Indigenous Peoples' Conference Attacks Multinationals

More than 130 delegates attended a U.N. non-governmental organizations (NGO) conference on Indigenous Peoples and the Land in Geneva, Switzerland, in September.

The four-day conference heard testimony from representatives of the Indian nations in Canada and the U.S. and from indigenous groups in South and Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Europe.

There are between 200 and 400 million indigenous people in the world-people whose ancestors have occupied the same areas for many hundreds of thousands of years and have maintained a substantively continuous culture.

The Geneva conference was organized around four commissions, concerned with legal issues, indigenous philosophy and land, transnational corporations, and the impact of the nuclear arms build-up.

The commission on transnationals was established in response to the fact that many indigenous people occupy land not considered "useful" to modern civilization until wealthy multinational corporations began exploiting natural resources in even the most remote regions of the earth.

In its final report, the commission on transnationals called for actions on the local, national and international levels:

• Locally, the commission urged indigenous people to link up with sympathetic groups such as researchers, churches, workers and political organizations, to conduct research, lobby, influence media, and conduct "legal and illegal symbolic actions."

• Nationally, their proposals included boycotts and sanctions, specifically against multinationals which operate in several countries with large indigenous populations, such as Rio Tinto Zinc which has subsidiaries in the U.S., Australia, Namibia, South Africa, and Central America. Representatives from North America testified to the value of resolutions from shareholders urging responsible actions by large corporations, and the Australian Aboriginals encouraged other groups to seek alliances with progressive trade unions as they have done.

• On the international level, the commission called for a follow-up U.N.-sponsored conference of indigenous people to discuss transnational corporations; an international code of conduct and a U.N. committee to monitor corporate violations of such a code; a network of indigenous peoples' groups worldwide to exchange information and to liaise with other interested parties; and the institution of international trade relationships that take account not only of the material interests of indigenous peoples, but also of their communal and non-acquisitive value systems.

The commission cited energy corporations, mineral companies, agribusinesses, logging firms, international finance institutions (which, it said, fund projects which "far from supporting the `poorest of the poor' are actually supportive of transnational corporations, international contractors and the local elite"); and food and drug corporations.

The legal commission, meanwhile, discussed the "Anglo-European bias . . . in international law," demanding that national constitutions that do not recognize "the existence, land rights, and rights of self-determination of indigenous nations and peoples" be revised-with indigenous nations and peoples determining "the scope and language of the constitutional amendments."

The commission made special note of the need for involving the native people of Canada in the "patriation" of that country's constitution.