Allie Pev, Métis Cree, Treaty 6, is a member of Socialist Alternative Canada.
Many dismiss whatever they consider to be an “Indigenous issue.” It’s easy to ignore the violent realities of Indigenous life when the government does too. Treaties and Aboriginal Title could easily be misunderstood when the education system flouts history. The consequences of such negligence and harm can no longer be ignored. We are in a race against the tide – literally. The 2021 IPCC report says, “extreme sea level events that previously occurred once in 100 years could happen every year by the end of this century. To summarize the report: capitalism has driven us into the current climate crisis we live and breathe. Blaring warnings in the numerous facts, figures and narrow timelines of the report, plus the more horrifying lived experiences of floods, heat waves, fires and hurricanes in the past summer alone aren’t even enough to make the ruling class change course; nothing will ever be dire enough. No reforms or protection agreements (especially with Indigenous peoples) will ever withstand the will of capitalism.
From Canada
Mi’kmaw fishers have the right to fish for a moderate livelihood under the Peace and Friendship Treaties signed between 1725 and 1779 and a 1999 Supreme Court decision, but still have been the target of threats and property damage since launching their treaty fishery. Most recently, in early August, their boats had their lines cut and set adrift overnight and Mi’kmaw lobster harvesters including a 14-year-old were arrested by Department of Fisheries officers.
The BC NDP, both 30 years ago during the Clayoquot protests and today during the Fairy Creek blockades, have made pledges to protect old growth forests and both times have failed miserably to do so as they attempt to balance profits with campaign promises. The arrests at Fairy Creek (over 1000) have surpassed those at Clayoquot (856), and the violence of the RCMP has certainly intensified. Those present shared videos of the RCMP pepper spraying people at point-blank range, and reported peaceful land defenders being assaulted by RCMP, some having their ribs broken.
To Brazil
120 Indigenous nations have united for the second time this year, in the heart of Brazil’s capital, calling it the Struggle for Life Camp. This mobilization is fighting for Indigenous land rights that are being threatened in Congress and by the legal system of Bolsonaro’s reactionary government and the agribusinesses, mining and timber sectors, who are unambiguously governing alongside him. The judiciary is currently attempting to introduce a “time frame” clause stating that the Indigenous right to lands that were not physically occupied in 1988 (when the latest Brazilian Constitution was adopted) will only be recognized if Indigenous groups can prove they were continuously resisting the theft of their land. This completely ignores the violent displacement of Indigenous communities and targeting of Indigenous land defenders by the state.
So as distant as some Indigenous land struggles may seem, they are wholly interconnected through the global capitalist, imperialist, colonial system. The repression of Indigenous land rights anywhere sets a precedent everywhere. So too do the impacts of Indigenous land destruction: parts of the Amazon now emit more carbon than they absorb. As old growth forests are destroyed by fire and logging, the chances of mitigating climate change globally are curtailed.
Around the World
Humanity faces deeply-rooted historical and systemic issues that require solidarity and a fighting socialist program, to be taken up by the working class to carry forward and fight climate change. Risking arrest is but one tactic to fight environmental destruction. What is needed is mass movements that have a comprehensive program to address all aspects of society: Indigenous rights, climate, green unionized jobs, public housing, health care and education. Sites may be momentarily saved from bulldozers, but they will never be safe for long, because capitalism equals exploitation. Under capitalism, there is no protection of Indigenous rights and no climate solution – only true Indigenous self-determination and a socialist transformation of society will save our planet.
