[Peace-discuss] Chomsky to indigenous conference in Oaxaca

[C. G. Estabrook]

GREETING TO THE CONFERENCE:  NOAM CHOMSKY

October 4, 2007 at MIT

I’m sorry that I can’t join you in person for this very important 
occasion, but I’d like at least to say a few words to express my 
admiration for what you all are doing in your professional work in 
indigenous education and also for your support for the teachers, the 
courageous teachers in Oaxaca who are fighting a struggle of enormous 
significance, not just there but part of a worldwide struggle which is 
particularly dramatic now all over Latin America, which has become, in 
my opinion, the most exciting part of the world for the first time in 
its modern history.

After half a millennium, the countries of Latin America are beginning to 
move toward a significant level of integration instead of being 
separated from one another and dominated by imperial powers. 
Integration is a prerequisite for independence and self-determination. 
And they are also beginning to move seriously toward overcoming what has 
been the real curse of Latin America, apart from outside domination, the 
curse of the huge gap, unprecedented in the world, between a tiny elite 
of enormous wealth and a huge mass of deeply impoverished people.  It’s 
a gap that also has a racial and ethnic correlate to it, as you all 
know.  And there are steps towards trying to overcome that curse.

Particularly dramatic has been the role of indigenous people, the most 
repressed and marginalized part of the population for centuries even in 
countries where they are the majority.  But they are finally organizing, 
demanding their rights, and making remarkable achievements, from the 
highlands of Bolivia to Chiapas and other places.  That’s a very 
dramatic and important development.  It’s reversing 500 years of 
miserable and ugly history, revitalizing the languages, the cultures, 
technical resources, developing forms of social organization that come 
out of their own traditions but are adapted to the modern world.  These 
are tremendously exciting developments and people like you are right at 
the center of it.

This conference is at the core of the development and revitalization and 
defense and protection of indigenous rights, and with it, the rights of 
everyone.  And I would take for granted that the people in the world who 
have any concern for justice and freedom would be very pleased to join 
me in offering the warmest hopes and expectations for the success of the 
endeavors that you are involved in.

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       This website publishes english translations of a selection of the 
articles found on http://codepappo.wordpress.com, the official site of 
CODEP, an Oaxacan organisation and part of the APPO.