Indigenous Land Defenders in the community of Kanehsatake planted the Haudenosaunee Confederacy flag on a contested piece of land to let the public know that the land will be reclaimed.
The action was undertaken [the morning of April 27th] on a 200 acre parcel of land in the middle of Kanehsatake, near Little Tree Gas. There has been a controversy over the land for the past six to seven years, especially after at least an acre of bush line was cut.
The land was supposed to be sold to the Mohawk Council of Kanehsatake (MCK), but that sale never happened, and community members have learned that instead the land has been sold to a private company: Vegibec Inc.
The planting of the flag and the presence of community members is a message to let the public know the land will be reclaimed. For now, community members are monitoring the situation, but a callout for outside solidarity might be made in the near future.
Report by @NoBordersMedia, based on first-hand information by a local community member on-site. See the Twitter thread for more photos.
Over the past 2 months, the RCMP has ramped up their continued harassment and intimidation of the people living at and defending the Yintah from CGL, at km 44 camp, on Gidimt’en territory. A few days ago, cops decided to arrest someone, using the pathetic excuse of “mis-identification”.
We believe that active solidarity is always important, even more so when our comrades are facing repression. This solidarity can be expressed through easy attacks, which break the isolation and fear that the state tries to trap us within. Those involved in funding the pipeline have names and addresses. They might not always be esay to find, but usually, they are the ones trying to protect their peace and tranquility tucked safely away in big houses, far from the social war they are a part of.
With this in mind, and rage in our hearts, this past wednesday we decided to spend the evening in the streets of Westmount. Using a fire extinguisher filled with paint, we had a good time vandalizing the facade of the house at 734 avenue Upper Lansdowne where Nadine Renaud-Tinker, RBC Quebec president lives.
Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en, and all those defending the Yintah from CGL. Solidarity with comrades at km 44! Fuck RCMP, RBC, and CGL!
Comments Off on Anti-authoritarian Platoon of Ukraine: Are We Anarchists and What We Do
Apr222022
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Hi! We prepared FAQ about folks from our platoon: are we anarchists and what we do, all is here. We’ll keep posted who follow our activities and support us.
Are you anarchists?
About half identify as anarchists. These are people with different backgrounds: some came from revolutionary groups, others from cultural, educational and social projects. But it is incorrect to call the whole platoon anarchic. It is more correct to say that we all adhere to anti-authoritarian views, we are all fighting together against Russian imperialism and we all value direct democracy. Therefore, we have introduced a system of elected foremans borrowed from the Kurdish rebels, meetings are held equal, everyone free to express criticism, also about the work of chiefs. We held democratic elections to the media committee as well.
Who is in the platoon and why are you at war?
Initially, people of anti-authoritarian beliefs, anarchists, several socialists, anti-fascists and football hooligans gathered platoon. We get new recruits time to time. In the area where we are now, local people have joined us, we can say without any pronounced political orientation. They just share desire to fight against Russian aggression, as well they are top notch folks. We also have several specialists involved, from whom we learn combat experience.
There are no racists or homophobes among us, there are also several girls in the platoon, which supports the feminist agenda in practice.
The desire to resist the Russian imperialist aggression brought us all at war. We are here to defeat the invaders and defend the Ukrainian people, their freedom and independence.
What are you doing now?
Now we at training period, and we also have a permanent guard duty. Previously, we went on operational tasks that were within the region, for example: we counteracted saboteurs, parachutists, guarded critical points, created roadblocks, helped the units of the Armed forces of Ukraine with reconnaissance with quadrocopters and took refugees out from under fire.
Is it possible to get to you?
Now we are not recruiting, cause at the moment it is quiet in our region. But we are up for participation in hostilities in other regions in the near future, so there will probably have the opportunity of join.
Can I call you Resistance Committee?
Resistance Committee is a Telegram channel that related to small part of our folks, despite the first posts that identified him with the whole platoon. However, the media committee of our division has recently had access to it, and we can brief you in time to time here.
How can I support you?
In the near future, due to some bureaucratic difficulties, we may have problems with food and fuel supplies. Then we will need additional funds.
We also need a night vision devices for our platoon and some guys need plate carriers.
