Chief Raoni and the Kayapo under attack (Amazon Watch News)

[Niri Te]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

I think low tech resistance can go a long way. Have you seen the movie "Coconut Revolution" - These people managed to fend off mining corporations to deforest and dig up their island for many years, making slingshot guns, using coconut oil to drive cars and sustain themselves, capturing weapons of the enemy,... very fascinating and I think more analogous to what is happening here than Vietnam. Its not an outright war yet there and I seriously doubt that any other government would look away if they use Napalm and Agent Orange on indigenous peoples in this century. If not looking away would be enough to stop it is another matter, but I think that they have much less violent yet still effective tactics these days to get indigenous peoples off the land if they want to. Just look at Australia. You just have to destroy the livelyhood of the population by depriving them of their ability to feed themselves, then you come in and offer them food and medicine, but only if they come to villages you build and then with medicine and food comes alcohol and drugs and within a few years you can claim that these people are all just lazy drunkards who beat their wives and start to move these people that now cannot resist anymore into settlements under the pretense to care for them. That is how it is done these days, not with Napalm.
So I guess to fend of armed thugs of farmers, miners, loggers - the indingeous people can (but should not have to!) use low tech armed resistance. Especially as the encroachment on their lands is not exactly legal. Against the government it would be a lot harder, especially because they are not actually fighting with armed thugs but with politics, buerocracy, propaganda, social engineering, deception and if all that fails with armed thugs - erm I meant to say police forces.

This was a VERY well thought out reply, thank you for posting it. I have a question for you, can their low tech traps be lethal, to the person tripping them, or should they just limit themselves to destroying the construction equipment?
Back in the early seventies and early eighties, there were groups that used potentially violent methods to slow, and in certain local areas, stop clear cutting in the United States. The most insidious of these was "Tree Spiking". While it was demonized by many, it did not bring napalm, or armored columns down on these people. The reason for that was that they were dispersed among the general population.
Once the Brazilian Government ant the power industry get their way, and remove these people from their homeland, I think that they should disperse within the general population, and then, with unpredictable and random acts, make them pay with money and blood for what they did.
That will NOT get them back their pristine lands, but it WILL make the governmental, and industrial thugs think long and hard about doing it again.
It would be a case of their losing a battle, (their land), but winning a war, (stopping the wholesale destruction of the Amazon. please respond to my raising the question of the tribe changing their tactics and goals for a victory, Auoraglacialis, I am curious to hear what you think. When the Brazilian Government floods them out of their home, should they just roll over and die, or should they make make the organizations that did this to them pay dearly.
You see, Raiden, you CAN disagree with me WITHOUT "politely" calling me a functional idiot, without any speaking or debating skills. By the way, just because someone disagrees with you, and does so passionately, does not qualify their reply to you as a rant. I do not deny your right to disagree with me, but your accusatory stance marks you out to be the one who needs to bone up on their ability to debate in a more civil manner.
Brie