Jan 6, 2019
This week we feature two segments, the first on anti-pipeline resistance at the Gidimt'en Camp in Canada and second with JR from sub.Media about Mental Wellness and the recent Trouble episode on the subject.
Wet'suwet'en Pipeline Resistance, so-called BC
First up, we'll hear from Delee Nikal, a
Wet'suwet'en community member from the Gidimt’en clan and the Cas
Yikh House, a First Nation in so-called British Columbia, Canada.
In 2009, Wet'suwet'en members of the Unist'ot'en clan (also of the
Wet'suwet'en nation) began actively blocking pipeline workers and
government officials from accessing their land without prior and
fully informed consent of the nation on the land. Over the years,
Unist'ot'en has become home to various structures to not only block
the passage of the pipeline but also to create opportunities for
indigenous folks to heal themselves and promote their
culture. On December 14th, the Canadian Supreme Court pushed
through an injunction on behalf of Coastal GasLink (owned by
TransCanada) threatening the Wet'suwet'en community defending its
land at Unist'ot'en with police invasion. Following this, a public
statement was made by the 5 hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en
for all of the clans to block pipelines on their
land.
The Wet'suwet'en people have no treaties with
the Canadian or provincial government, their land is unceded and
sovereign territory within the bounds of what's claimed by Canada.
According to United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, Article 10: “Indigenous Peoples shall not be forcibly
removed from their lands or territories.” This includes RCMP,
and/or military removal of Indigenous Peoples occupying their
territory , say the land defenders. They also point out that the
1997 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the Delgamuukw/Gisdaywa
court case affirmed that Wet’suwet’en title, based on the
traditional clan governance system, was never
extinguished.
In the days since this interview was recorded, an update to the injunction by the Canadian Supreme Court was released that updated names and places to be targeted by police action and the chiefs were informed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, a Canadian Federal police force that their people and their spaces would likely be attacked by the RCMP in coming days to move forward on the building of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
The Wet'suwet'en resistance to the pipeline is
asking for native folks to come to help defend the land from
further Canadian incursion, for allies and accomplices to engage in
solidarity actions to pressure and embarrass the Canadian
government and spread word of the resistance of Wet'suwet'en people
on their sovereign lands in defense of the earth, air and water
that all of us share on this planet.
You can inform yourself more by visiting
wetsuweten.com and keep up
on updates via their fedbook page named
"Gidimt’en Checkpoint visit: Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gidimt’en
Territory". Here's a short video about the access point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3OjGB4sDCw
as well as a link to their gofundme campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/gitdumt039en-access-point
A great article breaking down a bunch of the history can be found at the Earth First! Newswire's site from which we've poached some of the links and which has some great ideas of how to signal boost the situation, fundraising ideas and other ways to give and more!
International Call to Action for Gidimt’en Access Checkpoint for Tuesday, January 8th, 2019
JR of sub.Media on Mad Worlds and Trouble
And secondly, we are going to present an interview with JR, who is a member of the subMedia collective about their recent Trouble episode called Mad Worlds. Trouble is a monthly mini documentary series from this collective which highlights different aspects of life and struggle on the far left. It’s meant to be watched in groups to promote discussion and counter the increasing isolating aspects of modern day existence. The episode “Mad Worlds, Redefining Sanity Through Struggle” explores the concept of sanity and how this is intrinsically linked to the white hetero settler colonialist patriarchy, and also gets into the psychiatry industrial complex and what it could mean to be on either side of that structure. This is the first time that me and Bursts have interviewed someone together, so let us know what you think of that!
To see more from subMedia, including It’s The End Of The World And We Know It And I Feel Fine, also called The F*cking Show which features anarchist news analysis and reporting from the infamous character of the Stimulator, also they do a semi regular anarchist/antifascist hip hop workout show called Burning Cop Car (which we’ve drawn on multiple times for music to score The Final Straw), and of course Trouble, you can see all that at https://sub.media. They are in the middle of a fundraising push right now, and you can see info about that at sub.media/donate to liberate your dollars.
You can donate here
. ... . ..