Mtlcounter-Info

Thinking Through the Threats and Opportunities as a Far-Right Initiative Gains Momentum Opponents of vaccine mandates have established protest encampments in Ottawa and elsewhere around Canada, blockading several routes crossing the United States border. Far-right organizers and former police officers have prominent positions in this movement, and police have taken a relatively hands-off approach thus far; it appears likely that the model currently being tested in Canada will appear elsewhere around the world shortly. In the following extensive report, our correspondent in Montréal explores the sequence of events that led up to these developments, reviews the agendas of the various forces vying for control, and reflects on what we can do in a situation in which the far right has gained the initiative. ...

At the beginning of the pandemic the state claimed masks were futile, but this was due to shortage and the government’s refusal to regulate the free market to ease the pain of the pandemic. Once companies managed to catch up with demand, the narrative changed. Many people likely died unnecessarily as a result of this. Wearing masks can help save lives, but it is not a political statement in and of itself as some seem to think. Wearing your mask is not meaningfully countering the death-cult voices on the openly right-wing side of this culture war, it is simply common decency. On a larger level, it serves the state’s agenda to be louder about wearing masks than about the failing medical infrastructure around the world, or how the global medical establishment only serves the rich. I cringe when I see a liberal wearing a mask as if it is a symbolic virtue signal for BLM and organic farming. Supporting masks, encouraging vaccines, and not wanting vulnerable demographics of people to die is something we may have in common with someone on the liberal side of this culture war– a culture war that has been fabricated by state media and the worst of the internet– but it does not mean we can align ourselves with the liberals. ...

The second season of “The Whole Orchard” podcast will soon be available! This year we’ll talk about anticarceral feminism, police forces on indigenous territories & transformative justice, amongst other subjects. Until then, you can listen to the five episodes of the 1st season by searching “Le verger au Complet” on your favorite podcast platform or by going to the web site . Love & Rage, The CLAC.

We took the train downtown to avoid getting caught in the traffic jam of the protest itself. I’ve spent the ride alternating between preparing myself for what we’re about to see by mentally going over all of the things I should expect to see and hear in the next few hours at the convoy protest and distracting myself by contemplating whether or not I like Ottawa’s new transit system. I haven’t been to downtown Ottawa since before the pandemic. I know what stop we’re going to but it is unmistakeable anyway, a wave of people dressed in Canadian flag capes, maskless and bearing protest signs prepares to dismount just as we do. I remember using a similar tactic to find the right subway stop to get to Zucotti Park in 2011. There are so many surface-level similarities between here and there that I can’t help but feel a pang of the jealousy and perhaps even empathy with the protestors that I’ve been experiencing all week, watching their moment unfold and remembering moments where I have felt joy, camaraderie and anticipation of the kind that I imagine they are feeling this week. ...

Your browser does not support the audio element. My name is Toby Shone, and I’m an imprisoned anarchist held in Bristol prison who was kidnapped at gunpoint by the anti-terrorist unit, as part of Operation Adream in the UK. The repression was aimed to target the anarchist group of critique and practice, 325 collective and the website 325.nostate.net. Operation Adream is an attack by the British State in conjunction with European partners against anarchist direct action groups, counter-information projects, prisoner solidarity initiatives and the new anarchist critique of the technological singularity and the fourth and fifth industrial revolution. Operation Adream is the first time that anti-terrorist legislation has been used against the anarchist movement in the UK. ...

For the fourth time in four years, we have received information that dozens of militarized RCMP are en route to Wet’suwet’en territory to facilitate construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline and to steal our unceded lands at gunpoint. We continue to hold the drill pad site, where Coastal Gaslink plans to tunnel beneath our pristine and sacred headwaters. Two charter planes from Nanaimo have touched down in the town of Smithers on unceded Cas Yikh territory. RCMP have booked up local hotels for the next month. We have also received word from the Union of BC Indian Chiefs that the C-IRG unit of the RCMP – the paramilitary unit that protects private industries who are seeking to destroy Indigenous lands – are being deployed onto our lands. ...

There’s lots of smack to be said about Santa and, as anarchists, we aren’t big cheerleaders for the bearded guy; but we can appreciate that his sneaking game is on point. So a few of us celebrated this year by doing some sneaking of our own. Late into the night on Christmas 2021, a call was answered to attack the banks and funding sources of the CGL pipeline that is being forced on the Wet’suwet’en people. Banks – like RBC – are very easy targets as they have many branches across the cities we live in that are relatively unguarded at night. A Hamilton branch, on Upper James, was one such branch visited and redecorated. ...

On the week of December 20, we are hosting an International Week of Action to Defund Coastal GasLink. Banks and private equity corporations are bankrolling Indigenous rights violations and destroying our shared climate. Their lack of accountability in financing colonial violence and land theft from Indigenous people is unacceptable. We are all in this together! We all have a responsibility to stand up to big financial institutions that invest and keep the fossil fuel industry going full force. ...

There is nothing left unsaid. RCMP Out. CGL off the Yintah. Defend the Wedzin Kwa. This is an act of genocide. An active genocide. An armed invasion by the colonial state. There is nothing left to say: they do not listen to words. So just do; that is what we have done. One recent evening, allies/accomplices went out into the night to pick up where others may have left off in the spring of 2020: targeting rail infrastructure. ...

This guide is an improved version of the practical section of the To Settlers, By Settlers callout that we recently re-published. Thank you to the reader who brought it to our attention. The aim of information here is to disrupt rail flow, not be a catalyst for derailment or accidents, which could further injure life or land. As always, we encourage folks to think about your heart, as well as the longevity of these actions and overall struggle; a gentle reminder that you are being careful with yourselves, fingerprints and DNA – for everyone’s safety – and that repression often follows action. ...

Skip to the practical section. It’s important to know that settlers have written this. We don’t have the lived experience of any Indigenous person, including the Wet’suwet’en. We do write from a place of heart and affinity within this struggle – personal, political, and/or relational. In that we feel responsibility to act against the systems and corporations that harm the people and land within it. We acknowledge our settler responsibility and complicity in this, and look for opportunities and strategies that align politically as a way to enact solidarity. This does not mean we speak for them, or should be closed to critiques. ...

A charter plane full of RCMP have landed at the Smithers airport, with between 30 and 50 officers equipped with camo duffel bags. Police loaded onto two buses and unmarked, rental pick-up trucks and headed out towards the yintah. An RCMP helicopter is reported to be heading to the area. Throughout today, helicopters have circled over our camps, conducting low, deliberate flights for surveillance. The road into our yintah remains blocked by RCMP at 28km, with hereditary chiefs, food, and medical supplies being turned away. ...