Indigenous Solidarity An (Un)Settler's Place

by Tom Keefer

from http://www.briarpatchmagazine.com/ August 2006

On February 28, 2006, members of the Six Nations of the Iroquois
Confederacy reclaimed a suburban construction site on lands belonging to
them and initiated one of the most significant anti-colonial struggles
in North America in recent years. With the people of Six Nations
fighting to regain ownership of the 950,000 acres of the Haldimand tract
originally granted to them by the British crown in 1784, the outcome of
the struggle at Douglas Creek Estates has major implications for white
settlers, the Canadian state, the Iroquois Confederacy, and indigenous
peoples throughout North America.

White residents from the nearby town of Caledonia have regularly
protested the indigenous blockades, and on numerous occasions have
attempted to break past police lines in order to take back the disputed
land. But many other whites, supportive of the reclamation, have also
been active in and around Six Nations and Caledonia. This article will
discuss the various kinds of solidarity actions that have been organized
by these supporters of the reclamation. By thinking strategically about
our work, white anti-racist activists can more effectively contribute to
a victory for the people of Six Nations, and, more ambitiously, can work
towards a transformation of the colonial dynamics of Canadian settler
society.

FOUR KINDS OF SOLIDARITY

The reclamation received little attention from the national media during
its initial two months, though solidarity activists supported the
struggle through occasional visits to the site. Following the raid by
the Ontario Provincial Police on April 20th, however, these activists
took a much stronger interest in the struggle and got involved in a
variety of ways. Four general types of anti-racist solidarity work
carried out by activist groups emerged: maintaining a physical presence
at the site, organizing speaking tours and delegations, holding
solidarity demonstrations, and engaging in anti-racist organizing within
Caledonia.

PHYSICAL PRESENCE

Dozens of activists came to the site to volunteer on a semi-permanent
basis, offering their labour and physical presence in order to bolster
and help sustain the reclamation, and to hopefully help serve as a
deterrent to further state violence. The most tangible contribution made
by white activists along these lines has been to help out with the
preparation of food for the camp. Along with helping to prepare mass
meals, they produced a daily series of food boxes that were sent to the
half-dozen or so checkpoints around the perimeter that secured the site.

COALITION-BUILDING

A number of groups and organizations sent delegations (often carrying
donations of food, supplies and cash) to the reclamation site, or
organized speaking events with representatives of Six Nations in a
number of non-native communities and constituencies, which gave Six
Nations representatives a chance to talk about their struggle and
discuss opportunities for support.

Representatives from the reclamation site have spoken in Toronto,
Kitchener, Guelph and Hamilton, and have also made presentations to
meetings of trade unionists in Woodstock and Port Elgin. Palestine
solidarity activists, immigrant and refugee activists, members of the
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, and a range of different trade unions
including the Steelworkers, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the
Canadian Auto Workers, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and
others have all sent delegations and members to the site to express
their solidarity.

SOLIDARITY DEMONSTRATIONS

A number of demonstrations have been organized in solidarity with Six
Nations, most of which have specifically protested the policies of the
federal and provincial government and demanded that they negotiate in
good faith with Six Nations. These protests can be divided into two
categories: legal protests petitioning the Canadian government to act in
support of indigenous rights, and direct action protests by indigenous
peoples aimed at disrupting the functioning of the Canadian economy.

Immediately after the OPP raid occurred in April, activist groups in
Montréal, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Saskatoon, and elsewhere held
support rallies for Six Nations.

Indigenous communities also fought back, carrying out a series of direct
actions aimed at disrupting the Canadian economy. The day that the OPP
raided the reclamation site, Mohawks at Tyendinaga blockaded the rail
line near Belleville, Ontario, forcing the rerouting of over 8000
passengers and the delay of over $100 million in industrial and
commercial goods, and Mohawks at Kahnestake briefly blocked one of the
main commuter bridges leading into Montréal in a show of solidarity.

Métis activists in North Battleford, Saskatchewan also blockaded a
bridge on May 22. Organizer Marcia Chatsis Neault declared the action to
be “in solidarity with the Six Nations in Caledonia and also in
solidarity with all Indians whose land was ever taken without
compensation.”

