Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information

Colonialism, Democracy, & Fascism: Conversation with Gord Hill

 Comments Off on Colonialism, Democracy, & Fascism: Conversation with Gord Hill
Oct 062018
 

From It’s Going Down

Montreal Book Launch for The Antifa Comic Book, by Gord Hill

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | RSS

Cover photo: Italian anarchist partisan fighters celebrate the defeat of fascism.

In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we talk with long time indigenous author, artist, and organizer, Gord Hill, who for decades has written under the pen name, Zig Zag. While Gord is perhaps best known for documenting indigenous struggles across the so-called Americas, in his newest work for Arsenal Pulp Press, he takes on the history of fascism and resistance to it over the past 100 years in, The Antifa Comic Book: 100 Years of Fascism and Antifa Movements, which also features a forward by Mark Bray.

Our conversation touches on some of the major historical lessons that Gord has concluded on after months of research and writing, largely that European electoral political parties often sabotaged street level and armed resistance to fascism and Nazism, paving the way for the success of these movements in gaining power. We also discuss the connection between colonialism and fascism’s drive for conquest and expansion, and touch on the current situation in the US around immigration and evolving social movements.

The Antifa Comic Book: 100 Years of Fascism and Antifa Movements offers up decades of complex history in an easy to understand and digestible comic book form, without losing any of the major historical lessons and analysis. The book is perfect for people new to antifascism, and leaves the reader with a solid understanding of world events that can inform social movements of today.

But The Antifa Comic Book is simply the latest work in a growing collection of seminal texts that Gord has produced. For years Gord has written and published Warrior Publications, both a news blog and at times a magazine on anti-colonial Native resistance struggles, while also publishing theory and tactical guides for revolutionary movements. Gord for years has also worked within and written about the anarchist movement and the common threads between it and anti-colonial Native resistance. Gord’s work has had a huge impact on It’s Going Down and the contemporary anarchist movement, and texts such as 500 Years Of Indigenous Resistance should be essential reading for all anti-capitalists and anti-racists. Needless to say we are honored to have him on our podcast and hope you enjoy our discussion.

More Info: Warrior Publications and Gord Hill’s work at Arsenal Press

Resisting Slavery: From Marie-Joseph Angélique 1734 to Prison Strike 2018

 Comments Off on Resisting Slavery: From Marie-Joseph Angélique 1734 to Prison Strike 2018
Aug 272018
 

From It’s Going Down

Some anarchists came together on the night of August 23rd to cover Montréal’s Vieux Port (Old Port) in posters that read in both French and English:

Resisting Slavery: From Marie-Joseph Angélique 1734 to Prison Strike 2018

August 21 – September 9th

More Info: twitter.com/JailLawSpeak

We postered along the same streets that Angélique was paraded down moments before she was hung, and then burned. Angélique, we remember. Slavery, stolen land, and attempted genocide define the contours of the ever-forming settler states of Turtle Island (North America). In solidarity with prisoners currently fighting slavery inside all US prisons, we wanted to (re)tell the story of Marie-Joseph Angélique. Angélique was a Black woman enslaved in Montréal during the 18th Century who was sentenced to torture and death for allegedly setting fire to her slave owner’s domicile, which resulted in the majority of the city of Montréal burning. We offer Angélique’s story as a reminder that Québec and Canada were engaged in the practice of slavery for over 200 years. We chose Angélique’s story because it connects the city we live in to the ongoing story of resistance to slavery on this continent.

US prisoners have used this strike to reference a long history of resistance to slavery. August 21, 1831 marked the start of Nat Turner’s Rebellion, a significant moment of resistance by enslaved people. August 21, 1971 also marks the day the state killed George Jackson, a Black revolutionary prisoner deeply involved in struggles for the liberation of Black peoples. Jackson’s death ignited an intense period of prison organizing. September 9, 1971 marks the start of the Attica Uprising, one of the most significant moments of resistance inside US prisons. Prisoners at Attica released a list of comprehensive demands to improve their living conditions. Those demands were never met but have clearly influenced the prisoners on strike today.

