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Protests again in Denver for Columbus/Italian heritage day
Here is a roundup of online stories about the large protests that historically have occurred and will occur this year in Denver. Why does Denver have the biggest conflict over this? Well, Colorado AIM takes a lot of leadership in this, it seems like they have a big parade, while other locations such as the Bay Area don't have thousands of people who refuse to change the parade name. Last year's protest wasn't so exciting compared to before, but it isn't over. What is interesting is that this all seems to be about the fact that they want them to simply change the title of their parade, but the paraders just won't do it.
Mainstream press today as protest is starting: http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3242107,00.html
and yesterday:
Columbus parade protests to return
Plan for obstruction makes arrests likely http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3233176,00.html
Here is a good article about what has been happening for the past few years. The protests have been pretty inspired and creative. They have walked to places of symbolic importance and broke up into four groups with different themes, rather than just having the mundane march/listen to ANSWER speeches procedure: http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/column82g.html
There was a black bloc two years ago that the police were chasing around a parking structure: http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/3737/index.php
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0310246
What's planned this year http://transformcolumbusday.org/
(interesting article on FBI randomly harrassing this house of young people in Denver [nytimes.com] )
AIM blog. AIM calls for nonviolent Direct Action against convoy of conquest
http://www.coloradoaim.org/blog/
Colorado indymedia seems really dead. They haven't had anything on their newswire in days.
and yesterday:
Columbus parade protests to return
Plan for obstruction makes arrests likely http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3233176,00.html
Here is a good article about what has been happening for the past few years. The protests have been pretty inspired and creative. They have walked to places of symbolic importance and broke up into four groups with different themes, rather than just having the mundane march/listen to ANSWER speeches procedure: http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/column82g.html
There was a black bloc two years ago that the police were chasing around a parking structure: http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/3737/index.php
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0310246
What's planned this year http://transformcolumbusday.org/
(interesting article on FBI randomly harrassing this house of young people in Denver [nytimes.com] )
AIM blog. AIM calls for nonviolent Direct Action against convoy of conquest
http://www.coloradoaim.org/blog/
Colorado indymedia seems really dead. They haven't had anything on their newswire in days.
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AP
DENVER (AP) - Police arrested protestors at Denver's Columbus Day parade in a peaceful and highly organized protest.
The protestors oppose the celebration of Columbus Day, an event celebrated by Americans of Italian descent, because they say it led to the genocide of American Indians.
People led by the American Indian Movement walked from the Capitol Building to 19th and Blake. A smaller group then entered the street designated as the parade route and sat down.
Police warned them to leave before beginning to take them into custody.
DENVER (AP) - Police arrested protestors at Denver's Columbus Day parade in a peaceful and highly organized protest.
The protestors oppose the celebration of Columbus Day, an event celebrated by Americans of Italian descent, because they say it led to the genocide of American Indians.
People led by the American Indian Movement walked from the Capitol Building to 19th and Blake. A smaller group then entered the street designated as the parade route and sat down.
Police warned them to leave before beginning to take them into custody.
Still, Colorado Indymedia seems to have gone to sleep. Is there a better site for Colorado?
DENVER (Reuters) - About 200 American Indians and supporters were arrested on Saturday for standing in the path of a Columbus Day parade in downtown Denver that commemorates the Italian explorer they blame for the genocide of indigenous peoples.
Carrying signs that read: "Columbus: America's first terrorist" and "We were here first," about 300 opponents of the parade stood in its path. Police stopped the parade a block before it reached the protesters and told them to move. About 200 refused and were arrested.
In 1907, Colorado became the first U.S. state to make Oct. 12 a holiday, the reason American Indians have campaigned in Denver for 15 years to change the name of the holiday. The holiday has been changed to the second Monday in October.
"We're here to protest a few racists who continue to honor Columbus," said Russell Means, a longtime American Indian activist.
The Indians want parade organizers to drop Columbus' name and have said their actions were not anti-Italian.
Parade organizers said the Oct. 12 anniversary of Columbus' landing in the New World in 1492 was the occasion for a recognized holiday, with government offices, courts and schools closed.
"As long as it is on the calendar, we will celebrate this day along with every other state," George Vendegnia, one of the parade organizers, said.
DENVER (Reuters) - About 200 American Indians and supporters were arrested on Saturday for standing in the path of a Columbus Day parade in downtown Denver that commemorates the Italian explorer they blame for the genocide of indigenous peoples.
