Solidarity

From Montréal Antifasciste Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), February 27, 2020 – Montréal Antifasciste declares our complete and unconditional solidarity and support with the people of the Wet’suwet’en nation in their ongoing resistance to Canadian colonialism, as well as with all those who have taken action in support of the Wet’suwet’en following the invasion by the RCMP. While there have been blockades across the illegal country of “Canada”, we would like to specifically mention those established by members of the Mohawk Nation in Kahnawake and Tyendinaga, the latter of which having been attacked by the colonial police on February 24th, the former currently under threat of another colonial injunction. We are an antifascist group, and as such we often end up focusing on people who the mainstream of society consider marginal losers, at best. Yet we do so knowing, as the poet Aimé Césaire explained, that fascism bears a direct relationship to colonialism. Writing about Europe and the rise of Hitler, Césaire noted that the crimes of Nazism were simply the crimes the European powers had inflicted on colonized peoples, come home to roost. This is true here in Canada, where the far right builds on a history of colonial violence against oppressed nations around the world, but first and foremost against the nations of people who are Indigenous to these lands. ...

As of 5pm today (February 24th) we have set-up a rail blockade in Hamilton, ON., in response to the OPP raid on Tyendinaga this morning. Our intention is to stay here indefinitely and we are calling on others to join us (See map below). Come for a couple hours or stay for the night, and bring your friends! If you plan on coming out, dress warmly, bring blankets and sleeping bags, and snacks are always welcome. If you can’t make it out, please help spread the word and share this with your networks. ...

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info Saturday morning, an anonymous group unfurled a banner on the CN bridge crossing the L’Assomption River in Joliette, unceded First Nations territory. This action demonstrates solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people and their hereditary chiefs who oppose the passage of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project on their traditional territory in British Columbia. The anonymous group is calling for all forms of solidarity actions in order to maintain and strengthen the balance of power established across Canada and calls on the Trudeau government to address the underlying issue! The ‘‘inconveniences’’ that Canada is currently experiencing because of the blockades are trivial compared to the injustices experienced by indigenous peoples.

A bit over a hundred people marched through downtown Montreal Thursday night, to show their solidarity with the inhabitants of Wet’suwet’en territory currently facing violence and harrassment from the colonial Canadian state and its police force, the RCMP. Demonstrators marched in the streets of Montreal toward the RCMP offices behind a banner reading “RCMP OFF WET’SUWET’EN LAND”. The RCMP headquarters was targeted in response to violence against indigenous people and especially the Wet’suwet’en. The car parked in the driveway had its windows broken and tires slashed, and paint bombs and graffiti hit the building. The demonstration occured in the context of a wave of actions currently shutting down so-called Canada. The message is clear: violence committed against indigenous peoples, land defenders and water protectors, on Wet’suwet’en land or elsewhere, will always meet with a response. This response will come from everywhere and it will only get louder. ...

Currently people are shutting down Canada, ports, rails, highways, hell the hashtag’s even trending on twitter. As anarchists we are seeing large parts of the population engage with anti-colonial and anti-capitalist movements. This engagement as our own has been in the past is tricky, and requires critical reflection. The stench of liberalism spreads far and wide, and although many are sympathetic with Wet’suwet’en demands, confrontational tactics as expected leave many shaking at their feet. In Vancouver we have seen large symbolic arrests prioritized over effective action. Not to say there has not been effective action, people held the entrances to major ports shutting down commercial traffic for days. We should celebrate this. But when facing arrest rather than moving to say the rails or the highways they chose to wait and be arrested symbolically (subsequently released without charges). ...

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info This morning around 7:30am, about sixty people enraged by the invasion of Wet’suwet’en land by Coastal GasLink and the RCMP gathered in the east of Montreal. They blocked the intersection of Pie-IX Boulevard and Notre-Dame Street East in the middle of rush hour, in order to disrupt access to the Port of Montreal as well as downtown via Autoroute 720. Banners were deployed reading “GTFO of Wet’suwet’en land” and “Solidarity with Indigenous Sovereignties”, and flyers explained the reasons for the action to motorists. ...

-> Photos: https://postimg.cc/gallery/odqgsg22/ January 16, 2020, Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal – Earlier this morning, a small group of anti-colonial artists attacked the Macdonald Monument in Montreal with blue paint, marking at least the 12th time in the past three years that the statue has been attacked in such a fashion, with clear anti-racist, anti-colonial motivations. We undertook our action in solidarity with frontline Indigenous Land Defenders, who continue to oppose and resist the construction of pipelines on their traditional lands. We are thinking specifically of the Wet’suwet’en and Secwepemc, among others, who for years have maintained on-the-ground opposition to the construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) and Trans Mountain projects on their respective territories. They are not involved, directly or indirectly, in our action, but we vandalize the John A. Macdonald statue as a simple message of anti-colonial support from across Turtle Island. We encourage others to do the same. ...

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On the one-year anniversary of Canada’s armed invasion of Wet’suwet’en territories, and in response to a call for solidarity with Wet’suwet’en people currently facing threat of another attack, a number of actions were taken in Tkaronto. This report does not intend to claim responsibility for any of the actions and may not have covered everything. We merely hope to summarize actions we are aware of and state clearly that supporters here have their eyes on Wet’suwet’en and are ready to act. ...

A decade ago in a move that has inspired many, Wet’suwet’en people reoccupied their unceded territories as a way to begun healing and ensuring the land is protected in the ways she needs to sustain Wet’suwet’en people’s lives, practices, and continued existence in their traditional territories. A year ago the RCMP violently invaded those territories to provide access for industry. One week ago, the canadian state criminalized Anuk’ nu’at’en – Wet’suwet’en hereditary law – by granting an injunction which criminalizes Indigenous people and their allies should they protect the Yintah from the destructive forces of industry. ...

TUES JAN 7, 2020 (anniversary of RCMP-CGL raid) until SUN JAN 12, 2020 We call for solidarity actions from Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities who uphold Indigenous sovereignty and recognize the urgency of stopping resource extraction projects that threaten the lives of future generations. Unceded and sovereign Wet’suwet’en land is under attack. On December 31, 2019, BC Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church granted an injunction against members of the Wet’suwet’en nation who have been stewarding and protecting our traditional territories from the destruction of multiple pipelines, including Coastal GasLink’s (CGL) liquified natural gas (LNG) pipeline. Hereditary Chiefs of all five Wet’suwet’en clans have rejected Church’s decision, which criminalizes Anuk ‘nu’at’en (Wet’suwet’en law), and have issued and enforced an eviction of CGL’s workers from the territory. The last CGL contractor was escorted out by Wet’suwet’en Chiefs on Saturday, January 4, 2020. ...

David Campbell is an antifascist comrade who has been imprisoned for events that unfolded at the protest of a New York City far right event on January 20, 2018. The event, “A Night For Freedom,” was organized by the misogynist and racist activist Mike Cernovich with the participation of Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and the white nationalist Canadian podcaster Stefan Molyneux. It was part of an ongoing process of consolidating an “alt lite” political scene: i.e. racist, misogynist, and full of conspiracy theories and race and gender pseudoscience, but not actually neo-Nazi. ...