In June 2006, this global movement also obtained a formal decla-
ration on the rights of indigenous peoples, which was adopted by the
United Nations Human Rights Council.^18 Combating internal colo-
nialism, however, remains more complex than seeking conventional
decolonization, because indigenous nations can rarely aspire to their
own states.^19 They have to identify allies and seek compromises, and
they always find such possibilities on the left. In Latin America, for
instance, some progressives were worried that the pursuit of indi-
genous rights would be a distraction from the struggle against neoli-
beralism, but fruitful alliances were eventually forged. The strength
indigenous peoples gained with the recognition of their rights allowed
them, in fact, to play a key role in the revival of the “leftist–popular coali-
tions that opposed structural adjustment and trade liberalization.”^20
Again, the politics of identity ended up being constructed as left–
right politics.
The strongest opponents to the calls for recognition and equality
associated with the politics of identity are indeed on the right. Con-
servatives often deride demands for respect as mere “political correct-
ness,” they claim that measures to help minorities are unfair to
current generations that have not taken part in any injustice, they
worry about the fate of national traditions and national culture, and
consider that immigrants should be happy just to be accepted in the
country they inhabit. In the end, writes Samuel Huntington, a truly
(^18) Human Rights Council,Report to the General Assembly on the First Session of
the Human Rights Council, New York, United Nations, June 30, 2006
(daccessdds.un.org/doc/ UNDOC/LTD/G06/128/65/PDF/G0612865.pdf?
OpenElement). The Canadian government voted against this declaration, even
though it contributed to its drafting, and even though bureaucrats in the Indian
Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and Defence departments recommended approval.
This was again a left–right question: the new Conservative government of
Stephen Harper simply was not willing to go as far on aboriginal rights as the
previous Liberal government of Paul Martin. Gloria Galloway, “Back UN on
Native Rights, Ottawa Urged; Bureaucracy at Odds with PM’s Position,
Documents Show,”Globe and Mail, June 8, 2007, p. A1 (www.
theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070608.INDIGENOUS08/
19 TPStory).
20 Cairns, “Citizenship and Indian Peoples,” p. 209–12.
Donna Lee Van Cott, “Multiculturalism versus Neoliberalism in Latin
America,” in Banting and Kymlicka (eds.), Multiculturalism and the Welfare
State, pp. 272–94; Deborah J. Yashar,Contesting Citizenship in Latin America:
The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge, Cambridge
University Press, 2005, pp. 281–308.
204 Left and Right in Global Politics