A manifesto has come out of the gathering of the First Ecosocialist International held in Venezuela and attended by approximately 100 people. It is a bold and ambitious call for "recuperation" and "reclaiming" from an indigenous perspective, with an emphasis on a "return to our roots and our original ways".
Those of us from white settler culture can only participate in a project like this from a peripheral position. The guiding cosmovision is certainly anti-modern if not specifically per-modern and there is an emphasis on knowledge systems and language which is unaccessible to us privileged First Worlders with our secular, humanist traditions.
The problem is, these Indigenous ecosocialists are going to need our (so-called Developed World) help if they are serious about "reclaiming their ancestral lands". Because no modern white person is going to respect a claim for land based on how long the Natives lived there. The struggle against neo-colonialism will be different than the old decolonization. The manifesto focuses a great deal on culture and cultural/ethnic identity in the forms of food and hairstyle and interestingly, hip hop music. Here again, it is unclear how much European culture they are willing to assimilate into this "pluralist" vision or how it is to be decided.
Because culture is not static, not a fixed entity, but a process in constant flow and flux. And a romantic, overly nostalgic yearning can be problematic; a good example is the Islamist dream of a new Caliphate or Right-wing populist yearning for an innocent past that never was or the racist dream of an olden time of genetic purity. So there is no doubt a great deal of wisdom in tradition and great value in the indigenous cosmovision, but we aren't going back. It has to be incorporated into the new way of being.
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