Action

No Police-Based Solution to the Health Crisis!

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Jan 112021

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Montreal, January 9, 2021

Today at 8 p.m., for the first time in our history, a province-wide curfew will be put in place. After ten months of a health crisis, our government has once again opted for a police-based solution. With alarms, sirens and flashing lights, the police will announce the time of its reign every night, at least for the next month. This strategy of intimidation and fear implemented won’t be sufficient to camouflage the amateurism and ineffectiveness of the caquiste method of pandemic management.

This “suburban government” has once again decided to make grim calculations of profitability rather than implement measures based on social justice and science. Curfews in such a context cannot be justified as a health measure. It is a choice that could prove not only ineffective, but downright dangerous. The disproportionate effect of the decision will harm the most vulnerable people in our society, those who already routinely suffer violence and brutality from our “law enforcement” authorities.

Unsurprisingly, this government is following the strategy adopted almost everywhere else, one that fits perfectly within the logic of neoliberal capitalism. There is always a lack of resources for public services, but money is never lacking when it comes to the expansion of the state apparatus of repression.

As many have already mentioned, the curfew will at most have a symbolic effect. In reality, we are witnessing the continued degradation of the social safety net and the fostering of a climate of fear. Instead of solidarity, and at a time when our mental health has already been weakened by nearly a year of uncertainty, the government is encouraging denunciation, the search for scapegoats and individual guilt, thus absolving itself of all responsibility. In Montreal, we will have nearly a hundred more cops, while what we are asking for is more psychologists and interveners. What effect will this increased surveillance have on our collective paranoia? Isn’t there any another alternative?

The radical left must not leave this fight in the hands of the right and its anti-scientific and individualistic discourse. In times of health crisis, we don’t have the luxury of blindly agreeing to repressive and counterproductive measures while contenting ourselves with preventive half measures. We have wasted too much time; it is now more than necessary to act in order to make sure that such a critical discourse is heard. We cannot afford complacency. In the face of the security overbid, it is our duty to propose another political project, one that leaves no one behind and which is based on rigorous scientific data.

In all neighbourhoods, by all means, our voices must be heard. No police solution to the pandemic should be accepted. Let’s resist the authoritarianism in place and to come, and let’s fight against curfew! We should not expect anything from a government led by a sinister paternalistic accountant blinded by power and only serving its political base.

Let’s not accept the prevailing defeatism, let’s prepare for spring!

Report-back from New Year’s Eve noise demo in so-called Montreal 2020

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Jan 032021

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Though there was no public call for a noise demonstration this year in so-called Montreal, around 50 people gathered anyways. We carried on the 10+ year tradition in this region of ringing in the new year alongside our friends and family on the inside. This year we only visited the minimum security federal prison for men in Laval, Quebec – called the Federal Training Centre Minimum. It’s the prison where we can always see people in the windows and where we know people inside can hear us and see all our fireworks. We banged on pots and pans, yelled greetings, and set off a record number of fireworks.

This year has been intense for a lot of people, but especially those in prison. Though the Federal Training Centre Minimum did not see a SARS-CoV2 outbreak behind bars, its twin institution – the Federal Training Centre Multi Level did, with one prisoner dying of Covid-19 there in the summer time. Prisoners at both institutions have endured months of lockdown, with no visits from family, no group activities, and limited or no access to the gym and the library. For these reasons, it was extra important for us to visit on New Year’s Eve. We needed prisoners to know that we have not forgotten them.

Solidarity to all prisoners, including in the migrant prisons! #FreeThemAll

Solidarity to all those facing repression for participating in the 2020 uprising in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and more. #AmnestyForAll #BlackLivesMatter

For a world without prisons and the system that needs them.

BC: Power Lines Feeding LNG Facility Sabotaged — A statement from a few who aim to shut down Canada

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Dec 072020

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-info

We hear the cries for help coming out across this fake nation. We see Wetsuweten, Secwepemc, and Mohawk warriors and matriarchs standing firm against the fascist state that is trying to unabashedly and continually steal their land through state militia sponsored industrial projects. We see Mikmaq and Algonquin warriors and matriarchs standing strong in defense of their right to live free from the infrastructure of this false state.

We also see complacency across these lands. From the vacuum of territories that are not being contested, we hear nothing. The state sponsored industrial hydra knows no boundary, no territorial line, yet those who have not been physically confronted by this beast continue to remain silent. We see this militant passivity from ‘allies’ and ‘accomplices’ alike, and with that we have decided to act accordingly.

