[IPSM] Anti-Canada Day Solidarity Statement with Akwesasne (No One Is Illegal-Montreal)

[No One Is Illegal Montreal]

[For statement with image, visit:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2009/07/anti-canada.html]
 *
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 Confederacy, 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 at gmail.com
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com
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