Resistance to slavery is an ongoing struggle for those facing incarceration in the United States. The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution states:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Slavery actively continues within US prisons. The 13th Amendment legally justifies the violent, brutal conditions that define this carceral system. These conditions are what prisoners across the States will be striking against over the next two weeks. And while Canada does not have a similar constitutional amendment, we view prisons not only as an apparatus of domination, but also as an extension of Canada’s settler colonial project. The primary aim for the settler colonial project is to control land for settlement and for the extraction of “natural resources”. It is through these capitalist relationships to land that the colonial system secures its wealth and future existence. However, First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nations are viewed by the political and economic elite as an obstacle to this settler future. The settler state and society have employed tactics and strategies such as: racialized and class-motivated surveillance, policing, military repression, and incarceration. Containment and control are not only central to the settler colonial project, but prisons and incarceration are a strategic part of keeping Indigenous people off the land, and thus less able to challenge state power.

Slavery, stolen land, and attempted genocide are the founding stories of the settler states occupying this continent, and they are the foundations of the systems we seek to abolish. We weave together these aforementioned moments in history to illustrate how they belong to a longer, more global context of colonial expansion, exploitation for profit, and great wealth for some humans at the expense of the objectification of so many forms of life.

Solidarity with the prisoners on strike, in memory of Angélique.

Against prisons, against slavery, against colonialism!

URL link to poster pdf files: https://archive.org/details/PrisonStrike2018posters

John A. Macdonald Monument Vandalized (Again) in Montreal

 Comments Off on John A. Macdonald Monument Vandalized (Again) in Montreal
Aug 182018
 

From No Borders Media

Anti-colonial action made in support of removal of John A. Macdonald statue in Victoria, BC

Earlier this morning, a group of unnamed anti-colonial vandals targeted the John A. Macdonald Monument in Montreal. The statue, at Place du Canada, was sprayed with red paint. The area around the statue was also postered with an explanatory text.

We claim this action in support of the recent removal of the John A. Macdonald statue in Victoria (BC), and in continued opposition to the far-right groups and politicians who actively defend a legacy of white supremacy and racism. We also undertake this action in solidarity with previous actions against the John A. Macdonald statue in Montreal and elsewhere in Canada. We demand that City authorities in Montreal take measures, similar to the City of Victoria, to remove the Macdonald Monument. Montreal is already undertaking the long overdue process of re-naming Amherst Street (which named after another colonial racist who advocated the extermination of Indigenous peoples).

Here is the text of the poster accompanying the recent vandalism, providing concise context about why Macdonald statues and monuments should be removed:

John A. Macdonald was a colonial racist!
Take down his statues across Canada, and put them in museums.

John A. Macdonald was a white supremacist. He directly contributed to the genocide of Indigenous peoples with the creation of the brutal residential schools system, as well as other measures meant to destroy native cultures and traditions. He was racist and hostile towards non-white minority groups in Canada, openly promoting the preservation of a so-called “Aryan” Canada. He passed laws to exclude people of Chinese origin. He was responsible for the hanging of Métis martyr Louis Riel.

Macdonald statues should be removed from public space and instead placed in archives or museums, where they belong as historical artifacts. Public space should celebrate collective struggles for justice and liberation, not white supremacy and genocide.

– Some anti-colonial vandals in Montreal.

info: johnamacdonaldmontreal@protonmail.com

(Note: Video and photos were shared anonymously with No Borders Media. No Borders Media is not responsible for the action against the Macdonald Monument.)

Call to Join the River Camp

 Comments Off on Call to Join the River Camp
Jul 222018
 

From the Committees for Territorial Defence and Decolonisation [Facebook page]

Flyer [8.5″ x 11″]

Last summer, a barricade stopped gas extraction by the petroleum company Junex at the Galt site, near Gaspé in Quebec. Ever since, the River Camp, established not far from the blockade, continues to keep watch over the territory. We are asking you to join the camp and make it vibrant. The takeover of this region by oil companies and its destruction are not a fatality. Only a sustained presence can put an end to the destruction of the rivers, forests, and all forms of life. Defeating the dispossession of the region’s inhabitants and the pillaging of unceded and unconquered Mi’kmaq territory is possible.

