Burned out excavator. Photo: Earth First! Newswire

Members of the Mapuche Ancestral Resistance burned two excavator machines belonging to English businessman Joe Lewis to demand their ancestral land be returned to the indigenous community.

In this video still, a car is forcing its way through the blockade at Mount Polley, BC, on Aug 4, 2016.

by Warrior Publications, August 5, 2016

On August 4, 2016, a land defender was injured during a blockade action at the Mount Polley mine site in central BC when a driver, reportedly a worker for Imperial Metals, drove through the blockade.  The blockade was comprised of people standing in the roadway to stop traffic, never a good idea in my opinion.  The fact is, people blockading vehicles will always be dependent on the driver not forcing their way through for the simple reason that a group of people cannot physically stop a car or truck.

Some blockades will inevitably be comprised of people standing in the path of traffic.  As I mentioned, I don’t think it’s a good tactic.  But in some situations I understand why it’s used.  For example, many protests in urban environments will simply stop at intersections to disrupt traffic.  There have also been numerous highway blockades carried out by Black Lives Matter protesters, in which groups of people make their way onto a highway and stop the flow of traffic.  These types of temporary blockades may be spontaneous or the police presence prevents the bringing of blockade materials (such as dumpsters or other large objects carried onto the roadway).

[Here’s a video from January 2013 of an Idle No More blockade during which a driver forced her vehicle through]

When a blockade is planned beforehand, however, and/or takes place in an environment in which it is relatively easy to bring obstacles onto a roadway, it is far safer to do so than to try and stop vehicles with one’s body.

A spike strip deployed by police.

To stop vehicles during a pursuit, police frequently deploy spike belts.  These are folding steel devices that can be quickly thrown across a road and which have spikes sticking up.  If a vehicle drives over the spike belt, the tires are shredded and the mobility of the vehicle is severely reduced.

A fairly common tactic used by Indigenous land defenders in BC during the 1990s was a variant of the spike belt: the spike board.  It is an inexpensive and easily made device, comprised of a board with spikes (or large nails) hammered through, usually with a rope handle attached.  The board is laid across a roadway to stop vehicles from simply driving through a blockade or checkpoint.

If a blockade was only targeting certain vehicles, such as logging trucks, it could be easily removed to allow passage of civilian vehicles.  The same applied to information checkpoints, during which all vehicles were stopped and checked, and then allowed to proceed (or turned away, if it was a targeted blockade).

The spike board was a very effective technique, because if a driver chose to force their way through, the result would be the destruction of their tires.  A vehicle can still drive on its rims of course, but that would result in damage to the rims.  So drivers always stopped for the spike board.  Another option is to park a vehicle across the road that could then be moved to allow vehicles to pass, depending on the terrain.  Something to think about the next time you take part in a blockade action.

Chief Billy Bowlegs or Billy Bolek (Holata Micco, meaning Alligator Chief) was a leader in the Second and Third Seminole Wars.

The Battle of Lake Okeechobee was one of the major battles of the Second Seminole War. It was fought between 800 troops of the 1st, 4th, and 6th Infantry Regiments and 132 Missouri Volunteers (under the command of Colonel Zachary Taylor), and between 380 and 480 Seminoles led by Billy Bowlegs, Abiaca, and Alligator on 25 December 1837. The Seminole warriors were resisting forced relocation to a reservation out west. Though both the Seminoles and Taylor’s troops emerged from the battle claiming victory, Taylor was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General as a result, and his nickname of “Old Rough and Ready” came mostly due to this battle.

In 1837 President Martin Van Buren commissioned a force which included Zachary Taylor and Richard Gentry to quell Seminole Resistance. Taylor’s army came up to a large hammock with half a mile of swamp in front of it. On the far side of the hammock was Lake Okeechobee. Here the saw grass stood five feet high. The mud and water were three feet deep. Horses would be of no use. It was plain that the Seminole meant this to be the battleground. They had cut the grass to provide an open field of fire and had notched the trees to steady their rifles. Their scouts were perched in the treetops to follow every movement of the troops coming up.

Seminoles battle US soldiers in the 1830s. Painting by Ken Hughs.

At about half past noon, the sun shining directly overhead and the air still and quiet, Taylor moved his troops squarely into the center of the swamp. His plan was to make a direct attack rather than encircle the Indians. All his men were on foot. In the first line were the 132 Missouri volunteers. As soon as they came within range, the Indians opened with heavy fire. The volunteers broke, and their commander, Colonel Richard Gentry, fatally wounded, was unable to rally them. The Indians then mounted a counterattack on the remaining soldiers. In the deadly assault some of the soldiers were scalped by the Indians. Gentry had suggested to Taylor before the battle an encirclement strategy which Taylor rejected, charging that Gentry was afraid of a direct confrontation. This could have motivated Gentry to keep charging the Seminole positions even though the original battle plan had the militia retreating at the first sign of enemy fire to re-form behind the regular army lines.

Excerpt from “Map of the Seat of War in Florida,” (1839)

As a result of the additional casualties induced by the continued charge, the Missouri Militia fled back across the swamp, where they were too disorganized and disheartened to re-form as planned. The fighting in the saw grass was deadliest for five companies of the Sixth Infantry; every officer but one, and most of their noncoms were killed or wounded. When that part of the regiment retired a short distance to re-form, they found only four men of these companies unharmed. The 6th Infantry’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander R. Thompson, was among the dead. Lieutenant William H.T. Walker, later a general in the Confederate Army, was wounded in the neck, shoulder, chest, left arm, and also his leg during the battle.

26 U.S. soldiers, including the majority of Taylor’s officers and NCOs, were killed, with 112 wounded, against 11 Seminoles killed and 14 wounded. The battle stopped Taylor’s troops from further advance south (for the time being) and no Seminoles were captured, although Taylor did capture 100 ponies and 600 head of cattle. Years later Holata Micco (also known as Billy Bowlegs) visited Washington and on being escorted through the buildings of the Capitol and viewing many statues and paintings, he suddenly halted before a portrait of Zachary Taylor, grinned and exclaimed: “Me whip!”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Okeechobee

One of several pieces of heavy machinery burned in an arson attack carried out by Weichan Auka Mapu (Mapuche Resistance Group).

translated by Earth First! Journal, January 12, 2017

During Sunday’s dawn, a new incendiary attack was registered in the Padre Las Casas commune of La Araucanía.

An unknown number of people arrived there, and burned a cistern truck, four backhoes, one roller, and one motor grader which had been used for work by the real estate company Del Sur…

According to information given by the police, in the area there were flyers with Weichan Auka Mapu [Mapuche Resistance Group] acknowledging what happened there and asking for the freedom of machi Francisca Linconao [a spiritual leader of the Mapuche people, and one of 11 accused of arson which led to the deaths of two landlords in 2013. The decision on her appeal is expected by the end of January 2017.]

***SPANISH***

Durante la madrugada de este domingo se registró un nuevo ataque incendiario en la comuna de Padre Las Casas en la Región de La Araucanía.

Hasta el lugar llegó un número indeterminado de personas, quienes incendiaron un camión aljibe, cuatro retroexcavadoras, un rodillo y una motoniveladora que realizaban trabajos para la empresa inmobiliaria Del Sur.

Según información entregada por Carabineros, en el lugar se encontraron panfletos en donde Weichan Auka Mapu se atribuye lo ocurrido pidiendo la libertad de la machi Francisca Linconao.

http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2017/01/12/weichan-auka-mapu-incendiary-attack-in-chile-against-real-estate-company/

All settler comrades, friends and allies,
Elders and women from the Secwepemc nation are hosting a nation-wide
Secwepemc’ulecw Assembly on the land in June. The goals of the Assembly
are to discuss and take action under Secwepemc law against colonial
corporate development impacting Secwepemc’ulecw without Collective
Consent.One of the imminent concerns is to resist Kinder Morgan’s pipeline
expansion. The Assembly will be taking place on the land close to where
the pipeline is proposed to cross. The LARGEST Indigenous territory that
Kinder Morgan crosses is in fact Secwepemc territory. The pipeline would
carry 900,000 barrels a day of diluted bitumen through 518 km of Secwepemc
territory.

