The Revolutionary Imperative of Going Native
By Rob los Ricos

Throughout the era of conquest, there was a current of resistance to colonialism from within, as people expected to participate in the subjugation of foreign lands and peoples instead switched sides. They disappeared across the frontier and integrated into an indigenous culture, usually through marriage.

Trappers, adventurers, outlaws and renegade slaves escaped from the repressive conditions imposed upon the subjects of militaristic colonial powers. Escaped slaves played a vital role in helping some indigenous peoples replenish heir numbers after they'd experienced epidemics of imported diseases. In some instances, escaped Africans, colonials and remnants of Native peoples banded together to create their own distinct cultures. These African and mixed-race peoples became known as Maroons. At times, Maroon societies prevented colonial expansion into unconquered lands or outright defeated colonial powers in armed conflict, as they did in Florida, Brazil and Haiti.

Intermarriage between Native peoples and colonials also led to the development of distinctive bi-cultural societies, most notably Caribbean Creaoles, French-Indian Metis and New Mexican Cibaleros.

The latter were Spanish and Mexican settlers who "went native." They built homes more similar to Native's pueblos (easily defended) than to Spanish estates. In the spring, they would plant corn, squash and beans. The men spent the summer hunting, then returned for the harvest. A newly-appointed viceroy to New Mexico once complained that he had difficulty in distinguishing between "the Christians and the savages."

There are plenty of such subversive cultures we, as insurrectionary green anarchists, can look back upon to help us envision alternatives to the shitstem we're currently mired in.

Sadly, we cannot return to the past. We can only learn from its examples. The pertinent question to be answered at this point is: are such cultures of resistance achievable in the 21st century?

Franz Fanon's monumental book The Wretched of the Earth suggests that it's not only possible, but necessary in order to rid the world of residual colonialization and imperialism.

Fanon describes the differences between revolutionary urges in city-bound, educated Marxists and the more immediate, deeply felt aspirations of the country folk, and focuses on his native Algiers. As the revolutionaries - workers and students for the most part - began to attract the attention of the government, the resultant repression brought against them drives the revolutionaries out of their comfort zone and into the countryside. There, they encounter people oppressed beyond the city city-dwellers' worst nightmares. At this point, the revolutionaries must tread carefully, because the rhetoric they used to attract followers in the cities is volatile in the countryside. The oppressed tribal peoples outside the cities are restless, angry and ready to explode. The revolutionaries must organize among the people and ingrain themselves within their culture in order to successfully utilize the revolutionary energy they possess.

Too often, the Marxist parties end up merely using the natives for their party's gain. However, this is no longer the only example of Native insurgence. The EZLN of Mexico (the Zapatistas) are the most prominent alternative to the classic communist revolutionary group. The Zapatistas spent 10 years underground, learning the lay of the land, the ways and needs of the people and, most importantly, deprogramming themselves, clearing out rigid Marxist dogma in order to cerate space for a new revolution, arising from the struggles of indigenous peoples.

The indigenous peoples of South America have shown their strength in toppling the governments of Ecuador and Olivia, and are continuing to threaten the states of Chile, Argentina and Peru. Adivisi peoples in India are fighting against development projects that would destroy their ancient culture - mostly because of dam construction that would flood their homelands. In these instances, there are no vanguard parties directly Native insurrection, the people are guiding themselves. No education is required, they live through the conditions of their exploitation and oppression.

Another successful insurrection is taking place in Algeria. There, an insurgent movement of village and neighborhood assemblies, the AARCH, has arisen to displace the federal and provincial governments in the Kabylia region. The AARCH consists of a network of revocable delegates. Their insurgence has such widespread support the Algerian government and their henchmen in electoral and leftist parties, unions and Islamic fundamentalists have been unable to gain even the slightest grasp of the movement.

It is encouraging to see revolutionary movements after the post-Cold War collapse of totalitarian communism. Even more encouraging is the evolution of Marxist revolutionary groups into genuine people's movements.

The Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) has toned down its dogma since the capture of their party's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in 1999. Although still revered by his followers, who write poetry for and about him, his successor and brother Osman has changed the group's name to the Congress of the People (Kongra-Gel) in Kurdish, and they've become more of an indigenous peoples' movement.

According to PKK founding member Duram Kalkam, "We wanted to transform a system that massacred our language, culture and being. Perhaps instead of asking why we didn't take advantage of the [partial amnesty] law, one could ask Turkey, 'Why did the people leave their homes to go up to the mountains?'"

By giving up their privileges as wage earners and following the people into the mountains, the guerillas of the Kongra-Gel are learning to value their people's cultural heritage above their own material comfort. They admit to suffering hardship, but believe the sacrifice is worth the effort, particularly the women soldiers who have the most to lose should fundamentalist muhahideen governments form in Iraq and Turkey.

Indigenous people's struggles to maintain or regain their autonomy are forming the basis of revolutionary insurrection in the 21st century. Here in the U.S., we must look to the past to rediscover our own cultures of resistance to Leviathan. This is the one step back we need to take in order to take two steps forward. Those steps being: 1) supporting genuine insurrectionary people's movements throughout the world, and 2) creating the conditions for our own autonomous revolution.

Right now, the Native cultures of Free Papua are in danger of being wiped out by the Indonesian army and corporate mercenaries. Similar genocides are being carried out in Amazonian Peru, the Cloud Forests of Columbia, Western Sudan and numerous other places in the Americas, Africa and Asia.

The people perpetuating, growing wealthy or otherwise benefiting from these atrocities mostly live in the G-8 nations, where the banks who finance genocide and the corporations who profit from it also reside. They are able to do this with impunity. It is up to us to hold them accountable for their actions.

It's worth mentioning that vast amounts of land claimed by the Canadian state have never been ceded by the Native people's (First Nations) there, so Canada has no legal claim to much of British Columbia, the Yukon and Northwest territories. If half the number of people who attend anti-globalization protests were to sustain continuous pressure on the Canadian government to recognize First Nation's autonomy, they could create one which all North American indigenous people's could build upon. And one which we could benefit from, if we go native.