The River Camp held on through the fall and winter. As well as being a site of resistance, the camp became a place of meetings, exchanges, and popular education warning against the predation by oil companies on the Mi’kmaq territory of Gespegewagi. Since the end of May, the Quebec government has made known its intention to evict the camp which is on so-called public lands. This threat does not scare us, it only signals a desire by Junex to start drilling again. Everyone who cares about protecting the land and creating new solidarity between settlers and indigenous peoples is called to join us to continue building a front against extractive industries.

The defence and decolonisation of territories require more than an individual, moral, or theoretical stance – it implies physical presence and confrontation with the destructive forces of capital and the State. All decolonial or ecological critiques that motivate our mobilisations are worth nothing if they can’t be deployed during significant political moments. Such events are the perfect occasion to invent new practices of resistance and create new bonds

In view of the imminent resumption of drilling, our pursuit of solidarity on Turtle Island brings to question our ability to lead struggles on a level with the current catastrophe. The fantasy of alliances between political tendencies, like those between settlers and indigenous peoples, must make way for concrete and continued engagement on the ground.

The colonial machine is ravaging the world by its extractive economy in a sempiternal process of deprivation and destruction. The struggle against this disaster, in solidarity with the historic guardians of the water and the land, constitutes a meaningful opposition to a dispossession of more than 500 years. The defeat of the modern/colonial project will only be possible by means of concrete actions leading to a radical transformation of land use.

The River Camp is anactualisation of that project.

The call is out! In order to persist, and build force in the region, the River Camp needs renewed energy over the course of the coming months. This is an invitation to those willing to spend a few days at the camp or stay for months or even years. All contributions are welcome.

THE CAMP IS LOCATED ON ROUTE 198, 20 KM NORTH OF GASPÉ AND 60 KM SOUTH OF MURDOCHVILLE

Bring your tents, hammocks, friends, and everything necessary for the upkeep and expansion of the camp: food, materials and tools for construction or mobilisation, as well as everything that is necessary to sustain your life form.

To join us, you can write at the following address: campdelariviere@gmail.com or on our Facebook page Camp de la Rivière.

For help in forming Committees for Territorial Defence and Decolonisation in your neighbourhood, your reserve, your city, or your region you can contact us at the following address: cddt@riseup.net or our Facebook page Comités de défense et de décolonisation des territoires.

Maisonneuve and Macdonald Monuments vandalized: Anti-colonial artists and activists denounce British and French colonialism and genocide

 Comments Off on Maisonneuve and Macdonald Monuments vandalized: Anti-colonial artists and activists denounce British and French colonialism and genocide
Jun 272018
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Six photos of the vandalized statues are available here:

Montreal, June 26, 2018 — We are anti-colonial activists and artists who vandalized two monuments in Montreal celebrating British and French colonialism. The Maisonneuve Monument at Place d’Armes in Old Montreal, as well as the Macdonald Monument at Place du Canada in Downtown West, were both covered in red paint last night. The monuments are unapologetic public icons to the genocide of the Indigenous nations of Turtle Island, and racism in general.

We chose to deface these monuments between two nationalist holidays – St-Jean-Baptiste and Canada Day – as a rejection of all forms of settler-nationalism . We embrace the street slogan of Montreal’s anarchists: Ni patrie, ni état; ni Québec, ni Canada! We also denounce and resist the racist far-right — whether Quebec or Canadian nationalists, whether francophone or anglophone — who are nostalgic about a racist, genocidal, and white supremacist past. Our vandalism is also aimed against them.

The Macdonald Monument, erected in 1895, celebrates a white supremacist. As Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald was directly involved in the genocide of Indigenous peoples through measures like residential schools, meant to destroy and eliminate Indigenous cultures. He was an open racist, hostile towards both Chinese and Indian migrants to Canada at the time, and openly promoted an “Aryan” Canada. Macdonald is also responsible for the hanging of Métis martyr Louis Riel.

The Maisonneuve Monument, also erected in 1895, commemorates the settler ‘founder’ of Montreal, Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, with an offensive monument celebrating the massacre and forced conversion of Indigenous peoples. One of the quotes on the monument, attributed to Maisonneuve, celebrates colonial aggression against the Haudenosaunee Confederacy: « Il est de mon honneur d’accomplir ma mission; tous les arbres de l’île de Montréal devraient-ils se changer en autant d’Iroquois. »

Both these statues should be constantly vandalized until they are finally removed from public space and instead placed in archives or museums, where they belong as historical artifacts. Public space should celebrate collective struggles for justice and liberation, not white supremacy and genocide.

