Be Back Soon!

i am going out of town for several days, and so will most likely be unable to update this blog.

If you are looking for news about the standoff in Caledonia, please visit the SISIS and Autonomy and Solidarity websites.

There is also a Reclamation.com website which is being put together by people in Six Nations.

Please remember that this Friday there are support rallies for the Six Nations people in Toronto and Ottawa, and an organizing meeting in Montreal.

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What with the situation in Caledonia, i have been too busy to keep up with everything else happening. I would here like to point out that April has seen weeks of bloody demonstrations and a general strike against the draconian monarchy in Nepal. Key to this process has been the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) – i wrote about the CPN(M) and the areas they control in the countyside a while back.

The Maoists have played a very constructive role in leading the movement against the king. The situation in Nepal is changing every day, but for those who re interested i recommend checking out the Red Flags blog, where an interesting discussion of developments has been taking place.

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Also a reminder – there are May Day demonstrations happpening in Montreal this Saturday (organized by the trade unions, but with an interesting “angry workers” contingent) and on Monday itself organized by the Maoist RCP-OC.

Ottawa Demonstration in Solidarity With Six Nations (Friday)

Stand in solidarity with Six Nations!
Demand an end to violations of First Nations sovereignty!

================================================
12:00 Noon
Friday, April 28th, 2006
War Memorial (Elgin @ Wellington, next to the PM's Office)
Ottawa, Ontario
================================================

For almost 60 days, the people of the Six Nations Haudensaunee Confederacy have taken a stand against the theft of their land by property developers and the Canadian government.

While negotiations with the government may be underway, the threat of state violence against the Six Nations remains. The OPP and the Canadian military continue to lurk just beyond the barricades in Caledonia, Ontario. A nearby prison has been emptied, and a hospital ward prepared for casulties.

Your strength and support is needed to end the encroachment of Six Nations land and remove the constant threat of violence that hovers over the Six Nations people, their friends, and allies.

Join us on Friday, April 28th, in demanding the Canadian state get its HANDS OFF SIX NATIONS LAND!

BRING BANNERS AND NOISEMAKERS!

For more information on the situation in Caledonia, see the Autonomy and Solidarity site.

For more info about Friday's rally, call 613 316 0341

Caledonia Media Roundup April 27th

Blue shows Haldimand Grant, Purple shows Six Nations reserve
Red Star shows Douglas Creek occupation

From the corporate press:

• Progress being made at talks to end aboriginal standoff; chief; Canada.com April 27th


• With the UN listening, Six Nations member to take Canada to task for 'deplorable human rights violations'; Toronto Sun April 27th [a crap paper, but i’m trying to be through…)


• How to resolve Indian land claims; Toronto Star April 27th


• Protesters use barricade to screen non-native visitors; The Hamilton Spectator April 27th


• CBC interview with Shawn Brant of Tyendinaga; CBC (on Autonomy & Solidarity site)


• Native protest blocks Lions Gate Bridge; Vancouver Sun April 27th

I will be away for th next six days, so will probably be unable to update this blog until then. Please remember that for the most up to date and comprehensive news coverage you should go to the SISIS website.

Please also remember that this Friday there are support rallies for the Six Nations people in Toronto and Ottawa, and an organizing meeting in Montreal.

Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, media, mohawk-nation, protest

Steelworkers call for peace, not provocation in land claims dispute

This from sootoday.com:

TORONTO - United Steelworkers' National Director Ken Neumann said Wednesday that the large number of Steelworker members who live in Caledonia and on the Six Nations Reserve make it important for the union to have a position regarding the stand-off over land claims in the troubled community.

"The important message following the police actions and then the clashes involving other community members is that it is imperative for this dispute to be settled peacefully, without provocation from anyone," said Neumann.

"All levels of government have ignored the claims by the Six Nations for land they say has never been relinquished, and now the entire Caledonia region is paying the price. Pitting community against community is where government inaction has led. It seems that lessons from the past have gone unlearned.

"Land claims have been settled in the past and can be settled now, but it requires a commitment to make the best agreement possible.

"Our communities have lived side by side in peace for generations. It is the union's position that peaceful co-existence must continue."

Neumann urged Steelworker members, both native and non-native, to support a peaceful resolution.

The United Steelworkers represents 288,000 men and women working in every sector of Canada's economy.

Update on Caledonia Negotiations

This just in my inbox:

Attention News Editors:
Notice - Update on Caledonia Negotiations

     TORONTO, April 26 /CNW/ - Attached are points of accomplishment achieved today by the parties to the Caledonia negotiations. This includes the Haudenosaunee/Six Nations, Canada and Ontario. This builds on the points of agreement reached on April 21.

     This material is being provided to the media and the public to ensure that both are kept apprised of developments.
                    

Joint Statement of Accomplishments by
Haudenosaunee/Six Nations, Canada and Ontario
April 26, 2006

1.  Peaceful Resolution

         The parties all recognize the need for short and long term resolutions that restore and maintain peace.

2.  Douglas Creek Lands

          We have established a main table through which we will work to resolve the issues of the possession, use, development and occupation of the Douglas Creek lands. Currently a working group is developing recommendations intended to lead to a resolution of the Douglas Creek lands issues. The working group will report to the main table in the short term.

3.  Relationship with OPP

          A liaison-working group representing Haudenosaunee/Six Nations and the OPP has been making progress towards a relationship that is focused on trust and respect which includes open communication and patience.

4.  Long Term Resolution

        The parties have taken steps to appoint and to establish mandates for principal representatives who will have the responsibility to develop a detailed work plan to address and resolve the various outstanding issues in accordance with the April 21, 2006 agreement.

5.  Disengagement

         Through building a relationship between Haudenosaunee/Six Nations and the governments of Canada and Ontario and by working towards resolution of the short and long term issues, the parties are moving toward achieving disengagement which would result in the clearing of public roads and provide assurance of the safety of rail lines.

  For further information: Haudenosaunee/Six Nations, Sue Jacobs,    (905) 765-1749; Leroy Hill, (905) 765-1749; Canada: Monique Doiron, Indian and  Northern Affairs Canada, (416) 973-8111; Greg Coleman, Indian and Northern  Affairs Canada, (416) 973-2281; Ontario: Ginette Albert, Minister David  Ramsay's Office, (416) 314-2212; Anne-Marie Flanagan, Minister David Ramsay's  Office, (416) 327-0654; Rosemary Sampson, Ontario Secretariat for Aboriginal  Affairs, (416) 326-4780

ReclamationInfo.Com

There is a new website up - http://reclamationinfo.com/ - which you should all check out. From its own self-description:

This website is designed to provide news updates and background information regarding the ongoing confrontation between onkwehonwe (native people) and police forces on the Douglas Creek lands in Caledonia, Ontario.

It is designed to assist the Hodinoshoni (the Iroquois Confederacy) achieve its goal of achieving a just and peaceful resolution of this dispute. (This is not the official website of the Iroquois Confederacy because there is no such thing.)

Regardless of how the confrontation at the site is resolved, the Confederacy has already won two major victories:

1. the Six Nations elected band council has recognized the Confederacy as the body which should negotiate this matter on behalf of the entire community


2. the federal Government has committed itself to negotiations with the Confederacy over this matter, the 1st time it has recognized the authority of the Confederacy since it imposed the band council system on the community in 1924.

We invite you to read through this site and pass this information on to others.

The information on this site will be updated regularly so check back often.

So check it out!

[Montreal] Angry Precarious Workers Contingent At This Weekend's May Day Demo

Angry Precarious Workers Contingent
Saturday April 29th
Meet at parc Théodore
MÉTRO Viau, corner Théodore & Hochelaga
at 12 noon

*Against Insecurity, For Militancy*

Every day we experience insecurity and vulnerability at work and in our living conditions in general. The bosses and the government pass laws that continuously push us further into poverty while privileging their own interests; just look at the court orders the State issues during strikes to limit the number of strikers on the picket lines, such as the recent Bill 142… Our economic situation come from political decisions which are a direct result of the economic system in which we are living.