To raise money, our comrades are running a “Good night imperial pride” campaign. You can contact them on social networks:
On April 11th. A group of Montreal Anarchists snuck into the offices of RBC armed with flyers, stickers and paint cans. They left a message for the bank: Divest from CGL. Coastal GasLink is a filthy pipeline project being built on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory without their consent. Royal Bank of Canada or RBC is heavily invested in this disgusting project since they simply don’t care about Indigenous sovereignty and the ongoing climate catastrophe.
In the early afternoon, a small group of anarchists snuck into the RBC offices at Place Ville-Marie. Armed with flyers, stickers and spray paint cans, they left a message for the bank: DIVEST FROM CGL. Since the Fall of 2021, the Wet’suwet’en have been actively campaigning for RBC to stop funding the destruction of their land, but RBC continues to ignore them.
As long as RBC is funding pipeline projects, they will find us in their way.
– some fucking angry anarchists
Reflections On Ongoing Anticolonial Solidarity:
Imminent Threat: Coastal Gaslink (CGL) is set to drill under the Wedzin Kwa this Spring 2022. The people, land, language and culture of Wet’suwet’en as well as the animals residing on these territories are facing annihilation of their lifeways. For those who have heard the call to action, this upcoming year is crucial to the future of Wet’suwet’en self-determination and sovereignty.
Solidarity actions keep the Gidimt’en fight visible and the people on the frontlines safer from police repression and CGL harassment (https://twitter.com/Gidimten/status/1450808498833473549) Just in the past month alone, the RCMP made 54 visits to Gidimt’en Checkpoint, waking elders at all hours of the night and threatening arrest. These ongoing acts of intimidation and police repression are a part of a broader strategy by the Canadian state to use the legal and judicial systems to continue to deny Wet’suwet’en sovereignty, despite the fact that the Canadian judicial system recognized Wet’suwet’en sovereignty in the Delgamuukw v British Columbia decision.
Longterm Struggle: Commitment is a long breath that is constantly threatened by exhaustion. This struggle against CGL takes on many dimensions: decolonial, environmental, anti-capitalist and feminist. The numerous “man camps” invading the Yintah intensifies and facilitates men’s ability to kidnap, rape and murder Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited individuals (see the Final Report by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, p. 593). As long as CGL and the RCMP remain on the territory so too do the heightened levels of colonial gendered violence.
We continue to support Gidimt’en Checkpoint’s fight against Coastal GasLink and extractive companies because the struggle towards Indigenous self-determination is a long, arduous struggle. Solidarity organizing is most effective when it is consistent and strategic. Our ongoing efforts contributes to the strength and `visibility of their fight for self-determination, sovereignty, and freedom.
Imagine the strength and capacity of solidarity work if people engaging in this kind of organizing had personal and collective stakes in the game? For instance, there are many Indigenous people fighting across Turtle Island to be free from the settler state and to be free to govern themselves as they deem in accordance to their own ways. There are also many non-Indigenous people fighting to be as free as they can from the institutionalization and regulation of their bodies, relationships, and communities. These varying experiences and histories of struggle provide a basis for profound points of connection.
Imagination is an asset when it facilitates various ways to make this fight visible. Adapt the tactics and organizing strategies to your capacities and resources. Most importantly, act. It’s time.
This week across southern ontario and quebec, we’ve lost count on how many RBC branches were targeted (we estimate 10+) for disruption and attack. So-called toronto, hamilton, montreal… friends in places as small as orillia and as distant as nanaimo. These actions respond to a need to target investors in the Coastal Gaslink pipeline project – which is currently behind schedule thanks to the direct attack that took place in february as well as the successful campaigns to block the project thus far lead by Gidimt’en Clan – but is still rapidly being constructed on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory.
RBC is one of its largest financial backers, and in the past week and preceding months, has been the subject of pressure tactics ranging from direct action interfering with bank branches, to pushing elites/clients to pull their money out of RBC accounts, to organizing to disrupt RBC’s Annual General Meeting in Toronto. The message is clear: the Royal Bank of Canada needs to divest from CGL immediately.
In hamilton, where we’re writing from, bank branches were vandalized, had their locks glued, and ATMs damaged. We chose these methods to directly interfere with the operations of the bank, hurt them financially and in their public image, and to contribute to the spread of easily-replicable, anonymous actions.
