Commentary by Grahame Russell
including #UNISTOTEN video and transcribed words
From pipelines across the Wet’suwet’en Nation, to mining, bananas and tourist enclaves in Guatemala and Honduras, who does the local-to-global economy benefit? Who and what suffer the harms and violence? Inside Canada and beyond our borders, "law and order" are enforced (often violently) to benefit who? Against who and what?
Across the country known as “Canada”, First Nations and non-Indigenous people are in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation and its people who, in the province known as “British Columbia”, are blocking Coastal GasLink (a subsidiary of TransCanada Energy) from building oil and gas pipelines across Wet’suwet’en territory.
Across Canada, certain sectors of society are calling for governments to “do their jobs” and enforce “law and order” by forcibly removing the Wet’suwet’en people and allies from peacefully blocking train tracks, roads, bridges and more.
Not an “anti-pipeline” struggle
While the work and struggle of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and allies are, immediately, to stop the illegal construction of pipelines on their territory, these are not simply struggles against pipelines.
This is work and struggle in favour of Wet’suwet’en territorial and property rights. Work and struggle to respect the autonomy of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and people, including full political, economic and legal rights.
This is work and struggle to protect the environment (Mother Earth) and well-being of all life forms in Wet’suwet’en territory, and beyond.
And it is, in my opinion, part of work and struggle related to who – what countries, what sectors of societies inside countries - benefit from, and who suffers from the current local-to-global economic order.
Pipelines, mining, tourism, ‘for-export’ food production: Economic benefits for who?
As certain sectors of Canadian society call for the authorities to “do their jobs” and enforce (with violence, if necessary) “law and order” across the country, one never hears these same sectors calling for our authorities to “do their jobs” and enforce “law and order” to Canadian companies and investors operating outside our borders, that are bringing economic benefit to “Canada” and certain sectors of Canadian society, while causing violence, forced evictions and multiple harms to Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous communities in other countries.
For 30 years, I have worked in Central America, particularly Honduras and Guatemala, alongside Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and communities working and struggling in defense of their lands and territories, in defense of their forests, lands and water sources, and to protect their human rights and economic well-being.
Across Honduras and Guatemala, global mining companies (a majority being Canadian) - supported by their home governments and the military-backed regimes of Honduras and Guatemala - use corruption and (sometimes deadly) violence to forcibly evict people from their homes and lands, violate human rights and contaminate the earth and water sources.
Along the northern Caribbean coast of Honduras, the global tourism industry - with significant Canadian and American investor involvement - is supported by their home governments and the military-backed regime of Honduras, and is using corruption and violence to forcibly remove Indigenous Garifuna peoples from their ancestral lands in order to build 5-star resorts, golf courses, time-share condos and cruise ship docks. The global tourism industry is directly contributing to ethnocide against the Garifuna people.
Across both countries, global 'for-export' companies are forcibly evicting and impoverishing hundreds of thousands of people, and destroying water- and eco-systems, by taking over virtually all the richest lands –supported by police and military of both countries- to produce bananas and pineapples, coffee and meat, sugar cane and African palm, etcetera, for export to consumers mainly in the U.S., Canada and western Europe.
Across Canada, Guatemala, Honduras and beyond, calls for the enforcement of “law and order” are always selective and used to keep in place a local-to-global economic order that benefits certain countries and sectors of societies inside countries, at the harmful and deadly expense of other people, and the environment.
Unist'ot'en Update: We're not leaving
Words transcribed:
“Ever since contact, RCMP have been used to get the government and industry’s way to forcibly take our land. And now they are trying to forcibly take our land again. They are circling my cabin, where I live - like I’m a criminal. When I’m just trying to live on my own land.
Well they’re getting ready to raid. More and more frequently they are coming here. We’re not scared. This is our land.
Canada has been doing business in other countries and killing indigenous people in the name of mining. And now they are trying to take us off our lands.
