500 Years Working Committee
Celebrating colonialism
This year three ships, named Santa Maria, La Niña and La Pinta, all made in Japan, will cross the Atlantic Ocean from Europe and land in Boston. This re-enactment of Columbus' first voyage 500 years ago is part of a year of celebrations by Spain and most Latin American and western governments. Columbus is being touted as a man of vision and adventure, the very spirit of the free and enterprising European.
Yet when Columbus landed, it wasn't where Boston now looms but on a now-unknown island in the Caribbean. His "vision" was never diverted from gold and personal gain. He demanded impossible tribute in gold from the indigenous islanders, and cut off the hands of those who failed to comply. Indigenous women were used as "bounty" for his men, and islanders who fled were hunted down and killed. Soon the entire indigenous population was wiped out.
Before the arrival of Europeans, the continents had myriad societies. Alive with traditions, mythology, religion, sciences and arts, from Europe's point of view they were less than human, undifferentiated, most probably without souls and certainly lacking in intelligence — best suited for labour in the mines of Potosi and elsewhere or on the plantations that fuelled the Spanish and Portuguese empires.
Land without owners was the single most precious thing for the "first Americans", revered and loved as the centre of their cosmology. Now, land good enough for food and large enough for homes is the most urgent need for huge numbers of poor peoples throughout the continents.
The Americas' wealth fuelled Europe's industrial revolution and transformed western agriculture with new crops. Europe brought colonialism and the slave trade. It reinforced and introduced countless forms of subjugation of women on top of class and racial barriers. Through mining, forestry and agriculture, it changed and devastated the ecology. It brought the Inquisition and the Vatican, whose imposed monopoly of spiritual belief amounted to religious genocide. In short, it brought the European system of capitalism.
But there have also been five centuries of courage and strength with which the indigenous, black and popular forces have fought against their exploitation: Sitting Bull and Martin Luther King, Tupac Amaru and Sandino, Castro, Allende, the FMLN — these struggles have never stopped. Movements within the church also are demanding that the church take part in the struggle on the side of the poor.
In the past year, indigenous, black and popular forces across the continents have united to raise their voices and affirm their identity in what has become a worldwide campaign. In Melbourne, the campaign can be contacted 0n 386 3878, or write to PO Box 7, Brunswick 3055.