, and General But the voice of Native Americans bas not been The second point, Molina said, is to talk about the who resisted-all the way up to Albizu Campos, the stilled. At the same time as the official Columbus cere- right of self-determination of oppressed peoples within Nationalist Party, Lolita Lebrón, In the Native Amerimonies, American Indians and other oppressed peoples an international context. Because of recent international can movement, there was Chief Sitting Bull, Geronimo have called for counter-demonstrations commemorating events, he pointed out, "people in the United States are and, up to the present, Leonard Peltier." cial Columbus Quincentennial jubilee city.

attempted to destroy.

*500 years of resistance to genocide, colonialism, and political internment."

Bvents in San Francisco include an Oct. 14 International Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nations (at Mission High School, 18th and Dolores Streets). On Oct. 11, a mass march will take place, beginning at 12 p.m. at Fort Mason and ending at the Civic Center for a 1 p.m. rally.

These events are being sponsored by a coalition of 28 organizations, including gay and lesbian groups, environmental groups; and Puerto Rican, Mexican, and African Amencan groups.

I asked a few of the activists who are organizing the International Tribunal to explain their goals to the readers of Socialist Action.

Alejandro Molina, of the Movimiento de Liberatión Nacional Puertorriqueño, told me that the tribunal's main session will be centered around three major themes-genocide, human rights violations, and political prisoners. A international panel of noted jurists will sit in judgment of the United States government on these issues, the tribunal." 500 years." "That is the culture of white supremacy," he said, received sentences of anywhere from 55 years to life "The third point," Molina said, "is to make the link"This is embodied." Molina continued, "in the legaGabriel Prosser. In Puerto Rico you had the Indians Bobby Castillo, a member of the council of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and international spokesperson for Leonard Peltier, told me that the tribunal and AIM will be submitting documentation of all 371 treaties that the U.S, government signed and violated with the Indians. "Because they have violated these agreements with us," Castillo said, "we are nullifying all the agreements. ... We want to sign a new pact, to reach a peaceful agreement and accord for the next 500 years. We cannot live under a society that exports war, that exploits minerals, the trees, the water, and the people. "We are looking for a system that would be more based on socialism than any other system-which was the system that indigenous peoples have always lived under."

Ahmed Obafemi, of the New African People's Organization, told me that the tribunal was born in 1990 in New York. An focussed on the question of political prisoners. Jurors "After that tribunal in 1990," Obafemi said, "the