RBC was the central target this week, but they are not alone in complicity. We can also set our sights on other big banks, TC Energy, many related contractors and developers, the RCMP, and the State of so-called Canada.
This is only going to escalate. CGL, and their financial allies like RBC, perpetuate the situation by continuing their exploitative projects and violent attacks on Wet’suwet’en territory. The Wedzin Kwa remains under the looming threat of being destroyed via drill. Elders, matriarchs, supporters, comrades, and land defenders face daily assault. We all need to prepare for more, to respond with more boldness, to do more damage. If they push, then we then will push back, but harder. With only a bit of planning and courage, we can act in ways that feed our spirits and keep the fight alive. Stay safe, and we look forward to seeing your work out there in the days to come.
Comments Off on Montreal Anarchist Solidarity with Anti-fascist Resistance in Ukraine and War Resisters in Russia and Belarus
Mar292022
From No Borders Media
(March 27, 2022) A small group of Montreal-area anarchists gathered downtown earlier today, and marched to the Russian consulate in solidarity with anti-fascists and the anti-war movement in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Protesters held up banners reading (in a mix of English, French and Russian): “No to war!”, “Putin: Fuck Off!”, “No more Tsars! Up the anti-fascist resistance everywhere!”, and “Solidarity with Ukrainian and Russian war resisters”. At the consulate, whose gates were already vandalized with red paint, protesters attached the banners, and read a communiqué from an anti-war action in Moscow. Before leaving, a few protesters egged the front of the consulate.
Solidarity with people resisting war and occupation, not with states, not with any fascists, and not with NATO.
Early on the evening of Tuesday March 15, anarchists and anti-authoritarians converged in the historic working-class neighbourhood of St-Henri, Montreal, for the 26th annual International Day Against Police Brutality. This year, in addition to venting their hatred of the SPVM (the Montreal police), a central theme of the march was the colonial repression faced by Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters at the hands of the RCMP.
The evening of March 15th, was the 26th annual protest against police brutality. 26 years of marching, 26 years of systematic repression by police brutality, like an annual tradition that leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. The demonstrators decided to keep control of the sidewalks rather than be chased off the streets by violent and insulting police officers, and attacked the neighborhood’s worst businesses: Dollarama and the National Bank. Let’s remember that if Dollarama is a grocery store of last resort for the poor, it still sells unhealthy crap and is one of the worst companies in Quebec for abusing its workers. And on the other side, the National Bank is investing billions in several important oil projects. In the face of this self-defense of the poor against their oppressors, the police violently attacked the demonstration: truncheons, gas and beatings were the order of the day.
We demonstrated in St-Henri, a poor, working class neighborhood that is increasingly being slaughtered by gentrification, like many others across the city. The arrival of new, hip businesses has driven out the old, affordable spaces, and rents are now skyrocketing. But St-Henri is also this high place of colonialism, close to the railroads, the Lachine Canal … in short, everything that is used to plunder indigenous lands. The workers of St-Henri know this well, they have worked for a long time in the sweatshops of the area to transform this plunder into junk too expensive for them. And if most of the sweatshops are gone, the looting is still going on, whether it is through the construction of condos in Kanien’kehá:ka territory, or the construction of a pipeline in Wet’suwet’en territory, or ancient wood cutting in Pacheedaht territory.
We must indeed shutdown the colonial police. It’s colonial, because that’s what the police are for, to defend the settlers. It is the armed arm of the israeli state that defends the settlers in Palestine. It is the armed wing of saudi arabia that is invading yemen. And it is the armed wing of russia which is invading ukraine. And while canada supports ukraine — and that’s good — it doesn’t hesitate to give weapons to the strongarm of repression, both in israel and in saudi arabia. And canada is arming its own RCMP, its colonial police force, to intervene on unceded indigenous lands, whether it be Wet’suwet’en land or the Pacheedaht land.
We have nothing to lose but our chains. All attacks on the State and Capital are justified.
Finally, we are calling for witnesses: if you have been arrested, brutalized or have witnessed police brutality, please contact the COBP at: cobp@riseup.net
We also remind you to be careful about what you post on social media.