It is clear to see the that tactics of concertation and strictly legal struggle of the big trade unions are incapable of delivering anything but defeat and concessions to the constant attacks of the bosses and the government. This strategy has proven useless in defending workers’ interests.

Now it is up to us to create an alternative. Our numbers, our commitment and our solidarity should be put into play to build a militant and democratic social movement, united in solidarity.

Workers and unemployed, from here and from elsewhere
Join the Angry Precarious Workers Contingent
Organized by the Réseau de Solidarité des Travailleuses et Travailleurs
(RST) and the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ)
Endorsed by Solidarity Across Borders and No One Is Illegal

Read more...

Call For A Precarious Workers Contingent in the April 29th Union Demonstration

The Réseau de Solidarité des Travailleuses et Travailleurs (Workers Solidarity Network) and the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (Association for Student Union Solidarity) are inviting you to join with us in a « Precarious » Contingent in the demonstration organized by the big trade unions to make May Day. The contingent will promote a fighting unionism, in opposition to the tactic of concertation of the big trade unions, which tend to abandon those sectors of the workforce consider unprofitable.

The demands of the “precarious” contingent are:

1. For a free, secular, quality, non-discriminatory public education system, assessable to all.


2. Against precarity at any level of the workforce


3. For the regularization of all undocumented people and a stop to all deportations


4. For decent and accessible housing


5. Against poverty


6. For a militant and democratic social movement, united in solidatity.

Saturday April 29th
Meet at parc Théodore
MÉTRO Viau, corner Théodore & Hochelaga
at 12 noon

the Réseau de Solidarité des Travailleuses et Travailleurs (RST) and the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ)

****************************************************

TRANSLATORS NOTE: i have translated the above call out and statement from the RST and ASSÉ; their contingent sounds like it will be the most interesting thing at the trade union May Day demo (held this year on April 29th).

Please note that i have translated the French word “precaire” as “precarious”, even though i know it is unwieldy and does not have the same connotation. More standard translations would be “casual workers”, “temp workers”, “at risk workers”, “poor people”, etc. but all of these have more specific or different meanings than the one intended by this contingent. By “precaire” (or precarious in this translation) what is basically meant is all those marginalized and severely exploited and vulnerable sections of the working class which are generally abandoned by the trade union movement and social democratic left (my analysis, not anyone else’s!).

Montreal Public Assembly to Organize Solidarity with Six Nations

****************************************************
When? Friday April 28th @ 6pm
Where? DIRA
Address: 2035 St-Laurent, 3rd Floor
Metro: St-Laurent
****************************************************

This is a call-out for all groups and individuals interested in joining forces to organize support for the ongoing Six Nations Land Reclamation. The Assembly will focus on the formation of committees, and strategizing for each area of work.

Groups who've expressed interest include: IPSM, PASC, SAB, PPL, CLAC Latin America, NOII, CAPMA and ISM. So please, if you recieve this email, pass it on to your members.

The proposed committees, so far, include:

1. Transport: coordination of rides to and from Six Nations
2. Finance/Legal: budgets for transportation, supplies, money for Six Nations, legal support, etc.
3. Action: Montreal solidarity actions and coordination with toronto support
4. Information: collecting and creating info, from the ground, and translating it into French and Spanish.

THIS FRIDAY: Toronto Rally in Support of Six Nations

Rally against Minister of Indian Affairs Jim Prentice in solidarity with Six Nations
Friday April 28th6:30 at Kings College Circlenorth of college (in the field)west of university ave.

As solidarity actions are taking place in Tyendinaga, Vancouver, and Montreal, including the blockading of the railway in Tyendinaga, its our responsability to bring as much public pressure as possible to bear on Jim Prentice, the Indian Affairs minister, as he comes to Toronto to speak on "First Nations self-governance". This is the colonial master who had the ability to end the threats by the OPP yet refuses to end this matter in a just and responsible way, and has chosen to use paramilitary force instead. So join people on Friday to bring this message to the minister. We need as many people as possible to help build this protest.

For 55 days now, the community of the Six Nations Haudensaunee Confederacy has held a blockade to defend land that is rightfully theirs from further encroachment by real estate developers and the Canadian government. Early Thursday morning, the OPP tried to break the blockade in a pre-dawn raid by sending cops with guns drawn to pepper spray, beat and arrest community members. The government hoped to remove resistance to the development of Six Nations land by Henco Industries Ltd. The Six Nations community mobilized in response and drove the OPP out, restoring the blockade.

The community has asked or outside support, as they know that the OPP/Military could seize upon any sign of weakness to move against the blockade again--night times are particularly vulnerable.

Every night for some time, Six Nations community members have been on alert against the possibility of police attack. Forecasts suggest it might be raining, and people from Toronto are going to provide support through the night to those who have been defending this blockade for several weeks.

For more information,call 416-997-1562 oremail ocap @ ocap@tao.ca

Caledonia Media Roundup April 26th

Blue shows Haldimand Grant, Purple shows Six Nations reserve
Red Star shows Douglas Creek occupation

Once again, from the corporate media:

• Chief supports First Nations action in BC and Ontario; CKNW AM 980 April 26th


• First Nations solidarity backs up bridge traffic; CKNW AM 980 April 26th


• Caledonia standoff taking toll on business; National Post April 26th


• 'A ghost town in six months'; Hamilton Spectator April 26th


• Blockades haven't shut down Caledonia; Hamilton Spectator April 26th


• Mayor loses speaking role on Caledonia; Globe and Mail April 26th


• Mayor Land In Hot Water; Apologizes to natives; Hamilton Spectator April 26th


• Talks over Caledonia property to resume today; CBC April 26th


• Reconciling `Us' and `Them'; Toronto Star April 26th


• Purchase disputed land (Editorial); Toronto Star April 26th


• Queen's Park won't buy subdivision: Hennings; Hamilton Spectator April 26th


• Natives show support for Mohawks; (Kelowna) Daily Courier April 26th


• Natives protest violence; Vancouver 24 hours April 26th


• Leaders on both sides of aboriginal protest dismiss mob as isolated incident; News 1130 April 25th


• McGuinty says talks to end native blockade in Caledonia will resume Wednesday; Macleans April 25th


• Mayor's comments anger Caledonia protesters; CBC April 25th

For comprehensive news reports and archiving of the events in Caledonia, see the SISIS site.

Update on Secwepemc Native Youth Movement picket

From: Secwepemc Radio
Date: Apr 25, 2006 12:46 AM

Weytk from Secwepemc'ulucw,
Here are some pictures of the Secwepemc from Neskonlith, we are with you all the way. We are broadcasting interviews on the Six Nations Caledonia resource page on Secwepemc Radio 91.1 FM. Secwepemc Radio is authorized to broadcast by the Okanagon-Secwepemc Confederacy (NOT by the crtc).

People have been camped along the Trans-Canada Highway there are 4000+ vehicles that pass by every day.

Mindy is the contact person at the picket, she can be reached at red_scorpian_@hotmail.com
or cell: (250) 852-1491 this cellphone is at the camp

We also brothers from our community that have taken the trip to help out there to help.

Neskie Manuel

Radio Volunteer

Secwepemc Radio 91.1 FM

Secwepemc'ulucw

Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, photo, protest,

Photo From Kanehsatake

A Report on Last Night's Settler Rally

The following is a comment recently left by “localyokel” to my posting on last night’s settler protest in Caledonia. I am sure i have differences of opinion with localyokel regarding certain things, but it is an interesting report on last night’s settler rally and that’s why i’m posting it.

Read more...

I am not sure if localyokel is naïve or overly optimistic or what, as i am not in Caledonia and have not received any other reports from anyone at the standoff. If the following is accurate, it certainly supports hollowentry’s suggestion that the authorities are trying to manufacture a crisis/backlash in order to justify having to crackdown on the reclamation.

While i do not want to underestimate the degree of racism in these settler protests, i also would not want to close my eyes to the possibility of the State fomenting/playing up this racism to its own end. (Hey, pessimistic me wonders: couldn’t the settler rallies be racist and the settler media be intent on playing this up for their own racist purposes?)