Carrying signs that read: "Columbus: America's first terrorist" and "We were here first," about 300 opponents of the parade stood in its path. Police stopped the parade a block before it reached the protesters and told them to move. About 200 refused and were arrested.
In 1907, Colorado became the first U.S. state to make Oct. 12 a holiday, the reason American Indians have campaigned in Denver for 15 years to change the name of the holiday. The holiday has been changed to the second Monday in October.
"We're here to protest a few racists who continue to honor Columbus," said Russell Means, a longtime American Indian activist.
The Indians want parade organizers to drop Columbus' name and have said their actions were not anti-Italian.
Parade organizers said the Oct. 12 anniversary of Columbus' landing in the New World in 1492 was the occasion for a recognized holiday, with government offices, courts and schools closed.
"As long as it is on the calendar, we will celebrate this day along with every other state," George Vendegnia, one of the parade organizers, said.
From the SF Bay Guardian last year: (thanks Tommi and James)
by tommi avicolli mecca
Sacco and Vanzetti Day
AS A SOUTHERN -Italian American from a working-class Little Italy in South Philly, I have serious problems with celebrating Columbus Day. Not only is his legacy a fraud – that is, he "discovered" a land that was already occupied for thousands of years – but also he sailed for Spain, not southern Italy (or the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, as it was then sometimes called).
It's time for Italian Americans to dump this conquistador and honor instead the legacy of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two radicals from southern Italy who fought for the working people and who were executed in the electric chair in Massachusetts Aug. 23, 1927, falsely accused of a murder they did not commit.
During the trial, Judge Webster Thayer referred to Sacco and Vanzetti as "dagos," a derogatory term for Italians. After the pair's execution, Italian Americans took to the streets in protest, resulting in many arrests. Now, more than 80 years later, these two radicals are all but forgotten by the Italian American community and also by many leftists. Why is that?
I understand why Italians in this country would embrace Columbus. When we arrived here, we were the dark barbarians, considered members of a separate race from the Anglo majority (in fact, at that time our government classified humans into nine races). No Italians Need Apply signs greeted us when we looked for work. In the South, we were lynched. In 1924, southern Italian immigration was cut off, in part out of fear that southern Italian influence would bring down Anglo-Saxon culture. It makes sense Columbus would be a status symbol to a group that needed a way to prove its worth in this country.
What more powerful symbol than the very man who "discovered" the country?
I have nothing against ethnic pride. I am proud to be southern Italian. I think all ethnic groups should have their moments in the limelight. But for Italian Americans, it's best to forget the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.
There's nothing heroic or inspiring about Columbus's exploits in the "New World" – unless you like murder and subjugation. What followed from Columbus's "discovery" was hundreds of years of forced Christianization of native cultures, the slaughter of the buffalo, and the destruction of many of the land's natural resources, not to mention the enslavement of African Americans and the sequestering of Native Americans to reservations.
Sacco and Vanzetti, on the other hand, believed in the kind of revolutionary changes many of us do. They fought for decent wages and working conditions for workers. They wanted to redistribute the wealth. They were, in our modern sense, working-class heroes. And they died for it. Can there be any doubt that, had they not been "Guineas" from the wrong part of Italy, they would not have been found guilty of anything? They were victims of the kind of ethnic profiling that is still a popular sport in America: whether it's African Americans being stopped along the highways or Arab and South Asian men being rounded up on suspicion of being "terrorists."
I want Sacco and Vanzetti to inspire young Italian Americans, and young people in general, to fight for economic and social justice (as Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez do). I want their stories to be known throughout the streets of America, especially in the Little Italys. I want a day on which we remember their legacy, perhaps Aug. 23, the day they died. I want them to be the first names people think of when they think of Italian American pride in this country.
Not Christopher Columbus.
Tommi Avicolli Mecca and fellow activist James Tracy will be hosting a "Dump Columbus, Long Live Sacco and Vanzetti" reading Mon/13, 7 p.m., St. Boniface's Church, 133 Golden Gate, S.F. Donation requested. Featured readers include Giovanna Capone, Toni Mendicino, and Jim Provenzano. For more information e-mail meccacarta [at] aol.com.
by tommi avicolli mecca
Sacco and Vanzetti Day
AS A SOUTHERN -Italian American from a working-class Little Italy in South Philly, I have serious problems with celebrating Columbus Day. Not only is his legacy a fraud – that is, he "discovered" a land that was already occupied for thousands of years – but also he sailed for Spain, not southern Italy (or the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, as it was then sometimes called).