A few nights ago, during the supposed week of action, in a remote location somewhere between prince george and prince rupert, we took some bolts and cut the guy wires on a high transmission power line pylon. The line in question runs directly from fort saint john to kitimat, effectively distributing power from the site C dam to the LNG canada facility when they are both finished.

We see these as critical points of attack as they are both still in the construction phase. This is neither the first or last time you will hear from us, and we will not cease to act until the entire oil and gas industry that is decimating the lands that we and our comrades live on and come from, an industry built entirely on the backs of indigenous populations across Turtle Island, has found itself crumbling at the foundation. With the next great windstorm will come the crashing down of this monolithic representation of everything we aim to destroy.

We feel the winds of change beginning to blow, and we hope those reading this will do what they can to help the winds blow down everything around them.

BC: Direct Action Prevents Coastal GasLink from Drilling Under the Wedzin Kwa

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Dec 072020

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-info

Resistance is a living practice that spans across time and space. Interwoven webs connect peoples and communities – spreading fire from one space to the next. In its most subversive forms resistance will evade the capture of rationalization or quantification. Attempts to relay what is happening in any specific location will at best be incomplete stories, riddled by the storyteller’s bias.

What follows is a story of recent moments of resistance to the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. This is just one story and makes no attempt to speak for the wide variety of individuals involved in this struggle. We share these stories in attempt to add fuel to the fire. We hope this contribution fans the flames and helps to one day engulf the contractors involved in the project’s construction. To learn more about the contractors involved see seedsofresistance.noblogs.org

Earlier this November, pre-drilling under the Wedzin Kwa (morice river) was scheduled to begin. While CGL workers prepared to build the pads which host the drill, they were harassed, survey flags were pulled down, and a two-kilometer blockade was built on the road. Dozens of trees were felled on the road, barricades erected, barbed wire strung throughout, and a ditch was dug through the road. Once the pads where built and the drill arrived, a tree was fell onto the drill – which resulted in the drill being removed from the territory.

Simultaneously survey flags were being pulled, works sites trashed, and a hunter’s blind or tree sit is being occupied in the project’s right of way (ROW). With sub-zero temperatures long-term tree occupation is not easy – yet a 40ft tall fortified tree occupation surrounded by barricades is, for the time being, standing defiantly. Additionally, to stop access to the project’s right of way, barricades were erected and lit aflame with banners atop which read: shut down canada, solidarity with Six Nations, Mi’kmaqi fishers and Secwepemc land defenders.

Most recently, 3-4 kilometers of wooden barricades were built, stopping workers from accessing the ROW for days. To make things more difficult heavy machinery was used to dig up the road and destroy a bridge.

One day we hope to find ourselves sitting with friends and relatives resting and warming our hands on a large fire. A fire made up of all the projects which seek to destroy the land and the ones we care about – two things which we know are inseparable. Until that day comes we will continue to ignite smaller flames even if they just keep us warm for the night. We hope that the heat of these embers reaches you and warms your heart.

Rail Sabotage Against Canada

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Dec 072020

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

This island is riddled with train tracks: arteries that enable the flow of capital across the continent, conduits for the transport of bitumen and other products of resource exploitation, colonization, and death. The rails have always been instruments of colonial expansion. Throughout these territories, early railways displaced indigenous peoples, carried in the troops that put down uprisings, and cemented the national identity of a nascent settler state.

Last winter, in response to police incursion into Wet’suwet’en territory and the arrest of land-defenders, rail blockades sprung up all across so-called Canada. In the year since, the resource-hungry settler state has continued its attack on indigenous peoples. From Wet’suwet’en and Secwepmeculew territories in the west, to Six Nations and Algonquin territories closer by, to Mi’kma’ki in the east, indigenous peoples have faced an onslaught of repression at the hands of police, white supremacists, and other violent settlers.

Following recent calls to Shutdown Canada again, and for a week of solidarity with indigenous land struggles, we decided to take action against the rails. Early in the morning of Monday November 30th, several autonomous groups interrupted train traffic across Montreal island. We used jumper cables to mimic the passage of freight trains, thus jamming up the rail network at several key junctions. As dawn broke on a new work week, we hope that our actions created at least some impediment to the orderly progression of the colonial economy.

With love to all those struggling to defend the land against Canada.

-Anarchists

Solidarity Disruption and Experimentation on the CP and AMT railroad

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Dec 072020

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Early in the evening of Friday November 27th in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal, Canadian Pacific (freight) and AMT (commuter trains) traffic was interrupted as a response to the Coast to Coast call to Action* against the continued violent invasion of unceded Indigenous territory by militarized colonial police forces.