Here is localyokel’s comment:

I was at the rally, so I can tell you exactly what took place there. (I wasn't going to attend as I felt that things were going pretty good as all parties were deciding who was going to sit at the negotiation table etc.) There were about 2000 people there. The media said but 3000 but it is well known that they cannot count. They usually double or triple the number of people that were actually there.

There were some boos when Brian Haggith of the (OPP) Ontario Provincial Police spoke as people pretty much want the roads opened up again. sometimes it was hard to hear as the spy plane kept circling.

The main organizer spoke and he was very eloquent and expressed what I felt were my wishes. Those being that the government must deal with the land claims so that these types of blockades will not be necessary in the future. (There were cheers for this.)There was nothing racist in his words at all and over all there were the encouragement to keep the peace.

There were some comments in the crowds regarding natives and the OPP but basically the people next to the idiots told them to shut up. A young man who had been a finalist on Canadian Idol led us in the singing of O Canada and I went home. It was good up until that point.

People were dispersing and then a bunch gathered around the OPP and started yelling at them.

Then every normal person went home to bed and every idiot and those who wanted to watch the idiots went over to the barricade. This is when it got ugly...racial slurs etc. There were some idiot adults but mainly it was idiot boy teenagers who were probably itching for a fight (just like some young native boys who like to get into it...it's a guy thing). There was entirely too much testosterone in one place.

Huge backlash this morning from the normal people against those who went to the barricade and made fools of themselves..... should be some interesting letters to the editor. The media does nothing to encourage peaceful resolution of this or even represent the majority of the people. They don't report all the facts, just the ones that sell stories. They are happy to show the goons on both sides instead of the ones who are encouraging peace.

However, it is really trying having both main arteries closed through town, schools closed, daycares closed, transport trucks in subdivisions etc.,people not being able to go to work, businesses hurt.

I have been reading a particular native website which I absolutely love. They have phrases "bring a good mind" or "keep a good mind" or "keep a strong mind" (something like that) What a great statement! The non natives at the barricade last night brought "no mind".

I pray for those who will sit at the negotiating table to bring all of their wisdom and their "good, strong mind" so that a true peace can be brought to all of the people in Six Nations and Caledonia.

Categories: canada, colonialism, media, protest, racism

Detoxing From Canada

The Mohawk people at “Douglas Creek Estates” are reclaiming their land, not mine. Indigenous culture is not my culture. Their struggle is their struggle, and they will take the lead and set their terms and define their own strategies. This is just normal.

Nevertheless, as must be obvious from the past weeks on this blog, i am not neutral or disinterested about what happens in Caledonia. I see the Mohawk struggle as an inspiring front in the war for a better world. While thousands of settlers may have rallied against the Mohawks in Caledonia last night, there is no genetic rule which forces non-natives to take such a bigoted stand.  It’s a choice.

Read more...

What follows is an explanation for why i think even settlers should choose to support the Mohawk reclamation.

Mind-Altering Parasitism
Canada is a parasitic society. It is a nation built on other people’s land, with labour stolen from workers here and around the world. Those who identify as proud Canadian citizens are really identifying as proud parasites. And parasitism is like a drug – it is both mind-altering and addictive. It can leave you unable to see the truth when it’s staring you in the face, or have you seeing things that aren’t even there.

Let’s look at the forms these delusions can take.

Take a look at the Hennings, the two brothers generally described as upstanding citizens and pillars of their community. They’re the ones who sunk their money into a housing development on Mohawk land, and who are now facing bankruptcy. Don Henning was quoted as follows: “I didn't sign up for this, I'm afraid. I guess I haven't got much choice to try to continue doing what I can.”

Or then there is the unnamed Caledonia resident who spoke to the media, explaining that “I'm not against native rights, but what about my right to go about my life, and drive down the road without getting turned back at a roadblock?”

The way in which parasitism makes some people lose touch with reality, or flip it around in a guilty-conscience induced projection, was most clear when that sorry white woman was shown on tv worrying about how far the natives might go.  “Are they going to try and take your land? That’s the big issue,” she said.

Geez… maybe they’re going to put white folks in reservations and steal their kids away in residential schools? You think?

This “forgetting who you are”, this loss of any sense of reality, was also present during last night’s rally in Caledonia, where settlers shouted “Go home!” to the Mohawks on the other side of the police line.

As these examples show, being the citizen of a parasitic society sometimes means becoming oblivious to irony itself. Not surprising as “Irony involves the perception that things are not what they are said to be or what they seem.” (wikipedia)

How can a delusional person be trusted to recognize such a thing?

The delusions and psychoses these people are suffering from are all caused by Canada and colonialism. Being citizens of a parasitic society creates distorted expectations about what a “normal” society looks like, and creates unrealistic expectations about the nature of that power and privilege and wealth and safety which every settler is taught can be theirs.

If we are ever to free ourselves from these delusions, Canadians must be taught certain hard truths. But instead we are lied to – and more often than not we lie to ourselves, for being addicted to parasitism makes a person scared to learn what’s real.

Canadians are not taught that we live on land which is still owned by First Nations. Canadians are not told that our society’s wealth – stored in its infrastructure, institutions and land – was just recently stolen from other nations. (Is still being stolen, even as i write these words!)

Most importantly, Canadians are not taught that colonialism did not “win” and the indigenous nations did not “lose”… how can we talk in such final terms when the war is not over and people are still resisting the colonial monster in communities across this continent and around the world?

Choosing Sides
Watching tv yesterday i thought Caledonia was beginning to look like Chateauguay did back during the Oka crisis. Back in 1990 white folk in that Montreal suburb were inconvenienced by the Mohawk barricades on the Mercier bridge, so they responded as settlers so often do: with race riots and attacks on any Mohawk (or suspected Mohawk!) they could find.

The truth is, though, that the people of Caledonia (like those of Chateauguay) are no more racist than settlers across Canada. Like those Israelis who think the Middle East belongs to them, like those Afrikaaners who still insist they arrived in South Africa at the same time as Black Africans, most Canadians believe the land belongs to “us” now.

“Whatever bad stuff might have happened to the Indians happened centuries ago, and how can we be blamed for that?” So goes the reasoning of the delusional.

This ignorance, this fantasy belief that imperialism “won” and the game is over now, is fostered by all sectors of settler society. It is a mechanism whereby anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism are relegated to the dustbin of history and resistance becomes as pathetic as beating a dead horse in the blinkered view of the oppressor society.

So let’s be clear, both to the Hennings and to the “good volk” of Caledonia, and to our neighbours and to ourselves - because, as the Native Youth Movement reminds us, this land is all Indian Land - so let’s be clear: colonialism is war, and the war is not over. The Canadian and American States both exist on other people’s land, and looking to the government to guarantee that your home, your neighbourhood, your community be “protected” from First Nations peoples makes you complicit with the whole kit and caboodle, right back to those infected blankets and the residential rape schools. So you see, Mr Henning, when you turned to the colonial State to protect your business investment, when you demanded that the police attack the Clan Mothers’ reclamation, that’s when you “signed up” for this…

Choosing To Break With Our History
So what’s the way forward? What’s the solution?

There is news both bad and good.

The bad news (at least so far as those who cling to their delusions are concerned) is that Canada does not hold title to this land. Regardless of where you live, there’s no guarantee you won’t some day be faced with a conflict at your doorstep, barricades and angry people and cops and tough choices to make. Because those maps you studied in school lie and you can’t rely on the colonial State to tell you the truth about who owns what. It would be like asking Chretien who was guilty in the sponsorship scandal, or asking Bush who was to blame for Abu Ghraib.

And the good news? Well, the good news is really great. The good news is that we don’t have to side with Canada. You see, the indigenous nations are nations not bigoted constructs like the European “races”. Time after time the First Nations have welcomed allies from the settler society who were willing to struggle against the colonial monster.

This open-mindedness, this non-racist approach to anti-colonialism, is particularly obvious in the current standoff. While the people of Caledonia have held demonstrations where they have talked about “killing Indians” and bringing in the army the people at the reclamation site have time after time expressed their concern for the people of Caledonia and their view that they are fighting against the Canadian State, not against their neighbours who may claim Canadian citizenship. They even put themselves at risk to allow settlers to go to their church services on Sunday!

