RE: [A-List] The national question

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

Macdonald wrote [beautifully and eloquently]:

The South African apartheid state once modelled the Bantustan systems they
evolved from their findings in Canada's reservation system. This system is
still in place, though they like to pretend it isn't-- or that it is now
"changed". It is still based on the same fundamental: The national question
in Canada can never overcome the annihialtion of indigenous sovereignty
with completing the job of annihilating them as people. Sovereignty does
not exist half way: Sovereignty for Canada means the destruction of
sovereignty for what is left of the indigenous people's of this land.

My answer to these and every single other question is: Sovereignty. We
cannot recognise the sovereignty of "Canada" (whatever the hell that is,
aside from pictures of the Queen in hockey stadiums) without
*automatically* removing the sovereignty of these people as well. If the
territory of Canada is governed by Ottawa and exerts "sovereignty" on that
territory, it always leaves the sovereignty of the First People's in the
lurch, always tedious and waiting to be expropriated by some "Canadian".
The arguments for such cannot matter, will not and only serve one purpose:
to conquer those, whether in the Northern regions where "settlements" have
been reached (every nation on the earth has it's Mahmoud Abbas) right
through to the CS here. Further, even if full fishing rights are recognised
by a supreme court decision, is it not that very court which dares to
decide that it does have such sovereignty to do so?

If you agree with me that yes, fighting for the rights of aboriginal
sovereignty is inherently an anti-capitalist struggle, that let us go
further: When the now inevitable on-the-ground clashes between CS (and
others) fishers and white (or any non-native Canadian for that matter)
fishers breaks out, will you see that as one of THE most important front
lines in the battle for democratic control of resources, away from Settler
colonies and for true human sovereignty? Will you-- not in a
pronunciamento, but in your deeds and with your body-- fight for these
(seemingly basic) rights down at the waters edge?
Macdonald


Response Jim C:

This is so beautifully put. We Blackfoot are in a struggle utilizing--for
the moment--the very instruments of genocide (Canadian Courts) to put the
case that they have been guilty/are guilty of genocide and that any
Blackfoot or First Nations person who obeys Canadian laws and courts is like
a Jew obeying nazi laws and courts and thus aiding and abetting their own
extermination and that of their People.

Now I know this sounds totally contradictory--demanding of the agents of
genocide (government functionaries) that they use their own instruments of
genocide (courts) to find/admit that genocide is exactly what they have
praticed/are currently practicing and to find/admit that we are sovereign
and have no obligation or even right to surrender our sovereignty or
aid/abet our own extermination. But there are some particularities in Canada
not found in the U.S. that allow us to take this approach (what other
options do we have right now except to do our own Wounded Knees which would
make the Canadian government's day?) This is also an effort at mass
mobilization and party/movement building (we are increasingly and
significantly successful in this endeavor), mass consciousness raising and a
fundamental act of resistance and assertion of sovereignty.

Jim C.