– Some anti-colonial activists, artists and vandals

Background Information:

– Amherst, Maisonneuve et notre mémoire trouée (septembre 2017): www.lapresse.ca/debats/chroniques/rima-elkouri/201709/17/01-5134211-amherst-maisonneuve-et-notre-memoire-trouee.php

– Monument raciste et colonial à John A. Macdonald défiguré à Montréal (novembre 2017) https://montreal-antifasciste.info/fr/2017/11/12/monument-raciste-et-colonial-a-john-a-macdonald-defigure-a-montreal-avec-video-et-photos/

– Deux statues de la reine Victoria vandalisées à Montréal (mars 2018) www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/faits-divers/201803/15/01-5157416-deux-statues-de-la-reine-victoria-vandalisees-a-montreal.php

– Deux statues de la reine Victoria sont vandalisées à Montréal (mai 2018) https://sub.media/video/deux-statues-de-la-reine-victoria-sont-vandalisees-a-montreal/

– Montreal’s Monuments to Colonialism (September 2017) https://ricochet.media/en/1949/montreals-monuments-to-colonialism

– Colonial and Racist John A. Macdonald Monument Defaced in Montreal (November 2017) https://montreal-antifasciste.info/en/2017/11/12/colonial-racist-john-a-macdonald-monument-defaced-in-montreal-with-video-and-photos/

– Two Queen Victoria Statues Defaced in Downtown Montreal (March 2018) https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/two-queen-victoria-statues-defaced-in-downtown-montreal

– Queen Victoria Statues Vandalized in Montreal (May 2018) https://sub.media/video/queen-victoria-statues-vandalized-in-montreal/

Welcome to Hell: Call to Action June 30 and July 1

 Comments Off on Welcome to Hell: Call to Action June 30 and July 1
Jun 192018
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

On July 1, hate groups like La Meute and Storm Alliance have announced a demonstration in Montreal against illegal immigration. Not a good move, because we do not like racists and we do not like July 1st, the colonial Canada Day.

The racists forget where they are about to step foot … Montreal is against racists and we will remind them. It will take more than dozens of riot police to allow them to demonstrate.

We call ALL people who have something to say about the presence of these racists to react with concrete actions, everywhere in the province:

– the weekend of June 30 – July 1, multiply direct or symbolic actions against racism and colonialism.

– until July 1st, redecorate the city with stickers, graffitis, posters, etc … so that everywhere one reads only one message on the walls of the city: “Fuck La Meute”

A gray wall near you? Leaflets to distribute? An address that you’ve been keeping for the right occasion? Some posters to put up in your neighborhood? It is time :)

Let’s strike everywhere. It’s a collective responsibility.

Send us your photos and reports to welcometohell@riseup.net

Poster

Two Queen Victoria Statues Vandalised in Montreal

 Comments Off on Two Queen Victoria Statues Vandalised in Montreal
May 192018
 

From subMedia

Original anonymous communiqué by the Henri Paul* Anti-Monarchy Brigade, shared with subMedia:

In advance of colonial ‘Victoria Day’ holiday, two Queen Victoria statues are (again) vandalized in Montreal

Racist and imperialist legacy of the British Monarchy denounced

May 18, 2018, Montreal – Days before the outdated and insulting Queen Victoria holiday, two landmark statues to Queen Victoria in Montreal were vandalized last night.

The Victoria Memorial in downtown Montreal (erected in 1872) as well the bronze statue on Sherbrooke Street (erected in 1900) at McGill University were both sprayed in red paint.

This action is rooted in opposition to colonialism and imperialism, and a dislike of the parasitic British monarchy (and all monarchies). We are also directly inspired by the recent vandalism (with green paint) of the same Queen Victoria statues in advance of St. Patrick’s Day this past March by the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Bridage

These statues represent, to quote the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade, “a legacy of genocide, mass murder, torture, massacres, terror, forced famines, concentration camps, theft, cultural denigration, racism, and white supremacy.”