This Assembly is rooted in the vision of beloved Secwepemc leader Arthur
Manuel. Shortly before he passed away, he wrote to Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau: “We do not accept that the federal government can make this
decision unilaterally and without the prior informed consent of the
Secwepemc people as the rightful titleholders… Any leakage would
immediately threaten the pacific salmon who spawn in the Thompson and
Fraser River basins. It is not surprising that most Secwepemc people are
in complete solidarity with the Water Protectors from Standing Rock North
Dakota. Our waters are also sacred.”

Secwepemc women, elders and nation members are volunteering their time,
energy and labour to host this assembly. They write, “The Secwepemc
peoples’ have survived the impacts of colonialism (disease, residential
schools, the Indian Act) and maintain our original instructions to look
after the water, plants, and animals.”

*** HOW TO SUPPORT ****

As settlers, our responsibilities must also be unwavering and unequivocal
– to support Indigenous Peoples affirming collective Indigenous law over
their territories. As settlers and organizations, we daily materially
benefit from living and working on lands that are unjustly seized and
occupied.

One concrete way to support is to financially resource this grassroots
effort. ** We suggest all settlers donate at least one day of their wage
or whatever you can contribute to resourcing this Assembly. ** The
fundraising goal is $15,000 for food, tents, gas and transportation costs,
elders lodging, sound equipment and more.

Etransfer funds to: Tellqelmucw@gmail.com
Question: What is this for?
Password: Assembly.

or Cheques to Janice Billy, Treasurer, George Manuel Institute, Unit B –
5836 Trans Canada Highway, Chase, BC, V0E 1M0.

Deadline: May 26, 2017

Everyone also email hwalia8@gmail.com if you are sending an etransfer or
cheque with the amount being sent and if and how you would like to be
included in the list of thank yous.

Thank you for contributing to this struggle and strengthening collective
Secwepemc governance. Share this far and wide.

For more information, contact:
April Thomas, Community Coordinator (Northern Secwepemc)
Miranda Dick, Community Coordinator (Southern Secwepemc)
Dr Janice Billy, Treasurer, George Manuel Institute
Kanahus Manuel, Secewepemc Women’s Warrior Society
Dawn Morrison, Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty

The Governor of Malleco Province, Guillermo Pirce and General Christian Franzani visiting the scene on June 11th, 2017

by Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu, June 11, 2017
*News in development*
Two Mapuche land defenders were killed last night at the hands of Chilean police after an alleged action on the large landed estate of El Encino in the Township of Los Sauces, nearby the city of Angol in southern Chile, on the evening Saturday June 10th.

According to news reports, five unknown individuals entered the large landed estate owned by Chilean Police Captain, Ignacio Gallegos Pereira, when the officer opened fire. 24 year old Weichafe [Warrior] Luis Humberto Marileo Cariqueo, and 23 year old Weichafe Patricio Gabriel González Guajardo, were killed in the police shooting.

Christian Frazani, regional General of Arauco, states that Gallegos used a hunting rifle and a short range pistol to “confront the assailants,” who died at the scene, with a third allegedly escaping while injured.

Meanwhile, there has been an out-pour of grief and outrage in Mapuche community and resistance groups. “Our brother[s] carry with them a long history of struggle in their territories, fulfilling their historic duties as young Mapuche in the face ongoing oppression. As Weichafe they had been continuously persecuted and prosecuted by the Chilean State. We recognize [our] brother[s] as martyrs of the Mapuche people in the millennial struggle for liberation… against estate owners, the rich, and the state who are the enemies of our Mapuche people.”

Distributed by: The Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu

With files from Radio Bio Bio and Kizugünewtun Independencia

https://wccctoronto.wordpress.com/2017/06/11/chilean-police-shooting-results-in-the-deaths-of-two-mapuche-land-defenders/

A picture taken during the Oka Crisis on July 11, 1990. (Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press)

By Steve Bonspiel, for CBC News, July 11, 2017

“Just go in there and exterminate them like the rats they are.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get rid of them.”

“Put them all in the Big O and blow it up.”

I heard these words from random non-Natives as a 14-year-old boy, 27 years ago to the day. I feel a mixture of pride, anger, sadness and resolve when I think of that fateful summer, and what went on for those 78 days in Kanesatake: the Oka Crisis.

The dispute was over Mohawk land, over which the mayor back in 1990 wanted to build a golf course. On July 11, the Sûreté du Québec — Québec’s provincial police force — was called in, guns blazing.

I remember hearing the first-hand account from my father, who was in the famed Pines that morning, where it all unfolded. He was manning the ambulance still owned by our family today. I remember looking out the window and seeing streams of cars heading down the road, five-and-a-half kilometres away, to help.

I witnessed my neighbour jumping in a car with other men, brandishing a rifle, prepared to fight.

The look on their faces was of defiance. If the fight was coming to us again, so be it. We wouldn’t back down.

The police left that morning with their tails between their legs, as one of their own lay wounded. Cpl. Marcel Lemay later died, marking July 11 as a dark day for his Québécois family to mourn along with us.

Under the Great Law of Peace — the basis for our Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy — there are three key elements: peace, power and righteousness.

The Great Law, which was established thousands of years ago, meant six of our Onkwehón:we (Indigenous) nations halting war and burying our weapons against each other forever, but on this day we were left with no choice but to fight.

So we did.

July 11 clearly outlined how much work we still have to do as Native people in Canada: to educate, to fight for our rights, to survive. But it wasn’t only us versus them.

Fighting our own

What happened behind the lines in the summer of 1990 wasn’t all about the collective well-being.

People were beaten up, houses were shot up, personal effects and life-saving equipment were stolen and destroyed — and some of it was Mohawk-on-Mohawk violence.

The name of the warriors in our language, Rotihsken’rakéhte, means they “carry the burden of peace,” but a handful those who hid behind the mask had violent intentions, similar to the police.

They know who they are. Some, not most. The ones who fought for the right reasons kept it together at the key moments.

Today we honour the ones who fought for all of us, not in their own self-interests.

The way we treat each other has to change if we’re going to make our nation better, but little has.

The land in dispute? It’s still in the hands of Oka. Mohawk land — illegally taken. Yet no one is doing anything to take it back.

Forget the negotiations; it’s our land, so why is Canada dealing all the cards? Shame on the municipal, provincial and federal governments, all of which continue to be complicit in the oppression and control of our people.

What kind of “proud” country continues to profit off the theft of our land, and continually denies our right to get some of it back, yet tells everyone how great it is by celebrating 150 years of colonialism?

If anything, we should be talking about the return of all illegally begotten Mohawk land, not just that small tract.

If we keep allowing the outright thievery of what has always been ours, what will we have left? What are you doing to change the uneven racial landscape in this country?

Shaping the future

When the Oka Crisis happened, it was supposed to be a wake-up call, and although certain things changed (Kanesatake got some of its land back, the golf course expansion was halted and the situation put Indigenous rights to the forefront), there is still much to work on, together.

We can start by talking to each other about Indigenous issues, educating and learning, while refusing to repeat the mistakes the led to July 11, 1990.

We can’t change the past but we can all shape the future, which starts with giving the respect and honour our people deserve. We’re sick and tired of playing second fiddle on our own land, being told to sit down, shut up, and listen.

That conciliatory attitude is wearing thin. When things haven’t progressed to the point where we’re treated equally, there will come a day when Canada will have to make a decision: honour its obligations, promises and our ancestral rights, or get out of our way.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/oka-crisis-anniversary-1.4197880

Members of the Indigenous Guard in Colombia displaying their batons, symbols of membership in the group.

The 50-year civil war is over but, in the Cauca Valley, indigenous communities are on frontline of fight against drug gangs, riot police and deforestation

by Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, October 2017

A green-and-red flag flies over a cluster of bamboo and tarpaulin tents on the frontline of an increasingly deadly struggle for land and the environment in Colombia’s Cauca Valley.

It is the banner for what indigenous activists are calling the “liberation of Mother Earth”, a movement to reclaim ancestral land from sugar plantations, farms and tourist resorts that has gained momentum in the vacuum left by last year’s peace accord between the government and the paramilitaries who once dominated the region – ending, in turn, the world’s longest-running civil war.

The ragtag outpost in Corinto has been hacked out of a sugar plantation, destroyed by riot police, then reoccupied by the activists, who want to stop supplying coca (the main ingredient for cocaine) to drug traffickers in the mountains by cultivating vegetables on the plains instead.

