BRWN BFLO & dead prez: Native and African Unity

Voices on Climate Justice: Ellen Gabriel on the Indigenous Struggle in Kanesatake Against Corporate Mining

ckutcochabambaellen.mp3

Audio reports on struggles for environmental justice, produced for broadcast on campus/community radio stations globally, featuring voices from around the world engaged in front-line struggles for climate justice.

In this segment we will hear an interview with Ellen Gabriel, Mohawk activist from Kanesatake speaking on the current attempts via Niocan Inc. to set-up niobium mine on traditional Mohawk lands, just minutes up the road from the location for the historic 1990 stand-off between Mohawk warriors and the Canadian military known as the ‘Oka crisis’. Gabriel focuses on the rights of indigenous people to traditional lands within both Canadian and international law within the context of the current struggle against the opening of a corporate mine on Mohawk lands.

For background information on the struggle against corporate mining in Kanesatake read this feature from the Dominion newspaper http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3972

Music in this report “Tiger Funk” by Moonstarr feat. LAL via Public Transit Records”http://www.ptrmusic.com/

Voices on Climate Justice interview series was recorded at Cochabamba +1 environmental justice conference in Montreal and is produced by community organizer and journalist Stefan Christoff http://www.twitter.com/spirodon/

National Town Hall Meeting on Reparations for Afrikans Set

Imari Obadele (left), co-founder of N'COBRA, and former President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika. Comrade Obadele joined the ancestors in January of 2010.

Chicago, IL—The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) will host its 22nd annual national conference June 24-26, 2011, at Sixth Grace Presbyterian Church (600 E. 35th Street; Chicago, IL).

The conference, being held in U.S. president Barack Hussein Obama’s “backyard”, exposes for the world to see that an African who has duped the black population in the U.S. and throughout the world—just because he is black—is opposed to just compensation for more than 400 years of slavery and has proved not to be on our side.

The inheritance of poverty is still our legacy, but resistance is more so.

Waking The Sleeping Giant

By Johnny Hawke.

“Since the arrival of the Europeans and Christianity, Nana’b’oozoo’s kin and neighbors had forsaken him and espoused new heroes and heroines, new values, everything. Not only was he neglected, he was now regarded as no more than a “trickster” and a “fool” by many of the people he had served. Spurned and scorned, hurt and humiliated, Nana’b’oozoo, taking his Grandmother with him, moved out of the lives of the Anishinabe.” 

      – Basil H Johnston , Scholar, Historian,  Anishinabe Nation

My people the Anishinabe held in high regards Nana’b’oozoo, Original Man, our Teacher so much so that when we greet each other we use his name. Nana’b’oozoo was half spirit and half man sent by Creator to wander the Earth to name all things and to learn lessons clearing the path for his descendents, the Anishinabe. Nana’b’oozoo lived amongst our people from the time we were created until the coming of the Europeans. Our Elders say that Nana’b’oozoo left our people because we were turning our backs on him.

Before Colonial Policies were enforced on our people, we had a Nation to Nation relationship with the Europeans and it is in this time where we started exchanging our lifestyle for their capitalistic values and became dependant on their products, this is the time when Nana’b’oozoo left our people.  Nana’b’oozo lying down on the ground  fell asleep and turned himself into an island to protect an underground Silver Mine and is still their sleeping  over top of the mine and waiting for the people to awaken his spirit.  Today Nana’b’oozoo can be seen sleeping on the shores of what is now known as Thunder Bay, Ontario. 

More Updates from the Rotinonshón:ni Youth Centre Reclamation at “Oshweken”

UPDATE MAY 24TH: We did our presentation at Band Council yesterday after coming to consensus among the Youth. The Youth here decided to stick to our statement that we were NOT working with Band Council nor asking their permission to use the building. Instead, we were respectfully giving them the option to give us the keys to the building. We were giving them till FRIDAY MAY 27th to give us the keys to the building.

All of us Youth spoke from the heart about why we were doing this – about the suicides of their friends, their attempts at suicide and why that was. However, as soon as we finished and did the closing the Band Councilors started calling down what we were doing. We were told we were too traditional and leavin the christian kids out – so they have to build 1 building for the ‘traditionals’ and one building for the ‘christians’. As they were trying to denounce our actions, we just all shook their hands and left (we didn’t stay or listen to hear wat they were saying – we weren’t there to have a ‘discussion’ with them).

Comrade Mizher: Obama’s AIPAC Speech a Declaration of War on Palestinian Rights

Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation, said that the speech of US President Barack Obama at the annual conference of AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, the largest Zionist lobby organization in the US, was a “declaration of war in Washington upon the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, our existence and our life in Palestine,” and an attempt to reverse international law and UN resolutions recognizing the rights of our people.

Speaking on May 22, 2011, Comrade Mizher said in an interview on Palestine TV that “Obama’s speech makes his true face – and that of his administration – fully clear. They are aligned fully with the occupying power. At first glance, you may have believed that the speaker you were hearing was Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking on behalf of the Israeli government – he referenced ‘Israeli security’ in his speech 23 times while saying not a word about the national rights – or the security – of the Palestinian people.”

Young. Onkwehonwe. United Rally For A Youth Centre on Six Nations

Down at the Six Nations Grand River Territory (or what’s left of it) there is an ongoing occupation by Rotinonshón:ni youth of the old police station in “Oshweken,” which I have posted about twice here and here. This is not a new demand though. This struggle has been ongoing for some time. In this rally from November 22, 2009, Young. Onkwehonwe. United. (Y.O.U.) and supporters gathered on Six Nations to rally for a youth centre. Youth questioned the priorities of band council in allocating funding for a second Bingo Hall and a new police station before funding a youth centre.

