Solidarity and Self-Determination
The letter provided some small details on the situation in Guam, in particular impediments that have been put in place by the United States and its courts. But more than anything it represented a request for the UN to send a visiting mission to Guam to help bring attention to our quest for decolonization. It remains to be seen if the UN will indeed send a visiting mission, like they did in 1979 on the eve of the draft constitution for the island being voted on. Time will tell, but in the meantime, my two columns give some of the context for international solidarity on the issue.
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Solidarity Will Help With Self-Determination
by Michael Lujan Bevacqua
Pacific Daily News
August 4, 2017
The US flag can be found all over Guam,
and because of this it can be easy to forget that just because this well-known
configuration of red, white and blue colors flies over Guam, doesn’t mean that
Guam is a part of the United States. We know this because there is over a
century of court cases that reinforce this. We know this because even in the
recent ruling of the Davis case, Justice Tydingco Gatewood argued that while
some of the Constitution should apply to Guam, other parts shouldn’t. We also
know this because as more than one non-voting delegate has reminded me
interviews, their role in Congress is often to remind the US Congress about the
territories and that it has control over them.
We know that our relationship to the
United States and the rest of the world is defined by a broad grey sea of
inclusions and exclusions. Sometimes Guam is allowed to participate in
international or regional forums, sometimes it isn’t. The same ambiguity
persists at the national level as well.
Because of this lack of a formal or
stable place within the international or national systems of governance and
recognition, the concept of solidarity is of critical importance. Without a
formal place, you are invisible and without direct power over the structure
around you. There was ways that you can fight for power, that you can seize it,
but solidarity is an important part of changing your invisibility or your lack
of visibility and therefore lack of relevance of standing, into something different,
something more strategic, something from which a campaign to change the
political structure can be launched.
As the movement for decolonization and
independence grows in Guam, it is important that we find ways to connect it to
other potentially similar movements, which can offer lessons or inspirations on
the way forward. This was the case in the past, where members of Nasion Chamoru
or OPI-R achieved a greater sense of their place in the world through
interacting with people who were members of Black, Brown and Red Power
movements in the US. It was also true in general from Chamorros who traveled to
the US in the postwar years and felt affinity with African Americans, Hispanic
Americans and Native Americans after seeing them struggle against segregation,
racism and land displacement.
My last three appearances at the United
Nations to testify before the Committee of 24 at its regional seminar have all
reminded me of the importance of solidarity. For those of us who remain
colonies, non-self-governing territories, the pieces that still don’t quite fit
in the global order, we are often forgotten about or ignored by much of the
world, including our own colonizers. Solidarity can be difficult as our
experiences are so diverse and the geographic distance mirrors historical,
cultural and political differences between these 17 colonies spread across the
Pacific, the Caribbean and the Atlantic. But those colonies that come to the
United Nations and build alliances with nations willing to support their cause
can make progress. Those who don’t remain stuck.
This week Governor Calvo and the
Commission on Decolonization approved a formal letter to the UN, requesting
that they send a visiting mission to Guam in order to ascertain the status of
our quest for decolonization and also make clear what impediments the
administering power is placing before us. Next week I will discuss more about
what a UN visiting mission might mean, but in the meantime, I offer my thanks
to the Commission and Governor Calvo for taking this important step in helping
building greater international solidarity to support our efforts.
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UN Visit Could Help Decolonization Effort
by Michael Lujan Bevacqua
Pacific Daily News
August 11, 2017
The United Nations is an institution that is meant to
represent the bright future of humanity, the uniting of diverse peoples and
countries under common causes for our collective betterment. But in contrast to
conservative elements in certain countries that see the UN as floating above
the world, infringing on national sovereignty, in truth the UN is simply a
reflection of it. It can be no better and no worse than individual countries
allow. As one US politician once noted, the purpose of the UN is not to take
the world to heaven, but rather prevent the world from dragging itself down to
hell.
As such, in terms of Guam’s continuing colonial status,
blaming the UN, the Government of Guam or the people of Guam doesn’t make
sense. We do not, thankfully live in the days where hundreds of millions of
people around the world are fighting in bloody wars for their independence and
decolonization. We live in the age after that, where given the harsh and tragic
lessons of the past, all colonizers are now supposed to give up their colonies
and faithfully support their aspirations for decolonization.
But this is the way the world should be, but not the way it
is. The US has fallen far short of its obligation to assist Guam and its
colonized people in moving a head on a process of decolonization. This is due
to a mixture of imperial apathy, colonial ignorance and military strategic
self-interest. For smaller countries, the UN and the international community
has clear options to try to compel a recalcitrant nation to adhere to its commitments.
But for larger countries, especially those with large militaries and permanent
seats on the UN Security Council, the UN as a body is usually powerless.
As I wrote last week, for a place like Guam, international
solidarity is key, as allies can advocate on your behalf and try to reason with
countries like the US to stop their obstruction. But in terms of the UN
infrastructure itself, one way that a long stagnant process of decolonization
can hopefully be kick-started, is through the sending of visiting missions.
Since the 1960s several dozen UN visiting missions have been
undertaken to visit various non-self-governing territories. These missions
provide important on-the-ground information to the UN and draw international attention
to issues that an administering power may want to keep hidden. One such mission
visited Guam in 1979 in order to witness a vote on the proposed constitution
for the island. The visiting mission consisted of three countries, Sierra
Leone, Trinidad and Tobago and Syria. They spent eight days on the island meeting
with government officials and community groups.
Much of what the community expressed to the visiting mission
still persists today. The main issues of contention in Guam’s relationship to
the US was lack of voting rights and democratic participation but also Guam’s
inability to control the basics of its economy due to federal immigration
control and federal policies such as The Jones Act. For a variety of reasons, the
proposed constitution was rejected by a wide margin of voters.
A visiting mission will not solve our decolonization
dilemmas, but it is a step in the right direction. We currently reside in a
place of political invisibility. We have a great deal of military visibility,
as we saw this past week in terms of North Korean threats to the island. But in
political terms, as a place in need of assistance in moving to the next stage
of our political development, we lack the allies and a presence in any
international conversations. A visiting mission and the attention it might
garner could help to fix that.
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