in the U.S. during the nineteenth century is still continuing in South America. The physical extermination of the jungle Indians in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador is nearing its successful completion. The conquistadores started it with their swords and it is being continued by huge landowners and mining and oil interests with dynamite, napalm and bacteriological warfare.
Brazilian Indian Massacre. Darci Ribeiro, the leading authority on Brazilian Indians, calculates from the data collected during the past 50 years that there won't be a single Indian left alive in Brazil in 1980.
The tragically immense losses of human life have been documented by the Brazilian government in a report totalling 5,115 pages. "The March" , 1968 document, accuses the Indian Protection Service, which was started in 1910 to serve and protect the Indian, of connivance and often "ardent cooperation" in the extermination of the tribes. Settlers and huge landowners working with corrupt politicians are shown to have seized Indian lands. Evidences of bacteriological warfare (small pox) and poisoned food supplies, abduction of children, mass' murder by gunmen, and other atrocities are presented. Furthermore, the government lays sub. stantial blame on "the disastrous impact of missionary activities".
In the thirties there were 19,000 Munducurus; only 1,200 were left in 1968.
A single family, several individuals or a lone grandmother are the sole remnants of many tribes, and certain ones have disappeared completely, e.g. the Tapaiunas, who were presented with gifts of sugar poisoned with arsenic. Today, it is estimated that only 50,000-100,000 Indians survive in the upper Amazon Basin and the Mato Grosso, whereas 50 years ago there were about one million.
Senhor Figueiredo, the Attorney General, claims that 62 million dollars in cattle and property has been stolen from the Indians in the past decade. According to him, "It is not only through the embezzlement of funds, but by the admission of sexual perversions, murders and all other crimes listed in the penal code against Indians and their property, that one can see that the Indian Protection Service was for years a den of corruption and indiscriminate killings."
The head of the Indian Protection Service and 134 of its employees have been implicated in illegal sales of Indian lands and other crimes. The head of the Service, the former Air Force Major Luis Vinhas Neves was accused of 42 crimes, including several murders, the illegal sale of Indian lands and the embezzlement of $300,000 from these sales.
A Brief Historical Survey. When the Europeans first arrived in the area which is now Brazil, the land was inhabited by 3-6 million Indians, according to population experts. Wherever they could be reached, the Indians were murdered, or enslaved for labour in mines and on plantations. However, the atrocities of the conquistadores, coupled with diseases such as small pox, measles, etc., soon exterminated the population of the coastal areas to the extent that importation of African slaves became highly profitable for the landowners.
The rubber industry, which depended on Indian workers to tap the Hevea tree of the Amazon, was characterised by unusual excesses and tortures, kidnapping, and enslavement of workers. One company alone, the Peruvian Amazon Company (British owned), is held responsible for the death of 30,000 Indians. Accounts (by Walter Hardenburg and Sir Roger Casement) of the atrocities perpetrated against the Huitoto and other tribes caused a worldwide scandal. (It must be noted, however, that these exposures occurred at a time when the successful Malayan rubber plantations ended the industry in Brazil. Thus, accusations could be shouted and consciences pacified without a loss of profit.) Consequently, the Indian Protection Service was formed in 1910.
During World War II there was a revival of the rubber tapping industry in the region near the borders of Peru and Colombia. Once again Indians were victimised: loss of an ear for the first "offence" of not fulfilling the daily work quota, loss of another for the second offence and death for the third. Legally protecting the Indians was difficult: whenever Brazilian auth orities arrived, the rubber companies merely moved their workers across the border.
Presently, small-scale rubber tapping still continues. Senhora Noves da Costa Vale of the Federal Police has reported that Colombians and Peruvians hunt for Ticuna Indians in Brazil and the landowners on all sides of the border enslave Indian workers.
The Massacre of the Cintas Largas. The Cintas Largas occupied several villages in the Aripuana region. They managed to survive the routine ttacks of the rubber tappers of that area by cultivating a constant alertness and a rare dis trust of strangers. Unfortunately for them, rare metals have been found in their region and Rubber tappers hang an Indian woman prior to murdering her with machete blows. (From the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.
The plans for disposing of the Cintas Largas were organised under the leadership of Francisco de Brito of the rubber extraction firm of Arruda and Junqueirra. A series of expeditions succeeded in clearing the area of the Indians except for one large village. Then it was decided to attack the village from the air during an annual feast when the entire population would be gathered together. A plane was hired for the attack and was loaded with sticks of dynamite.