Wikileaks: U.S. Cables on the Mohawks

The US Embassies in Montreal and Quebec monitored Mohawks and Indigenous activists. In a series of cables released by Wikileaks in May, the US Ambassadors in Canada make it clear that no one wants to fight the Mohawks.

In fact, the US Embassy in Ottawa points out that the Canadian Border Guards feared the Mohawks.

In a cable dated July 30, 2009, from Ottawa, Terry Breese, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy, wrote about the Canadian Border Services Agency.

“The CBSA customs post on Cornwall Island (Kawehnoke) located on the Mohawk reserve territory of Akwesasne on the Canada-U.S. border closed on May 31. Canadian border guards had left the post citing fears of a violent confrontation with Mohawk residents, who opposed a CBSA directive requiring border guards to carry firearms at the Canadian port-of-entry, effective June 1.”

Grassy Narrows: Forty Years Later

NOTE: This is sourced from whitestream news, so beware of colonial bias!!

CBC video journalist Peter Wall returns to Grassy Narrows, 40 years after the community was poisoned with Mercury.

UPDATE from Six Nations Youth Centre Reclamation

Sacred Fire still going strong.

Had good (long)youth meeting on site. About 30 youth were there. People coming going all day. Rained a bit, teyethinonwaraton ne kahneki:yo ne ki ne etho entewe tayotennyonhatye tsi yonhwentsya:te (We give thanks for the good waters for it is this where it comes from the continual change on Mother earth). Support has come in the form of tents, teepees, water, food, tobacco, wood and friendship (among other things). Tekwanonwaratons tsi she:kon takwahretya:ron. (We thank those who continue to show their support)

Six Nations Youth Statement – Reclaiming the Old Police Station in “Oshweken”

At about 6:00pm yesterday (Sunday May 22nd) Six Nations youth and supporters reclaimed the old Police Station in “Ohsweken”, following a march which demanded immediate action on what has been a 20 years+ struggle with Band Council for a youth-led, youth-directed centre for Six Nations youth to gather, a still unrealized dream … until today. A Sacred Fire was lit to mark the beginning of the reclamation, and the station’s flagpole now flies the Confederacy flag and the Unity flag. A banner which reads “Welcome to the Onkwehonwe Youth Centre” now covers the former “Police” logo on the front of the building! All youth are welcomed at this reclaimed space, and supporters are being asked to help out with food, wood, medicines, tents, blankets, etc

In the spirit of our ancestors, honoring the memory of all those Youth who have died unjustly and in respect to all our relations, We the Six Nations Youth Movement are TAKING ACTION and RECLAIMING the old Police Station as the temporary site of the Onkwehon:we Youth Centre.

This action declares: NO ONE SPEAKS FOR THE YOUTH BUT THE YOUTH, no matter their level of education or claim to knowledge, the wisdom and voice of the Youth can only be found in the Youth.

We declare that the Band Council superstructure (including its services) cannot handpick our representatives nor determine the direction of the Six Nations Youth Movement.  WE are the Six Nations Youth Movement, ALL of us together – not any one group or any one person alone.

A Work of Negation: A Critical Review of Manning Marable’s, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention”

By Kali Akuno. Kali is the National Coordinator for the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXMG) and the Director of Education, Training, and Field Work for the US Human Rights Nework (USHRN). Kali is currently working on a book tentatively entitled “Confronting a Cleansing: Hurricane Katrina, the Battle for New Orleans, and the Future of the Black Working Class“. The views expressed in this article do not reflect those of MXGM or USHRN.

Manning Marable’s, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention”, must be seen for what it is, an ideological polemic. The general focus of this polemic is Black Nationalism, and Black revolutionary nationalism in particular. Manning’s critical focus and fixation on Malcolm X as the quintessential point of reference for Black Nationalists since his cold blooded assassination in 1965, is a means to socially advance a line of reasoning against this broad political philosophy and social movement by turning its iconic figurehead on his head. The objective of this inversion is to prove, in 594 pages no less, that those who adhere to and seek to advance some variant of a Black nationalist program not only have it all wrong, but in fact are distorting what Malcolm himself stood for at the end of his days.

Immigrants for Sale

Marcus and Malcolm Speak: In Honour of African Liberation Day

A little bit of Marcus and Malcolm in honour of African Liberation Day

American Indian Culture: Traditionalism and Spiritualism in a Revolutionary Struggle

Since First Contact until today our resistance has been driven by our traditions and our "spirituality."

This essay, written in 1974 by Jimmie Durham, is one of the most influential pieces of work on my political thought, both as a revolutionary communist and as a revolutionary Native nationalist. In this piece Durham, critically addresses the colonial attitudes of white “leftists” that have historically caused much friction between our liberation movement and the wider left.

He also, very importantly, outlines how the Indian traditionalist vision is in fact at its core a liberatory and communist one. He notes that Euro-American capitalist society has always needed to eliminate our societies because of the dangerous socio-cultural, political and economic counter-example we provide. He also addresses the idea of Indian spirituality, and how it is not in contradiction with more mainstream revolutionary communist assessments of organized religion (this is personally very important for me, as one of the main reasons I broke with the white “left” was its Eurocentric generalizations about religion, including what whites have labelled as our religions).