It's time for Italian Americans to dump this conquistador and honor instead the legacy of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two radicals from southern Italy who fought for the working people and who were executed in the electric chair in Massachusetts Aug. 23, 1927, falsely accused of a murder they did not commit.
During the trial, Judge Webster Thayer referred to Sacco and Vanzetti as "dagos," a derogatory term for Italians. After the pair's execution, Italian Americans took to the streets in protest, resulting in many arrests. Now, more than 80 years later, these two radicals are all but forgotten by the Italian American community and also by many leftists. Why is that?
I understand why Italians in this country would embrace Columbus. When we arrived here, we were the dark barbarians, considered members of a separate race from the Anglo majority (in fact, at that time our government classified humans into nine races). No Italians Need Apply signs greeted us when we looked for work. In the South, we were lynched. In 1924, southern Italian immigration was cut off, in part out of fear that southern Italian influence would bring down Anglo-Saxon culture. It makes sense Columbus would be a status symbol to a group that needed a way to prove its worth in this country.
What more powerful symbol than the very man who "discovered" the country?
I have nothing against ethnic pride. I am proud to be southern Italian. I think all ethnic groups should have their moments in the limelight. But for Italian Americans, it's best to forget the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.
There's nothing heroic or inspiring about Columbus's exploits in the "New World" – unless you like murder and subjugation. What followed from Columbus's "discovery" was hundreds of years of forced Christianization of native cultures, the slaughter of the buffalo, and the destruction of many of the land's natural resources, not to mention the enslavement of African Americans and the sequestering of Native Americans to reservations.
Sacco and Vanzetti, on the other hand, believed in the kind of revolutionary changes many of us do. They fought for decent wages and working conditions for workers. They wanted to redistribute the wealth. They were, in our modern sense, working-class heroes. And they died for it. Can there be any doubt that, had they not been "Guineas" from the wrong part of Italy, they would not have been found guilty of anything? They were victims of the kind of ethnic profiling that is still a popular sport in America: whether it's African Americans being stopped along the highways or Arab and South Asian men being rounded up on suspicion of being "terrorists."
I want Sacco and Vanzetti to inspire young Italian Americans, and young people in general, to fight for economic and social justice (as Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez do). I want their stories to be known throughout the streets of America, especially in the Little Italys. I want a day on which we remember their legacy, perhaps Aug. 23, the day they died. I want them to be the first names people think of when they think of Italian American pride in this country.
Not Christopher Columbus.
Tommi Avicolli Mecca and fellow activist James Tracy will be hosting a "Dump Columbus, Long Live Sacco and Vanzetti" reading Mon/13, 7 p.m., St. Boniface's Church, 133 Golden Gate, S.F. Donation requested. Featured readers include Giovanna Capone, Toni Mendicino, and Jim Provenzano. For more information e-mail meccacarta [at] aol.com.
yeah - I think one of the problems is that school and media teaches us that ethnicity, nationality, and race are pretty much synonyms, when really they are very distinct concepts (with overlapping membership groups).
I'm german-american, and for obvious reasons they could never have a day like St. Patrick's day or Cinco de Mayo etc. where everyone pretends they're german, like people all are irish on st. patrick's day, and they come out for a parade on main street waving the german flag, which would look like a nazi-fest. Due to WWII, there is just the deethnicized beer based Oktoberfest, and Frankfurters were renamed 'hot dogs' during the war. Ward Churchill (I think the top of his head is in the AP photo for this story) has an essay about going to germany and all these east Germans in 'indian clubs' came out to meet him. They do activities like making crafts styled after plains Indian art, and they dress up and have indian dances, and it's partly because they hadn't sorted out how to have pride in their own traditions without it becoming aryan nationalist (because nazis really are into heritage pride) or white supremacist. It's a good question to ask. Churchill was advising them to carefully take back their own culture and rediscover 'indigenous' central European culture that came before monarchy and negative nationalism - so for instance, he would probably be in favor of the Berkeley pagan fair where there are these people into celtic and teutonic pagan traditions. He also is in favor of white people being hyphenated europeans instead of generic 'white people', like where they recognize family traditions stemming from their ancestors in hungary or Norway, instead of 'white' just being the 'normal' hegemonic status of the united states.
All the Denver group is asking is for the italians to rename their parade the "italian heritage parade' and then they would be happy, but going by the quotations of people in the newspaper articles, this simple thought is not getting across.
