Giibwanisi (Anishinaabe Nation) and Chandu Claver (Igorot indigenous people, Cordillera, Philippines)
Giibwanisi describes the significance of the eagle feather. Dr. Chandu Claver, to his left, is the Chairperson of BAYAN Canada.
Photo by alex felipe (unedited) www.alexfelipe.info / www.alexfelipe.wordpress.com [email protected]
by ILPS-Canada Commission in Support of Indigenous People’s Struggles
For many years it has been clear that the struggles of Indigenous people represent a clear threat to Canadian capitalism and its state. Oka (1990), Gustafsen Lake (1995), Ipperwash (1995), Burnt Church (1999), and Caledonia (2006) have become place names symbolizing militant Indigenous resurgence. Each of these direct confrontations over land between the Canadian state and Indigenous people gained national and international attention and served to remind us that a major contradiction within Canada is the struggle of Indigenous people against colonialism.
In recent months, we have seen the birth of Idle No More (INM), a new movement for Indigenous land rights.
INM protests swept across Turtle Island over the past several months. Bridges, railways and highways were blocked, malls and intersections were filled with round dances, hundreds of teach-ins and public meetings took place, and the movement exploded on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. While the protest organizers sought to keep the movement firmly within pacifist boundaries, it is undeniable that INM has opened up new possibilities for resistance.
It is important to note that while the INM movement has captured the popular imagination and inspired a new generation of Indigenous activists and non-native supporters, grassroots traditionalists have long been active in resisting colonialism. Whether continuing to defend Kanonhstaton, the Six Nations reclamation near Caledonia, resisting border authorities in Akewesasne, or in blocking pipeline construction on Unist’ot’en lands in “British Columbia” and countless lesser-known struggles, grassroots Indigenous activists have “Never Been Idle.”
While INM was able to mobilize considerable resistance against Stephen Harper’s legislation, the movement faced significant shortcomings. The first of these came from the movement itself. Because INM was primarily focused around making moral claims and expressly limited itself to pacifism – going so far as to discourage nonviolent direct action such as occupations and blockades – it was going to be inevitably ineffective in struggling against a ruthless government that was deeply set in its ways and unwilling to budge. The Harper government was prepared to let Chief Theresa Spence starve on her hunger strike.
Because none of the actions carried out under the INM banner grew into the kinds of spectacular confrontations seen in Oka, Caledonia or elsewhere, the INM movement was able to fuel pan-Indigenous political consciousness but not repeal the government legislation being protested against. In part, this occurred because of a specific strategy undertaken by police forces to avoid confrontation with protesters and to allow the protest to “burn themselves out”.
Another key factor has been the relative weakness of forces on the Left and throughout other oppressed and exploited communities to connect with the grassroots struggles of Indigenous people. While many non-natives participated in INM activities, the explosion into activity of INM revealed how inadequate the relationships of the left are to those struggling in “Indian country”.
Fortunately, there are some indications that this dynamic is beginning to change. At the October 2012 General Assembly of International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS-Canada) in Toronto, delegates came together from some 20 organizations representing grassroots anti-imperialist forces. What was particularly significant about this conference was the level of participation from Indigenous activists from a variety of different communities and the links that they made with other oppressed and exploited communities fighting the same opponents.
One of the outcomes of the conference was the creation of the ILPS Commission in Support of Indigenous People’s Struggles. The mandate of the Commission was set to make serious and ongoing connections with Indigenous communities across Turtle Island in order to learn from their struggles, connect with international anti-imperialist struggles, jointly advance campaigns and altogether strengthen a united front against Canadian imperialism and colonialism.
February 2013: Members of the Commission in Support of Indigenous People’s Struggles in Sevant Lake, a few hours north of Thundery Bay.
In February 2013, ILPS organizers traveled to northern Ontario Indigenous territories, Savant Lake and Mishkeegomang, home to some members of the Commission.
Gary Wassaykeesic, Mishkeegomang delegate to the ILPS Commission, said:
“I wanted (ILPS organizers) to view some of the housing conditions, the severe overcrowding, the real conditions we live in… So it was a success because (they) came up and visualized everything I talk about… I hope it happens again… There’s a lot of potential now… I don’t think they made a crack in the door, I think (they) opened the door for other people, other organizations to come in and do what ILPS wants to do… And you’re coming into a community where that’s what people need right about now.”
If connections like these can continue to be forged between Indigenous peoples struggles and the grassroots people’s struggles across united within the ILPS and across Canada, then the alliance of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist forces can actually begin to turn the tide of attacks of Canadian colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism against the people. With greater unity, defeating pieces of legislation like Harper’s Bill C-45 Omnibus bill will be the least of our tasks.
For more about ILPS–Canada, visit: http://www.ilps-canada.ca.
Statement and Call for Solidarity On International Women’s Day 2013 by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Canada
As we raise our fists on International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity with women around the world struggling for genuine liberation.
