NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5993

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: BRITAIN: Columbus is a dirty word in Liverpool
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/** native.1492: 174.0 **/
** Topic: Britain: More on Resistance **
** Written 12:20 am  Aug 18, 1992 by josefina in cdp:native.1492 **
From: Josefina Velasquez <josefina>
Subject: Britain: More on Resistance

/* Escrito 12:08 am  Aug 18, 1992 por newsdesk en cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "BRITAIN: Columbus is a dirty word i" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: BRITAIN: Columbus is a dirty word in Liverpool/UPDATE/

an inter press service feature

by lucy johnson

att editors:   the following item updates 'britain: columbus
celebrations meet resistance in liverpool', moved earlier from
liverpool.

liverpool, aug 15 (ips) -- the tall ships regatta, initially
heralded as the 500th anniversary of christopher columbus's voyage
to the new world, has been meekly transformed by the local council
into a less provocative occasion -- the return of the tall ships.

the move came after the international pressure group '500 years
of black and indigenous resistance' pointed to the inflammatory
nature of the celebrations, given that columbus's voyage led to
the massacre of millions of native indians and was an indirect
stimulant to the slave trade.

resistance leaders came from all over south america to join the
'counter celebration' in this northern british city saturday to
coincide with the arrival of the tall ships. jean bertrand
aristide, the exiled president of haiti opened the rally by
saying: ''we are here to celebrate 500 years of resistance against
slavery, against poverty and against misery.''

according to a 500 years of resistance organiser, merseyside
development corporation, which funded the tall ships event, was
acutely embarrassed when told of the oversight and in a
conciliatory gesture, they dropped the offending title and have
put money towards the resistance rally.

observers believe that this move may also have been spurred on by
fears of provoking unrest among liverpool's ethnic minorities.
liverpool was the scene in 1981 of bloody race riots in which
hundreds were wounded and at least two people were killed.

''the situation is no better now,'' says adam hussein, a resident
of liverpool of african descent. ''in fact it's worse.''
unemployment in liverpool  now stands at 20 percent -- twice the
national average.

it is for this reason that the residents have nothing against the
'tall ships' themselves, but rather the theme of the celebrations.

''we need these ships for tourism,'' says raymond edwards, a
retired grain trader who used to work on the docks when they
employed 20,000 men. now they employ just 400. ''unemployment
affects blacks and whites,'' he adds. (more/ips)

britain: columbus is a dirty word in liverpool/update/(2-e)

britain: columbus (2)

the columbus celebrations were seen as particularly tactless as
liverpool was britain's main slave trading port. indeed, the city
grew fat on profits made by traders who pedalled their human cargo
to north america to work on the cotton plantations.

in 1789, slave traders from this northern british city sold an
estimated 32,000 slaves for over a million pounds -- an untold
fortune in 18th century britain.

''the voyage of the tall ships is a symbolic replica of the slave
triangle,'' says hussein, referring to the three-part journey that
picked up slaves in africa, shipped them to america and brought
back rum and sugar from the caribbean.

for the visiting indigenous leaders it was the word 'discovery'
that really incensed them.

they pointed out that by the time columbus arrived in the new
world, it was already home to 10 million native indians -- more
than half of whom were massacred by the spanish, or died from
imported european diseases.

''in the first one hundred years they (the spanish) killed 90,000
people,'' said aristide. ''this was the beginning of a genocide
not the beginning of a free time.''

the resistance leaders criticised the west's apparently ethno-
centric view of history in which european countries are depicted
as aggressive and the native indians as passsive -- if they are
mentioned at all.

''these so called 'discoverers' came and usurped our land,
manipulated our people and destroyed our environment ... i call
them invaders,'' said moses mayekiso, of the african national
congress.

europe reaped enormous benefits from its contact with the new
world, building the structure of its industrial revolution on
profits from the sugar plantations in the caribbean. ''columbus's
trip was economic and it's these same economic policies in the
north that go on exploiting and plundering southern countries,''
says hussein.

south america is now trapped in a vicious cycle of debt and
poverty, in which huge loans owed to western banks are forcing the
countries to over-exploit their mineral and timber resources.

but the dominance is more deep rooted still, argue the indigenous
leaders who are coming together for the third time since the
launch of the 500 years of resistance campaign in 1989.   the
colonial legacy, they say, means that the lion's share of land
goes to the fairer-skinned families of spanish descent.

in guatemala for instance, 70 percent of arable land is
concentrated in the hands of two percent of the population.   little
attention is given to the suffering of the landless native indians
of south america, argues rigoberta menchu, an exiled guatemalan.
(end/ips/ip-ce/lj/cpg/92)

** End of text from cdp:native.1492 **