Terrance Nelson, elected chief of the Roseau River Anishnabe First
Nation, has also called for blockades of rail lines across Canada in
support of Six Nations and to advance local land claims.

ANTI-RACIST ACTIVISM WITHIN CALEDONIA

In Caledonia itself, a group of local residents, trade union activists
and members of Six Nations have been meeting on a weekly basis for the
past two months in order to try to undercut racism against Six Nations.
They hope to do so by building support within progressive elements of
the Caledonian community, and by trying to develop a rank-and-file
network of trade union activists who support Six Nations.

The coalition has involved activists from a wide variety of different
labor and community organizations including a number of union locals,
the CUPE National Aboriginal Council, the McMaster Indigenous Studies
Program, the Six Nations youth group “Spirit of the Youth,” the Niagara
and District Labour Council, and the McMaster University Community. The
group has distributed hundreds of leaflets and flyers within Caledonia,
established a web site (www.honorsixnations.com), placed ads in local
newspapers trying to identify supportive Caledonians, and has begun the
process of meeting with local church groups and high school students and
teachers in order to combat the racism and bigotry that has flared up
within the Caledonian community.

The coalition's plan of action has had three elements. First, it sought
to identify the hard-core elements in opposition to Six Nations and to
understand their political and economic interests. This has also meant
keeping an eye out for neo-Nazi elements at the anti-native protests
(small numbers of whom have been present at certain protests), as well
as keeping track of those elements of the Caledonian population that are
actively engaged in provocations against Six Nations.

Second, it sought to identify those progressive forces that exist within
Caledonia and the surrounding community and to bring them together to
articulate a political alternative to the Caledonian Citizens'
Alliance’s anti-native and pro-development program. (The Caledonian
Citizens' Alliance was formed by local members of the business community
with an interest in economic development on Six Nations land and has
been claiming to speak for all Caledonians inconvenienced by the standoff)

Third, the coalition has been reaching out to undecided Caledonians, who
have tended to respond to the situation as spectators and who, while
conscious of the fact that they are at the center of an issue of
national concern, can still be swayed by either side of the argument.

ORGANIZING IN OUR OWN COMMUNITIES?

While the four different expressions of solidarity are all important in
their own way, we would be remiss as solidarity activists if we did not
consider the strategic implications of these various approaches and
commit resources to implement the most effective plan of action. Of the
four types of solidarity activism I've outlined, the majority of white
anti-racist activists who have traveled to Caledonia have spent most of
their time and energy in being present at the reclamation site, and the
least effort in attempting to organize within the Caledonian community
where there is the greatest need for white anti-racist activism.

While countless hours of work have been done by solidarity activists at
the site, I would argue that the benefits of their presence are rather
limited, serving more to educate and reward the activists themselves
than to advance the struggle of Six Nations activists. Although
volunteering at the site may have the effect of demonstrating to people
at Six Nations that not all white Canadians are racist, it does very
little to alter the overall balance of forces that will ultimately
determine how the struggle over Douglas Creek Estates will turn out, nor
does it make a contribution to the reclamation site that could not
otherwise be made by the indigenous people present.

As long as the Six Nations community is united behind the reclamation,
the only way they can be driven off the land is through the intervention
of the Canadian military. Because military intervention requires for a
pretext that a situation of ungovernability and violent conflict be
produced in the surrounding area, non-native activists from outside the
area can make an important contribution to minimizing this danger if
they focus more of their resources on organizing within Caledonia.

This perspective follows from the argument raised by the American Indian
Movement, the Black Panthers, and the Young Lords during the 1960s, who
insisted that the most important contribution from white activists and
their organizations was to organize within their own communities to
address the conditions which allowed racism and state repression to be
directed against anti-racist and anti-colonialist movements. While it is
sadly the case that many white anti-racist activists (then and now) do
not belong to a meaningful "community" beyond their immediate group of
friends and political acquaintances, the fact remains that white people
have a special responsibility to work to counter the outpouring of
racism coming from Caledonia is clear, clear as the fact that the only
entry requirement to be able to do this kind of work in Caledonia is to
identify as being "Canadian."

