Solidarity

Recent years have seen intense and conflictual debates within the radical left on how to act in solidarity with marginalised and oppressed groups and on the role of allies (a word to which many, including myself, prefer the term accomplices). There is no doubt that Indigenous, Black, queer and transfeminist struggles have deeply reshaped both vocabularies and practices, greatly enriching and complexifying our thoughts and struggles. These questions have simultaneously created profound disagreements, enabled new alliances, transformed relations of force, and led to scissions. Despite certain divisions, the particular context of the past years has at least established certain relatively agreed-upon principals, and I am stunned that we need to recall these principals now, as Israel’s war against the Palestinian people demands that we once again adopt a position of solidarity. ...

Slogans were written on a wall in Parc-Extension, in solidarity with G.Mihailidis. ‘Solidarity with G.Mihailidis, we want you alive and free, death to the autoritarian world’ Giannis is on hunger strike since 12/5 demanding his release from prison after having done the part of imprisonment that allows him to be released under conditions. At this point he is continuing his struggle with a thirst strike as of 10/6. ...

This is a call for solidarity and support for the Montreal Autonomous Tenants’ Union - known by most as their French acronym, SLAM. The tenants’ union has put together a picket line for this Friday, June 16, at 4:00pm in front of the landlord offices of 5301 Parc. This callout explains the ongoing situation of state and landlord repression, and why it is important that we, as a movement, help match these adversaries in their upping of the ante. ...

The struggle against cop city, and for the Weelaunee forest has been explosive, experimental, and wild for nearly three years now. In the process our enemies have brutalized us, charged people with domestic terrorism, leveraging 5-35 years in prison against them, murdered our friend and comrade Tortuguita, attempted to repress our struggle, and yet we are still here fighting. As the forests we swore to protect get clear-cut, and people face hefty sentences leveraged by the courts, as we stare at the possibility of raids, repression, investigations, and the unknown, we desire to take the plunge. We will make our enemies pay for every inch. We will not let them know a moment of peace. ...

In order to enforce the moratorium on logging on their territory, Nitaskinan, members of the Atikamekw of Manawan are currently setting up a new blockade. It is located at km 16 on the road to Manawan, north of St-Michel-des-Saints. Logging companies have been informed that they will not be able to return with their machinery when the thaw occurs on May 19. We need to be many to ensure that they respect this instruction. ...

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With good preparation and trusted comrades, overcoming the fear of repression is much easier than it may first appear… This Friday, December 16th around 7am, a column of black smoke rises in the snowy sky of the winter’s first storm. A pile of tires are on fire on the rails of line 2 of the Exo commuter train network. The fire was lit a hundred meters south of Bois-de-Boulogne station in order to halt rail traffic in the middle of rush hour. By disrupting the start of this new day of commerce, we wanted to target the Canadian economy and contribute to avenging the Wedzin Kwa under which Coastal GasLink has drilled. ...

While COP15 is taking place in the streets of Montreal and the Canadian government is doing its greenwashing dance for the world, construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory continues against the will of the nation, whose guardians have opposed oil drilling for years. This ecocidal project threatens the Wedzin Kwa River and the wildlife of the Yintah; while Canada pays lip service to biodiversity at COP15, CGL blasts dynamite and lays pipe through Wet’suwet’en waters* , threatening already endangered salmon, eel, and other non-human life. ...

We were out holding up a banner with a phone number on it to connect with prisoners at the Barton jail in Hamilton, Canada, the way we usually do, but we thought we would also take a moment to express our solidarity with anarchist prisoners in struggle. Alfredo Cospito has been on hunger strike in Italy’s Bancali prison since October 20th to demand that he be moved out of segregation and have his phone calls, mail, and visits restored. He was placed in these conditions back in May essentially to punish him for staying involved in the anarchist struggle from inside. ...

Through this solidarity struggle, it has become clear that as a radical community, we need to stand in solidarity with the kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera. Because these traditionalist activists from Kahnawa:ke have been fighting for the last fifty years for the sovereignty of their people. Because they are among the few Mohawk people who still hold fast to their pre-colonial mode of governance, called the Great Law of Peace. ...

In the early hours of Nov 5, groups of anarchists acted in solidarity with Sleydo’s call for action to support the ongoing Wet’suwet’en battle to protect the yintah and kill the drill. Rail lines were sabotaged at several points in a disruption of business-as-usual along main arteries of the freight system. They will continue to be sabotaged at random far into the future, at every corner of rail line across the turtle’s back. ...

The views expressed within this text are not those of the Montreal Autonomous Tenants’ Union (SLAM). The following is an account and analysis by one union member. SLAM is built on anarcho-syndicalist principles but is not an explicitly anarchist organization and contains many (if not mostly) non-anarchist militants. Working together has not been a question of compromising our principles, but of growing our strength based on tactical agreement. ...