(Indeed, these constant displays of goodwill coming from the Mohawk side make the deranged hostility of some settlers all the more disgusting to see…)

So my advice to my fellow settlers is to disconnect your identity from Canada. The Mohawk Nation is not asking you to “go back to Europe” (or wherever you came from), nobody is arguing that you should become second class citizens, so you should just calm down and take a deep breath. This is a serious situation, incredible injustices have been done, genocide on an unparalleled scale, but you don’t have to remain complicit. You have a choice.

And if you make that choice, if you see the justice of the First Nations’ struggle and if you see that it is not a threat to you… well, you may notice some other things too.

You may notice that the system Canada is a part of – global capitalism – is not a particularly great way for people to live. It gives us war and superstition, and with every passing year it brings humanity to new lows. It gives us a woman-hating culture, with rape as the fastest growing form of male entertainment. It gives us global warming and skyrocketing cancer rates and news that we’re about to experience a species die-off of geological/historical proportions. It gives constant insecurity and (for the lucky middle classes) lives defined by mind-numbing work and even more mind-numbing shopping… and for the rest of the planet it gives lives of back-breaking labour and an existence just a step away from starvation and homelessness and watching your kids die of easily preventable illnesses.

Haven’t you noticed that this is what capitalism gives? It’s written clearly enough even in the lying daily news…

What we can see at the Six Nations land reclamation is people keeping alive a struggle for their sovereignty, for a renewal of their better way of life that existed before colonialism swept this land, and has never been extinguished. The First Nations have survived centuries of genocide inflicted upon them by euro-capitalism - their resistance struggle is only threatening to those who identify with this death-system.

For those of us who dream of a better world, their struggle serves as an inspiration, a glimmer of hope and a reminder that all is not lost. Far from it.

So take the plunge. Say goodbye to your illusions, to your addiction to colonialism and genocide. Life can be better than this.

Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, protest, racism, revolution

Ildikos

A new blog worth checking out: Daniel Morley Johnson’s ildikos ”Literature -- Anti-colonialism -- Resistance -- Hope -- O CANADA - OUR HOME ON NATIVE LAND!”

Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, mohawk-nation, other-blogs

Six Nations: Machiavellian Ghosts Haunt Canadian Media

The following from Kahentinetha Horn :

Where is “Deep Throat” when we need him?

MNN. April 23, 2006. The Canadian media continues to deliberately distort what’s happening at Six Nations. The law and British guarantees to protect our land are completely on our side. We want to show just how tricky and deceptive the corporate media is. Let’s go through the editorial published in the Montreal Gazette on April 21st 2006, the day after the police raid on the Six Nations at Caledonia.

Read more...

Their heading was, “Enforce the law for natives, too. Authorities are chronically terrified to deal with native truculence and belligerence.”

We agree with the first part. The law should be enforced on behalf of Natives too. That’s what this demonstration is about. Canada has laws against theft and fraud. We want Canada to obey those laws. Why is it alright to steal our land? Why do they call us “truculent and belligerent” when we try to live by the law? Why are the authorities afraid? We haven’t attacked them. They surround us with guns, bullets, pepper spray, tasers, M-16’s, ambulances ready to ship us to the hospital and body bags to put us in when they drive us to their morgues. Who is being belligerent? We have no weapons. We have not made any threats. We are sitting on our land. If they are afraid, it must be of their own ugly faces in the mirror and shadows on the ground. All that weaponry in their hands is not a pretty sight.

The Gazette says we have been “illegally occupying a subdivision construction site”. Since when is it illegal to sit on one’s own land? This is a deliberate attempt to defame us. Such as their claim “In the Alice-in-Wonderland world of native policy…nobody really expects the laws to be applied to aboriginals as it is to everyone else.” Yes, why don’t we get the same benefit of the law as everyone else? Why aren’t we considered innocent until proven guilty? Why is it still open season on “Indians”? Why, in 2006, more than 50 years since Canada supported the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are we being vilified in the Canadian press?

Canadians don’t have to obey American laws when they are not in the United States. The British don’t have to obey French laws when they are in England. Why are we treated different? We aren’t Canadians. We have our own jurisdiction and Britain promised to protect it. Every time we have tried to present our case in a neutral tribunal Canada has refused to participate. It has done everything to avoid respecting the promises made by Britain. Colonialism is supposed to be dead and gone. But Canadian officials continue to conspire to stop us from getting justice.

It’s not as if we haven’t tried to get justice before. We had a lot of international support at the League of Nations in the 1920’s. Canada’s response? It officially deposed our government, denied us access to our trust funds, set up a puppet band council regime and passed laws to prevent us from hiring lawyers to fight our case. What’s legal about that?

Of course, Canada could not legally depose our government. No more than the Nazis could depose the legitimate government of France in World War II. Our legitimate government was and always has been by and for our people according to the Kaianereh’ko:wa. Our traditional Confederacy government always continued. Canada only persuaded a tiny minority to vote in their puppet elections. Now they can’t find enough puppets to fill a band council. The Six Nations Indian Act band council has now publicly decided that Six Nations land claims should be dealt with by our traditional government. The Gazette never mentioned that.

That editorial was meant to defame us and our legitimate struggle to hold onto our assets, to right injustices and to exercise our right to self-determination. The Gazette did not do any research or competent reporting. It did not explain the legal basis of the Women’s trust responsibility for the land, the reason why we are standing up.

The Gazette trotted out a bunch of trite and hackneyed insinuations. It outright lied, declaring that, “There’s not much real evidence” of “legitimate land claims rooted in historic complaints”. What? Check out the League of Nations Archives or Canada’s own National Archives [watch it get burnt down suddenly!]. The latter includes a 1952 memo by the national archivist, A.E. St. Louis. When he was ready to retire, he decided to put his shock over the mistreatment of the Six Nations people on record. There is a ton of work by accredited scholars. Sydney L. Harring stated that a substantial proportion of the litigation in Upper Canada courts concerned Six Nations land.

Our ancestors hired the best lawyers available. But we still couldn’t get justice from a system that was all too willing to accommodate illegal squatters and dip into our trust funds. More recent research includes Brian Titleys’ book, “A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada”. In the 1970s the late Sally M. Weaver received a Canada Council grant to research the Six Nations situation. Her findings were upsetting and never published. They lie hidden in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room at the University of Waterloo. Royal commissions and other official studies have been done time and again. They all show that the Six Nations have been defrauded. The Law Society of Upper Canada and McGill University borrowed from our trust funds and never paid it back. If Canada believes in the rule of law, why doesn’t it do the right thing?

The Gazette stated that, “courts have been consistently generous, many say too generous – in accepting native arguments”. What judgments are they talking about? To date our arguments have been almost universally ignored, misunderstood or misrepresented. Naturally many might say the courts have been” too generous” – especially if they’ve relied on the Gazette for their information. With such biased media shaping public opinion, no wonder people imagine that we’re a gang of hoodlums.

It’s obvious that yellow press, like the Gazette, is deliberately trying to create the impression that we are a bunch of uneducated criminals. They can’t do this by showing pictures of us beating anyone up. They do heavily cover trials where it is ‘proven’ that we did something ‘violent’ when we defended ourselves from armed attacks. But they can’t plant violent images in their readers’ minds.

The Gazette editorial said: “Ask yourself this: in a province deeply concerned about crimes, gangs, and gun violence, would any other ethnic or cultural group be allowed to shut down a legal construction site for 52 days and counting”? Notice that it didn’t actually say that we had guns or gangs or did anything violent. It couldn’t because we aren’t. It just inserted these images into the middle of its statement about us.

Every time people read about “Natives” they see something about crime, guns and violence. They get conditioned. They start to think that “where there’s smoke, there must be fire”. That’s how they keep the old missionary stereotypes alive. They could steal our land. They could kill us. They could steal our children, because God was on their side. They want you to keep on thinking that they are “civilized” and we aren’t.
But you have to wonder. If the Gazette is really so concerned about crime, why didn’t the Gomery Report on major bureaucratic fraud get full front page treatment? Most of the Gazette’s anemic reporting got shuffled to the inside pages, while the front page ran a feature on the heart wrenching plight of children who are apprehended from dysfunctional parents. That goes on every day. One of the reasons why there’s not enough money for legitimate public work is that too much is being skimmed off by crooks with official government positions.