Despite two deaths in the past year, the Nasa Indians – the biggest, most organised and most militant of the 20 indigenous groups in the valley – have staged waves of monoculture clearance and occupation operations. Almost every other week hundreds, sometimes thousands, of machete-bearing activists join these communal actions, known as minga, which involve burning and hacking down swaths of sugar cane, then erecting camps and planting traditional crops including maize and cassava.

The Nasa see this in historical, spiritual terms. For them, it is the latest phase in a centuries-old struggle for land and a clash between two contrasting world views: one that seeks harmony with nature, and one interested only in extracting as much profit as possible, regardless of the impact on the people and the environment.

“Liberating the earth means defending the land,” says José Rene Guetio, a Nasa elder. “You can see the blood that has been spilled in the cause for better land and a better future for our children.”

Environmental concerns are also among the motivations. The Nasa say they should not be living in such large numbers near sacred sites in the hills, particularly lakes, wetlands and waterfalls. “There are too many of us in the mountains. That’s not good because we are destroying our water source,” said Eduin Mauricio Capaz, human rights coordinator for the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (Acin). But this position has pitted them against the law, state security and some of Colombia’s biggest property owners and global sugar suppliers.

The Colombian government sees things differently. It says the state has a responsibility to protect legally recognised property ownership and that indigenous land issues should not be confused with environmental protection. However, it acknowledges that peace has brought a destructive surge into land previously deemed off-limits because of occupation by the Farc. Deforestation in Colombia rose 44% last year. Coca production has also risen rapidly. To tackle this, President Juan Santos has demarcated more conservation areas and promised to use the army and work with former Farc combatants to protect forests.

The minister for the environment and sustainable development, Luis Murillo, said the state’s security apparatus was the answer to environmental problems, not the problem. “We need to move very quickly to establish a presence in areas where we didn’t have a presence before,” he told the Observer, noting that the government is working on measures to protect human rights and environmental defenders.

The Cauca Valley has long been the base of operations for many of the most belligerent paramilitary groups in the country. Even with the demobilisation of the biggest organisation, the Farc, 12 other armed groups are still active in the valley, which stretches for several hundred kilometres. Some are armed rebels, such as the National Liberation Army, but others are little more than death squads that charge two million pesos (£500) per killing.

Drug gangs, militias and private security firms – which often overlap – have made this one of the most dangerous places in the world for indigenous rights campaigners, environmental defenders and journalists. Last year a record 37 activists were murdered in Colombia, which is second only to Brazil in a world ranking of such killings, according to the NGO Global Witness. This year looks set to be a similar story, with 28 fatalities so far.

The worst clashes have occurred at Corinto, which is about an hour’s drive from Cali airport. This is where activists from the Nasa have stepped up their efforts to occupy land within a vast plantation owned by Carlos Ardila Lülle, a billionaire sugar, bottling and media tycoon.

On 9 May, 17-year-old Daniel Felipe Castro was killed and several others injured when police allegedly opened fire during a minga. “We were cutting down cane when police drove up in a pick-up truck and opened fire. It was as though they were trying to fumigate us with bullets. Those who didn’t get on the ground fast enough were hit,” said a relative of the dead teenager, who asked to remain anonymous. “They don’t want us here and we won’t move, so they are trying to kill us.”

The Observer spoke to three other activists who said police have been using live rounds. One showed a scar near his shoulder blade where he said he was shot last month. The bullet, still lodged in his body, could be felt beneath the skin on his back.

Hermes Pilicue, a Nasa elder, blamed the violence on the rising pressure for land now that the peace deal has opened up the region. “Colombia is supposed to be in the midst of peace, but in our territories the conflict continues,” he said at Acin’s head office in Santander de Quilichao. “The peace agreement has made our lives more difficult. More people are entering our territory to claim land, partly because the government is granting more concessions for mining and water use.”

A 2,000-strong guarda indígena formed from the 20 native communities in the valley has already closed down several mines despite threats from militias who are alleged to be in the employ of the owners. The volunteer force, dressed in green-and-red uniforms, is armed only with wooden staffs decorated with coloured tassels. Now that the Farc has laid down its weapons, the guarda are becoming more assertive.

Article one of the peace accord guarantees agrarian reform and states that land taken during the conflict will be given back to its rightful owners. The authorities do not specify what this means, but indigenous groups have interpreted this as a prompt to reclaim ancestral territory. “Until recently, the Cxhab Wala Kiwe (Nasa people) were absorbed in simply saving our community from war and preventing paramilitary groups from recruiting our children,” said Capaz, who is also a senior member of the indigenous guard. “Now there is no war, we can focus more on the liberation of Mother Earth. Extractive industries and monocultures are contrary to our belief system. People here are aware of what is going on elsewhere in the world. We know how the climate is changing. We know about contamination of the land. We don’t want that.”

Their campaign to carve out territory between the coca and the sugar cane challenges the colonial hierarchies in the valley. After the white Europeans pushed the indigenous people into the mountains, they built homes in the foothills and brought in African slaves to work on sugar plantations on the plains. Today, mostly black cane workers joke among themselves as they wait for a bus home after a harvesting shift that has filled a giant five-carriage truck. They express a mix of old prejudice and new admiration for the indigenous groups who want to clear their workplace.

“The Indians have land, but they don’t work hard on it. They are coming down from the hills because the price of coca and marijuana has collapsed,” said José Milton Mosqueira. “But they are making such a commotion that I guess they must feel like they have a genuine claim to the land.”

As he and his colleagues talk, dusk darkens the sky and lights start to appear on the distant slopes. First just one or two strings, then 10, then 100, until finally the hillsides are illuminated like a giant Christmas tree. Every bulb is a grow-lamp for marijuana crops – evidence of the continued reliance of small farmers on the drugs trade.

After agrarian reform and the demobilisation of the paramilitaries, the eradication of coca and marijuana crops was one of the key tenets of the peace accord. All three have hit snags that have added to violence and pressure on the land. The tension is evident in the once small coca-growing community of Monte Redondo. Here the locals – a mix of Nasa and mixed-race farmers – are signing up to a crop-replacement scheme, with the government promising compensation if they switch from drugs to citrus or coffee.

ELN guerrillas in Colombia.

The farmers do not need much persuading. Economic forces are driving people away from drugs and towards the plains. The price of coca – which was never high at this bottom rung of the narco industry – has plunged. Growers say they are now selling for 1,000 pesos per pound – less than half the price before the peace deal. Many farmers are tired of the violence and disruption associated with the drug business, so about 95% are willing to switch despite intimidation by narco gangs who have murdered advocates of crop substitution.

“Even though they are afraid, people are signing up because they want a change,” said Briceida Lemos Ribera, a leader of the cocaleros (coca growers). “We are betting on peace, but it has made us a target of the people who benefited from war.”

The risks take many forms in this period of transition as former adversaries are now living in close proximity. Monte Redondo used to be a no-go area for the authorities because it was controlled by drug cartels and paramilitaries. Now it is home to three new encampments that sit almost side by side on the road: a police base piled high with sandbags; an army outpost with a dozen green tents; and rows of prefabricated housing for demobilised Farc guerrillas.

“If an area isn’t occupied, armed groups will move in,” said an officer in the military camp. “We are operating in areas where the state hasn’t been before. We are just a small part and we are taking turtle steps.”

But the peace is fragile. The week before the Observer’s visit, three police officers were killed in a grenade ambush. Former Farc warriors say the tension has increased, though in the long term they express optimism about the future. They see the peace as a victory for their long campaign for agrarian reform and fairer distribution of land.

“We’d like land. We want to have a farm,” said Oscar Aragón, who has just been released from prison, where he served six months for collaborating with the Farc.

Nasa Indigenous people forcibly evict Colombian soldiers from their territory, July 2012.

“I want to be a cowboy and raise cattle,” former Farc combatant Henry Menézez tells the Observer. After seven years in the jungle, he says he would like to write a book about his experiences and his future work to build a new community. Eight days later, he is murdered in what is rumoured to be a revenge attack for the ambush of the three policemen.

While that killing is a hangover from the civil war, others are connected to the renewed Mother Earth campaign. Ultimately, however, despite the plethora of conflicts and militias, the fundamental cause is the same as it has been for centuries – land – and the victims are those who defend it.

At the other end of the Cauca Valley, a crack of thunder rumbles through the hills as a crowd of mourners joins a funeral procession for the latest indigenous victim of the campaign to liberate Mother Earth.