A thick (thickness of a pencil) 13ft copper wire was tightly wrapped around (twice per rail just to make sure) and across the rails, completing a circuit that mimics a train passing, thus temporarily blocking off this section of the railroad until a maintenance crew is called, the wire found, the rails inspected, etc. The activation of train signal lights behind and ahead of us on the tracks allowed us to confirm it worked, though nearby crossing barriers didn’t go down to stop car traffic as expected. Our understanding is that maybe given the direction of the next train scheduled to pass, the obstruction created was understood by their system as being a train that had already passed the crossing. It is also unclear whether this works further away from electrical infrastructure where the current on the rails might not be as strong.

More experimentation – and sharing our findings – is certainly needed but we believe this method to be quick and simple enough to be replicated without much expertise or training. Police repression is also quite difficult given the scale of railroad networks in and around cities. Make sure to plan everything as securely as you would any similar action. Prepare and discuss things only with people involved and do so away from phones and other electronics equipped with microphones and geolocation systems. Make sure there is no way to identify you while gathering information (via Tor Browser or a VPN for online browsing), acquiring the tools you need, leaving the area, and finally broadcasting your action if necessary. Keep in mind cameras, fingerprints, DNA, footprints, and contextual risks (e.g. electrical current, police, falling) at all times before, during, and after the action.

As seen time and time again, the only language understood by the Canadian state is the disruption of the circulation of goods, labor, and capital. Last winter, Indigenous land protectors and settler accomplices have shown that the Canadian colonial project is nothing more than a few population hubs linked to extractive areas by vulnerable transport infrastructure. Colonial laws are illegitimate on Indigenous territory and they will always be disregarded in the fight against the genocide of Indigenous people.

*https://www.yintahaccess.com/videos

Ontario: Solidarity with Indigenous Land Defenders

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Nov 162020

Anonymous submissions to North Shore Counter-info

OPP collaborators, we see you!
November 6, 2020

UAV Tower Innovations is a drone company that is being paid by the OPP to spy on indigenous land defenders. Their publicly listed address is 403138 Grey Rd 4, Durham. Last night we spraypainted a message on their driveway:
OPP COLLABORATORS
WE SEE YOU!
WE ARE WATCHING YOU
NO JUSTICE ON STOLEN NATIVE LAND

This is a warning, keep your drones away from the front lines.

Love and solidarity to indigenous people taking back their land!

***

Hamilton: John A MacDonald Statue Painted Red
November 9, 2020

Early in the morning on November 9th, a few of us tread into the night to pay visit to Sir John A Macdonald in Gore park downtown Hamilton. With a loaded fire extinguisher, we painted him red, symbolizing his blood-soaked legacy. We did this in solidarity with the land defenders out 1492 Landback Lane, our neighbors from Six Nations, who are facing intense police violence in their attempt to save their land from another cheap and hollow suburban development.

Fuck John A and his genocidal power project, the state of Canada. A racist – even for his times – he solidified the colonial relationship and ensured the continued landtheft from Indigenous peoples. Fuck every prime minister right down the chain, including Justin Trudeau and his empty reconciliation rhetoric. Once again see the state refusing to meet the land defenders of any Nation with the respect and sovereignty they pay lip service to. And fuck the OPP. A.C.A.B.

It is time to honour the call of Indigenous people everywhere when they say LAND BACK. Come to the support of the Natives you live close to, whether that’s the Mi’kmaq fishermen fighting their right to trap out east to the Tiny House Warriors on the west coast pushing back against the TransMountain pipeline. Anytime you undermine symbols or infrastructure the state, you weaken its claim to permanence. All that was built can be torn down, just like the roads out at Sixth Line.

Lessons from this action: Fire extinguishers full of paint are rapid, quiet, & effective tools! Find a guide to how to fill them on mtlcounterinfo.org (but use Tor browser to visit it).

Seeds of Resistance: A New Resource for Land Defense

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Oct 262020

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

As the world falls apart around us we turn to the land more than ever.

This site is meant as a resource for resisting pipelines and other exploitative industrial projects. It is full of information for ideas and action when the process has failed, when permits have been granted, and there is nothing left but our own selves to protect the land.

Visit https://seedsofresistance.noblogs.org/ (with TOR or a safe VPN/browser combo!) and find all the things you’ve been looking for to ignite ideas and action.