Another expedition was organised to destroy the survivors who had escaped into wilder and more inaccessible regions. A detailed report of what happened subsequently was tape-recorded by one of the murderers, Ataide Pereira, who had never been paid the $15 promised him for his part in the crimes. "There were six of us, men of experience, commanded by Chico Luis... It took a good many days upstream to the Serra da Norte. After that we lost ourselves in the woods, although Chico had brought a Japanese compass with us. In the end the plane found us. It was the same plane they used to massacre the Indians, and they threw us down some provisions and ammunition. After that we went on for five days. Then we ran out of food again. We came across an Indian village that had been wiped out by a gang led by a gunman called Tenente, and we dug up some of the Indians' mandioca for food... It was another five days after that before we saw any smoke. Even then the Cintas Largas were days away. We were all pretty scared of each other... We were handpicked for the job, as quiet as any Indian party when it came, to slipping in and out of trees... As soon as we spotted their village we made a stop for the night. As soon as it was light the Indians all came out and started to work on some huts they were building. Chico had given me the job of seeking out the chief and killing him. I notice there was one of these Indians who wasn't doing any work. All he did was to in the chest with the first shot. I was supposed to be the marksman of the team, and although only have an ancient carbine, I can safely say I never miss. Chico gave the chief a burst with his tommy-gun to make sure, and after that he let the rest of them have it...all the other fellows had to do was to finish off anyone who showed signs of life What I'm coming to now is brutal, and was all against it. There was a young Indian girl they didn't shoot, with a kid of about five in one hand, yelling his head off. Chico started after her and I told him to hold it, and he said, "All these bastards have to be knocked off'"...
and then he grabbed hold of the woman -who, by the way, was very pretty. Be reasonable, I said. Why do you have to kill her?' In my view, apart from anything else, it was a waste. What's wrong with giving her to the boys?' I said.
"They haven't set eyes on a woman for six weeks. Or failing that we could take her back with us and make a present of her to De Brito.
There's no harm in keeping in with him.' All he said was, 'If any man wants a woman he can go and look for her in a forest.' "He tied the Indian girl up and hung her head downwards from a tree, legs apart, and chopped her in half right down the middle with his machete. Almost with a single stroke I'd say. The village was like a slaughter-house. He calmed down after he'd cut the woman up, and told us to burn all the huts, and throw the bodies into the river. After that we grabbed our things and started back. We kept going until nightfall and we took care to cover our tracks. If the Indians had found us it wouldn't have been much use trying to kid them we were just ordinary backwoodsmen. It took us six weeks to find the Cintas Largas, and about a week to get back. I want to say now that personally I've nothing against Indians. Chico found some minerals and took them back to keep the company pleased. The fact is that the Indians are sitting on valuable land and doing nothing with it. They've got a way of finding the best plantation land and there's all these valuable minerals about too. They have to be persuaded to go, and if all else fails, well then, it has to be force. Prospects. It must be noted that Ataide Pereira in his recorded statement indicated that "Indian hunts" were not uncommon. Likewise, Padre Valdemar Veber has charged "It is not the first time that the firm of Arruba and Junqueira has committed crimes against the Indians. A number of expeditions have been organised in the past. This firm acts as a cover for other undertakings who are interested in acquiring land, or who plan to exploit the rich mineral deposits existing in this area."
There is some grounds for hope in the creation of the Xingu National Park, which excludes missionaries and discourages visitors. The Park shelters about a dozen tribes and may include a total of 4,000 people if the proposed extensions materialise. Likewise, the National Park of the Tumucumac may succeed in saving a few hundred although slavers from Surinam have been reported kidnapping Indians from the Park itself.
On the whole, however, the picture is very bleak. In spite of the protests, accusations, and contessions, not a single trial has been held.
Since the government is wholly in the hands of a few interrelated huge landowning families, whose interests lie in the development and settement of the vast hinterland, an abrupt departure from present policies is unlikely. Furthermore, the occurrence of rare metals makes this area especially lucrative to foreign investment. In the face of all these profits to be gained, naked jungle Indians are expendable.