Can’t even find our murdered and missing women and can’t even solve those cases but they can sure as hell can send RCMP on us. To get what they want. To steal more of our lands, so they can destroy it.
My ancestors fought the same fight that we’re still fighting. And we’ve been peacefully living here and they’re bringing the violence to us. And I’m gonna just stand here and wait for their violence. I’m not afraid of their violence. Because I know I’m doing right. I live here. This is my home.
It’s insane for them to tell us that they’re gonna bring us potable water if they dirty the river. Why would we want that when we have pristine river and clean water we can drink from. We depend on that water. That water flows into our taps here.
That water is healing. It has healed many people because all the minerals and everything is intact. That water is alive, it’s not dead. The taps in the municipalities are chlorinated and purified. That is dead water they are drinking. We are drinking living water out here.
We’ve been here, it feels like under siege for 31 days now. Because we can’t get out. People can’t come in. It’s just us here.
It felt like literally like we are under siege. But meanwhile we feel at peace and feel the beauty of this land. With no CGL [Coastal GasLink] here. With no police here. It’s been peaceful. We are way happier. I haven’t felt like this since the last 10 years we were here, it felt like this where we controlled who came in, through free prior informed consent. And they forced their way in. They invaded our lands basically. We are waiting for the corrupt government and the corrupt industry and the corrupt police to invade these lands again.
We know that’s what they’re going to do. Because their end goal is, they want us out of here. So the RCMP are here to get rid of the problem. Unist’ot’en.
They believe if they can get rid of us then they can do what they want here. But does this look like a protest camp? We have permanent structures here. And CGL’s route is nowhere near this site. So they can’t say we built this for their benefit. They can’t take glory for this place. We didn’t build it for them. We built it for us. So we could use our land.
Even the judicial system failed us. So who can we rely on? Nobody but ourselves.
I can’t rely on Canada. Canada’s not a real system. To be a real country you have to have a religion, you have to have a culture. What is Canada’s culture but just to steal native peoples land? That’s not a culture. Native people have culture. They have a connection to these lands. The invaders are continuing to invade our lands. It hasn’t changed. You figure its 2020 things would have changed and those people would have woken up. But no they haven’t woken up. They continue to just bulldoze through all the lands, destroy the water and pollute everything. Nothing’s sacred anymore.
I feel the land, the land is alive and it’s well. The water is alive. The trees are alive. Everything here is alive. The rocks are alive. And they are coming to destroy that too. And we are not gonna let them
They’ll have to drag me out of here. Because I'm not leaving.”
I wish the Wet’sewet’un Nation and people, supporters and allies, unity, strength of heart and clarity of vision as this particular ‘local-to-global economy’ struggle plays itself out.
I wish the political, economic and media elites of Canada –armed with lethal force– wisdom and humility, as they weigh the options of protracted and very complicated political discussions and legal processes versus the timeworn option of forcibly and violently enforcing “law and order” to help keep in place the current (oftentimes exploitative, violent and destructive) local-to-global economic order.
I wish all sectors of “Canada”, and peoples and communities in countries across our one planet, the wisdom, humility and openness of heart to look ever more deeply at how the current local-to-global economic order works; to look honestly at who – which countries and which sectors of societies – continually benefit from, and who continually suffer from how the local-to-global economy operates.
*******
Grahame Russell is a non-practicing Canadian lawyer, adjunct professor at University of Northern British Columbia, and, since 1995, director of Rights Action. Rights Action works in Honduras and Guatemala in support of community / environmental / human rights defenders resisting widespread harms and (often deadly) violence caused by different sectors of the global economy, including mining, hydro-electric dams, African palm, sugar-cane, bananas, coffee, tourism, the garment industry.
Please share this information widely
More information: info@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org
Subscribe to e-Newsletter: www.rightsaction.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RightsAction.org
Twitter: @RightsAction
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rightsaction/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/rightsaction