Over 100 years ago, The International Working Women’s Conference suggested March 8 to celebrate and unite the resistance efforts of working women around the globe. That day is now known to be International Women’s Day. This year on March 8th we call on all people to remember and celebrate the roles working women play in advancing the struggle against imperialism, capitalism, colonial occupation and patriarchy.
Working class women are among the most oppressed sectors of society, but they are also one of the most resilient. Organizing against imperialist aggression, capitalist exploitation and patriarchal values, world wide working class women, peasant women and other toiling women struggle for just and living wages, safe working and adequate living conditions, and ultimately an end to capitalist super-exploitation.
From Turtle Island, Palestine, the Philippines and Tamil Eelam, women are confronted by sexist violence that is rooted in capitalism, occupation, imperialism and patriarchy. During the past 20-years in Canada over 600 Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing. These deaths and disappearances have gone unpunished and unexplained by the Canadian state whose policies result in femicide against Indigenous women to further facilitate the theft of ancestral land. The Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) of the Canadian state has turned Filipina women into a captive workforce, where the violence and exploitation of employers is undocumented or erased. Rape has been used historically as a tool of imperialist occupation and war, as too many Tamil and Palestinian women can attest.
While working class and marginalized women bear the brunt of capitalist exploitation and imperialist aggression, women have never been idle. And on March 8th, 2013 we encourage everyone to rally in solidarity with women’s liberation struggles around the world.
As brothers and sisters united against imperialist and colonial aggression, we will not bend before the exploitation and violence. We will fight, we will struggle and we will continue resisting until women’s liberation is achieved. Women’s liberation is tied to the liberation of the oppressed classes and peoples and cannot be realized until the capitalist patriarchal system that thrives on gender, class, and racial inequalities is smashed.
ILPS Canada calls for an end to the economic exploitation of women, an end to sexual violence against women, an end to colonial occupation and imperialist aggression!
By Rhea Gamana
I used to say that activists, especially the youth, were just complaining, paralyzing the traffic, and that they should do more productive things rather than going out to yell on the streets. I used to say to myself that they should just go abroad and earn a living. Then they would have a better life and could be able to provide their families. I changed my attitude when I reunited with my mother. Now I understand why they do those things. I am now one of them.
My mother used to be a government employee in the Philippines, but since her salary wasn’t enough to provide for us, she decided to come to Canada and be a live-in caregiver. She left my brother and I behind. This is a common story for Filipinos.
In the last four decades, a Labour Export Policy (LEP) has been implicitly implemented to address the economic crisis in the country. This is not a long-term and people friendly solution to poverty.
The Philippine economy does not have a national industrialization plan to end underdevelopment. Instead it depends on remittances from overseas Filipino workers. Their numbers continue to rise under the administration of current President Benigno Aquino III. The LEP divides families. There are now 4500 leaving every day to work in different countries. The Philippines is the number one source country of migrants to Canada.
I was a good student and daughter in the Philippines. I took care of my family. Yet I was always sad that I couldn’t speak to my mother face-to-face if I needed advice from her.
When the time had come that we were going to reunite with her, I was nervous but happy. Prior to coming here in Canada, we attended a few orientations where they told us that Canada was a better place to achieve the future I wanted.
My Philippine educational attainment was considered nothing here in Canada. I had graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and wanted to become a lawyer or a teacher. A week after our arrival here in Canada almost 7 years ago, I applied for a job at a fast food chain.
I resigned myself to working as a part-time cashier while waiting for the right time to go back to college. After working for almost a year, my workplace got robbed. I thought I would die that day. The robber pointed the gun towards my stomach, and hit my head on the cash register.
That day changed me. I was diagnosed with PTSD, and that lasted for three years. This was not what I expected from a country like Canada. It was not what was described to us in the pre-departure orientation session we received in the Philippines.
According to a study titled “Filipinos in Canada: Economic Dimensions of Immigration and Settlement” by Dr. Philip Kelly of York University, Filipino immigrants have the highest educational attainment of all migrant groups yet still tend to be deskilled. For example, if I was a nurse in the Philippines, I could only work here as a nanny or personal support worker. In my case, I wasn’t able to use my education here in Canada at all.
Research also shows that children of Filipino migrants make less money than their parents and have a lower educational attainment. According to Statistics Canada, 32% of first generation Filipinos have a bachelor’s degree, compared to 28% of the second generation.
The Philippines is a semi-colonial country, which means that the country itself is not independent and remains under the control of Western imperialism. The Philippines is a semi-feudal nation. Big business landlords and elites exploit the natural resources and the cheap serf-like labour of the country. This results in the displacement of families who then migrate to urban areas or to other countries to find a better living.
It makes me wonder why the Canadian government only allows one family member to come to Canada if they need more people here.
The Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) is a program of the federal government allowing Canadians to import temporary migrant live-in caregivers, known around the world as domestic workers.
