Tuesday, November 16, 2021

This Is America #152: Sleydo’ on Indigenous Resistance to Coastal Gaslink; Groypers Fail in NYC; #BlackburnTakeover Ends

photo: @M_Tol

Welcome, to This Is America, November 15th, 2021.

On this episode, we feature an interview with Sleydo’, spokesperson for the Gidimt’en Checkpoint about ongoing Indigenous resistance on Wet’suwet’en territory. We then switch to our discussion, where we attack the recent neoliberal hot takes around the last round of elections.

All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news.

Living and Fighting

Pipeline Workers Kicked out of Wet’suwet’en Territory

In Wet’suwet’en territory, Coastal Gaslink personnel have been given an eviction notice and pushed out of the territory:

Sleydo’, the spokesperson for the Gidimt’en Checkpoint, which controls access to the part of the Wet’suwet’en territory, said in a press release that the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have “never ceded, surrendered, or lost title to the territory” and that Coastal GasLink employees have been breaching both Indigenous law and an eviction notice that was issued nearly two years ago.

Check out an interview with Sleydo’ later in this episode for a deeper dive. In other news, a rail blockade was organized in solidarity with the ongoing Wet’suwet’en struggle and solidarity demonstrations have been called.

White Nationalist “Groyper” Trolls Opposed in New York

White Nationalist “Groypers,” led by Unite the Right marcher, Holocaust denier, and racist troll Nick Fuentes, attempted to hold several rallies in New York City over the weekend alongside other anti-vaccine conspiracy theory groups, but faced push back from much of the Right and resistance from everyday New Yorkers. On November 10th, a small group of Groypers attempted to harass an immigrants rights rally, only to be confronted and run off by union construction workers. On Saturday night, the Groypers attempted to rally, but were pushed off the streets by New Yorkers throwing objects and chanting the fascists down.

This type of street organizing combined with online pressure and public education, shows how antifascists can work to split the fascist wing of the anti-vaxx movement from its wider MAGA base. As the Daily Beast wrote:

An anti-vax protest outside Pfizer’s New York City headquarters imploded on Saturday afternoon as white nationalist anti-vaxxers showed up only to be publicly shunned by local anti-vaxxers demonstrating against vaccine mandates. The war of words erupted as the local New York Freedom organization attempted to distance itself from the ultra-racist followers of white nationalist and Unite the Right attendee Nick Fuentes.

“Today organizers completely disavow infiltrators and trolls attempting to link medical freedom with extremist ideologies, namely Nick Fuentes and ‘Vax Watch,’” the local group posted to their Telegram channel. The outright rebuke apparently left a sour taste in the young white nationalist’s mouth, because he quickly tried to sic followers on the rival protesters.

It should also be noted that Fox News removed mention of the white nationalists in an article headline and in its reporting, after it got push back from Alt-Right trolls associated with the Groyper movement online.

Housing Struggle

Tenants union members who took over a vacant unit in their apartment building in so-called Toronto and turned it into a mutual aid hub, celebrated the one year anniversary of the project, with local school children organizing a canned food drive drive at their school in support of the project.

Blackburn Takeover At Howard University

Students involved in an ongoing occupation at HBU, BlackBurn University, have declared victory after 34 days, with the university agreeing to meet their demands and to not retaliate against any student who had been arrested or involved in the ongoing occupation.

Upcoming Events

November 20th: Riverside, CA. “Pushing Down the Walls.” Benefit event for political prisoners.

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