Earthcycles Live: Tom Goldtooth, IEN, at US Social Forum

WATCH VIDEO INTERVIEW: Tom Goldtooth, IEN, at US Social Forum
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7846819

Photo by Jerry Fisher

Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, describes the gathering of Indigenous Peoples at the US Social Forum in Detroit.

“The US Social Forum is a vehicle for movement building,” Goldtooth said, during an interview with Dallas Goldtooth, live on Earthcycles http://www.earthcycles.net/ , following a Water Ceremony held by local Indian Nations on Wednesday morning. Goldtooth describes the struggle to remove the boundaries that prevent coalitions from uniting and succeeding.

Working in the “belly of the beast,” in the US, Goldtooth said IEN is involved in building sustainable communities. “Change is not for the light hearted,” Goldtooth said, referring to the tragedy in the Gulf.

In Bolivia, Goldtooth said IEN merged with movements around the world at the World Climate Conference and examined the causes of the global social and economic problems. The result was the Peoples Accord and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“We are looking for systematic change,” Goldtooth said.

At the Social Forum, Indigenous youths and elders are calling for justice, from the Tar Sands in Canada, to protecting Treaty rights and protecting Indigenous territories from mining around the world.