Efigenia Vásquez, a radio and video journalist from the Kokonuko community – which is allied to the Nasa – was shot in Puracé on 8 October as she recorded an attempted occupation of Aguas Tibias, a farm and hot-spring resort inside the indigenous reserve, owned by a former general. The Kokonuko activists were driven back by riot police. There was an exchange of teargas, stones and, from somewhere, a gun. Vásquez was hit twice and died later in hospital. Her colleagues at the Renacer Kokonuko radio station say she was aware of the dangers, but was determined to cover a conflict that was the central concern of her community. “She used to say ‘the family grows, but the land doesn’t. We must take back the land of our ancestors’,” recalled Marcela Abirama, who was with Vásquez in hospital when she died. “Eight days earlier, she told me we must cover the Mother Earth campaign even if we might get killed.”

Who fired the gun is disputed. The Kokonuko blame the police, who they say wanted to silence the community and scare them away from the land.

During the funeral procession, the mourners express defiance as well as sadness. “Adelante compañero (forward, comrade),” they sing, then stop outside the police station to taunt the officers inside: “You kill our women, we continue our struggle. You kill our journalists, we continue our struggle. Until when? Until forever!”

The authorities have a different version of events. A police officer said Vásquez was probably the accidental victim of a homemade gun used by Kokonuko renegades to fire clusters of ball bearings. He showed a video clip on his phone of what he said was indigenous protesters using such a weapon on the day Vásquez died.

There are multiple images of them using what looks like a crude rifle, but the friendly-fire theory does not account for the fact that two other members of the community were shot and wounded on the same day at different places and different times. The father of one of them – Wilmar Yace – said a bullet entered one of his son’s cheeks and exited the other – a wound that is more likely to be caused by a high-calibre rifle than a makeshift ball-bearing gun.

The journalist’s death has resonated internationally. The director general of Unesco, Irina Bokova, denounced the killing and called for an inquiry. Vásquez’s parents hope her death can raise awareness of the indigenous cause.

“She became a journalist so she could be a voice for the voiceless,” said her mother, Hilda María Astudillo. “She was always campaigning for her family and her children so they could live in peace when they grow up.”

But the peace Vásquez hoped for remains more elusive than ever. After the burial, the Kokonuko crafted shields from plastic barrels sawn in half. Others collected bottles and fuel for petrol bombs. The following morning, the battle for Aguas Tibias recommenced. Several hundred Kokonuko men descended on the beautiful site from all sides of the valley. They were met with volleys of teargas from about 80 riot police camped at the farm who had been fighting off encroachments for four days.

The activists charged forward carrying a large wooden door as a shield against rubber bullets, so they could get close enough to throw firebombs at the police. Behind them, young and old used slingshots and a makeshift catapult to hurl stones, which were collected in satchels from the road and stacked by the Kokonuko women. The police also threw stones and bolts as their arsenal ran low.

On this occasion there were no guns, no deaths, no serious injuries, but the campaign to liberate Mother Earth shows just how violent Colombia’s peace has become.

“After 50 years of war, we still have this,” said a local government official, who was turned away as she attempted to take supplies to the besieged police officers. She departed with a warning. “If we are not allowed through, the army will get involved. They will be coming soon.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/28/nasa-colombia-cauca-valley-battle-mother-land

Telesur, January 1, 2019

“We’re the product of 500 years of struggles: first against slavery in the independence war led by insurgents against Spain, then avoiding being absorbed by North American expansionism, then for promulgating our Constitution and expelling the French Empire from our territory, then Porfirio’s dictatorship denied the fair implementation of the Reform Laws and the people stood up with its own leaders…”

Those were the opening lines of the first public statement by the National Liberation Zapatista Army (EZLN), published on the day of the uprising on Jan. 1, 1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect. The agreement drove the United States, Canada and Mexico into a commercial zone that has since impoverished the working classes while making the bourgeoisie even richer.

In that first statement, the EZLN announced they would walk into Mexico City and defeat the national military, inviting people to rise up and join them in the fight. Since then, the Zapatistas have come an incredible distance, drawing various sectors of Mexican and international society, regardless of their background and skin color, into a struggle that continues today.

Their stance is different now. Perhaps the invitation to rise up in arms was a “bluff” to intimidate the government, but we will never know. In the early years, they negotiated the San Andres Accords with the federal government, establishing that Indigenous peoples’ autonomy would be respected. The agreements, however, were soon violated by the administration of Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, so the Zapatistas decided to implement them on their own, forever eschewing mainstream politics, including the new National Renewal Movement (Morena) led by Mexico’s newly inaugurated President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The Support Networks

Claudia T., one of the founding members of a collective named ‘Mujeres y la Sexta,’ was in Mexico City at the time of the uprising, 900 kilometers away from San Cristobal de las Casas. Sympathizers quickly organized protests to stop military action against the insurgents, and out of those connections were born new support networks in urban and rural areas. Some of those people formed brigades to bring aid to Chiapas, where the uprising took on new life. Luz y Fuerza del Centro, a state-owned electricity company with a combative union, even sent workers to install electricity in Zapatista villages where the government had been completely absent.

“There were several ways to help them. People from the pedagogy or nursing faculties used to go and support them,” Claudia told teleSUR. “We would rent a bus and go as far as we could, getting wet to reach the communities and help somehow. Everytime we went there we took more than we brought. They would offer us their love, their teachings, the humanism.”

Those were some of the first relations established between the insurgent group (or communities) and civil society living in the cities and towns outside of the Zapatista rebel territory. Through the years, collectives would establish long-standing relations with the Zapatistas, a network of organizations and sympathizers that has shaped the movement.

“Then the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona came. They explained their six points and asked us: What about you? We had to write our own points, how we thought we could change,” said Claudia.

“The relation established by going and supporting was transformed. It was not any more a ‘come and help me,’ but a ‘let’s be partners in struggle.’ It’s different. We go to their meetings, they invite us to forums, seminars. Scientists, artists, we are all nourished. Also their youth, their support bases, are nourished by this.”

Zapatistas march on Dec 21, 2012, in Chiapas.

This process was in line with a transformation in the Zapatistas’ own internal political organizations. The ‘Aguascalientes’ were transformed into ‘Caracoles,’ each ruled by a ‘Good Government Junta,’ integrated by one or two delegates sent by the communities’ assemblies.

According to the late Subcomandante Marcos, the movement’s most prominent spokesperson, the new political system created by the Zapatistas aimed to coordinate and answer to the communities’ autonomy. By the time the Aguascalientes were disbanded, the Zapatistas would not be “receiving leftovers and wouldn’t allow the imposition of projects” in their territory without consultation.

Small communities choose temporary representatives, sent to higher instances until reaching the Caracoles. But representatives are not professional politicians. Instead, everyone is encouraged to participate and learn how to represent without substituting popular demand.

The focus of the Zapatistas has shifted since the time of the uprising. In 1996, they called for a meeting of Indigenous people across Mexico, which turned into the National Indigenous Congress (CNI). More than an organization, the CNI is a space to share community struggles and their vision of a possible future for the country. Without joining the EZLN or taking up arms, anti-capitalist Indigenous people joined the CNI and are still organizing resistance from their own trenches, capacities and worldviews.

The support networks played a key role in perhaps the CNI’s most widely known project, forming the Indigenous Government Council (CIG) and electing Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez, better known as ‘Marichuy,’ as their spokesperson and presidential candidate for the 2018 elections. They are in charge of organizing Marichuy’s visits to their respective communities and cities, collecting signatures to approve her candidacy and include her in the ballots, and contributing to a collective reflection exercise on revolutionary praxis.

Times of No, Time of Yes

The Zapatistas’ slow but steady development in revolutionary theory and practice has made them one of the main references for an alternative to capitalism in Latin America and the world. By refusing to take part in the mainstream economic and political system and actually proposing and executing ideas, the movement is moving forward positively.

This is explained by them as the “Time of No” and the “Time of Yes.” That is, negating and proposing.

For Eugene Gogol, a writer and activist living in Mexico, the Zapatista thinking echoes that of Georg W. F. Hegel and Karl Marx.

“It is an advance in which out of the first no, or rejection, something new arises, new ideas, new concepts, the positive in the negative,” Gogol told teleSUR. “In Hegel this is put forward as a development of ideas, of thought.”

