Silence of the workers organizations The most worrying aspect has been the weakness of the non-Mohawk response to the events. Certainly there has been a movement of solidarity with the Mohawks amongst the Quebec population. But it is essentially limited to left groups, as well as some ecological, artistic, or left Christian currents. The big organizations of the workers movement, in anglophone Canada as well as Quebec, have been conspicuous by their silence. There is a lot of work to do. Solidarity has been much more massive and active amongst the other native peoples of Quebec and Canada. They have built barricades of solidarity (and in defence of their own demands) on the roads and railways in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. There has even been an attempt to divert a river in Alberta, by the Lonefighters, a Warrior-style group amongst the Peigane nation In anglophone Canada, there have also been movements of solidarity amongst whites but these were fundamentally of the same nature as in Quebec. All the bourgeois parties and provincial governments have proclaimed their solidarity with the federal and Quebecois governments, with the exception of the government of the North West Territories, where native peoples are in a majority. The New Democratic Party, the social democratic party of anglophone Canada, has denounced the use of the police and army (whilst deploring the fact that the
CANADA
Warriors are armed). But the NDP's provincial parties, concerned with winning the next elections, have not followed this lead. And in Quebec, the NDP has no real presence — its sole deputy in Quebec comes from the south bank of Montreal and has been remarkably absent this summer.
The bourgeois parties and the Canadian-English media are using the crisis and the racist reaction of a fringe of Quebec's francophone population to portray the Quebecois nation and the whole of Quebecois society as xenophobic and narrow minded.
Electoral gains for Canadian left
ANOTHER sign of growing turbulence in Canadian politics was the surprise victory of the New Democratic Party in the September 6 provincial elections in Ontario, Canada's richest province. The NDP, which describes itself as social democratic, won 74 of the 130 seats, overturning a big Liberal majority. The party also made substantial gains in Manitoba. The NDP candidate in Ontario has, according to The Economist of September 15, promised to raise the minimum wage by nearly 50%, index pensions, and cushion laid-off workers with increased severance pay. However "moderate" the NDP may be, this election shows the depth of opposition in Canada to the attacks on welfare undertaken and planned by the Federal Conservative
Premier Bourassa, PQ leader
Jacques Parizeau, the far right nationalist groups and the racist mobs have all givgovernment.
en to the enemies of national liberation in Quebec their best weapon - the comfort of their own moral superiority. The Canadian government's decision to use solely francophone troops against the Mohawks is not accidental. It placates the francophone racists and the anglophone anti-Quebecois forces whist at the same time reinforcing the tensions between the Mohawks and the francophone majority of Quebecois society. At the moment of writing all is not over. The repression will surely continue. The effects inside the Six Nations are not yet clear. Reactions of despair cannot be ruled out amongst young Native Americans who can no longer bear the continued genocide against their people and who have nothing in particular to lose. Ambivalent role of Warriors'
Society The prestige of the Warriors Society has grown thanks to the police and military intervention, but its dubious practices inside the communities (violence against opponents, defence of the casinos and trade in cigarettes, and so on) continue to undermine its prestige and its long term credibility. The Confederacy Concil is participating for the first time since the mid-1920s in negotiations with white governments, which constitutes an indirect form of recognition. But these governments have accepted it as a moderating force, a counter weight to the Warriors. This can only undermine its credibility amongst the youth and the most active and angry forces in the Six Nations. If the Council cannot regain its influence amongst these forces, it is foreseeable that the government will once again exclude it from all consideration in favour of a return to the chiefs of the Band Council. The Mohawks and the other members of the Six Nations will surely experience some painful and sad discussions and debates in the months to come. But 400 years of genocidal interventions have not yet vanquished them and they know well how to handle such debates.
The tasks of Quebecois progressives are clear. It is necessary to demand the immediate withdrawal of the armed forces and police from the reserves, as well as the unconditional withdrawal of all accusations pending against the Mohawks around the events of Kahnawake and of Kanesatake. The land sought by the Oka golf club should be recognized as belonging to the Mohawks of Kanesatake. On a wider level, it is necessary that all levels of government recognize the right of the native nations to sovereignty and self-determination.
Those who desire the independence of Quebec have every interest in renewing the old alliance between Quebecois and native peoples against the common enemy, the Canadian state. White militants must prove themselves in the defence of the rights of the native peoples of North America. "We are all natives in somebody else's eyes". *
5. One of the first rights colonists arrogate to themselves is the right to name the colonized. Thus the names "Mohawk" and "Seneca" correspond in no way to the actual names of the nations in question, Ganienkehaka and Tsonnantouan respectively. For the moment, the peoples themselves still use the names given them by the whites. This can be expected to change shortly. 6. In the 18th century, another nation of Iroquois origin, the Tuscaroras, refugees from Virginia, entered into the confederacy which became the Six Nations Confederacy. 7. The native peoples do not pay customs duties or sales tax and can thus sell cigarettes much more cheaply than white traders outside the reservations. 8. The Peiganes are fighting against the construction of a dam which will destroy a complete region of the south of the province, submerging lands that are sacred to them. 9. The quotation is from a song by the Quebecois 23 singer, Sylvain Lelièvre.