http://aztlannet-news-blog.blogspot.com/2007/10/columbus-day-protests-in-aztlan.html
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You-Tube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeB-TMYNndE
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http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0625722520071006
Columbus Day protest in Denver leads to arrests
Sat Oct 6, 2007 6:26pm EDT
By Keith Coffman
DENVER (Reuters) - About 75 protesters, including American Indian activist Russell Means, were arrested on Saturday after blocking Denver's downtown parade honoring the Italian-born discoverer Christopher Columbus, an event they denounced as "a celebration of genocide."
Police loaded protesters onto buses after they refused orders to disperse. Most will be charged with obstruction of a roadway or disrupting a lawful assembly, Denver Police Lt. Ron Saunier said.
Police delayed the parade's start for more than an hour as they tried to head off confrontations.
American Indian groups and their supporters have disrupted the city's annual Columbus Day parade every year for nearly two decades, leading to clashes with Colorado's Italian-American community over the century-old celebration, the longest-running such commemoration in the United States.
Columbus Day, marked this year on October 8, is an official holiday for most U.S. federal government workers, many public schools, state and local agencies and the U.S. bond market. It recalls the October 12, 1492, landing of Columbus in the Americas on his search for a naval route to India, an event that spawned an era of European interest in the New World.
Means, talking to Reuters before his arrest, said Columbus was the "first trans-Atlantic slave trader" after landing in the Americas in 1492. He said Columbus started centuries of oppression of native peoples.
"By all accounts, Christopher Columbus was personally responsible for thousands of deaths of the original inhabitants of this hemisphere," Means said.
Parade organizer George Vendegnia of the Sons of Italy said his group would honor Columbus' legacy until the U.S. Congress changed the holiday's name. Some cities including Berkeley, California, have already changed the name to "Indigenous People's Day."
"It's a day for us to celebrate our heritage," Vendegnia said.
Parade opponent Glenn Spagnuolo, an Italian-American, said Columbus' legacy should not be celebrated.
"To honor someone who, by his own writings, was a slave trader, is immoral," he said. "I don't see any of my Italian culture in celebrating the occupation and destruction of native cultures."
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/russell-means-on-the-meaning-of-columbus-day
Russell Means On The Meaning Of Columbus Day
Some celebration of Columbus Day from the Chicano Forums:
Russell Means Speaking at the Transform Columbus Day Rally
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Lri1-6aoY
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Russell Means was just one of many speakers at the Four Directions/Transform Columbus Day Rally in Denver, CO. This is the first seven minutes of his eight-minute speech.
The march evolved into a protest of the Columbus Day Parade which began 100 years ago in Denver. Protesters and organizers called for an end to the holiday that celebrates a man who brought genocide to the native peoples of the Americas along with the Trans-Atlantic African slave trade.
Means, along with around twenty to thirty others were later arrested for peaceful civil disobedience by the Denver Police Department. Instances of police brutality were witnessed and recorded by many on-lookers.
Nothing says “Columbus Day” to me like a rant from an America-hating ignoramus like Russell Means.
And in case anyone was wondering what the Transform Columbus Day Alliance is all about, this is from their website:
Transform Columbus Day Alliance
Who We Are
Based in Denver, Colorado, the Transform Columbus Day Alliance [TCDA] is an international coalition of over eighty social justice organizations who are committed to challenging traditional ethnocentric views of Columbus as pioneer and sole discoverer of the Americas, and that he, as well as colonial powers, should be celebrated for 512 years of invasion, cruelty, oppression, and cultural imperialism.
TCDA has been protesting the Columbus Day parade in Denver since 1989, and calls for the unequivocal abolition of the Columbus Day holiday on a local, state and national level. The celebration of Columbus is the veneration of colonialism, conquest, and genocide. As people of conscience, we must move our society closer to the democratic values of equality for all, through historical accuracy, justice in the judicial and political processes of the country, and respect for diverse peoples and cultures.
To this end, TCDA actively works towards the repeal of the Columbus Day holiday throughout the United States, and the accurate historical portrayal of Christopher Columbus and his colonial relationship with native peoples.
Our Principles
The Transform Columbus Day Alliance is based upon mutual respect, sharing the perspective that Columbus Day is an inherently racist statement of cultural domination. Celebrations honoring Columbus reinforce a historical process of racism, theft, lies, murder, slavery and the destruction of the environment. Individually and collectively, we reject Columbus as a heroic personality, and we reject holidays, celebrations or other expressions of adulation for Columbus.
This Alliance opposes Columbus Day, Columbus celebrations and the Columbus legacy. Noting that the Columbus Day holiday began in Colorado in 1905 when governor of Colorado Alva Adams formally requested Colorado observe the holiday, this Alliance acknowledges its unique responsibility to challenge the Columbus holiday and Columbus celebrations, in Denver, and in Colorado.
This Alliance is dedicated to the transformation of the Columbus holiday from a hateful, racist holiday that celebrates conquest and domination to a respectful celebration that calls for a future for the Americas without racism, exploitation, or state/corporate domination.
We agree that the process of genocide begun by Columbus continues to the present against the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Columbus legacy proceeds today in, among other ways, neoliberalism and globalization. We pledge ourselves to active, open opposition to the Columbus legacy in all of its forms.
We also agree that Columbus began the transatlantic slave trade in both Indian and , [sic] the consequences of which remain inadequately addressed by the societies that benefited from these genocidal practices. For commencing the slave trade in the Americas, Columbus deserves no national, state or local celebration.
Columbus celebrations promote theories and practices of racial supremacy and superiority, namely that Columbus should be celebrated for the commencement of the justifiable invasion and conquest of the Americas. Consequently, the destruction of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Africa is considered to be an acceptable cost for the construction of the current settler societies of the Western Hemisphere. We denounce these theories and practices.
We repudiate the concept of “discovery,” which is not merely a rhetorical description of Columbus’ endeavor, but has been extended into specific legal and political doctrines that have been, and continue to be, used for the destruction of indigenous peoples. Columbus is the source of the discovery doctrine, and must be rejected…
We condemn all efforts by state and corporate powers to limit popular political organizing and action.
In this vein, we encourage all members of the alliance to oppose, resist and frustrate state/corporate attempts to infiltrate, subvert or destroy our common will.
How beautiful.
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Comment: Despite the arrogant comment from I believe Steve Gilbert, I think him posting this in his sweetness and light website helps to publicise Russell Means statement. And thanks to Chicano Forums! for its input. Keep up the good work out there people! We need to create an indigenous hoiday! Take that to your state capitals! All of us should continue to report the truth for the truth is essential to our total liberation. ~ Peta-de-Aztlan<><>+<>+<>+<>+<>+<>+<>+<>+<>+<>
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