If they complete the program they can become Canadian citizens and sponsor their family through the reunification program. This takes an average of seven years, sometimes more. That’s a long time to be separated from your family. A long time spent taking care of the children of others, while your own need you at home.
This aspect of the program causes damage to family relationships, one that affects the children deeply—this I can tell you from personal experience.
Canadians need to be aware that we are part of this system. Not only here in Canada through our immigration policies, but also in the Philippines where Canadian imperialism contributes to forced migration. Part of our taxes goes to fund Canadian companies in the Philippines (especially in the mining sector), and Canadian military training of the Philippine armed forces to help protect those companies and forcefully displace Filipinos from the countryside through militarization.
I want a Philippines with true democracy and true independence. I want justice for the marginalized and underrepresented.
Today I am the Chairperson of Anakbayan-Toronto. We advocate for human rights, and we struggle for national industrialization that will keep Filipino families intact and ensure that no one will have to leave the country for a better life. I don’t want any child to suffer what I went through.
Anakbayan-Toronto will not stop calling for national industrialization and genuine land reform in the Philippines, This is the only way that Filipinos will be able to work decent jobs, and not have to leave the country.
by Giibwanisi
The occasion of the 200-year anniversary of the War of 1812 has brought Tecumseh back into the spotlight. The Tecumseh that many Canadians have been presented with is a great native leader who fought for the British Crown and helped save Canada from the Americans. This victor’s image of history is presented with little detail about what Tecumseh and the great alliance of Indigenous nations he led actually fought for.
Tecumseh (March 1768 – October 5, 1813) was born near the Chillicothe, located in what is now known as Old Town, Ohio. His father Pucksinwah was the head of the Kispolotha clan, and was murdered by an American hunting party when Tecumseh was only six years old, leaving him to be raised by the Shawnee and guided by his older brother.
When Tecumseh was born, a great meteor was seen streaking across the sky. This meteor was recognized to have great significance and was called the Panther Spirit by the old men. Tecumseh’s father Pucksinwah gifted him with his name Tecumseh, meaning “Panther Across the Sky”.
At age eight Tecumseh was already exhibiting the characteristics of a great leader, and by the spring of 1783 he took part in his first battle against the whites. He continued to travel across the continent, inspiring many nations and gaining recognition as more than just a magnificent warrior, but was also a political statesman, a humanitarian, a visionary, an incredible orator, and to some a prophet.
The Shawnee, like many of the northwest nations, realized that their total elimination was imminent if they did not resist the invading nations (United States and British Canada), with their flood of frontiersmen invading their lands. Tecumseh concluded that the only possible method of opposing the advancement of invading white settlers was to successfully obtain the cooperation of all the Native Nations to act with one heart and one mind.
Over the course of a decade, Tecumseh travelled throughout Turtle Island, giving speeches that inspired the Delaware, Haudenosaunee, Wyandotts, Potawatomies, Wendakes, Ottawas, Chippewas, Winnebegos, Foxes, Sacs, Menominees, Lakota, Mandans, Cheyennes, Natchez, Choctaws, Creeks, Seminoles, Chickasaws, Alabamas, Biloxis, and Cherokees. He even met with many nations usually considered traditional enemies. Tecumseh stood strong and confident proclaiming: “Brush the slavery from your eyes and create your new power, your new society.”
Tecumseh never entered into any treaty negotiations and openly condemned those who did. In one such instance with American Governor William Henry Harrison, Tecumseh said, “How can we have confidence in the white people? When Jesus Christ came on earth, you killed him and nailed him to the cross.”
As the Americans and British were set to return to war in 1812, Tecumseh chose the lesser of two evils and allied his cause and supporters with the British.
Although he aligned with the British, he maintained a vision of an alternative society, a society where all Native Nations would come together, creating a civilization distinct from that of the white settlers. This was to be a vision where an extensive use of land would be shared by all Native peoples, solidifying their self-determination and maintaining ways of life in balance with Mother Earth.
The enemy that Tecumseh fought were the leadership of the white American settlers, which have since materialized into the superpower known as the United States of America, the leading imperialist force in the world today. This force wages war against nations all across the world in all aspects of life – environmental, social, physical, political and so on. The defeat of Tecumseh’s alliance only opened the way for the colonization of peoples all across the world.
Tecumseh’s temporary alliance with the British proved fatal after he was betrayed in battle. Although Tecumseh wanted to take a stand against American forces, he was encouraged to retreat to the Thames River where his forces would receive a full provision of winter supplies. Once on the Thames, General Henry Proctor promised to stand with Tecumseh, but Proctor and the other redcoats cowardly retreated, leaving the native forces to fight alone. On October 5th, 1813, Tecumseh was laid to rest in an unmarked grave. One can only wonder how different our continent would be today if Tecumseh and his alliance had survived and fulfilled its vision of an independent alliance of native nations.
