Trump tweets about white farmers while indigenous peoples face annihilation
Trump tweets about white farmers while indigenous peoples face annihilation
Raj Patel
As the alt-right obsesses over white South African farmers, indigenous activists are murdered in ever greater numbers
Sun 26 Aug 2018 22.24 EDT
The first time Donald Trump tweeted about Africa, he agonised over white people. After watching Fox News coverage of the South African land debate last week, the President of the United States instructed his secretary of state to look into the large scale killing of farmers. Followers of Peter Duttons nine months tenure at Australias home affairs ministry will recognise the lie, peddled by the alt-right, that black South Africans are targeting white farmers. As the Guardian reported in June, farmer and farmworker murders are at a 20-year low.
But for white people living in every settler state, theres an awkward question that translates from the Americas to Australia to South Africa to Canada and beyond. How did land become private property, and is that property legitimate? Land struggles, it turns out, might be a way of teaching racists a bit of history and geography.
For as long as the modern state and corporation have existed, indigenous people have faced annihilation as they defend their land. According to Global Witness, last year saw a record 207 indigenous activists killed from India to Honduras while resisting mining and, above all, agribusiness industries. In order for the supplies of palm oil to continue uninterrupted, the indigenous people who live in suitable forest find themselves an impediment to profit.
The perpetrators wash the blood from their hands certain that governments wont trouble them. In Brazil, for instance, the butchering of the Gamela indigenous people by farmers and security forces has yet to be prosecuted. Violence against activists has been met by the government of Michel Temer with a rollback of legislation protecting indigenous people and further support to agribusiness. Agribusiness returned the favour, protecting Temer from prosecution for corruption.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/27/trump-tweets-about-white-farmers-while-indigenous-peoples-face-annihilation
Edidtorials and other articles:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016214474