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media | members | philosophy | PITCH
Transform Columbus Day Alliance Member Statements
The Chiapas Coalition of Denver/Boulder believes that Transforming Columbus Day is part of a needed transformation of our society as a whole. By protesting this glorification of atrocities in our history, we are also protesting the ongoing injustices inflicted upon indigenous and marginalized people today. We strive to create a world of justice, equality, and respect-a world where all the worlds fit and their true histories can be included. Denver Alliance for Democracy The Denver Alliance for Democracy believes that the US constitution guarantees everyone the right to free speech and freedom of expression. We feel that Native Americans should speak out against 500 years of genocide, enslavement, displacement, theft, treachery and injustice initiated by Christopher Columbus. All people will benefit from a more honest account of history. Without honesty we cannot be a healthy society. We regard Italian Americans with respect and affection but we deplore the celebration of Columbus' landing, the beginning of a dark and dreadful era for our Native American sisters and brothers. Denver Direct Action Network (DAN) What began with Columbus--genocide, slavery, racism, destruction of the natural environment--has reached its culmination in a corporate-dominated "globalization" that impoverishes the majority of the world's population and despoils the environment in the name of profit. The "celebration" of Columbus perpetuates this insane, unsustainable regime. As an alliance opposing corporate globalization, The Denver Direct Action Network joins the Transform Columbus Day Alliance in working toward the transformation of this holiday into a celebration of a new millennium of justice, equality and human rights. End the Politic$ of Cruelty In its campaign for police accountability, End the Politics of Cruelty has consistently spoken out against racism and abuse of power. The legacy of Columbus lives on in the blatant discrimination against people of color in our criminal justice system, and in the use of state power to repress dissent. As a member of the Transform Columbus Day Alliance, EPOC opposes any "celebration" of Columbus or Columbus Day. We dedicate ourselves to ending a "holiday" based on racism and hate speech and beginning a new era of mutual respect and equal justice for all. F d A Hamburg/Germany Federation of German Speaking Anarchists - Hamburg Branch Dear comrades from the Alliance to Transform Columbus Day, We want to express our support for your efforts against festivities to celebrate Columbus in Denver in October and would like to join the Alliance. We strongly believe that the Italian heritage and contribution to the US society should be celebrated in different ways than linking it to the person of Columbus. This celebration accepts Columbus as the discoverer of the Americas, and this reflects a Eurocentric concept of viewing this world which neglects the existence of all indigenous nations and their rights to their home and therefore supports the concept of white superiority and supremacy. It further intends to make believe that the presence of Europeans is necessary to bring an area into existence. Celebrating a Columbus Day also adds to the myth that only European immigration was able to 'make use of the land' and justifies theft, genocide, enslavement, and a ruthless destruction of the environment. Columbus voyage not only enabled others to commit genocide in the Americas, but it was Columbus himself who started genocide and enslavement of the autochthonous population and the exploitation of the continents' resources for the enrichment of Europe, and it took him little more than two decades to almost completely depopulate the island on which he landed. Columbus was but the first so-called discoverer who started the transport of enormous wealth back to Europe, to take up the practice of Christianizing the indigenous population by force, and to suppress indigenous cultures in oceans of blood. A festive day commemorating Columbus thus means the celebration of theft, genocide, slavery, and exploitation; it expresses a grave disrespect for the American Indian Nations and justifies the conquerors' treatment of the original American population. This is something no one should want to celebrate - especially at a point in time when nations from all over the world meet for a conference on racism with the intent to overcome racism in all forms and all its effects in favour of a mutual respect between all people(s). We appeal to all Italian-Americans to find different ways to celebrate their heritage and encourage them to chose more suitable persons and cultural characteristics which, given the rich Italian history and culture, we trust will be easy to detect. We strongly support the Alliance's aim of a transformation of Columbus Day and, agreeing wholeheartedly with the principles expressed by the Alliance, would like to join. The Human Bean Company There has been no figure in ancient or modern history whom has committed greater atrocities than has Columbus. No one in history has exceeded, or even matched, the murder, torture, dismemberment, rape, enslavement and theft of lands as Columbus personally initiated in the Americas and that succeeding generations have continued. This legacy of Columbus is not limited to the past. The Human Bean Company has witnessed these same types of atrocities being committed today against indigenous peoples with the complicity of the city, state, and federal governments of the United States, the US based transnational corporations and the corporate media. The Human Bean Company has a moral obligation to vigorously