At the bicentenary of Tecumseh’s death in battle, the potential to rebuild Tecumseh’s alliance not only remains, but is strengthened by the fact that many settlers and other newcomers are also under attack by capitalism. We can and must build on Tecumseh’s vision by strengthening the alliance between native nations, while also expanding it to include the unification of all nations from all directions, for the land and its people.
Giibwanisi is a founding member of the Anishinaabe Confederacy to Invoke our Nationhood (ACTION) and Oshkimaadziig Unity Camp, a land reclamation within the occupying ‘Awenda Provincial Park’ two hours north of Toronto.
International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Canada Statement for Feb 14
On February 14 Spirit Sisters and those that love them will be holding vigils and marches demonstrating their commitment to “NO MORE STOLEN SISTERS”. Indigenous grassroots women and those who stand in solidarity with them will be raising their voices and rallying in the streets demanding justice and for a national public inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous women. We at ILPS-Canada share their demands, commitments, and will be taking it to the streets in support.
The first memorial vigil was held in 1991 in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in response to the murder of a Coast Salish woman on Powell Street. From anger, despair, and mourning women took action to create an annual march on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community, and their commitments to end the disappearances of Indigenous women. The women’s memorial march continues across this land to honour the lives of missing and murdered women and to demand justice in their absence.
The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) under the Sisters In Spirit Program reports that over 600 Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing over the last 20-years within the politically constructed borders of the Canadian nation-state. The deaths and disappearances of these women have been ignored, gone unsolved, and unpunished. Despite clear evidence that this is an ongoing issue, the federal government decided in the fall of 2010 to end funding to Sisters in Spirit. Instead monies in the amount of $10 million have been dedicated to a central RCMP missing person centre; an institution that has historically failed to adequately investigate into reports of disappearing indigenous women. Building on the momentum of past actions we must rally together against the continual feminicide of Indigenous women and the impunity of Canadian state institutions and actors that stand as gatekeepers preventing justice for all indigenous peoples.
We at ILPS-Canada extend our support and solidarity to the courageous women and Indigenous organizations working to ensure that the lives of our lost sisters not be forgotten. Their memories inspire us to continue to demand more for those with whom we share a sisterhood. We encourage those in our network to promote and attend the vigils and walks taking place. For a list of the Feb. 14th Memorial Marches happing please visit: http://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/national/
Additionally, we at ILPS-Canada would like to acknowledge the valiant efforts being made by grassroots women’s organizations within our network participating in the One Billion Rising Campaign taking place also on February 14 (http://onebillionrising.org/). Organizations, such as GABRIELA-Philippines have been engaging in dancing flash mobs and awareness raising events linking violence against women to our current imperialist global order. We commend those in our network who will be rising on Feb 14 highlighting the connections between existing capitalist patriarchy, economic policy, development aggression, and violence against women. We salute these organizations not only for their ability to mobilize women and men to “STRIKE, DANCE, and RISE” on the 14th, but also for their ceaseless efforts to step-by-step organize and empower marginalized peoples toward becoming agents of change striving toward genuine democracy and equality.
Hence on February 14, we at ILPS-Canada will march and dance in solidarity with the Spirit Sisters here and our global sisters aboard to end violence against women. Let this day invigorate us to push forward with our continued commitments, efforts, and actions for the realization of national liberation, genuine democracy and social liberation, which will inevitably bring about equality in its many and varied forms.
ILPS-Canada ( http://ilps-canada.ca/) is a chapter formation of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (http://ilps.info/index.php/en/). We are an international network-alliance of anti-imperialist progressive peoples’ organizations. ILPS and it’s regional chapter formations promote, support and develop the anti-imperialist and democratic struggles of the peoples of the world.
Protesting colonial plunder and ecological destruction may not be ‘legal’, but it’s right!
Indigenous Desk- 4:06pm / 9 Feb 2013
This morning around 10:00am, Montreal police reportedly arrested 36 people who were protesting outside the Palais des Congrès, where Montreal Board of Trade was hosting a natural resources conference.
The protest was dubbed ‘Protest Against Plan Nord 2.0’ on the Facebook event page. Opponents of the resource extraction plan point out that the conference’s objective is simply to advance the previous Liberal government’s Plan Nord, which is now being rebranded in the hands of the Parti Quebecois government of Pauline Marois as “Le Nord pour tous” (The North For All). The 25-year project is estimated to bring in $80 billion in investments and create 20,000 jobs. The government scheme is being used to turn working-class people in Quebec – especially in rural and northern regions – against indigenous people’s struggles and the concerns of those who foresee the ecological damage.
People’s journalist and Basics correspondent Louisa Worrell was live on the scene and reported some 400-500 people in attendance, “a mix of generations and people including Anglophones, Francophones and Innu.” Aaron Lakoff of the Montreal Media Co-Op recently reported on the developing resistance of Innu communities to the massive resource extraction plan.