Marx, while recovering Hegel’s idea of dialectics, implemented that system of thought into the material world and living human forces. For Marx, the destruction of capitalism (first negation) would come han- in-hand with an alternative (second negation or the negation of the negation), says Gogol, resulting in communism and “humanism arising from itself.”

But the Zapatistas don’t define themselves as communists, solely as Zapatistas. They believe that every individual and group should find their own path for liberation, their own “negation of the negation.”

“The Zapatistas in 1994 called for an uprising, and have since turned to other forms of struggle,” says Gogol. “They are anti-vanguardist, and thus believe that each movement and social struggle needs to decide how they will organize and what form their struggle will take, without being dictated from above.”

This thinking has influenced Gogol and pushed him to write and organize study circles with colleagues to analyze today’s reality, while taking part in Zapatista-led initiatives and support movements such as the CNI, CIG and their spokeswoman Marichuy.

“For myself, and those of us in Praxis en America Latina, we see the need to both identify with what we see as the dialectic of the Zapatista struggle, while at the same time not shying away from showing that this dialectic is not only Zapatista, but has historically and globally developed. For us, understanding the methodology and particularly showing Marx’s revolutionary dialectic in permanence is very necessary today for all freedom struggles, including Zapatismo,” says Gogol.

Now, the EZLN and other revolutionary Indigenous organizations are at a turning point. Marichuy didn’t make it to the ballots for the 2018 elections, won by the center-left Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), but the CIG continues organizing a national movement integrated by Campesinos and the working-class, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, to topple capitalism and the ruling class.

Lopez Obrador and his team have promised to respect the San Andres Accords signed by the EZLN and the government in the 1990s, but reality seems different. Even though the accords establish that Indigenous communities should be consulted over anything related to their territory, one of Lopez Obrador’s first announced project, the Maya Train, has been approved without proper consultation, and Indigenous organizations from the Yucatan peninsula are rejecting it.

In late December, support networks from across Mexico met in Guadalupe Tepeyac, part of the Zapatista autonomous territory in Chiapas, to discuss the next steps in the struggle along with representatives of the CNI, the CIG and the EZLN. On January 1, they will be at ‘La Realidad,’ the first Caracol, commemorating 25 years of the uprising.

Taking into account the outcome of the last assembly, this has the potential to produce an inclusive national plan and years of work between organizations, a new step in the long road to autonomy, liberty, life and dignity. A new “negation of the negation,” another time for proposing and action.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/New-Era-for-Mexicos-Zapatista-Army-25-Years-After-Uprising–20181229-0015.html

by tawinikay (aka Southern Wind Woman)

Reconciliation is dead. It’s been dead for some time.

If only one thing has brought me joy in the last few weeks, it began when the matriarchs at Unist’ot’en burned the Canadian flag and declared reconciliation dead. Like wildfire, it swept through the hearts of youth across the territories. Out of their mouths, with teeth bared, they echoed back: reconciliation is dead! reconciliation is dead! Their eyes are more keen to the truth so many of our older generation have been too timid to name. The Trudeau era of reconciliation has been a farce from the beginning. It has been more for settler Canadians than natives all along.

“Reconciliation is dead” is a battle cry.

It means the pressure to live up to our side of the bargain is over. The younger generation have dropped the shackles to the ground. Perhaps we are moving into a new time, one where militancy takes the place of negotiation and legal challenge. A time where we start caring less about what the colonizer’s legal and moral judgement and more about our responsibilities.

Criticizing reconciliation is not about shaming those elders and people who participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it’s about attacking a government that used that moment of vulnerability to bolster it’s global image. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I do not blame our older generation for being hopeful about a more peaceful future. Those who lived through the horror of residential schools and the 60s scoop and the road allowance days and the sled dog slaughters could only have wanted a better life for the coming generations. It is the responsibility of those younger generations to stand up and say that what is being offered is not good enough. It is up to us to say that we would rather another hundred years of struggle than to accept the gentle assimilation being offered. It is up to us to give thanks to our elders for their service and then to turn to the frontlines with our feathers and drums and fists.

Because ideas on their own don’t make change. That is a liberal lie. It takes action behind words to make a difference. That action needs to be undertaken together. Neither ideas or practice are created by individuals. Everything written here is the result of discussion and interaction with other land defenders, lovers, anarchists, mothers, children, and resistors. We need to be accountable to the things we say while also recognizing that knowledge is created by communities. It has to always be seen that way in order to subvert hierarchy, to never allow one person to be elevated over any other.

So what is written here is all of yours. Take it and do with it as you please.
Argue it. Defend it. Decry it. Make it your own.

Forget the rules.

Canada is a colonial state. It exists to govern territory and manage the resources of that territory. It is nothing less and nothing more. It has done an excellent job convincing its citizens that it stands for something, something good. This is the way it maintains its legitimacy. The national myth of politeness and civility wins the support of its constituents. This has been carefully constructed over time and it can be deconstructed. In fact, the rules of Canada change all the time. I would write more about this but the truth is I could not do a better job than something I recently came across online. @Pow_pow_pow_power recently wrote the following:

Settler governments have been making up the rules as they go from the beginning of their invasions. While each generation of us struggles to educate ourselves to the rulebook, they disregard it and do what they want when they want. This should not be a surprise. It has always been this way because they prioritize themselves about all – above other people, above animal relatives, above the balance of Nature, and certainly above “what is right”. Laws have always been passed to legitimize their whims and interests as the intentions of seemingly rational rulers, and to keep us in compliance with their needs.

We currently live in a time where our Imperialist structures have been deeply concerned with appearing ordered and civilized to fellow regimes of power to cultivate a sense of superiority. This is why the violence we have become accustomed to is no longer mass slaughters and public torture and exiles but night raids and disappearances, criminalizations and being locked into systems of neglect. It has become more reliant on structural violence & erasure than direct violence, and therefore more insidious. Insidiousness is more tidily effective and harder to pinpoint as a source of injustice.

This is why when we approach them, lawful and peaceful and rational and fair minded and smooth toned, as gracious and calm as can be, we are easily dismissed with polite white smiles of “best intentions” “deepest regrets” and “we’re doing our best”, in fact “we’re doing better than most”. And when we insist, more firmly, more impassioned, more justified, the response from Settler Governments is as clear as we see now: “Why can’t you people just obey?”

Canadians want to believe that colonial violence is a thing of the past, so the government hides it for them. That is why the RCMP doesn’t allow journalists to film them as they sick dogs on women defending their land. That is why they will get away with it.

The time has come to stop looking for justice in settler law.

For Indigenous people in Canada, it is impossible to avoid the violence inflicted on us by the state. When we raise our fist and strike back, it is always an act of self-defense. Always. Committing to non-violence or pacifism in the face of a violent enemy is a dangerous thing to do. Yet, attempting to avoid using violence until absolutely necessary is a noble principle. One which carries the most hope for a new future. But what does violence mean to the settler state?

They don’t consider it violent to storm into a territory with guns drawn and remove its rightful occupants. They don’t consider it violent to level mountaintops, or clearcut forests, or to suck oil out of the ground only to burn it into the air. They don’t consider it violent to keep chickens and pigs and cows in tiny crates, never allowing them to see sunlight, using them like food machines.

But smash a window of a government office..
Well, that goes too far.

It is time we see their laws for what they are: imaginary and hypocritical. Settler laws exist to protect settlers. We are not settlers. We are Michif. We are Anishinaabek. We are Onkwehón:we. We are Nêhiyawak. We are Omàmiwininì. We are Inuit. We are Wet’suwet’en. So why are we still appealing to their laws for our legitimacy?

Time after time, communities spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal challenges to land rights. Chippewa of the Thames First Nation used money won in a land claim to launch a legal challenge against Canada to say they were never properly consulted, nor did they consent to, the Line 9 pipeline through their territory. The Supreme Court ruled against them, saying that Indigenous peoples do not have the right to say no to industrial projects in their territories. Line 9 is still operational. The Wet’suwet’en won probably the most significant legal challenge in Canadian history. The Delgamuukw verdict saw the courts acknowledge that the We’suwet’en territory is unceded, that they hold title and legal jurisdiction, and yet look at how Canada honours that. Legal victories are not the way we win our land and dignity. Canada cares as little about Canadian law as they do Indigenous law.

Warriors in Manitoba blocking railway, February 2020.