I'm kind of mixed on how white people could actually functionally reclaim their heritage. AT the Prison Literature Project, the most common book request by far is for ethnicity based stuff, African American, Aztec, etc. and the level of interest in odinism and celtic history is far far higher than the norm in the non-prison population. And we know that in the prison environment that is made racialized by guards, that the odinism stuff often can be part of white power gangs, even though their letters aren't conspicuously racist usually. Also, it has been hundreds of years since monarchies in Germany have controlled the peasant culture. Like, why are all the Grimm's fairy tales about common folk selected out by princesses, and it is emphasized that princes and princesses are beautiful and wise and magically better. You know, why are there no populist folk culture stories that I'm aware of, except for this dream of being selected to join the top rank of the unfair social order. However, there still is enough stuff in every European culture that does not have to involve taking pride in subjugation of other cultures. For germany, I like the philosophers and crazy artists of the 30s, and our family friend who was a pharmacist was part of a tradition of knowing plants in the woods and their medicinal values, and pharmcists trained each other in this knowledge for hundreds of years. Stuff like that. Also, every January the streets of the Bay area fill with conifer trees pitched out after Christmas - where do we think Christmas trees came from - it wasn't in the bible... so clearly, there are a lot of traditions stemming from the pre-christian era that have been passed on through generations.
I'm german-american, and for obvious reasons they could never have a day like St. Patrick's day or Cinco de Mayo etc. where everyone pretends they're german, like people all are irish on st. patrick's day, and they come out for a parade on main street waving the german flag, which would look like a nazi-fest. Due to WWII, there is just the deethnicized beer based Oktoberfest, and Frankfurters were renamed 'hot dogs' during the war. Ward Churchill (I think the top of his head is in the AP photo for this story) has an essay about going to germany and all these east Germans in 'indian clubs' came out to meet him. They do activities like making crafts styled after plains Indian art, and they dress up and have indian dances, and it's partly because they hadn't sorted out how to have pride in their own traditions without it becoming aryan nationalist (because nazis really are into heritage pride) or white supremacist. It's a good question to ask. Churchill was advising them to carefully take back their own culture and rediscover 'indigenous' central European culture that came before monarchy and negative nationalism - so for instance, he would probably be in favor of the Berkeley pagan fair where there are these people into celtic and teutonic pagan traditions. He also is in favor of white people being hyphenated europeans instead of generic 'white people', like where they recognize family traditions stemming from their ancestors in hungary or Norway, instead of 'white' just being the 'normal' hegemonic status of the united states.
All the Denver group is asking is for the italians to rename their parade the "italian heritage parade' and then they would be happy, but going by the quotations of people in the newspaper articles, this simple thought is not getting across.
I'm kind of mixed on how white people could actually functionally reclaim their heritage. AT the Prison Literature Project, the most common book request by far is for ethnicity based stuff, African American, Aztec, etc. and the level of interest in odinism and celtic history is far far higher than the norm in the non-prison population. And we know that in the prison environment that is made racialized by guards, that the odinism stuff often can be part of white power gangs, even though their letters aren't conspicuously racist usually. Also, it has been hundreds of years since monarchies in Germany have controlled the peasant culture. Like, why are all the Grimm's fairy tales about common folk selected out by princesses, and it is emphasized that princes and princesses are beautiful and wise and magically better. You know, why are there no populist folk culture stories that I'm aware of, except for this dream of being selected to join the top rank of the unfair social order. However, there still is enough stuff in every European culture that does not have to involve taking pride in subjugation of other cultures. For germany, I like the philosophers and crazy artists of the 30s, and our family friend who was a pharmacist was part of a tradition of knowing plants in the woods and their medicinal values, and pharmcists trained each other in this knowledge for hundreds of years. Stuff like that. Also, every January the streets of the Bay area fill with conifer trees pitched out after Christmas - where do we think Christmas trees came from - it wasn't in the bible... so clearly, there are a lot of traditions stemming from the pre-christian era that have been passed on through generations.
Thanks for all the great info about Indigenious Day and Resistance and Celebration in Coloradio.
The info is going out on the FRSC webstream
http://freakradio.org
I just checked Colorado Indymedia and it has some great audio and photos!
http://colorado.indymedia.org
AUDIO
Transform Columbus Day 2004, Denver, Colorado
http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/9136/index.php
PHOTOS
Pics from Transform Columbus day
http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/9132/index.php
The info is going out on the FRSC webstream
http://freakradio.org
I just checked Colorado Indymedia and it has some great audio and photos!
http://colorado.indymedia.org
AUDIO
Transform Columbus Day 2004, Denver, Colorado
http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/9136/index.php
PHOTOS
Pics from Transform Columbus day
http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/9132/index.php
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