Worrell was among the dozens arrested after police attacked the demonstration. Worrell, texting to Basics live from her holding cell on her unconfiscated phone, reported being arrested “after yelling at police to stop hurting protestors.”
“I began yelling when I noticed 4 cops on top of one person ‘arresting’ him… This reminded me of Junior Manon [18-year old killed by police in Toronto]… and others who have been victim of the ‘pain compliance’ tactics of police force.” Worrell also reported being taken in with 9 minors “who were arrested for having sung in front of the building.”
A short video on CBC.ca shows a barrage of riot police storming a crowd of dispersing protestors. The police attacked the demonstration after a window was broken at the conference site, which one Facebook user on the Plan Nord 2.0 page attributed to police agents. Whether it was an of righteous anger or a police plant setting up the protest to be attacked, the whole rally was criminalized not on the basis of a broken window pane. Sgt. Ian Lafrenière of the Montreal police said 32 of the people arrested will be charged with taking part in an illegal assembly – deemed “illegal” because protestors failed to provide police with an itinerary in advance.
Speaking on behalf of Basics Community News Service, Chairperson JD Benjamin demanded the immediate release of Worrell and all the other protestors, and the dropping of all trumped up charges. “The alleged ‘crimes’ of today’s protestors will not obscure the violence meted out by Montreal police against people exercising their basic democratic rights, nor will it divert our attention from the violence that will be conducted on the environment in northern Quebec and the Innu, Cree, and Inuit communities that will see their ancestral lands ruined by Pauline Marois’s plunderous Plan Nord 2.0.”
On December 30th of 2012, members of both the Onkwehonwe [First Peoples] of the Haudenosaunee 6′Nations Confederacy and the Canadian Tamil community met in Scarborough. This event fulfilled an invitation extended to Tamil activists and their community in 2010 by the Men’s Fire of 6′Nations, when 6′Nations activists became aware of the Tamil community’s historic protests trying to raise awareness of the Sri Lankan state’s genocide of the Tamil people and nation.
The Onkwehonwe participants shared with the Tamil community the principles of The Great Law of Peace, The Two-Row Wampum, the traditional stories, treaties, culture and language that could be the basis of new relationship between all racialized immigrant-settlers and Onkwehonwe of Turtle Island [First People of North America]. Tamil activists connected the struggle for Tamil Eelam with the struggle of Onkwehonwe nations, especially the struggle to resist the colonialism and imperialism the Canadian state propagates locally and internationally.
Participants pointed to similarities between how the Canadian state used the residential school system to destroy Onkwehonwe spiritualities, languages and cultures, European colonial and missionary education during the colonization of Ceylon which continues as Sri Lanka’s use of internationally-funded Sinhalese-medium Buddhist schools to destroy Tamils’ traditional language and cultures. Omnibus Bill C-45 (which would simultaneously abolish fundamental Onkwehonwe treaty rights, attack the rights of refugees and new immigrants, and remove environmental protections in favour of polluting development of thousands of essential rivers and lands in Onkwehonwe territory), has both given rise to the Idle No More Movement, and shown the need for practical forms of solidarity and joint struggle between racialized peoples and Onkwehonwe peoples and nations. Participants of the event, therefore, outlined four commitments and demands that should be taken up by all principled members of the Tamil community. It is our assertion that adopting these principles is crucial to both the struggle for Tamil liberation, and the liberation of indigenous peoples globally and particularly on occupied Turtle Island:
Conclusion
While the Tamil participants, who came from a varied and representative cross-section of the community, came up with these four principles/demands cooperatively, several practical concerns remained. One issue was whether the Tamil community has the legitimacy or power to call for Indigenous sovereignty while being a newly arrived immigrant community with many members holding precarious residency status. The Onkwehonwe speakers pointed out that while deportation of individuals was a possibility, that the Canadian state could only threaten individuals; it couldn’t deport the thousands a mass movement would involve. Furthermore, while Bill C-45 is already establishing laws that would restrict the most precarious migrants of the Tamil community, The Great Law of Peace that underwrites Onkwehonwe sovereignty would confront such xenophobia and further de-legitimize such attacks because the Canadian state acts illegitimately and illegally as a colonial occupier. Finally the issue of the Tamil communities’ historic ‘silence’ on indigenous issues was also raised by Tamil activists. Further discussion highlighted the fact that the Tamil community in Toronto, as a relatively young immigrant community, hasn’t had much experience with or information about Onkwehonwe people and nations of this land, besides the colonial education system of the Canadian state. The importance of a program of education and cultural exchange became paramount. This program of education must be taken up by Tamil community members to the best of its capacity, as this first event was not the conclusion of such a process, but the first important step in establishing a growing and reciprocal relationship. Acknowledging this urgent need, and the literal fashion in which Bill C-45 has tied our communities struggles together, we ask these four principles and their endorsement by Tamil community organizations be taken up as a struggle to educate, decolonize and build true and lasting relationships between Onkwehonwe Nations and the Tamil Nation.
