At a workshop during the festival called "Network meeting for action of young indigenous people," about 20 people joined a discussion on the challenges facing indigenous youth. Pauline Tangiora, a Maori elder from New Zealand who chaired the workshop, opened the meeting by encouraging participants to use their networks to report back widely from the festival and work to bring more indigenous youth to future international gatherings.

Samuel Goromido addressed the meeting, speaking about the struggle of the Kanak people in New Caledonia to win independence from France. With French colonial rule the Kanak people lost their independence, their culture, and their land, but today they are on a course toward independence, he said.

A delegate from Venezuela explained, "In Latin America we face the same problem of the exploitation of our land, and we call for the recognition of linguistic and cultural rights."

She said the new constitution enacted in Venezuela in 1999 recognizes many of these rights for the indigenous peoples. "But in Venezuela we still face many pressures on the natural resources, which we consider to be ours," she noted.

Annalucia Vermunt, from New Zealand, explained how the ruling class in New Zealand perpetuates the national oppression of the Maori people. She cited the ongoing discrimination faced by Maori, reflected in statistics of greater unemployment, poor health, low income, poor education, and greater imprisonment, which the rulers of that country justify by racist myths and stereotypes. But today these conditions have generated growing resistance, including recent protests against the police shooting of a Maori youth.

The two delegates from New Caledonia joined a lively discussion and debate about the road to independence. As a result of years of struggle by the independence movement there, New Caledonia has a timetable for "decolonization" to which the French government has agreed. The delegates learned more about the situation in Western Sahara, including the referendum on independence that the Moroccan king and the United Nations are stalling on implementing. They were also interested in finding out more about the national liberation struggle in East Timor and efforts by the new government there to find an accommodation with Portuguese imperialism, the experience in Algeria since winning independence from France four decades ago, and the example of the Cuban people in winning not just formal independence but freeing themselves from the shackles of imperialist domination by carrying out a socialist revolution.

In the halls, lobbies, and dining rooms the delegates from the Democratic Youth of Bhutan and the Student Union of Bhutan discussed their struggle against the absolute monarchical rule of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, and his use of a "national assembly" to try to give credibility to his reign. The list of human rights abuses in Bhutan includes forced conversion to Buddhism, labor conscription, and the denial of freedom of speech and freedom of movement. Today 100,000 Bhutanese live in refugee camps in Nepal, demanding repatriation to their country, he said.

A member of the All Burma Students League spoke with Linda Harris, who was representing the Young Socialists in Australia, about the character of Shining Path, a Stalinist guerrilla group in Peru. He said he thought Shining Path was a progressive political movement, but after talking with her about it decided to buy the Pathfinder pamphlet Shining Path: Evolution of a Stalinist Sect. After reading it, he said he agree with everything presented but wanted to read more and decided to buy the Education for Socialists bulletin titled "Maoism vs. Bolshevism," the New International article titled "Imperialism's March Toward Fascism and War," and the book Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by Jack Barnes.

A delegate from the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League in north Korea spoke at the discussion center on "Democracy, Human Rights, and Social Justice" about the struggle for equality by Korean youth living in Japan. He described the discrimination faced by Koreans in Japan, the history of the Japanese government's aggression against the Korean people, and its ongoing support of U.S. imperialism's forced division of his nation.

He spoke about recent right-wing attacks on Koreans in Japan, saying they are an outgrowth of Tokyo's imperialist course. "Recently, after being angered by Korean girl students wearing their national costume, the right-wing gangsters collectively attacked some girl students to beat them and tear their costume."

Participants from Asia and the Pacific came with delegations from Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, East Timor, India, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, north Korea, and Sri Lanka.

Annalucia Vermunt is a member of the Meat Workers Union in Christchurch, New Zealand.  
 
 
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