Z tand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Reggane Films (Paris -ONCIC (Algeria) The film "Z" is based on a political tion which took place in Greece in 1963. Each character has a real counterpart and each incident occurred as shown on the screen. "Z" (zei) means "he lives" and was the battle-cry of the mass-based youth movement organised after the assassination of Gregory Lambrakis, a Socialist deputy to Parliament. Some knowledge of recent Greek history is essential to place the film in any intelligent context.
World War II left a bitter legacy in Greece. In 1944 the guerrilla army of the resistance attempted to form a government only to be defeated by the British, who supported the monarchy. A second period of struggle took place in 1947-49, with the U.S. aiding the monarchy. The main result of the two unsuccessful revolutions was that tens of thousands of Greeks who had fought against the Nazis went into exile or wete sent to prison while many Nazi collaborators became established in the Greek police and armed forces. The 1950s were marked by economic recovery at the cost of political freedom. By the early 1960s, a new generation of Greeks began to demand an end to political repression. The most prominent spokesman for this new ferment was Gregory Lambrakis.
Lambrakis was an extremely attractive personality, a man of the left but without ties to the lost revolutions of the 1940s. An athletic hero of the Balkan games, an associate professor at the Athens Medical College and a physician who ran a free clinic for the poor, he was widely known for his activities against the placement of nuclear weapons in Greece. Early in 1963, Lambrakis had used his parliamentary immunity to make a one-man peace march from Marathon to Athens in defiance of a government ban. Later that spring he began to speak all over Greece against the proposed placement of Polaris missiles in Greece. One of these speeches took place in Thessaloniki on May 22. When Lambrakis left the rally he was struck on the rear of the head with a blunt metal object by a man riding in the rear of a three-wheeled motorcycle. The assassination took place in full view of Inspector General Mitsou of the Northern gendarmerie and Colonel Kamoutsis, head of the Thessaloniki gendarmerie.
Mass mourning and protests The murder caused a national trauma. When Lambrakis' body was taken by train from Thessaloniki to Athens, every crossing was locked and guarded to prevent incidents. In Athens hundreds of thousands took part in the funeral procession. The first mass protests since the Civil War broke out all over Greece. In response to this tremendous public pressure, the government sent an examining magistrate to make an official investigation. The young magistrate iki to persuad the magistrate to stop his inquiry. but the official would not relent. The following day the government fell. By the end of the month, the assassins, the head of a rightist group to which they belonged and a half dozen police officers were indicted. Mitsou and Kamoutsis were among those officially charged with complicity in the assassination.
The assassination and the accompanying police scandal helped to bring a liberal government to power whose minor reforms soon led to its dismissal by the king. Elections were put off for two years with demonstrations in the street becoming larger and more militant. The newly formed Lambrakis Youth Clubs were especially active during this period (1964-67). On the eve of elections in 196 , a group of extrem ist right-wing colonels staged a coup d'etat. That junta still rules Greece.
The regime of the colonels has been marked by torture and persecution even more severe than the Nazi period. Gree artists have been in the forefront of those protesting the regime. Greek-born director Costa-Gavras was living in Paris at the time of these events. He was fascinated by the parallel between the Lambrakis case and the Ben Barka affair of 1965 in which an Algerian opposition leader had been kidnapped and murdered with the connivance of the French police. With the assistance of Jorge Semprun (La Guerre Est Finie), Costa-Gavras adapted the novel "Z" by Vassilis Vassilikos for the screen. The resulting script could find no financial backing in Europe, not even among Eastern bloc nations. The project was saved when the gerian government gave its support film is not primarily about the Greek hero but about political crimes of the type which killed him. The enormous history which his assassination opened and closed is hardly dealt with. The film focuses on the mechanics of the crime and the courageous investigating judge. Almost no background is given on "Z". He has no real political dimension. Still less is told about the underlying motivation of the conspirators. The men who commit the murder are from the seminoodlum element mat testers u every cub* polis; that these particular individuals belong to a right-wing group is of almost no ideological importance. They are police auxiliaries to be The Black Dwart used to foment public disorders. The officers who manipulate there get t and have vaguer connections to the palace. reason is given for the crime other than the basic antipathy of the right wing to any anti-war movement.
