RE: Canadian Indian women "are tired of what's happening"

[alan maki <vavbred@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

No one can doubt that some of what you say is true....
where ever there is money there is corruption on one
level or another... that is capitalism... you find it
all over... in the labor movement, and any other
movement. But the fact remains, the so-called movement
referred to in the New York Times article is
reactionary. That it uses some elements of truth is
unquestionable. However, the manner of the attacks is
very divisive. The fact remains the real corruption is
to be found where the corporations and multinationals
are stealing everything with the help of the Liberals
and Conservatives.

What organizations in Canada do represent Native
people to a greater extent than the Assembly of First
Nations or those like the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs?
In the eyes of my two critics, is there any
organization(s) in Canada that do fight for the rights
of Native people? If so, which ones, please name a
couple?

I stand by every single word I wrote.

I am completely familiar with the problems associated
with poverty mentioned; I disagree completely with
your blanket condemnation of the AFN. How disgusting
and stupid can you possibly be.

And I take great offense at being called a "tourist"
in Canada by a couple armchair revolutionaries.

I can not speak to the specific issue in Alberta of
which I know nothing..... please enlighten me further.

And one final point, might the writers explain the
role of Preston Manning and the conservatives in
Alberta who support their so-called "reform" movement?
Please enlighten us all to who you see as legitimate
organizations?

And in Manitoba it was the Reform Party who backed Ms.
Freed? Does this make any difference to either of you?

And what about the role of the racist and anti-labour
Winnipeg radio station CJOB and the Winnipeg Free
Press, a Liberal corporate mouthpiece in promoting Ms.
Freed?

Is Mr. Craven being paid to "investigate"? And
prosecute? Who pays him? Obviously not the tribal
council. Is it the tribal members?

Alan Maki

cc: Assembly of First Nations
    Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

--- "Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Alan Maki:
> >The organization referred to does raise some- not
> many
> >but some, arguments that have merit, however, the
> main
> >purpose of this organization referred to is to
> divide
> >the Native peoples of Canada and weaken their
> >struggle. Many of the chiefs being attacked by this
> >organization are mobilizing their communities in a
> way
> >very similar to the civil rights movement in the
> USA.
>
> Alan, what in god's name are you talking about? Jim
> Craven, a Blackfoot
> economics professor who is currently organizing a
> tribunal in Alberta and
> who is subbed to this list, has been telling me for
> some 3 years now about
> the same problems that affect his nation. It is the
> same neocolonial
> behavior that one found in Wounded Knee. Traditional
> chiefs use BIA
> connections to overpower dissent. Taking advantage
> of federal funds, they
> take expensive junkets all around the world while
> those at the grass roots
> suffer. Drug dealing, prostitution, police
> malfeasance, thuggery against
> opponents, etc. characterize the Blackfoot tribal
> chiefs, according to Jim,
> and now we have discovered that an investigation
> against the Browning
> reservation police has been launched.
>
>
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
>
> Mr. Maki simply does not know what he is talking
> about. And please, as a
> non-Indian, do not speak about what the "real"
> intentions of various First
> Nations organizations are about. the fact that you
> tout AFN shows you are at
> best an outsider tourist who perhaps knows a few
> people and a few things
> about First Nations in Canada/Indians in the
> U.S.--but there is a whole lot
> you obviously do not know.
>
> First of all, the real Chiefs and Councils,
> traditional and hereditary but
> subject to removal for corruption, were summarily
> abolished in 1924. What
> they call chiefs now in Canada are those created
> through the DIA/Tribal
> Council system designed to put sell-outs and puppets
> in power at the behest
> of predatory monopoly capital. Secondly, the vast
> majority of "elections" in
> Indian Country are rigged in various ways and/or
> hyave such small turnouts
> that the Tribal Councils can claim no mandates
> whatsoever. Thirdly, and as
> someone who has no doubt been on a whole lot more
> Rsserves and Reservations
> that Mr. Maki ever has, I can attest that the
> majority of the
> Reserves--compliments of the Councils/DIA that run
> them--are riddled with
> corruption, no infrastructure, disease, murders,
> high crime rates,
> overworked/underfunded health services, cronyism,
> nepotism, poor education,x
> high suicide rates and the list goes on and on.
>
> While the Liberals have run and managed the
> corruption and misery in Indian
> country for years (hence the interest of some
> opportunistic Reform, NDP and
> Tory interests to try to cultivate or give the
> appearance of supporting some
> Indian activists), the fact is that all of the
> parties in Canada and the
> U.S. have benefited from and/or been directly
> involved in the genocide that
> has taken place and is currently taking place. Some
> activists, a la the
> advice of Chairman Mao, to take advantage of and
> exacerbate the
> contraditions in the enemy camp, believe in using
> one party against
> another--e.g. Reform or Tories against the Liberals
> or NDP or vice
> versa--they are a minority and do not represent the
> movement alluded to in
> the Times article.
>
> In a previous response to Mr. Maki, I noted that
> theory and practice are
> dialectically united--or should be. Practice without
> the guidance of theory
> is groping in the dark; theory without practice is
> sterile, empty and devoid
> of real content or power. In this case, Mr. Maki is
> lashing out on matters
> about which he obviously knows nothing. Please,
> well-meaning leftist
> outsider tourists, who know a little about a little,
> trying to run Indian
> affairs, or at least "save us" with Vanguardist
> rhetoric and "advanced"
> understanding, are as offensive--sometimes more
> so--than the
> bourgeois-exploiter-racist types who just want to
> exterminate us directly
> and are open about what they intend and are aided
> and abetted by the types
> of corrupt sell-out "Indians" mentioned in the
> article.
>
> As a point of minor logic, the truth or falisty of
> the charges made by the
> Indian women in Canada (and I know for sure that all
> and more are true) in
> the NYT article, do not depend upon with which
> forces (Reform, Tories, NDP,
> Liberals etc) that for their own reasons, are trying
> to forge and use
> alliances in Indian Country and that may be used by
> some activists for their
> own purposes.
>
> Jim Craven
> Member, and Designated Special Prosecutor,Blackfoot
Nation



=====
Yours in the struggle,
Alan Maki
cell phone: (757) 404-2478
Make the "United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights" a living 
reality for
all working people!