They are using the same tactic on the Six Nations Caledonia story. Guess what the front page featured the day of the police raid? A new portrait of the Queen!!! As if what happened to us that day did not leave the British monarchy in total disgrace!

Back to that shameless Gazette editorial. Another trick it used to make us look violent was mentioning that an SQ officer was killed in the “Oka affair” of 1990. They didn’t recall that the man was killed by a police bullet when they opened fire on our people, including people who were asleep and a two year old toddler on a tricycle. Talk about selective memory!!!

We do agree with one statement, however, “rewarding bad behavior only encourages more of it”. Right on!!! So we why is the Gazette refusing to do an honest and competent job of reporting? Why is it spreading lies about us and covering up past and present bureaucratic corruption and incompetence? We think Woodward and Bernstein, those reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal, based on secret informant “Deep Throat”, wouldn’t work there. The spirit of investigative reporting is alive and well. It lives in the hearts of the people. We are getting our tips from latter day Deep Throats! Honest decent Canadians, Americans and friends all over the world. You won’t find out what they know by reading the corporate press.

Canadians and Americans, for that matter, are being told bare faced lies. As we write, they are being ‘fibbed’ to by the corporate press that “everything has been resolved” [at Six Nations]. Those shady characters who run Canada want our supporters to stay away from us. We are still here. We’re still ready, and we’re still on alert. We can see the build-up of troops before our eyes. Twenty vans full of armed RCMP have been spotted in Caledonia. This is a life and death situation. The corporate media lies to you.

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News


Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, mohawk-nation, montreal, media, racism

An Appeal From Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty

Hi everyone,
I'm appealing to political-minded bloggers to put some of their blogging time into helping do web solidarity work with Six Nations people who have been maintaining a peaceful camp as part of reclaiming stolen lands. The camp has been going since Feb 28, but there was very little media coverage until the Ontario Provincial Police attacked the camp on April 20.

I've been keeping a chronology at http://sisis.nativeweb.org/actionalert to help people stay updated. The chronology is primarily a media archive but also includes updates from the camp and from various solidarity groups. The overarching purpose is to (1) get news directly from the camp out to mainstream and alternative media outlets, as well as the general public, (2) keeping a short chronology so people can get daily updates without having to sift through tons of reports, and (3) monitoring mainstream and alternative media to have a general sense of what the public is hearing.

This is a lot of work and I need help to keep it going. People who blog have lots of web skills that could be used towards this. It's a really simple process -- if you are willing to help, I'll send you the website of one media source (e.g., CBC, CHTV, Hamilton Spectator). You would check that webpage once in the morning and once in the evening and convert anything posted there into a HTML template file (so it's consistent with SISIS specs), then email it to me. It would take around 5-10 minutes of your time in the morning and evening.  If you are interested please email me at jgoldber@shaw.ca. Please only email me if you are prepared to do this every morning and evening for at least two weeks, as it will be a make-work project for me otherwise.

Thanks for considering this request.

Cheers,
Joshua
for Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty

Categories: media, other-blogs

Caledonia Media Roundup April 25th

Blue shows Haldimand Grant, Purple shows Six Nations reserve
Red Star shows Douglas Creek occupation

From the corporate media:

• Province may compensate developer, Toronto Star April 25th


• Government 'dropped the ball' on Caledonia dispute: developers, CBC April 25th


• Caledonia standoff enters 57th day after angry rally ends in arrest, CBC April 25th


• Walpole Island natives asked to stay away, London Free Press April 25th


• Nishnawbe Aski Nation calls for peaceful resolution in Caledonia, Wataway Online News April 25th


• Frustrations mount as land protest continues, Globe and Mail April 25th


• Calls to end Caledonia blockade draw cheers, Globe and Mail April 25th


• Mob of angry Ont. residents confront native protesters, held at bay by police, Canadian Press April 25th


• Goodwill between occupiers, non-natives further deteriorates, Canadian Press April 24th


• Ontario blames native impatience with negotiations for Caledonia blockade, Canadian Press April 24th

And from the progressive press:

• Six Nations Does Not Stand Alone by Justin Podur, Znet April 24th 2006

While i will endeavour to continue providing daily “media updates” and commentary on the Six Nations’s struggle, i may not be able to do so consistently depending on other obligations. I strongly recommend people also regularly check the excellent resource pages maintained by SISIS and Autonomy & Solidarity.
Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, media, mohawk-nation, protest

Caledonia’s Mohawks have plenty of reasons to mistrust the law

On April 22nd The Montreal Gazette ran a racist editorial highly critical of the Mohawk land reclamation going on in Caledonia. Today the newspaper published an excellent response by Kenneth Deer, editor/publisher of the Eastern Door newspaper in Kahnawake.

The editorial in Saturday’s Gazette, “Enforce the law for natives, too,” deserves a response.

Read more...

To be blunt, natives who have followed the law, given in to Canadian jurisdiction and meekly turned the other cheek are the ones who have suffered the most, are generally impoverished and have lost hope for the future. Many have just disappeared or succumbed.

The healthiest natives are those who resist assimilation, remember their history, practise their culture and fight for what is theirs.

The history of North America is built on the destruction of indigenous peoples. Laws were made to remove and disempower the first peoples of this continent. Historically, the justice system has been unjust to Canada’s indigenous peoples.

Now to ask natives to respect the laws of the society that has benefited the most from this unjust treatment is asking too much.

Canada’s land-claim system is patently unjust and biased. Why should native peoples who have lived here for centuries have to prove they were here first? The onus shotild be on Canada to prove it owns the land, and justify how it obtained title.

The issue in Caledonia is not frivolous. The claim that “there’s not much real evidence” of a legitimate complaint is incorrect. There is a long and well-documented history of questionable land transactions that would never have been allowed if the transactions were between non-natives.

Your statement that Dudley George was killed by a police bullet “under circumstances that still remain unclear” is quite remarkable because the police sergeant who fired the gun was convicted of a crime. The circumstances were clear to the judge; why not to The Gazette?

It seems that Canadians love their justice system except when, on occasion and not too often, it sides with natives. Then the justice system is flawed, according to many. You write that “courts have been consistently generous — many say too generous — in accepting native arguments.” Obviously, the author of those words has little experience with the court system in Canada. Natives have lost far more cases than they have won, and some of these losses reek of bias, racism and discrimination.

Some courts are finally listening to native voices and that should be a good thing.

Finally, let us return to the issue of law and order and the rights of native peoples.

The relationship between the Mohawks and the Canadian government is a political one — a relationship that now spans more than a century, preceded by a century of relations with the British.

The Mohawks at Six Nations were allied with the British in the American War of Independence, and again during the War of 1812. One could argue that without the help of the Mohawks and other nations in the Iroquois Confederacy (the Haudenosaunee in our language), Canada would be part of the United States today.

As an ally, the Mohawks fought like brothers side by side with the British. The British made commitments to the Mohawks, which the Canadian government inherited in 1867. Canada has not lived up to these commitments, and that is a violation of law and order - a violation that lies at the root of the confrontation in Caledonia today.

You cannot enforce law and order on one nation of people and not the other. The issues are political in nature and must be settled politically. The occupation at Caledonia is a symptom of a breakdown in the political process. Canada cannot continue to ignore its trust relationship with the Mohawks; if it continues to do so, there will me more confrontations.

Mohawks have the high moral ground on these issues. Canada’s justice system does not.

Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, media, protest, racism, mohawk-nation

Vancouver Native Community Supports Six Nations with a Solidarity Rally

RALLY ON TUESDAY APRIL 25TH 12:30 AT VANCOUVER ART GALLERY
MEDIA ADVISORY
(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, April 23rd, 2006) Over 100 concerned members of the Vancouver Native community met at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre on Saturday, April 22nd , to show solidarity with the Six Nations in Caledonia. Vice President of the United Native Nations David Dennis from the Nuu Chah Nulth states, "As a collective, we decided that in order to ensure the safety for the Six Nations women, children and families, we will have a peaceful demonstration on Tuesday, April 25th, 2006 at 12:30 pm at the Vancouver Art Gallery.  We will unite with our brothers and sisters all across Turtle Island."
The Six Nations camp is unarmed and any police violence against the clan mothers and youth is unacceptable. On April 20, 2006 at around 4:30 AM, the camp was swarmed by 150 heavily armed police in cruisers and vans, using batons, tear gas cannons, and tasers with 16 arrests. One woman was brutally beaten by five OPP officers.
Organizer Annita McPhee from the Tahltan Nation further states, "We want to send a clear message to the federal and provincial governments that they must stop criminalizing our people who are standing up for our land and against injustices that been brought upon by the colonizers. Canada must stop using guns to resolve its disputes with the indigenous people."
Simply because the Ontario and federal governments have committed to negotiations, the threat of another police invasion is not over. The Six Nations have stated that the blockades will only end when the people at the camp decide for themselves whether enough progress has been made in ensuring an end to the ongoing theft of Six Nations land.
This rally in Vancouver is intended to serve as a deterrence to prevent any further police escalation against the Six Nations. We stand in support of the demands of the clan mothers for an immediate cessation of construction by Henco Industries on Six Nations territory which has never been surrendered and was formally recognized by the Crown as part of the 1784 Haldimand Deed and for peaceful resolution to the current standoff to be conducted on a nation-to-nation basis.
Elders from the community encouraged everyone "to pray for the safety of the Clan mothers, children, traditional teachers, and hereditary chiefs. This is a time for all Nations to stand together."

CTV Reports Racist Protest "Turns Ugly"

This just up on the CTV site… will keep you posted for more:

Counter-protest at land dispute site turns nasty
Updated Mon. Apr. 24 2006 9:39 PM ET
CTV.ca News
A dispute over a native land occupation at Caledonia, Ont. has taken a nastier turn, with a counter-protest from non-native residents leading to one arrest.

About 500 residents descended on the protest site Monday night, yelling insults at the protesters and calling for them to end their standoff.

They also waved Canadian flags and called for police to "let us through" and "open the road."

When police put the arrested individual in a police cruiser, a crowd of residents swarmed the cruiser.

The residents outnumbered the 100 police on site, who had been keeping them about 100 metres from the 100 native protesters, who had reinforcements join them.

However, they slowly pushed the police back. One resident tried to cross the police line, but the police turned him back.

Earlier in the evening, a crowd of about 3,000 people gathered at a rally over the ongoing dispute, now in its seventh week.

While organizers called for a quick, peaceful resolution, heated arguments started breaking out in the crowd.

Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, mohawk-nation, racism

Maoist Mayday?

The RCP-OC, a Maoist pre-party formation, is holding a May Day demonstration next Monday May 1stn (the main Mayday demo is being held on April 31st this year), in Montreal’s Parc Ex. neighbourhood. I have been assured that non-MLs are welcome, and everyone can bring their own signs and banners. It might be interesting… here is the text of their call out:

*******************************************
Demonstration for International Workers Day
Monday, May 1st at 6:00 p.m.
Gathering at the Parc Metro Station
(corner of Jean-Talon and Park Avenue)
*******************************************

Read more...

May First is a day for demonstrating international solidarity between all the workers of the world, as they unite against all exploiters and ruling classes of the world. It is an internationalist rally of all the forces struggling on the side of those who have nothing to lose but their chains, dreaming of a world with no exploitation.

But we are very far from that today. While we commemorate the memory of the strikers who were hanged in Chicago on May 1st, 1886, did we see tremendous changes on workers' conditions since 120 years at the world level? After more than a century and a half of capitalist "development", the shameful exploitation of the world's resources and of the life of billions of workers by a handful of wealthy capitalists and their states, is just getting worst.

Today more than ever, in front of the capitalist crisis and as rebellions are raising, the imperialist powers are maintaining their power by force, depriving tens of millions of people from the right to work and from the most basic material well-being: in Afghanistan (why these Canadian soldiers, if not for waging war in a new conquered territory?), in Iraq, in Palestine: nothing for the peoples, all for imperialists' pockets.

In China, thousands of peasantry rebellions are raising throughout the country in order to resist against wild capitalism and corruption, which are developing at great speed. On the other side of the spectrum, in Europe, in Canada and in the US like never before, the capitalist States are imposing important setbacks to the rights of the workers, of the immigrants, of the unemployed and of "illegal migrants." By doing so, they protect the right of their own bourgeoisie facing competition from the new rookies in the Top 10 exploiters of the world: India and China.

Even here in Québec and Canada, who can remember our last victories against the capitalists? Setbacks on migrant and refugees' rights; setbacks on working conditions; layoffs and closings in the manufacturing and clothing sectors; setbacks for the child minders in Québec, for the hospital workers in the public sector, etc.

So: is it time to step back? Surely no. It is with great distress that we learned this year that the unions and their allied student associations in Québec, gave up commemorating May First the day of, as millions of workers throughout the world will do.

That day -- the only one that belongs to the international proletariat thus in a symbolic way -- is not another festival to add or displace in the calendar. We are asked for that day to act in international solidarity and in support of the peoples' struggles and movements which are fighting capitalism and imperialism. We must join with those who want to change the world.

This is why we call all those wishing to demonstrate next May First, to take to the streets in the most international workers' neighborhood, for a rally under the banner of a "Revolutionary and Internationalist May First". REVOLUTIONARY, because it must express our will to change the world and build far more than a resisting movement; INTERNATIONALIST, because it must be in solidarity with all the workers of the world!

The gathering for the demonstration will be at 6:00 p.m. at the Parc Metro Station (corner of Jean-Talon and Park Avenue) in the Park- Extension area. We will walk behind a non-affiliated lead banner. Bring your own one, your flags and be there with enthusiasm!

Let's support the struggles of the exploited from all around the world!
Let's be revolutionary and internationalist on May First in Montreal!

A call from the Revolutionary Communist Party (Organizing Committees)

Parti communiste révolutionnaire (comités d'organisation)
Revolutionary Communist Party (Organizing Committees)
Comptoir Saint-Clément
C.P. 60556
Montréal (Québec)
H1V 3T8
CANADA
info@pcr-rcpcanada.org
www.pcr-rcpcanada.org
514 409-2444

Categories: canada, maoism, montreal, protest

More Raids On World Tamil Movement

Yesterday the RCMP raided the toronto headquarters of the World Tamil Movement (reported in the National Post amongst other places). This comes just nine days after the World Tamil Movement’s offices were raided in Montreal, and almost exactly two weeks after Canada’s Conservative government designated the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or “Tamil Tigers”) a terrorist organization. The World Tamil Movement has been repeatedly accused of being an LTTE front group.

Read more...

While the Tigers were already banned by the United States, this crackdown is particularly significant as Canada is home to the largest Tamil community outside of southeast Asia.

Serious allegations have been made regarding the Tamil Tigers’ activities, both in Sri Lanka and throughout the Tamil diaspora. Notably, in March the group Human Rights Watch issued a report (Funding the “Final War” LTTE Intimidation and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora) accusing LTTE representatives of engaging in intimidation and threats of violence to get “donations” from Tamils living in Canada.

Without entering into the debate over what activities the LTTE’s representatives do or do not engage in, or the politics of the struggle against the racist oppression the Tamil minority suffers in Sri Lanka, this police repression should be condemned. It is a transparent attempt by the Harper Conservatives to step up Canada’s “anti-terrorist” profile, and further criminalize the political activities of immigrants in this country.

Particularly ridiculous is the government (and police’s) claim that the LTTE is little more than a bunch of thugs who enjoy little or no support from within the Tamil community. These same State sources explain the previous Liberal government’s reticence to ban the Tigers as being a ploy to win Tamil votes; i.e. this “ban” is acknowledged as not being something that the Tamil community wants. (Even sources which are hostile to the Tigers have criticized the Conservatives for maintaining its support for the racist Sri Lankan government  - i.e. last week’s editorial in the Asia Pacific Post).

