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COAIM BLOG CO AIM LATEST NEWS MEDIA
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Colorado AIM addresses AIM split There has been considerable talk lately of a "split" within the American Indian Movement. The word is that one faction, headed by Vernon Bellecourt and claiming to be AIM's "Central Council," has "expelled" another group including Russell Means, Dennis Banks and the entire Colorado chapter of the movement for having "defied (the council's) five point program on Nicaragua." The latter group, in response, has proclaimed itself to be a "New AIM, guided by our elders in the traditional way, and dedicated to the defense of Indian rights wherever they are violated." In Denver, a group of non-Indian organizations including CASA and the Socialist Workers Party has recently opted to "resolve" the matter by selecting AIM's True" leadership for it, bringing in Bellecourt to represent the organization in this area next week. This was done without consulting, and ultimately over the firm objections of, the local AIM chapter. Bellecourt, for his part, readily agreed to participate in such a fundamental disrespect to other Indians. At present, battle lines are being figuratively drawn over the issue and the best fragile AIM/left unity in Colorado is seriously threatened. It is time to make sense of this confusing situation. The way things stack up is: The Bellecourt faction insists that AIM has a duty to align itself with Nicaragua's Sandinista government in resisting U.S. attempts to overthrow it. Nicaragua's "internal issues," such as Indian rights, ,autonomy and self-determination, must be postponed until after the U.S. threat to the Sandinistas has been defeated; any attempt now to come to grips with such matters could destabilize Nicaragua and play into the hands of the U.S. government. Besides, Bellecourt is wont to point out, the Sandinistas are making a genuine effort to be fair to the Miskito, Sumo and Rama Indians of Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast region. They have stopped forced relocation of these people from their traditional villages and are willing to negotiate a settlement of differences in accordance with an "autonomy plan" drafted in Managua. This should be enough, in the Bellecourt view, to convince all right-thinking people of the Sandinistas' sincerity and good-intentions. From this perspective, MISURASATA, the Atlantic Coast's representative Indian organization, and its North American supporters, who demand that Indian rights be dealt with as a first priority in Nicaragua, are either unreasonable, irresponsible or part of a CIA (contra) plot to destroy the Nicaraguan revolution. Predictably, Bellecourt has been unsparing in applying all three labels. The "New AIM" spearheaded by Means's vocal and unswerving alignment with MISURASATA, scoffs at this, pointing out that the road to colonization for American Indians has always been paved with the sincerity and good intentions of their colonizers," and that the Sandinistas' vaunted autonomy plan "reads like a rehash of the U.S. government's Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, all dressed up in Marxist language." "Indians," says Means, "have always been told that they'll just have to wait till this or that problem of this or that nation state has passed. Then everything will get better. Well, things have been 'betting better' in the U.S. all through this century, under the same conditions of non-Indian control and domination that are being suggested as appropriate in Nicaragua, and look where it's gotten us." "No," Means concludes. "The time for the Indians of Nicaragua to insure their autonomy and self-determination is now, while they still have them, not later-after they've lost them to the Sandinistas' 'need' for the same kind of total control you see being exercised by the U.S. government. The only reason there is conflict between the Sandinistas and the Indians down there is because the Sandinistas want the same kind of dominance overIndian life that the U.S. government has achieved up here. Well, AIM has fought against that sort of thing in the states, and it Only stands to reason that we'd be willing to oppose it down there." At base, the "New" AIM position boils down to the idea that the business of any movement calling itself an American Indian Movement is to support Indian struggles against governments, not to support governments at the expense of Indian fights and interests. This posture has been termed "unsophisticated" by some members of the Bellecourt faction. Vernon himself has stated that it makes those lining up with Means and MISURASATA "the tools" of U.S. imperialism and part of the CIA's contra effort to destroy the Sanndinista revolution." His Opponents counter that he is "catering to the politics of the White left in North America and has completely lost touch with traditional views." In such a contest of claim and counter-claim, the weight lies heavily with the MISURASATA supporters. Even the Sandanistas' "hardliner" on Nicaragua's "Indian problem," Interior Minister Tomas Borge, has bone out of his way to separate the organization from contra groups such as ARDE. Terming MISURASATA "Indian patriots," Borge has gone on to say that it was the Sandinistas' "own mistakes" rather than CIA involvement which led to and has continued to fuel Nicaragua's government versus Indian dispute. On the other hand, Bellecourt, along with the bulk of the White left in the U.S., seems to refuse to get the message, clinging to the notion that-because they are "progressive"-the Sandinistas must be "essentially correct" in their policies. In part, this is perhaps due to Vernon's having made a career the past couple of years of trotting about the county with a slide show(assembled in Nicaragua while he was an official guest of the Sandinistas) and lecture designed to tell the left precisely that. This has apparently worked out so well that Vernon poses as "the real Indian" who tells the lefties what they wished to think and believe in the first place. Clearly, for him to now become critical, would be to look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth; his income and sudden new status as an "international Indian leader"(accorded lately in such illustrious left-wing publications as the Militant) would undoubtedly suffer as a result. Aside from the mud-spattering in which both sides have engaged, a number of substantive procedural issues have been raised by the supposed AIM split, not least of which are the following questions:
These are serious questions, deserving of serious answers. They center upon the more general question framed by Russell Means: "What sort of support can Indians p here expect from a self-proclaimed and self-perpetuating 'leadership' which is willing to sell out the interests of Indians in Nicaragua-and to go to any lengths in doing it-all in exchange for the petty profits and petty power of personal popularity among the White radical chic?" It was a very near thing, this attempted takeover by a small clique of ideological brown-nosers. In the end there is a no "New AIM." There is only AIM, a movement whose meaning and spirit is embodied in its willingness to "defend Indian rights, any place, any time, including Nicaragua." Those who subscribe to such principles are AIM. Those, such as Bellecourt, who have drifted away from these core values, may be justly said to have left the movement on their own initiative. No amount of insistence to the contrary, or pointing to certification of leadership status by non-Indian "allies," can change that fact. The real AIM has once again stood itself up, shed a layer of flabby sophistry, and reasserted its basic integrity. The basics of movement policy are back out in the open for all to see. It's about time. |
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