The Socialist Workers Party candidates for public office in Washington unreservedly support the right of the Makah, guaranteed by treaty, to hunt gray whales. Those rights must be respected, protected, and defended. We support the vigorous reassertion of their will to preserve their tribal heritage and resist the pressures exerted by capitalist "civilization" to consummate the physical genocide of the past with cultural genocide in the present.
From Australia to Washington state, from British Columbia to South America, indigenous peoples and their rights are under attack. These racist campaigns accuse Native peoples of having "special rights," which they claim should be ended. Like Senator Slade Gorton's bill to destroy all Native American treaty rights in the United States, they are part of the "cultural war" led by rightist forces against the oppressed.
These right-wing attacks are aimed at reversing gains that indigenous people have won through decades of struggle and dividing and weakening the working class as a whole. They seek to foster resentment of the gains won by the oppressed, portraying them as a threat to the jobs and rights of other workers - or as a threat to nature and the environment.
Those, like the Sea Shepherd Society, who oppose this hunt in the name of defending whales, aid and abet this international right-wing attack on native rights and end up making the Makah a scapegoat for the decimation of whale populations. Native peoples have always been a voice for, and a steward of, the land, forests, water, and those animals and plants that populate it.
The fact is the destruction of species and the environment are the result of the workings of capitalism in the world today, not the Native peoples. Many a species has been sacrificed upon the altar of profit and greed spawned by capitalism. The capitalist class, with its military forces, carried out the genocide, oppression, and exploitation of the Native peoples at the same time it raped the environment, decimated the animals and forests, and polluted the air and water.
The entire labor movement needs to join in support for the fight for the rights of Native American peoples, explaining that their demands for land, fishing and hunting rights, and self-government are just and should be supported.
At the same time, unions must champion the need for
affirmative action for Native Americans and other oppressed
nationalities, including the use of preferential treatment
and quotas, to fight against the systematic racist employment
practices of the bosses. This could be combined with
campaigning for jobs for all through the fight for 30 hours
work for 40 hours pay and a massive public works program.
This could provide decent housing, schools, and health
facilities that are needed, not only by the Makah and other
native peoples, but all working people. Most importantly,
such a campaign would greatly strengthen the unity and
fighting capacity of the entire working class.
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