Worth keeping an eye on…
Categories: anti-terrorism, canada, repression, tamil-eelam

Peace To Keep: A Special CKRZ-FM Live Talk Show Tonight At 8pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SIX NATIONS - As Caledonia residents meet outside the county offices in Caledonia, Six Nations residents take to the airwaves on CKRZ at 8:00 pm tonight on a special Monday night talk show segment called, "Peace to Keep."

Read more...

Tonight's show, hosted by Barry Hill, will focus on the Douglas Creek Estates reclamation while shedding a new perspective on the on-going situation that has lasted fifty-six days.

We'll take you through the chronology of this journey from day one with insight into the many different twists and turns that have occurred along the way.

Barry will be joined on-air tonight with Six Nations community members, Amos Key, chair of CKRZ, Lisa VanEvery, communications consultant and Paul Frits, a lawyer with expertise in land issues.

"After fifty-six days of this reclamation, we feel it's vital and necessary to take stock of the situation, what has led the community to this point and most important, put forth ideas as to where the community can go from here," says Amos Key, chair of the CKRZ board.

The "Peace to Keep" show begins airing on CKRZ at 8 pm - 10 pm.  Listeners may also hear the show through live streaming on www.ckrz.com.

CKRZ is a non-profit Native community radio station serving the communities of Six Nations of the Grand River, New Credit of the Mississaugas First Nation, Hamilton, Caledonia, Brantford, Brant County and Haldimand County.  We are proud to be distinctly, "The Voice of the Grand."

For more information contact:

Amos Key, Chair CKRZ
(519) 758-7100
www.ckrz.com

Categories: first-nations, media, mohawk-nation

Secwepemc Native Youth Movement Solidarity With Six Nations

This posted on the Friends of Grassy Narrows site yesterday:

The Secwepemc Native Youth Movement has set up an information picket along the Trans Canada Highway (Hwy #1) at Neskonlith Reserve, 5 KM west of Chase, BC to show solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters at Six Nations, near Caledonia, Ontario.

Read more...

NYM TAKES SOLIDARITY ACTION TO SUPPORT SIX NATIONS

(Neskonlith Reserve, unceded Secwepemc Territory/Saturday April 22, 2006) The Secwepemc Native Youth Movement has set up an information picket along the Trans Canada Highway (Hwy #1) at Neskonlith Reserve, 5 KM west of Chase, BC to show solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters at Six Nations, near Caledonia, Ontario. We have set up camp and posted billboards, banners and Warrior flags to get the message out to the 10,000+ travellers per day that drive this highway. The billboards read: “Stop OPP Terrorism” “OPP out of SIX NATIONS”

On Thursday, April 20, 2006 over 150 heavily armed Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) with M-16’s and riot gear moved in to try and end the 52-day occupation at Six Nations. The Six Nations have been occupying the land of disputed Douglas Creek Estates luxury housing development since Feb. 28th. This Land has always belonged to Six Nations but KKKanada and Ontario have made land deals without true ownership, with stolen Land.

The OPP arrested 16 Natives, assaulted women, threw tear gas at them and tasered some during the arrest but police retreated as Natives chased them off and more Natives arrived. KKKanada has called for massive police and military reinforcement. There is over 3000 OPP and RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Pigs) and 1000 military just waiting for KKKanada to give them word to move in for another assault.

The Six Nations (sovereign Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora Nations) has called for support and to let the World know that terrorist attacks are happening here in KKKanada against the Original Peoples of the Land.

This land is all Indian Land. We have a common struggle with our Brothers and Sisters at Six Nations; we never surrendered our land to anyone. We claim jurisdiction throughout our whole territory.

STOP POLICE TERRORISM—OPP OUT OF SIX NATIONS---NATIVE LAND

Contact information
NATIVE YOUTH MOVEMENT
Voicemail (604) 682-3269 ext. 7845
nymcommunications(at)hotmail.com
Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, protest

Toronto: Public information meeting and information session in support for Six Nations blockade

Monday April 24th, 7pm.63 Gould Street (Oakham House)Room G (main floor)
Come to a public meeting and information session on the blockade at SixNations to build support and solidarity for the ongoing blockade. Support isurgently needed now since the government and OPP have made their stanceclear: they are willing to use extreme force to end this courageous act ofresistance for sovereignty. The government utterly refuses to call off theOPP. We are calling on people to help build a solidarity action on Friday,April the 28th, here in Toronto.

Categories: canada, colonialism, events, first-nations

Caledonia Standoff Media Roundup

Today’s corporate media roundup regarding the standoff in Caledonia. This is not a comprehensive list of articles; but taken together they seem to give the most complete picture possible from the corporate press. A much more comprehensive collection is available (and constantly updated) on the SISIS site.

Read more...

• Mass Rally To Hear Caledonia’s Anger; The Hamilton Spectator April 24th


• Mohawk blockade stays while talks go on; The Toronto Star April 24th


• Caledonia standoff haunts celebration; The Record April 24th


• Iroquois have unique history on their side, professor says; The Globe and Mail April 24th


• Native barricades to remain for 2 weeks in Caledonia; CBC April 23rd


• Religion trumps politics in Caledonia; Ottawa Citizen April 22nd

And from the more righteous media:

• The World War 4 Report has two articles on the standoff (April 20th: Ontario: Mohawks clash with provincial police and April 22nd: Ontario: Mohawk uprising spreads).


• The North East Federation of Anarchist-Communists also seems to now have a page up about the standoff.


• Turtle Island Native Network News


• NDN News also has an excellent collection of links to articles and video from the mainstream media regarding the standoff.


• CKRZ-FM (the Six Nations radio station mentioned in the Hamilton Spectator yesterday) has a live audio stream; if anything happens you’ll most likely hear about it there first.

And of course both Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty and Autonomy and Solidarity are maintaining the most up-to-date resource pages on the standoff.
Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, mohawk-nation, protest

Media Roundup (April 22nd & 23rd)

Blue shows Haldimand Grant, Purple shows Six Nations reserve
Red Star shows Douglas Creek occupation

A skeletal media roundup:

• Talks on, but barricades still up; London Free Press April 23rd


• Are Military Forces Operating From Hamilton Airport in Six Nations Standoff?; The Dominion April 23rd


• Activist defies court's authority; The Hamilton Spectator April 23rd


• Protester 'born into this fight'; Sat, April 22, 2006 April 22nd


• Protest began with a potluck; Toronto Star April 22nd


• An Angry Generation - Aboriginal young people full of pride -- and fury; The Hamilton Spectator April 22nd

And the following which i received by email this morning:

For info on how the Ontario government plans to bring unprecedented growth (3.7 million people) into the "Greater Golden Horseshoe" area check out the "Places to Grow Act" passed in June 2005.

June 13, 2005: The province of Ontario passes the Places to Grow Act. The act provides a legal framework for the provincial government to designate any area of land (including unceded First Nations land) as a "growth plan area" and decide on its development. A regulation was also passed identifying the "Greater Golden Horseshoe area" (which includes unceded Six Nations land) as the first area for which a growth plan will be prepared. The act is online at: http://www.pir.gov.on.ca
/userfiles/HTML/cma_4_40890_1.html

November 24, 2005: The Ontario Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal releases the Proposed Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Unceded Six Nations land is part of this development plan. The plan is online at: http://www.pir.gov.on.ca/
userfiles/HTML/cma_4_40902_1.html

For more information, you are strongly advised to check out the excellent pages put up on the SISIS and Autonomy & Solidarity sites.
Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, mohawk-nation, protest

Euro-Capitalism

An excerpt from Butch Lee’s excellent book The Military Strategy of Women and Children:

We have to go back for a moment, back before patriarchal euro-capitalism reformed the world in its own image. White women don’t understand who we are because we’ve blocked understanding the specific civilization that we belong to. We have to go back to that contact between semi-feudal Europe, with its wooden sailing ships and musket-bearing soldiers, and the rest of the world. That meeting was not like we think it was.