Police frantic The film makes it clear that "Z's" death was accidental; he was not to be killed but only intimidated by a severe beating. When he dies, the police are frantic to make his death appear an accident. The key figure at this point is the investigating judge, played superbly by Jean-Louis Trintignant. He is not an anti-war activist, a leftist, or even a liberal. He is a man of the establishment with all the proper family connections. He accepts the police explanation that the deputy was the victim of an automobile accident until x-rays show the fatal blow was made by a heavy blunt object and not a moving vehicle. Key witnesses who have supposedly not seen one another use identical phrases to describe events and they use the metaphors of a particuar right-wing group. Enterprising reporters an riends of "- turn up new witnesses and additional photographic evidence. The judge puts together the evidence meticulously and prepares his indictments. A high official comes from the capital to counsel against the action and to warn the judge of dangers to his career. The judge does not relent. The indictments are made.
The film moves at a sensational pace, especially once the actual investigation gets under way. The immense technical skill of the director and the visceral excitement of the story cloud some key flaws. The ill-defined motivations become increasingly important, for the film's events take place in a social vacuum. Aside from a few minor street scuffles there is no sense of a nation in convulsion. When the police are indicted in an exhilarating sequence of great humour and vivacity, there is an immense feeling of victory. But who has won? What has been won? Is the state vindicated because indion and intimidation? Has "7 Won? Hast won? Has the nation gained? The left is astonished that the judge remains honest; the right is indignant that he has not "played the game" and defended his class interests.
The focus on the judge interferes greatly with the directors exted alted plead The the type of politics exemplified by "Z".
only specific political debate comes sale in the film when doctors are still hoping to save ment must e zealous in following the law and its pres statements must stick scrupulously to what can be proven. A more radical spokesman argues that they must tear the city apart if necessary They must ask the students and workers to take action in the streets. His friend argues for formal appeals to proper agencies. "Do you want te ppeal to the Red Cross and the Human Right Commission?" the radical snaps. "Do you want to take up arms?" he is answered. "Why not?"
he shouts. The film does not take sides on the issue except to state factually that after the oup the first speaker was sent to a prison cam hile the second was murdered by the police Lacks political information ately, their effect will be lost on those not familiar with their lyrics or history.
What is disappointing about the film is not so much what is in it as what is not. Costa-Gavras has spoken of the film as an anti-junt veapon but "Z" does not go much beyond pro Greece in terms of "Never on Sunday ation upon which to make serious judgements.
"Z" means "he lives" but Lambrakis is dead.
"Z" was the symbol of a mass movement but hat movement is shattered. The illusory jud ial victory and the responsible demonstration were wiped away by tanks and torture. In present Greece even the classic sages have been banned as anti-Greek. The film "Z" tells us little about how the murder of Lambrakis links up with these cataclysmic events.
'Z" does deal brilliantly with the genera olitical decay which precedes a period of ty anny. All the elements are there: the derangement of the judicial process, the muting of the mass media, the corruption in government, the murder of key leaders, the intimidation of the masses, the barbarisation of the police. Costa-Gavras does not sermonise but he tells his story so well that the web of rot is automatically exosed in the most organic and convincing fas on. Jorge Semprun writes of his film, "Let' not try to reassure ourselves, this type of thing loesn't always only happen elsewhere, it hap ing on time. There is apparent law and orde No demonstrations in the streets. No critics c 20th rebruary 19/U rage 10 starting a BLACK DWAR gh to create interest and promote sales contact lan GLASGOW BLACK DWARF CIRCLE is now meeting Marxist Studies. Winter issue-GEC-EE Merseyside The theory of state capitalsm. Ken tarbuck. maustn of backward countries: Ernest Germain. Buk harin and socialist realism: B. Biro. . British Trotskyist nat, 52 pages. 3/4 p&p -SOLIC HOLOS. John BMS Publications, 16a Holm- New printed for 3e Kose London N. W.
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formation, theoretical articl contributions by lea ders from three continents. Available from The Black Dwarf, 182 Pentonville Road, London NI. Annual LI lOs post tree (o issues). Inalvicual cialism 41. Editorial: The New Militancy; Survey and the Russian Offensive; Th Debate Nigel Harris, Malcati Caldwell-The Revol Role ot ine reasants. Andre. Sayers:
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or write to The down in communications (the latter is a result of the Roy carsals are beginning on new material W on new material which we will be ready later this year. Meanwhile anyon Operaio; Punfield & Bar second sue to inace toni active no tir treat and bring some imagination
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