The same goes for the United Nations and their precious UNDRIP. We have seen that the state will adopt United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) principles and interpret them to suit their needs. That document says that governments and companies need free, prior, and informed consent to engage in projects in their territories. BC adopted it and, yet, says that it does not mean they have to gain consent from the Wet’suwet’en. Consent will never actually mean the right to say no. And the UN has no way to enforce it.

The time has passed for legal challenge in their courts that does nothing but drain our resources and slow us down. I honour those relatives and ancestors who attempted the peaceful resolution, who trusted in the good intentions of other humans. But the settlers have proven that the peaceful options they offered us are lies. Fool us once, shame on you.

This is not only about Unist’ot’en anymore.

This is about all of us. Any day now the RCMP could attempt to move in and evict the rail blockade at Tyendinaga. I stand in solidarity with them as much as I do with the Wet’suwet’en. This moment is not just about getting the government and their militarized goons to back down at Unist’ot’en and Gitdum’ten, it’s about getting them to loosen their grip around all of our necks. This moment is about proclaiming reconciliation dead and taking back our power.

This is not to say that we should forget about Unist’ot’en and abandon them when they need us most. It is a proposal to widen our scope so that we don’t lose our forward momentum if what happens out west doesn’t meet our wildest dreams. This is about crafting a stronger narrative.

This means that we should think before claiming that the Wet’suwet’en have the right to their land because it is unceded. Do we not all have a right to the land stolen from our ancestors? For land to be unceded it means that it has never been sold, surrendered, or lost through conquest. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 urged Canada and the dominion to only take land through the making of treaty. And so agents of Canada set out to do so. They continued to make treaties across the continent, sometimes lying about the content of the treaties to ancestors who didn’t speak english, sometimes finding whoever the hell would sign the treaty without much concern for if that person was acting with the support of the community. After the signing of the last treaty, Canada made it illegal for Indians to hire lawyers to challenge land claims. And then they stole the rest of what they wanted. They continued to flood the land with settlers until native peoples had only 0.2% of the land they once protected and lived on.

I don’t care about appealing to the legitimacy of unceded territory. All land is stolen land. Canada has no jurisdiction on any of it because they have broken any agreements they ever made in the process of taking it.

The same critique rings true for holding up hereditary governance as the only true leadership of Indigenous peoples. I am not advocating for band council. But it is important to understand that many of our relations have lost the hereditary systems that once helped them live good lives. We are going to have to rekindle our governance. Some we can pull from the past, some we will have to make anew. All freely chosen forms of Indigenous governance are legitimate. Our legitimacy does not flow from the mouths of our leaders, but from our connection to the land and water and our commitment to our responsibilities to all life today and generations to come.

This is a good thing if we let it be. It is foolish to think we would not have changed and grown in 300 years. Our systems would look different today no matter what. This is an opportunity to combine new and beautiful ideas with the time-honoured traditions and ceremonies of our ancestors, spiritual communities where hierarchy is subverted and gender is liberated!

It is time to shut everything the fuck down.

Canada has always been afraid of us standing in our power. Reconciliation was a distraction, a way for them to dangle a carrot infront of us and trick us into behaving. Now is the time to show them how clear our vision is. Being determined and sure is not the same as being unafraid. There are many dangerous days ahead of us. It is dangerous to say, “I will not obey.”

The first thing we need to do is stop stabbing each other in the back. Take a seat on band council if you want, but stop letting it go to your head. Don’t ever see yourself as more than a servant, a cash distributor, a rule enforcer. Being elected is not the same as earning a place of respect in your community. It does not make you an elder. Let me take this time to say a giant “fuck you” to the Métis nations who sign pipeline agreements because they are so excited the government considered them Indigenous. The Métis have no land rights in Ontario and yet they continue to sign agreements as if they do, throwing the Indigenous nations with actual territory under the train. Let me extend that “fuck you” to the Indigenous nations who signed pipeline agreements and stand by in silence as their relations are attacked for protecting the water. Or even worse when they do interviews with pro-oil lobby groups and conservative media decrying the land defenders in their midst. Can’t they see the way Canadians eat up their words, drooling over the division amongst us, using it to devalue our way of life? I do not condone attacking our relatives who have lost the red path, but we need to find a way to bring them back home. Not everybody has to take up a frontline in their community, but at the bare minimum they should refuse to cooperate with the colonial government and their corporate minions.

The second thing we need to do is act. But we do not have to limit ourselves to actions that demand the withdrawal of forces from Wet’suwet’en territory. The federal government is the one calling the shots, not just at Unist’ot’en but at every point of native oppression across all the territories. Any attack on the state of Canada is in solidarity. Any assertion of native sovereignty is in solidarity.

It’s time to start that occupation you’ve been dreaming up.

Is there a piece of land that has been annexed from your territory? Take it back. Is there a new pipeline being slated through your backyard? Blockade the path. Are their cottagers desecrating the lake near your community? Serve them an eviction notice and set up camp. Sabotage the fish farms killing the salmon. Tear down the dam interrupting the river. Play with fire.

When we put all of our hopes and dreams into one struggle in one spot, we set ourselves up for heartbreak and burnout. Let’s fight for the Wet’suwet’en people, yes! But let’s honour their courage and their actions by letting them inspire us to do the same. Let’s fight for them by fighting for the manoomin and the wetlands and the grizzlies.

Choose your accomplices wisely. Liberals who read land acknowledgments often have too much invested in this system to actually see it change. Communists envision a system without a capitalist Canada, but they still want a communist state. One that will inevitably need to control land and exploit it. Find common heart with those who want to see the state destroyed, to have autonomous communities take its place, and to restore balance between humans and all our relations. Choose those who listen more than they talk, but not those who will do whatever you say and not think for themselves. They are motivated by guilt. Find those who have a fire burning in them for a more wild and just world. Most of them will be anarchists, but not all, and not all anarchists will come with a good mind.

Creating a battlefield with multiple fronts will divide their energies. The rail blockades are working! If the night time rail sabotage and the copper wire and the blockades keep coming, it will shut down all rail traffic across this awful economy. More is better. But do it not just for the Wet’suwet’en, do it for the rivers and streams that weave themselves under the rails. Do it for the ancestors who saw the encroaching railroad as their coming demise.

And as a critique out of Montreal wrote: don’t settle for symbolic and intentional arrest.

When they come to enforce an injunction, move to another part of the rail.

When they come with a second injunction, block the biggest highway nearby.

When they come with a third injunction, move to the nearest port.

Stay free and fierce. The folks at Unist’ot’en and Gitdum’ten didn’t have the option to, but you do. Anticipate their next move and stay ahead of them.

This is a moment among many moments. Our ancestors have been clever, sometimes biding their time quietly, sometimes striking, always secretly passing on our ceremonies and stories. I honour them as I honour you now. We are still here because of them and our children and our children’s children will still be here because of us. Never forget who we are. Fight in ceremony.

I suppose this is a proposal for adopting a strategy of indigenous anarchism here on Turtle Island. A rejection of tactics that demand things from powerful people and a return to building for ourselves a multitude of local, diverse solutions. This is a rejection of Idle No More style organizing, let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past (for a detailed critique of INM, see https://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/idle-no-more-speak-for-yourself/ and while you’re there read everything else). It is a plea for us to choose our own leaders and create governance that refuses hierarchy. An ask for us to reject reconciliation and move towards a militant reclamation. The idea of indigenous anarchism is still in its infancy. Write me about it.

This is one of our moments. Let’s make it not about demanding for them to leave Unist’ot’en alone, but about demanding that they leave the land alone. Don’t make it about stopping CGL from making money, make it about denouncing the idea of money. This is about colonization everywhere. This is about all of us.

To the settlers inevitably reading this zine.

What is written here is meant for you too. Not in the “rise up and take back your land” kind of way. Been there, done that.

But I have been reading the messaging on the reportbacks and in the media and I see you falling into all sorts of tired traps. You are not just cogs in the solidarity machine, you too can take up struggles in the cities you live. Remember the Two Row: you can fight parallel battles towards the same goals.

I have heard many an elder say that we will not win this fight on our own, and that is most certainly true. Thank you for the ways you have attacked the economy and the state. Thank you for answering the call. Now take this and run with it.