The Queen Victoria statues should come down and be placed in a museum as a historical artifact. Public statues and monuments should not represent oppression. The presence of Queen Victoria statues in Montreal is, to again quote the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade, “an insult to Indigenous nations in North America (Turtle Island) and Oceania, as well as the peoples of Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, and everywhere the British Empire committed its atrocities.”

These statues are also insulting to people who represent the progressive struggles of the Irish, as well as Québecois. However, we denounce the far-right anti-immigrant racist souchebags in Quebec who coopt the legacy of the patriotes, but actually represent neo-fascist ideas.

Important context: our action last night contributes to a tradition of targeting colonial symbols and monuments for vandalism and eventual removal: Cornwallis in Halifax, John A. Macdonald in Kingston and Montreal, the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa, the resistance to racist Confederate monuments in the USA, and more.

To once again repeat the words of the Delhi-Dublin Ant-Colonial Solidarity Brigade: “Our action is a simple expression of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist solidarity, and we encourage others to undertake similar actions against racist monuments and symbols that should be in museums, not taking up our shared public spaces.”

— Communiqué by the Henri Paul* Anti-Monarchy Brigade

* Henri Paul was the driver of the luxury Mercedes with Lady Diana that crashed in Paris in 1997. Every member of the British monarchy deserves a drunk French driver!

 

Treaty Camp: Security Shows Up at the Blockade

 Comments Off on Treaty Camp: Security Shows Up at the Blockade
Mar 292018
 

From subMedia

Update from the Treaty Camp blocking Alton Gas in so-called Nova Scotia. Security guards hired by the company went to the camp and attempted to serve Mi’kmaq water protectors with verbal PPAs (trespassing warnings). People a the camp let them know that this is stolen land, and folks mobilized quickly in support of the water protectors.

Two Queen Victoria statues vandalized with green paint

 Comments Off on Two Queen Victoria statues vandalized with green paint
Mar 152018
 

From the Collectif de résistance antiraciste de Montréal (CRAM)

[Early this morning, the Collectif de résistance antiraciste de Montréal (CRAM) received a weblink to an anonymous communiqué which is cut and paste and shared below, including video and photo links. We encourage you to share widely in your networks.]

Video: https://vimeo.com/260188932
Photo: i66.tinypic.com/9se2k7.png

March 15, 2018, Montreal — Two landmark statues to Queen Victoria in Montreal were vandalized last night, a few days before St. Patrick’s Day. Both the Victoria Memorial in downtown Montreal as well the bronze statue on Sherbrooke Street at McGill University were both covered in green paint. The statues were unveiled in 1872 and 1900 respectively, more than a century ago.

The presence of these racist statues in Montreal are an insult to the self-determination and resistance struggles of oppressed peoples worldwide, including Indigenous nations in North America (Turtle Island) and Oceania, as well as the peoples of Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, and everywhere the British Empire committed its atrocities.

The statues are also an insult to the legacy of revolt by Irish freedom fighters, and anti-colonial mutineers of British origin. The statues particularly deserve no public space in Quebec, where the Québecois were denigrated and marginalized by British racists acting in the name of the putrid monarchy represented by Queen Victoria.

Queen Victoria’s reign, which continues to be whitewashed in history books and in popular media, represented a massive expansion of the barbaric British Empire. Collectively her reign represents a criminal legacy of genocide, mass murder, torture, massacres, terror, forced famines, concentration camps, theft, cultural denigration, racism, and white supremacy. That legacy should be denounced and attacked.

We are motivated and inspired by movements worldwide that have targeted colonial and racist statues for vandalism and removal: Cornwallis in Halifax, John A. Macdonald in Kingston, the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa, the resistance to racist Confederate monuments in the USA, and more. We are also inspired by the recent action in Montreal, in November 2017, against the John A. Macdonald Monument (background: http://bit.ly/2DtJgcd; video: http://bit.ly/2pdPA2s).

Our action is a simple expression of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist solidarity, and we encourage others to undertake similar actions against racist monuments and symbols that should be in museums, not taking up our shared public spaces.

Communiqué by the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade, shared anonymously.

 Older Entries  Newer Entries