Taunting OPP Officers fire rubber bullets, tasers and brandish assault weapons at 6×6 camp

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Oct 232020

From Real People’s Media

SIX NATIONS – OPP officers instigated a major clash at the corner of Hwy 6 and 6th line near Caledonia while land defenders were in Cayuga court today. At around 4pm, OPP cruisers pulled up to 6×6 saying according to one witness that “We’re here to assist in making arrests.” The officers were told to leave and were informed that their presence would only escalate an already tense situation.

According to an eyewitness, “five more cops suddenly showed up. They came out of their cars wielding weapons, and they opened right up on them”. Multiple rounds of rubber bullets were fired in the direction of the 6×6 camp, with bullets hitting the fence around the perimeter, and one bullet hitting the fire barrel.

One Six Nations man was tasered. Three Six Nations men were chased by OPP officers wielding firearms in two different foot races. The Onkwehon:we outran the police officers and were not apprehended.

According to an another eyewitness who spoke with Real People’s Media, “every officer was brandishing a weapon. There wasn’t one there who didn’t have a weapon in his hand. tasers, rubber bullet guns, assault rifles, they all had weapons out.

“We moved up the road, and they got out again with weapons. We told them to put their weapons away ‘cause they were going to shoot someone.”

The eyewitness reported that “the cops were hollering at [name redacted] and calling him a chicken. Yelling “buck, buck, buck” and making chicken noises. That’s what really pissed me off. They were saying come over here chicken” and trying to get him to come fight.” The eyewitness said that the police officers seemed to be enjoying themselves.

After the police blocked Hwy 6 with multiple vehicles, Onkwehon:we people took the road themselves. Hwy 6 is now closed at Fourth Line and the OPP have set up a barricade in Caledonia near the Canadian Tire.

At the time of this writing, hundreds of Six Nations people are converging at 6×6 and Kanonhstaton.

Autonomous Blockade Against Logging Launched on So-Called Vancouver Island

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Oct 032020

Anonymous submission to It’s Going Down

On a coast choked in smoke from fires burning a vast swath of this dying planet, up road TR11A on the north side of Edinburgh Mountain on so-called Vancouver Island, we felled seven trees across the road, erected tripods, hung banners, and locked a gate to block access to old growth cutblocks higher up the mountain. Blockades were started in August in the neighbouring Fairy Creek watershed, yet industrial logging in the area continues. Some old growth areas are currently inaccessible to industry thanks to these ongoing blockades, but many others nearby are still being destroyed, and our action prevented the Monday morning destruction of at least some old growth forest. We are happy to obstruct old growth logging, but we’d just as soon have done the same thing to prevent 2nd or 3rd growth forests from being clearcut, as there is nothing remotely sustainable about the way forests in so-called British Columbia are being industrially destroyed.

We invite others to expand the struggle against logging in Tree Farm License 46 along insurrectionary lines. The proposal is simple: informal organization, unmitigated hostility, and refusal to negotiate with the state or industry. This can be as simple as getting together with friends and creatively finding ways to throw sand in the cogs of industrial logging. In this case, for us it was establishing a temporary blockade. We did this because it was fun and easy, and we had no interest in getting caught or waiting to be arrested. We can act alone or in groups. The goal is one of direct action: to stop logging from happening, not politely ask that it stop. The more action is decentralized, the more uncontrollable it will be become, and since the powers that be are incapable of controlling the entire area, it may be possible to bring the clearcuts to an end. Worst case scenario we simply have some fun along the way, and cause them to think twice next time. Friends from afar can contribute to this struggle by visiting Teal Jones’ offices, mills, and other operations in various locations in so-called BC and the so-called United States.

Throughout this process it will be important to make space for a diversity of tactics. Some of us may try to build a popular social movement, some will stay on the barricades at the Fairy Creek blockades, others may take our approach and act autonomously – some may do all three. Whatever decisions we do make, we should approach them with humility. None of us know exactly how to stop the industrial Hydra, but we do know that the powers that be will employ divide and conquer tactics to single out more radical groups and individuals and weaken movements. A clear understanding of solidarity and remembering that we are all working towards the same goal will help us to succeed.

This feels particularly important seeing others denounce our blockade as ‘under-authorized,’ as we believe none of us should look to anyone for authorization to act. Our actions come from our own analysis, desires and relationships – no one can take that away, nor should they invest in policing them. This can be complicated on stolen land, and to those who might raise this issue we would point out that there are Pacheedaht folks with us and Pacheedaht folks against us, as every community includes a diversity of perspectives. We wish to act alongside those who would see the forests on their land preserved, and not leave it to them alone to fight the industrial capitalism and colonialism which ceaselessly encroach upon us all.

For a diffusion of attack!

#OldGrowthBlockade

Some anarchists

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