You too should look for ways to defend the land and water in the places you live. You too should look for ways to undermine and weaken the power of the government over these lands. Don’t let yourself be disheartened if the RCMP don’t leave Unist’ot’en. That is only one fight of many. That is only the beginning. Don’t fall into the traps of appealing to Canadian or international law.

See yourself for what you are, for who your community is. Act in ways that bring about a world where reconciliation is possible, a world in which your people give back land and dismantle the centralized state of Canada. Don’t romanticize the native peoples you work with. Don’t feel that you can’t ever question their judgment or choose to work with some over others. Find those that have kept the fire alive in their hearts, those who would rather keep fighting than accept the reconciliation carrot. Don’t ever act from guilt and shame.

And don’t let yourself believe that you can transcend your settlerism by doing solidarity work. Understand that you can, and should, find your own ways to connect to this land. From your own tradition, inherited or created.

Print this zine and distribute it to your Indigenous comrades.

Take risk. Dream big. Pursue anarchy. Stay humble.

THIS ZINE WAS PUBLISHED BY APHIKONA DISTRO.

Contact them at aphikonadistro@riseup.net

By J.P. Antonacci, Hamilton Spectator, August 5, 2020

Dave Anderson watched the fires burning on Argyle Street on Wednesday and sighed.

“This is starting all over again,” said Anderson, who moved to Caledonia on the very day in 2006 that Six Nations protesters set up an encampment on the former Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) property, sparking a bitter land claims dispute that divided the community for years.

“The cops were in the same position they are right now,” Anderson said, pointing to police cruisers blocking the road near the Canadian Tire parking lot.

Using tires, wooden skids and other materials, protesters set several fires a stone’s throw from the DCE lands, sending black smoke wafting over town. They gathered in response to Haldimand OPP raiding a construction site on the south end of town that morning to forcibly evict Six Nations members who had been occupying the site since July 19.

Officers were enforcing a Superior Court injunction handed down Friday ordering the protesters to leave the McKenzie Meadows site, which the Six Nations group renamed as 1492 Land Back Lane in reference to their claim of Haudenosaunee sovereignty.

The protesters didn’t budge, prompting police to move in Wednesday morning, where they encountered resistance.

“Several demonstrators who failed to comply with the court injunction were subsequently arrested,” said OPP Const. Rod LeClair.

In response, protests sprang up on Argyle, the Highway 6 bypass and Sixth Line.

“This is like déjà vu all over again. Incredible,” said Anderson, who spotted the smoke from his backyard and walked over to investigate.

“There’s no warning. Just one day, bang, it’s there. And from there, where’s this going to go? They’re not moving. They’re going to be here for a while.”

Anderson was among many residents who expressed their frustration at the blockade, with memories of the Douglas Creek Estates protests, which ignited years of acrimony in the community and beyond, fresh in their minds.

“Here we go again,” one man said as he turned his car around at the roadblock to join the traffic inching back along Argyle.

Cecilia Román said residents who grumble at the inconvenience caused by the protest are missing the point.

“I understand they’re irritated, but I don’t think a lot of people are understanding why the Natives are doing this,” said Román, who lives in Caledonia and works on Six Nations.

“That is the Natives’ land. I think the government of Canada should be more open to having the Natives’ land not being built on.”

Her memories of the 2006 protest are of police officers using pepper spray on demonstrators, and of racist attitudes toward Six Nations members that she still sees in the community today.

“I think there is a lot of racism here that people don’t really put a lot of light on,” Román said.

A dose of empathy and education about Indigenous issues, including the legacy of residential schools and the reserve system, would go a long way to explaining why the protesters, who describe themselves as “land defenders,” take action, Román said.

Excavator set on fire under the Line 6 bridge, August 5, 2020.

“I think that what they’re doing isn’t wrong. They’re standing up for their land, and they want to be respected. They want their voices to be heard,” she said. “If the roles were reversed, we’d be fighting for our land.”

Witnesses say the police came out in force to clear the construction site, where developers plan to build 219 detached homes and townhouses. A police helicopter flew overhead as the protest then expanded throughout Caledonia.

McKenzie Road remained closed throughout the day as officers monitored the area. Representatives from Losani Homes, one of the developers involved in the project, were on hand to check if any of the construction materials that protesters had used to barricade the entrance were damaged.

As of mid-afternoon, Six Nations and Mohawk Warrior flags still flew at the site.

Six Nations elected band council has distanced itself from the protesters because the developers previously compensated the reserve with cash and land at a different site.

In an interview on Friday, the day the injunction was issued, protester Skyler Williams said the Canadian government and band council alike need to consult more widely before further development can happen on disputed territory.

“Six Nations is a whole other country. You’ve got to understand that,” Williams said.

“So if you’re not going to come to the table for meaningful discussion, to make it a real process where everybody in our community feels heard and accommodated and consulted with, then you’re going to continue to have these flashpoints in time where you’re met with resistance.”

https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2020/08/05/fire-on-the-streets-of-caledonia-after-opp-arrest-land-protesters.html?fbclid=IwAR2iyyq-t3dG_ZPoW6GmKI_dh0BPGaMMVT8IaKdXv6DH9ITNmN9aOBzaTuM

Masked mob swarms Northern, B.C. pipeline work site, causes millions in damage

by Darren Handschuh, Castanet, Feb 17, 2022

British Columbia’s minister of public safety Mike Farnworth has issued a statement condemning the attack on the Coastal GasLink site.

“The RCMP is conducting a full investigation into this egregious criminal activity that could have led to serious injury or loss of life,” Farnworth said.

“The police report indicates that the workers’ camp was attacked in the middle of the night by unknown assailants wielding axes. There is no excuse for such violence and intimidation. All workers deserve to be protected from harassment and harm.”

“This destructive attack should be condemned by all in British Columbia.”

UPDATE 5:20 p.m.

The company building a pipeline through Northern B.C. that was violently attacked on Wednesday night called the incident a “highly planned and dangerous unprovoked assault.”

Coastal GasLink says about 20 masked attackers wearing camouflage surrounded and attacked Coastal GasLink workers near the Morice River drill pad site off the Marten Forest Service Road.

The site is the location of the former blockade and opposition camp last year that lasted 59 days.

“This coordinated and criminal attack from multiple directions threatened the lives of several workers. In one of the most concerning acts, an attempt was made to set a vehicle on fire while workers were inside,” the company said in a statement.

“The attackers also wielded axes, swinging them at vehicles and through a truck’s window. Flare guns were also fired at workers. Workers fled the site for their own safety and remain shaken by this violent incident.”

There were no physical injuries to workers.

Coastal GasLink says the attackers used grinders to cut locks to access the construction site and vandalized heavy equipment and trailers, causing millions of dollars in damage.

Equipment hydraulic and fuel lines were also cut, causing leaks.

“Damage and environmental impacts are still being assessed. We are working to contain and clean up the environmental damage caused by the attackers. We also understand the attackers felled trees, placed tire spikes and lit fires on roads in an effort to impede access to the remote worksite,” the company statement continued.

The company is encouraging a full police investigation, which is already underway.

“As this situation evolves, we remain in close contact with our prime contractor and workforce. Our work is lawful, authorized, fully permitted and has the unprecedented support of local and Indigenous communities and agreements in place with all 20 elected First Nation councils across the 670 km route,” the company said.

Coastal GasLink is almost 60 per cent complete.

ORIGINAL 4:20 p.m.

Houston RCMP are investigating reports of violence against employees of Coastal GasLink as well as with attending police officers.

RCMP said in a press release that on Thursday, Feb. 17 shortly after midnight, police were called to the Marten Forest Service Road after Coastal Gas Link (CGL) security reported acts of violence at their work site.

It was reported approximately 20 people, some armed with axes, were attacking security guards and smashing their vehicle windows.

It was initially reported that some CGL employees were trapped, but all had managed to safely leave the area.

Upon police attendance at the 41 km mark, the roadway had been blocked with downed trees, tar-covered stumps, wire, boards with spikes in them and fires had been lit throughout the debris.

As police worked their way through the debris and traps, several people threw smoke bombs and flaming sticks at police, injuring one officer.

At the 43 km mark, an old school bus blocked the road. No one was located in this area and with the assistance of CGL, the bus was cleared from the road and police continued on.
When police arrived at the drill pad at the 63 km mark, they found significant damage had been done to heavy machinery, fencing and portable buildings.

Police did not encounter any further blockades or protestors as they made their way to the drill pad nor did they locate anyone at the site.