January 14, 2013 on Radio Basics: Zig Zag on Idle No More / Toronto High school teacher Luis Filipe on teachers rank-n-file resistance to Bill 115
Click here to download Mp3 or stream.
Feature interviews on today’s show with Zig Zag (warriorpublications.wordpress.com) on the “snakes in the grassroots” of #IdleNoMore and his analysis of the role of AFN Chiefs in the rising movement of grassroots Indigenous peoples; and Toronto high school teacher Luis Filipe, (a union executive member of the OSSTF local brank at Parkdale C.I. and member of Rank-n-File Education Workers of Toronto – REWT) on the ongoing resistance of teachers to Bill 115 and other attacks on the education sector.
Zig Zag interview begins 16:25.
Luis Filipe interview begins 42:10.
Six Nations hip-hop from Henny Jack, Tru Rez, Kardboard Kid, Pete Nyce & MC Sage. Filipino hip-hop from L.A., Power Struggle.
by Giibwanasi
This track conferred mostly about the land under siege within Southern Ontario, one person spoke briefly, but passionately about the mountainous regions in The Philippines under attack as well. After the speakers shared their experiences, feelings, and thoughts in regards to the struggles of land defending, the group took a short break. After lunch, we gathered again and broke off into two smaller groups to discuss future steps.
Photo by alex felipe (unedited) www.alexfelipe.info / www.alexfelipe.wordpress.com
[email protected]
Kanonhstaton, otherwise know as the Douglas Creek Estates Reclamation within what is known as Caledonia, started in 2006 and continues to this day. Within this group, 4 different representatives spoke about their involvement, the prevalent issues at the height of the reclamation, and how matters have evolved and persisted since then. A union member that has supported Kanonhstaton and other issues within The Six Nations Reservation highlighted the importance of Trade Unions showing solidarity and recognizing the parallels within worker’s and land defender’s struggles. Three community members expressed the anguish, racism, and resentment they experienced. They described land defending as if it were similar to engaging in war, depicting long-term conflicts between colonists, imperialists, and oppressors that resurfaced during the height of the reclamation in 2006. The message was that the opposing forces were and are breaching treaties and disrespecting historic agreements set up between nations. Community members also spoke about the various reactions and interactions between the O.P.P. and the community members of Caledonia. Many people did unite together during the reclamation and have continued their relationship, so that Kanonhstaton can still remain a “Protected Place” to this day.
One representative from the Treaty 3 region described her experiences, the challenges her community has faced and the struggles they continues to encounter. She expressed the frustration of land defending in the remote location where her territory is located. People have been bombarded with empty promises and sometimes even threatened to surrender their right to the land and resources. The speaker was able to invoke some inspiration because she single-handedly shut down a project, and ceased the destruction of some land. She also noted that in order to continue resisting assimilation, land theft, and cultural genocide, unity, resources, education, and outside support is crucial.
Another man shared the ongoing conflicts within the Philippines. The government allows industries to annihilate the land, claiming that the expending of resources will strengthen the economy and employment rates. He described the invasion of lands that were used by the people for all aspects of survival, and that most areas will no longer adequately sustain the groups of people they once did. It was obvious that he was grateful for the solidarity and unity ILPS has created and the need for continued global communication and involvement. He again highlighted the necessity of maintaining relationships between all nations so that land defending can remain united,and find comfort in the fact that they are not struggling alone on this earth.
After a lunch break, the assembly of people split into two so there were smaller groups of people to brainstorm and develop themes and ideas. During discussion we established the relevant concepts of Community Power, Preparation, and Direct Action which are sustained by a foundation of resistance and the spirit of resurgence. Building community power is attained by developing and maintaining treaty relationships and fulfilling nation-to-nation agreements. Such agreements such as the One Dish, One Spoon and the Haudenasaunee-Anishinabek Friendship Belt must be re-visited and honoured. Preparation lies heavily in education, spreading awareness, constant communication, consolidating resources and mobilization. A rally or similar event may only last for a couple hours on one day but the preparation involved beforehand is most important and will determine the success of any campaign or initiative. Direct Actions can occur once community power develops and strengthens along with the imperative preparation. Direct Actions against Line 9, and acts of solidarity with peoples on the west side of Turtle Island were some current issues brought up. Shutting down pumping stations, blocking railways or highways and rallying outside parliament can be useful tactics in voicing concerns and involving the general public.
The other group discussed the possibility of physically joining their groups together, and experience the respective communities first-hand. The people from the Philippines and Northern Ontario both experience the pressures and results of open pit mining. It was discussed that Filipino communities who have experiences with mining (such as Bayan Canada), can go up into the Northern regions of Ontario and speak of the negative experience they have had. If monetary funding allowed it, there could be an exchange where Indigenous people who are being offered mining opportunities, to travel to the Philippines to see the devastation first hand. The ILPS “Commission in Support of Indigenous Peoples” would take on the responsibility of organizing the logistics.
