Just to recap: earlier today as a gesture of good faith the First Nations people took down their blockade in Caledonia. Certain white Caledonians obviously misinterpreted this generosity as a sign of weakness and decided they would mount their own settler blockade and not let any First Nations people through. Then a racist mob attacked First Nation people; fists flew and the OPP intervened pepper spraying people.
Understandably, the First Nations people re-established their blockade, using heavy machinery to tear up the street.
At this point, to do so is clearly a necessary measure of self-defense.
The how and why is not clear to me yet, but what is clear is that there is no electricity throughout much of the region. A news report i heard earlier gave the estimate of over 6,000 homes without electricity. Not sure why this is (sabotage? cut-off by the authorities? a fluke?) – the mainstream media seems to be implying that Ontario Hydro can’t fix things because of the self-defense barricade re-mounted by the First Nations people, but this could just be a crock of shit. What’s clear is that the massive loss of electricity could be a complicating factor tonight. Making it all the more important to keep both eyes no what is going on.
I would have a lot to say about this all – and i probably will do so – but not right now. Let’s just say that “white rights” blockaders attacking First Nations people in this manner provides an interesting lens through which to examine questions of nations, classes and States. But that kind of discussion can wait for another day.
Right now, i’m gonna suggest you get to Caledonia to support the Six Nations people. Or if you can’t, do something else. It’s a big continent, there are just so many ways to take a stand in support of the Six Nations people and against racism… and as i’ve said before, there’s a hell of a lot of land that can be occupied.
For all the day’s news updates regarding the racist mob violence in Caledonia, please see the Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty website.
For ongoing updates, it is worth listening to CKRZ FM – the Six Nations radio station. CKRZ can be listened to on the web; they have been having sporadic reports from Caledonia, as well as (from what i can gather) news every hour on the hour (EST).
Although her right-wing affiliations make my skin crawl, Meaghan Walker-Williams is maintaining a thorough round up of anti-colonial commentary from the blogosphere.
Categories: caledonia-reclamation-2006
Hey, that's ok, about the skin crawling thing. You might want to check my latest. I caught some jerk on Dust My Brooms actually talking about how it might be a good idea for the OPP to "Kill one Indian and the rest will Scatter" just like Harris proved with Ipperwash.
ReplyDeleteSickening.. Absolutley sickening.