“This is a very troubling escalation in violent criminal activity that could have resulted in serious injury or death. This was a calculated and organized violent attack that left its victims shaken and a multimillion dollar path of destruction,” said Chief Supt. Warren Brown.

“While we respect everyone’s right to peacefully protest in Canada, we cannot tolerate this type of extreme violence and intimidation. Our investigators will work tirelessly to identify the culprits and hold them accountable for their actions.”

https://www.castanet.net/news/BC/360460/Masked-mob-swarms-Northern-B-C-pipeline-work-site-causes-millions-in-damage

RCMP seek to identify some 20 masked assailants who threatened Coastal GasLink pipeline contractors and caused millions of dollars in damage.

by Derrick Penner, Vancouver Sun, Feb 18, 2022

Attackers disabled lighting and video-surveillance equipment during their raid on a remote Coastal GasLink work site in northwestern B.C. and commandeered heavy equipment to inflict damage estimated to be in the millions of dollars, the company said Friday.

Video and photos captured before the equipment was disabled in the attack have been turned over to RCMP.

Police are trying to identify suspects among the reported 20 to 40 individuals involved in the apparently co-ordinated attack that happened on Thursday, just after midnight.

RCMP Chief Supt. Warren Brown, commander of the B.C. northern district, admitted it will be a challenge as they were disguised and masked when they arrived at the site on foot.

“Our people were terrorized during this violent incident,” said Kent Wilfur, a vice-president with Coastal GasLink, the company building the 670-kilometre pipeline intended to feed the $40-billion LNG Canada liquefied natural gas plant being built in Kitimat.

The project has the support of elected First Nation councils along the route, but is opposed by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, who say they are the guardians of their traditional territory.

Supporters have staged blockades near the location of Thursday’s attacks and heavily armed RCMP teams have been enforcing an injunction against the actions.

Politicians lined up Friday to condemn the attack, in which nine contract workers on the night shift were threatened by masked assailants, some wielding axes, who ordered them to leave and then hit their vehicles as they fled.

“The attack this week on a CGL work site is reprehensible,” Premier John Horgan said in a statement. “The damage and destruction are disturbing to all British Columbians.”

Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen, who represents the region, said in a tweet that he was “incredibly troubled by the violent and threatening attack,” and that “those responsible must be brought to account.”

Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino called the violence disturbing.

“I want to make it clear that no matter what your cause, or your views are, on any subject matter, there is never any justification for violence toward your fellow Canadians,” including those in law enforcement.

Brown said he had 40 investigators in the area Friday. They were canvassing camps and rural homes along the road to find out if anyone saw anything or had also faced threats.

“We don’t know who they are and I would like to say they’re not protesters, because this is really quite an amped-up level of violence from what we’ve seen any time before in and around here,” Brown said. “This is not about enforcing a court injunction. This is about a specific criminal act that happened on Feb. 17.”

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs opposing the pipeline sparked rallies and rail blockades across Canada in 2020. Coastal GasLink obtained an injunction against blockades and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs issued the company an eviction notice.

The Canadian Press reported that hereditary Chief Na’moks refused to comment on Friday.

“We simply don’t have enough information to make any comments, all we know is no arrests or charges, and harassment of our camps continue,” he said in a text message. “Nothing more than that until we get more information as well.”

Brown addressed speculation that has appeared online that the incident was “a ruse on behalf of the industry to point fingers,” which he characterized as “asinine,” irresponsible and wrong.

“We’ve got a large contingency of police in there and we have that many (the 40 investigators) in there investigating — not policing protests, not policing civil injunctions, (but) policing the criminal acts that happened on the 17th.”

Brown revealed more about the threats and violence responding RCMP officers faced in the early hours of Thursday.

Officers responding to calls for help from the pipeline workers came across a banner stretched across the road that had been lit on fire, then trees that had been felled as roadblocks.

And as officers got out of vehicles to clear them away using chainsaws, assailants at the tree line lit other trees on fire and threw lit torches, smoke bombs and objects at police while taunting them verbally

“When the police gave chase, it appears as though they might have lulled us into a trap,” Brown said, as one officer who gave chase stepped on a stick spiked with long nails that went through a boot.

The few officers on site chose not to pursue the assailants further “out of their own safety,” Brown said.

Other Western premiers called for the federal government to take a more aggressive approach to the situation in B.C.

Friday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe bluntly challenged the prime minister on social media to respond to the incident at the Coastal GasLink site.

“Will the Trudeau government now seize the bank accounts of the foreign-funded eco-terrorists responsible for this violence?” tweeted Kenney, referring to the financial provisions of the Emergencies Act that permit authorities to target donations made to illegal convoy activities.

“If the Trudeau government is set on using the Emergencies Act to end blockades, then they should also use it to follow the money, seize the associated vehicles and provide all the resources necessary to ensure those illegally acting here are arrested for damaging and blocking this critical export infrastructure,” the premier of Saskatchewan tweeted.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/rcmp-devote-40-investigators-to-attack-at-coastal-gaslink-work-site

by Ian Holliday, CTV News, February 20, 2022

Mounties investigating the attack on a natural gas pipeline construction site in northern B.C. say they’re reviewing surveillance video from the scene, but no suspects have yet been identified, and so far no link to ongoing protests in the area has been found.

“There is video that we’re actively looking through, and we will likely be able to release some of that information at some point if it becomes pertinent for the investigative team,” said RCMP Staff Sgt. Sascha Baldinger in Houston, B.C. on Saturday.

Police have previously said as many as 20 people were involved in an attack on a Coastal GasLink work site shortly after midnight Thursday.

Asked if police know exactly who they’re investigating, Baldinger said no.

While police have called the attack an “escalation” of the ongoing conflict between anti-pipeline protesters and workers at the site, Baldinger clarified that police have not established any connection between those involved in previous confrontations and the latest attack.

“Although there have been confrontations in the past and there has been active protest in the area, at this point we have no linkages to those events and this current event,” he said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline has been under construction since 2019 and is scheduled to be completed next year. It is slated to carry natural gas to the also-under-construction LNG Canada export terminal in Kitimat, B.C.

The owner of the pipeline, TC Energy, has agreements with elected First Nations councils along the pipeline’s route, but some of the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation oppose the project, which runs through the nation’s traditional territory.

Environmental activists and Indigenous land defenders have sought to stop the pipeline from being constructed, and the B.C. Supreme Court has granted the company an injunction that prohibits the protesters from interfering with the company’s construction work.

The investigation into the recent attack is not related to breaches of the injunction, Baldinger said Saturday, noting that the acts of vandalism at the work site constitute criminal offences.

Some of the perpetrators of the attack carried axes, and at least one had handheld power tools, which were used to cut through a gate at the site.

After chasing off the nine Coastal GasLink workers who were present at the time, the attackers took control of construction equipment and used it to cause millions of dollars of damage to the site, according to police.

Baldinger said Saturday that RCMP believe they were also targets of the attack. Officers encountered multiple roadblocks and what Baldinger described as “booby traps” along the Marten Forest Service Road that leads to the work site.

Mounties said in their initial statement about the attack that people threw “smoke bombs” and “fire-lit sticks” at officers as they attempted to make their way to the site.

Given that the road is the only vehicle route to the work site, Baldinger was asked why RCMP were unable to arrest any of the people involved at the time of the attack.

“Some of our members actually did pursue some of the individuals that they were confronted by,” he said. “However, because of the nightfall and the actual booby traps that were set up, and one of our members actually getting injured … (The attackers) just ended up disappearing into the forest.”

The attack has drawn widespread condemnation from political leaders in B.C. and across the country. 

On Sunday, Coastal GasLink published an account of the attack from a security guard who was present when it began. The worker, who the company identified only as “Trevor,” described the attack as “terrifying,” saying attackers hit his truck with axes and attempted to light it on fire while he was inside. 

The company said its workers have declined requests for media interviews about the attack “due to concerns for their safety and security, along with that of their families.”

“Coastal GasLink takes the safety, security and well-being of our people very seriously,” the company said. “Members of the Coastal GasLink team have in the past experienced multiple cases of online harassment and threats, and as such, we will respect our workers’ right to privacy and are providing ongoing support as needed.” 

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/so-far-no-link-to-existing-protests-found-in-coastal-gaslink-attack-investigation-rcmp-say-1.5789194