Overall Track 4 brought many issues to the surface, and educated the entire group on various struggles. It was a great avenue for highlighting the similarities between different land reclamations and land defending campaigns. In breakout groups people were able to concretely determine themes and emphasize that resistance and the spirit of resurgence are imperative to land defending.
“Grand Chief” Derek Nepinak of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Idle No More Rally in Winnipeg, Dec. 10, 2012.
by Zig Zag, Warrior Publications, Dec. 14, 2012
Republished by BASICS News with permission from author
According to the accounts of Idle No More (INM) organizers, the mobilization began in Saskatchewan when four women met and decided to organize workshops outlining what Bill C-45 was, and the threats it presented to Indigenous peoples and lands. From this humble beginning, it transformed into a national day of action, almost entirely through social media. Or so goes the dominant narrative.
But is this movement really grassroots?
Snakes in the Grassroots
There has been substantial support, promotion and participation by Indian Act chiefs & councilors in the INM campaign. In fact, although INM originated in Saskatchewan in mid-November, and had expanded into Alberta with a Dec. 2 forum, it did not gain traction until the AFN’s Special Chief’s Assembly in Gatineau, Quebec, held from Dec. 4-6, 2012. An Idle No More press release of Dec. 10 confirms this chronology, including the role of the AFN assembly, during which the chiefs made a symbolic gesture of trying to enter the House of Commons:
“Opposition by First Nations to Bill C-45 garnered national attention last week during when 300 First Nations Chiefs marched on Parliament hill, and several Chiefs, led by Chief Fox, went inside Parliament to deliver a message to the government. This refusal to allow First Nations leadership to respectfully enter the House of Commons triggered an even greater mobilization of First Nation people across the country.”
From this statement we can dispense with any claims that INM was completely the result of social media, or grassroots organizing, or as Edmonton INM organizer Tanya Kappo stated, “magic.”
When the chiefs attempted to enter the House of Commons in Ottawa on Dec. 4 and engaged in a purely symbolic effort to “force” their way in, they could not have been ignorant as to the extent of media coverage such an action would garner. In fact, they probably prayed that it would be so, and that it would galvanize the incipient INM mobilization.
The intentions of the AFN were made clear that same day, during the opening remarks from AFN “grand chief” Shawn Atleo:
“What we as an Executive agree and propose is the necessity to engage our peoples – recognizing the interconnectedness of our struggle, to transform what others may view as scattered protests easily dismissed, to supporting our citizens to stand together in unity and strength… This work, that our Executive is prepared to coordinate, is not rallies of a few but a movement of our peoples and nations… A movement that recalls the most poignant moments of social change like the civil rights era and the million man marches. This is our time to act.”
Clearly, Atleo is asserting that, through the AFN and band councils, what were previously “scattered protests easily dismissed” would now be coordinated and comprise a new movement. And that movement is Idle No More, whether this was the intention of the original organizers or not.
Perhaps out of inexperience, or ignorance, or perhaps out of a conscious understanding as to the role the AFN and band councils would play, virtually every INM rally served as a platform for the Indian Act Indians to vent their grievances against the Harper regime. While generations of grassroots people have had to contend with opposition and even oppression from band councils, these same band councils are now heralded as genuine leaders of Indigenous people, courageously taking a stand against the oppressive government.
To be sure, the AFN chiefs are not simply going through the motions. They are indeed engaged in a bitter struggle with the federal government. The proposed legislative changes contained in Bills C-38 and C-45 serve to undermine the chief’s political legitimacy and authority. They are being imposed rather than arising from genuine consultation, or collaboration (if you prefer).
Yet, there is another contributing factor that has galvanized the chiefs onto the warpath, one that is overshadowed by the alarmist calls of “termination” and the potential selling off of Native reserve lands, concerns which have been central to the INM rallies. And that is the announcement, on Sept. 4, 2012, of massive funding cuts to Aboriginal political organizations, tribal councils, and service agencies.
While the national AFN saw only a $500,000 cut from its core funding of $5 million, regional political organizations & tribal councils took the hardest hits. One APTN reporter described them as “devastating” and “crippling.” The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, a provincial arm of the AFN, saw its core funding cut from $2.6 million down to $500,000, a cap placed on all regional organizations.
Derek Nepinak, “grand chief” of the AMC, expressed his anger at the announced cuts on Sept. 12, 2012, noting that the national AFN, due to its collaborative role in working with the Harper government, suffered far less:
“At no time in the history of the AMC has there ever been such a threat to the viability of the organization. Massive cutbacks are not only happening to the AMC, our partner organizations of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), as well as the Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO), are also facing considerable cuts. In addition, all political organizations across the country, as well as tribal councils will also be cut significantly. Interestingly however, the Assembly of First Nations, as party to the Harper government’s joint action plan on First Nations people will only receive minimal funding cuts. In addition, project funding will flow to the AFN based on its key joint priorities under the joint action plan, making the AFN the big winner in all the losses to regional political efforts.”