oppose the celebration of past and/or current racist and genocidal policies. Indian Fellowships of Missouri As the man most responsible for ushering in an era of racism and genocide in the western hemisphere, Christopher Columbus is not worthy of the worship he receives. Furthermore, the celebration of Christopher Columbus is central to the continuing attitudes and actions of racism and cultural bigotry and violence in the United States and around the world. It's time for the truth to be told about our past, that healing of our nations may begin in the present, that we may walk into the future, not one above another, but as brothers and sisters in the land. Latin American Research and Service Agency (LARASA) You requested our formal support for the Four Directions All Nations March to be held Saturday, October 6, 2001. LARASA affirms its support and commitment for the march that is designed to create a greater awareness in the Denver Metropolitan area on the rights and injustices incurred by indigenous peoples. The other focal point is to promote the principles of inclusion and denouncement of racism and exploitation. History is very clear that English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Dutch expeditions into the Americas were designed to rob the continent of its natural riches, exploit the indigenous peoples and promote their national self-interests. From the early beginnings of these expeditions to the present time, the indigenous people have been exploited, murdered and treated as less than human beings. The United States Government has created treaties with the Indian Nations that have been broken numerous times and has done an incompetent and neglectful job in discharging its responsibilities to assist the indigenous peoples. It is appropriate that the indigenous peoples create a march that is designed to create an awareness of its conditions and publicize the elimination of racism, exploitation and ethnocentricity in this country. We also support the diversity of thought and free speech that is fundamental in our society for causes or ideas where there is disagreement among parties or groups. While the founding fathers may have considered people of color less than a white person in the development of the United States Constitution, they did succeed in creating a society that is open and honest in expressing their views and opinions on issues or concerns. We believe that this principle is equally important in the evolution of this country. Sincerely, J. Raul Armendariz N.A.W.E.C. known as Native American Women’s Empowerment Circle WHEREAS The man known to us as Christopher Columbus began the invasion of the continents, now known as North and South America, with the intent to pillage and forcefully conquer and convert otherwise spiritual and prosperous human beings, in order to increase his personal wealth and status, and WHEREAS Christopher Columbus did not "discover America". He was lost, and WHEREAS Christopher Columbus is responsible for the conscious, purposeful and complete annihilation of the Taino people by torture, rape, murder and diseases such as syphilis and small pox, which were unknown to these continents before his arrival, and WHEREAS Christopher Columbus was the initiator of trans-Atlantic American Indian and African slave trade on the these continents which led to a cast system based on race and which continues today in the form of continuing racism, bigotry and the denial of rights and opportunities to people of African descent and to American Indian people, and WHEREAS The actions condoned and committed by Christopher Columbus led to an accepted and systematic genocide of indigenous people which continues to present day and is manifest in the laws, acts and manner of governments and other local, national and global leaders toward the indigenous people of these continents, and WHEREAS It has recently come to pass that governments and individuals alike have seen fit to acknowledge genocidal-type actions initiated on this continent by Columbus, such as internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, by reparations to surviving descendants, and WHEREAS The Italian and Italian-American communities have suffered many atrocities due to their heritage and have many true heroes and role models worthy of respect, and good cause to share the fullness of the Italian culture without glorifying Columbus, and WHEREAS Columbus Day was first celebrated and sanctioned by the government in Colorado in 1907 and became a national holiday in 1971 and, for all the reasons stated above, should be discontinued in Colorado and the nation. BE IT RESOLVED that NAWEC does not support Columbus Day as a state or national holiday and does not support the use of the name Columbus in any celebration of culture, language New Jewish Agenda The voyages of Columbus coincided with the persecution of Jews under the Inquisition and their expulsion from Spain. The racism directed against the Jewish "other" was transferred to the New World in the form of racism and genocide against its indigenous population. What Columbus started continues today as "globalization" privileges the corporate bottom line over all other considerations, including human rights and the very environment that sustains us all. Colorado New Jewish Agenda, now as it did from 1989 to 1992, stands with Colorado AIM and other allies in calling for an end to the "celebration" of Columbus, and the transformation of the "Columbus Day" holiday into a celebration of resistance to racism, imperialism and corporate power. If your organization agrees with the principles and wishes to join the alliance please send e-mail to alliance@transformcolumbusday.org
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