[IPSM] Second Anniversary of the Grassy Narrows Blockade

[Devin Butler]

Second Anniversary of the Grassy Narrows Blockade
December 3, 2004

Two years ago today, youth from the Anishinabe Indigenous community of 
Grassy Narrows errected a blockade on their territory (in what is present 
day western Ontario) to oppose the clearcutting of their forests by 
Abitibi-Consolidated, a Montreal-based pulp and paper corporation. The 
blockade still stands to this day, a clear sign of the community's continued 
struggle for dignity and justice, and for an end to the colonial and 
exploitative relationship between the Anishinabe Nation and the Canadian 
state.  While some members of the Grassy Narrows community are seeking 
solutions through negotiations with Canadian politicians and 
Abitibi-Consolidated representatives, others from Grassy continue to 
organize on the grassroots level, and to assert their inherent traditional 
rights, such as hunting, fishing and harvesting from the land.  Such 
practices, in this context of ongoing state and corporate colonialism, are 
inspiring acts of resistance and defiance. Until the voices of the youth of 
the community are heeded, blockades will continue to be errected in Grassy, 
and elsewhere, and the Canadian state and it's corporate allies will 
continue to be met by militant opposition.

For more information about groups organizing in solidarity the Grassy 
Narrows community, visit www.friendsofgrassy.com or contact the Indigenous 
Peoples Solidarity Movement in Montreal
(ipsm at resist dot ca).

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Pasted below are a couple of articles which provide important information 
and analysis on the situation in Grassy Narrows. Please take the time to 
read them and to pass them on...


Clearcut defiance: The Ojibway of Grassy Narrows, Ontario, stand up to 
Montreal-based pulp and paper monolith Abitibi-Consolidated  by KEN HECHTMAN

Looking at dead forests is like looking at dead people. Photographs just 
don't have the same impact as the real thing. There are dozens of clearcuts 
in the treaty lands around the northern Ontario Ojibway community of Grassy 
Narrows, but there's one they call "the clearcut." It's 166 square 
kilometres of moonscape, bigger than all of downtown Montreal and pockmarked 
with burn sites.

Native activist Lucille McKenzie explains what those are. "After the loggers 
finish cutting, they won't let us pick up the scrap wood to heat our houses, 
not unless we buy it from Abitibi-Consolidated. We won't pay Abitibi for our 
own wood so they burn it all here on the site."

to read the entire article, visit: 
http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2003/032703/news3.html

****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** 
****** ****** ****** ****** ******

Grassy Narrows Dignity
By Leila Khaled Mouammar

In what is often called North America, there are far too many of us who live 
with grand illusions about our government structures. Many have been lulled 
to sleep by carefully crafted mythologies on the unimpeachably democratic 
foundations of "Western civilization." Many subsequently believe that this 
mythological democracy continues to be alive and well today.

The illusion is sustained by a wilful blindness to historical and present 
day injustices perpetrated against the tens of millions of people indigenous 
to this continent, wiped out of history by plagues, wars, and other programs 
of cultural and physical genocide. The foundations of our so-called 
democratic societies were laid on this soft, unstable ground, holding the 
ashes of these millions of people, churning and shifting beneath our feet.

to read the entire article, visit: 
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2003-11/04mouammar.cfm