Anishinabek Nation Grand Chief Patrick Madahbee called the cuts “a political attack” and a “divide and conquer strategy,” while Nepinak further stated they were “a direct attack on the political voice of First Nations communities across the country”
A month prior to this, however, one corporate media report crowed about the cozy relationship between the AFN and the federal government, as if affirming Nepinak’s interpretation of the manner in which funding cuts were carried out, stating:
“The Conservative government and first nation leaders, in a historic shift from confrontation to co-operation, have agreed to launch a joint effort to transform the schools, economies and quality of life on reserves across Canada.
“If the new Canada First Nation Joint Action Plan between the Canadian government and the Assembly of First Nations succeeds, “our people will be able to feel, taste, and experience the change in a significant manner more quickly than we’ve experienced in the past,” AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo said.
Four months before this, the essence of the proposed changes contained in Bills C-38 (the first part of the omnibus budget bill) and C-45 (the second part) were already known.
On March 29, 2012, the Economic Action Plan 2012 was introduced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. It is from this plan that both bills are derived. Bill C-38 was itself introduced on April 29, 2012. In June, the AFN released a review of Bill C-38, focusing primarily on changes to the Fisheries Act and environmental review process. There is no sense of urgency or imminent danger mentioned anywhere in this, or subsequent reports or submissions regarding Bill C-38, which passed in late June. On the other hand, environmentalists were vigorously condemning the bill as the “Environmental Destruction Act” for the manner in which it would expedite major industrial projects (another main concern of INM rallies).
Today we are told that there is an imminent danger threatening Native peoples and lands, one that we must unite and fight against: Bill C-45, introduced on Oct. 18, 2012. Clearly this bill, and the overall assimilation strategy of Canada, presents threats to Indigenous peoples and lands. The chiefs, however, knew about the proposed changes as early as March, 2012, when the Economic Action Plan was introduced. But instead of sounding the alarm and calling all hands to deck, the Indian Act chiefs continued working with the government on implementing the very policies we are now told are an imminent threat to our existence as Indigenous peoples.
It was only after the Sept. 4 funding cuts that the chiefs, primarily from Aboriginal provincial organizations, began any talk about “attacks” on Indigenous peoples. As late as November 27, when the AFN made a formal submission to a senate committee in regards to Bill C-45, it focused only on proposed changes to the Fisheries Act and Navigable Waters Protection Act.
It has always been the long term goal of Canada to assimilate Indigenous peoples, and the Indian Act was always intended as a temporary means to this end. Atleo and the AFN, in fact, have been calling for abolishing the Indian Act for several years now. Some of the most assimilated chiefs are promoting the conversion of reserve lands to private property under the pretext of creating economic self-sufficiency. Many band and tribal councils have already signed “self-government” agreements that remove them from the Indian Act and change their reserve lands to private property, including those who implement the BC treaty process agreements. But now we’re told it’s a policy of “termination” that must be resisted.
Since the Dec. 10 rallies, other actions have occurred, virtually all conducted by Indian Act band councils and chiefs (although some well-intentioned grassroots people are being swept up in all the hype). On Dec. 11, Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence began a hunger strike “to the death,” demanding a meeting between Harper, AFN, and the Queen of England. Then on Dec. 12, the Samson Cree Nation near Edmonton, Alberta, partially blockaded a section of highway in support of INM and Spence’s hunger strike. On Dec. 13, Ontario chief of the Assembly of First Nations Stan Beardy announced that there would be more rallies, while the Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba announced they would be blockading the Trans-Canada Highway on Saturday, Dec. 15.
Ultimately, we are engaged in a struggle against the state and corporations for the very survival of indigenous peoples, lands, and ways of life. While mobilizations may be necessary at times against specific legislation, as occurred in the Quebec student strike (which succeeded because it employed a diversity of tactics and caused considerable economic disruption to the Quebec economy), that which is currently being waged against Bill C-45 reeks of hypocrisy, opportunism, and manipulation by the Indian Act chiefs, many of whom are fighting for the financial survival of their respective organizations.
Ideally, the Idle No More rallies will stop their collaboration with the Indian Act Indians and transform into a genuinely grassroots resistance movement. To do this, participants must first realize the parasitical role the Indian Act Indians are playing in the mobilization, and understand the historical role of the band councils as agents of colonization. And, rather than portraying this recent mobilization as “the beginning” of a revolution, learn from the rich history of Indigenous resistance over the last 30 year period, a resistance that has more often than not found itself on the other side of the barricade from the Indian Act Indians.
