Anti-Canada Day Solidarity Statement with Akwesasne
July 1, 2009 – Montreal
To the members of the community of Akwesasne --
To all members of the Haudenosaunee --
We write to publicly express our respect, solidarity and support with the continued struggles for sovereignty and self-determination by Haudonausanee peoples.
In particular, we highlight our admiration for the courageous and ongoing community resistance to armed border agents at Kahwehnoke in Akwesasne. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is an occupier on Kanionke:haka lands, and we unequivocally support the demand of the people’s movement at Akwesasne to refuse the arming of any border agents. We also support the demand for free movement for all members of the Akwesasne community.
We understand the resistance at Akwesasne in the context of continued struggles for land and self-determination throughout the Iroquois Confederacy: from the ongoing Land Reclamation at Six Nations to the re-occupation of the Culbertson Tract at Tyendinaga; from the opposition to the Highway 30 expansion at Kahnawake to the restoration of the Confederacy Council.
Resistance to Canadian colonialism and neo-colonialism has meant attacks on Haudenosaunee people who refuse to submit to colonial rule. We have noted and learned from members of the Akwesasne community about Jake Ice who was killed by police agents in 1899. Recently, during the resistance at Akwesasne, the OPP attacked protesters on the Skyway Bridge at Tyendinaga, leaving members of that community bloodied, arrested and jailed.
We condemn all Canadian government, police and army attacks on Haudenosaunee peoples, including the continued criminalization of members of the Six Nations and Tyendinaga communities, where dozens still face charges and trials. The colonial Canadian courts and police cannot stand in judgment of the sovereign peoples of the Haudenosaunee, and all charges must be dropped.
No One Is Illegal-Montreal is a grassroots migrant justice, anti-colonial, no border group comprised of members from racialized and immigrant backgrounds. We are struggling for the self-determination of migrants and in support of the self-determination of Indigenous peoples. We are in active confrontation with a colonial system built on the dispossession and genocide of indigenous peoples, as well as racist anti-immigrant laws.
The CBSA, and the border they enforce, serve not only to divide Haudenosaunee peoples, and the community of Akwesasne, but also to enforce a racist immigration regime that deports and detains members of our communities. We struggle actively against those deportation and detentions, and against all borders and barriers to free movement.
This July 1, 2009, we join with others in a convergence on Akwesasne to show support for the Kanionke:haka peoples resistance against the CBSA. We also stand in opposition to the Canadian state and its policies and practices. We can think of no better way to spend our “Anti-Canada Day” than to stand in solidarity and to learn from you.
We continue to try to practice our own decolonization, rooted in the traditions and understanding of the Haudenosaunee – such as the two-row wampum treaty --and in a present and future where we can establish and re-establish relations based on values of mutual aid, solidarity and respect, in a common struggle against oppression.
In struggle and solidarity,
With respect,
No One Is Illegal-Montreal.
nooneisillegal@gmail.com
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com