The impact of expanding Europe on what is now called the Third World was supposedly a collision of advanced whites and undeveloped colored people, of euro-capitalism’s superior science and economic power overwhelming primitive tribes. But in 1492, when Christopher Columbus’ expedition ran into the Caribbean islands, Europe was not advanced over the nations of Asia, Afrika, the Middle East and the Western Hemisphere. It’s technology and economy were different, but not advanced or superior. It’s that difference that we gotta focus on.

In many respects, euro-civilization was both technologically and economically backward. Europe was known as a poor barbarian region isolated on the periphery of the trade routes between the world’s main civilizations. The level of development of the world-spanning Islamic trading civilization of the Turkish Ottoman empire, the Han empire of China, the Moghul empire of India, the many Afrikan nations and indigenous nations of the Western Hemisphere easily surpassed backward Europe. This is to say that Europe was not the center of knowledge and progress.

Most Europeans had no idea of what sanitation was. The English, for example, seldom washed (their medicine-men said that bathing was unhealthy). Euro-men were backward compared to the rest of the world in the applied sciences/technologies such as medicine, textiles, nutrition, metal-working and agriculture, had an elaborate system of S-M patriarchal superstitions which were enforced by a parasite caste of men who tortured and murdered women, and had the lowest standard of living of any major region on the face of the earth. i mean, this was a poor civilization. What we did have (or what had us) were the beginnings of euro-capitalism.

Six Nations Update – How To Survive A Siege

photo of one of the cops who invaded the
reclamation on Thursday

From Kahentinetha Horn:

MNN.  April 23, 2006.  The source of the false alarm was discovered.  Someone, in this case, a native, seems to have instigated another false alarm.  This person is acting as a tool to disrupt all attempts to achieve a peaceful solution.

Read more...

The deliberate attempt to disturb people's sleep and make us live in constant fear is a familiar tactic.  We saw it before at the seige of Kanehsatake/Oka in 1990.  Now that Six Nations/Caledonia is under seige, it is worth remembering what was done to us then.  

The master mind brought in by the Canadian government was a Col. Musgrave.  We saw his picture in the papers.  This little Eichmann even had a little mustache like Hitler.   He had sharpened his claws by becoming Britain's expert on psyhchological warfare tactics used against the Irish.  He announced that it would take 3 weeks to break us down mentally and psychologically.  We weren't duped.  It just didn't work.  It didn't seem to have worked for the Irish either.  They sent him packing back to Britain.  

But that doesn't seem to be stopping them from trying the same shit again.  They used it at Gustafsen.  They used it at Burnt Church.  The OPP think they got it right at Ipperwash when they shot and killed Dudley George in 1995.  They're trying it again here.  

Let's take a look at the Kanehsatake/Oka prototype.  They flew helicopters over our heads all night long and shon blinding bright lights through our windows to disturb our sleep.  They flew jets low over our heads.  Apparently if any women were pregnant they could miscarry.  They knew we had a television in there, so they made misleading news reports.  They showed big bunkers, 50 calibre machine guns and all kinds of weaponry we never knew we had.  This was designed to scare the public.  We were laughing.  If we had that kind of firepower and their kind of mindset, we could have wiped out the whole city of Montreal.  Remember, they were attacking us.  We weren't attacking anybody.  They were trying to provoke us to take the first shot.  We never did.  Part of their attack included cutting  off or interfering with our communications with the outside world.  (They've already done this at Six Nations/Caledonia).  Based on our experience we can expect more harassment and interference.  At Oka they turned our water and electricity off and on.  They stopped food from coming in.  When they did let some through, it was old and rotten and the soldiers had peed in the juice.  (That's right, they urinated in the food we were expected to feed to our children).  What could we do.  We took the rotten eggs and threw them right back at them.  

Their dirty tricks weren't limited to adolescent pranks.  Snipers were assigned to take out anyone they thought might be a leader.  They did not hesitate to use weapons on children.  One 14 year old child was bayoneted in the chest right next to her heart while protecting her 4 year old sister.  When we came out of the Treatment Center, they gave us all a darn bad beating.  Harassment continued against us for years.  

It wasn't just police and army violence we had to watch out for.  False media information was used to incite violent attacks against us by red necks and psychologically unstable members of the general public.  At one point in the crisis, we had organized an evacuation of elderly people and children from Kahnawake.  The rabble rousing media found out about this.  They called out to all the hooligans in the neighborhood to rush out there at the end of the Mercier Bridge and to do their worst.  The Quebec police kept the convoy trapped on the bridge for hours until a large crowd gathered.  When the captives finally drove off the bridge, the cops stood and watched as the crowd stoned, beat the people and crushed their cars.  One elderly man died of a heart attack the next day.  Another a few days later.  All for the sin of thinking that the Canadian forces would act with minimal standards of decency.  Despite the public outcry about what happened in kahnawake, the same tactics were used at Burnt Church to sic French fishermen on their Native neighbors.  We are already seeing the same tactics at Six Nations/Caledonia where local drunks have attacked the people at the barricades.    
  
In Kanehsatake we had a doctor's phone which they could not disconnect.  We found one place in the field where we could make an emergency call.  We carried on.  
    
The person who set off today's false alarm let themselves become tools of the colonizers?  Maybe they want to feel important.  Maybe they're bored and want excitement in their lives.  This is a dangerous game.  It can cost lives.  In the fairy tale, the boys who played wolf sent out so many false alarms that no one would listen.  This made it possible for the wolf to move in for the kill undisturbed.  That's what the military tacticians are hoping they'll be able to do here.   We know they're set to move in.  The reports that the army has taken over a hangar at Hamilton airport are real.  The reports that children in Caledonia were kept out of school on Friday were real.  The attack would have happened then if they thought they could get away with it.  Don't be fooled.  The wolf is still lurking in the forest.  Six Nations remains under seige.  

If Canada was really interested in a peaceful solution, it would withdraw the troops, raise the white flag, withdraw the troops and leave.  They don't even need to negotiate with us.  All they need to do is to pull out their archival documents and look for the root of their title that they used to give Henco Industries the right to move onto our land.  All we've ever been asking for is, "Let's put our documents on the table".  They don't want to do this.  We know why.  They could not give Henco a valid title because they did not have one themselves.  They have been perpetuating a fraud that began almost 200 years ago.   They have violated the honor of the Crown by failing to keep the promises made by General Halidimand in 1784.  

If Ontario needs to negotiate with anyone, it should be with Henco.  They're the ones who gave him the false title.  

Canada is not likely to seek an honest and peaceful solution.  Let's take stock of where we stand now.  Democracy is under seige.  The rule of law is under seige.  We have to figure out how to survive this.  We need your support.   The more non-native supporters there are, the safer it will be for us and the safer it will be for the rule of law and world peace.    

These sleepless nights and the endless fear of not knowing when we will be attacked or who might be killed, is not helping matters one little bit.  We have at least one youth still in prison simply because the only name he has is Mohawk.  They want him to produce a colonial birth certificate.  He's being denied his inherent right to his Indigenous identity in violation of international law.  When Canada is showing itself so willing to violate international law, when Canada has a history of using violence and armed force against Indigenous people, how can anyone sleep at night, how can we hold off our heart attacks.  

Living under seize is an art.  What we learned at Oka is that humor is the best medicine.  We looked at things from our perspective.  That helped us to see that Canadian behaviour was silly, as well as dangerous.  We remembered our ancestors.  We continued our ceremonies.  We remembered the faces that were coming to us in the next generations.  We survived and so did our friends and allies.  Our children grew up together.  Many of us have grandchildren now.  They know what we did.  They're proud of us.  When we were under seige, our brothers, sisters, friends and allies on the outside kept up the pressure and saved our lives.  Thank you.

Supporters, if you wants to send us a flag from your country to show your support, we will be honored to hoist it alongside the Indigenous unity and Confederacy flag.  Sign it and send it to Haze Hill, RR#6, Hagersville, Ontario Canada N0A 1H0.  Deliver it in person.  We'd be glad to meet you.

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News

Contact:  Dick Hill at 519-865-7722; Hazel Hill at 519-865-7272, 519-445-0719, 519-445-1371 thebasketcase@on.aibn.com; Janie Jamieson at 905-517-7006; Jacqueline House at 905-765-9316 jacqueline_house@hotmail.com