The taking of responsibility for organizing within white communities
should not be seen as an unpleasant duty meant only to satisfy the
directives of anti-colonial movements: implicit in our own desire to
build an emancipatory society is the requirement that we challenge
reactionary politics in our own (settler/white-dominated) workplaces,
communities, and schools. Caledonians clearly see themselves as part of
the Canadian mainstream and even if white anti-racist activists
sometimes wish to escape from or deny our integration within the same
body politic, we must recognize our responsibility to organize with and
struggle to transform the politics of fellow settlers as we work to
rupture the colonial foundations of the Canadian nation state.

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CALEDONIA

Before outside white supporters can really make themselves effective in
the struggle, however, we must understand the political mindset and
temperament various Caledonians, as well as the political economy of the
town itself. It is all too easy to label all Caledonians as anti-native
bigots opposed to any expression of indigenous sovereignty. While there
is a small but active core of Caledonians who have played key roles in
instigating confrontations, it would be a major mistake to view the
entire community this way.

Caledonia, like the rest of settler Canada, is a community riven with
internal divisions and contradictions. Long-time residents, who have
grown up with close personal and family ties to Six Nations people, have
a very different perspective than people who have recently moved to the
area's new suburban homes, many of whom work outside of town.

There are also clear class differences. Many of those protesting the
reclamation are poor and working-class people (often union members) for
whom a discussion of their own experiences of oppression and
exploitation can provide an entry point for understanding the justice of
indigenous demands and the need for broader social change.

In contrast, the Caledonia Citizens’ Alliance (CCA), which has largely
monopolized the voice of Caledonians in the media, was created by
members of the local Chamber of Commerce, and serves to represent all of
the local developers and business interests who have an interest in
profiting from developing Six Nations land around Caledonia. While the
CCA claims to speak for all Caledonians, many local residents see
through these claims. Local farmers who wish to continue producing food
on their land rather than see it turned into suburban sprawl, as well as
those Caledonians who value their town as a tightly knit rural
community, are in many ways natural allies of Six Nations.

Unfortunately, however, when the crowd of Caledonians began congregating
on the other side of the Six Nations barricade after the April 20 police
raid, the overwhelming majority of white solidarity activists were
unwilling to mingle with the crowd and seek out the cracks and fissures
through which a white anti-racist perspective could be developed.
Instead of seeing the crowd as mostly consisting of people out to
witness the most significant event in their town’s recent history, it
was far easier to condemn the Caledonians (from a safe distance) as a
uniform mass of racists and bigots and to present oneself as an
exceptional white person in solidarity with indigenous people.

Because, however, a handful of white anti-racist activists made a
strategic decision to put themselves on the other side of the barricades
and to mingle with the anti-native protesters, they were able to meet
local Caledonians who were strong supporters of Six Nations but who
either couldn't make it over to the other side of the barricade or who
were more interested in trying to talk some sense into their fellow
Caledonians. On the basis of meeting with these local Caledonians and
supportive trade unionists from the area, a group of activists has been
able to form a small coalition that has already done some important
work within Caledonia.

We have to recognize the fact that if the participation of white allies
is confined to the terrain of the Douglas Creek Estates, this battle
will most likely be lost. If the Caledonia Citizens’ Alliance and their
financial backers are able to maintain their position of hegemony within
Caledonia, and thereby create a situation of ungovernability in which
police resources are overburdened by the constant effort of serving as a
buffer between natives and townspeople, the political climate can be
created for a military "solution" to this political standoff. The
consequences of further repression and escalation, should they occur,
are severe, and will be most directly felt by the people of Six Nations
and their indigenous allies.

Ultimately, the greatest contribution that white anti-racist activists
can make to the struggle for indigenous sovereignty is to build a base
within poor and working-class sectors of Canadian society in order to
win concrete and meaningful support for indigenous struggles like the
Douglas Creek Estates reclamation. While sending delegations, organizing
demonstrations, and helping out around the site are important aspects of
solidarity work that should not be ignored, we should be wary of
prioritizing these efforts above the more politically difficult, but
ultimately crucial, work of organizing within settler communities such
as Caledonia.

Tom Keefer is an editor of the anti-capitalist journal "Upping the Anti"
and a member of Community Friends for Peace and Understanding with Six
Nations, a coalition organizing within Caledonia in support for Six
Nations. His video interviews with people at the reclamation site and
Caledonia residents are available at http://auto_sol.tao.ca.