Wednesday, November 24, 2021

The Fight to Save Thacker Pass and Stop Evictions in the Winnemucca Indian Colony

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we spoke with members of the Sugarbush Crew, who are fighting to save Peehee Muh’ha, also known as Thacker Pass in so-called Nevada, from the construction of a massive lithium mine.

According to Indian Country Today:

Two tribes that joined a legal battle over plans to build a mine at the largest known U.S. deposit of lithium urged a judge Thursday to temporarily ban digging for an archaeological survey that they say would desecrate sacred tribal lands in Nevada near the Oregon line.

The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and Atsa Koodakuh Wyh Nuwu/People of Red Mountain are intervening in a lawsuit that four conservation groups have filed against Lithium Nevada Corp. The tribes say their ancestors were massacred in the late 1800s at the proposed Thacker Pass site that would mine lithium, a key component in electric vehicle batteries. Demand for the mineral is expected to triple over the next five years.

The tribes say the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the project in December during the final weeks of the Trump administration violates the National Historic Preservation Act because they haven’t been consulted about potential efforts to mitigate damage to their sacred lands.

Building a mine “where our ancestors were massacred — where our ancestors’ bones, blood and flesh form a part of the soil — would be like building a lithium mine over Pearl Harbor, Arlington National Cemetery or the Gettysburg Battlefield,” according to an affidavit that lawyers for the tribes filed Thursday in federal court in Reno with a request to temporarily block the digging.

The Paiutes call Thacker Pass “Pee hee mu’huh,” which means “rotten moon.” Tribal leaders with the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony describe in oral histories how Paiute hunters returned home to find the “elders, women, and children murdered, unburied and rotting with their intestines spread across the sagebrush in this pass shaped like a crescent moon.”

The tribes’ request comes after U.S. District Judge Miranda Du rejected a motion last week from conservationists who sought to block the digging based on claims that it would destroy critical habitat for the sage grouse, an imperiled ground-dwelling bird.

Inside Climate News also wrote:

Troubles around the Thacker Pass mine echo global conflicts over mineral extraction for renewable energy that are almost certain to grow with the world’s transition to clean energy and its rapid electrification of the transportation sector in particular. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a cobalt rush has brought human rights violations, child labor and dangerously tunnel-riddled neighborhoods. In Chile, lithium mining is stressing the water Indigenous peoples and native wildlife depend on in the Atacama desert. And in the once-pristine Arctic surrounding Norilsk, Russia, nickel production has turned rivers red, killed vast forests and darkened skies with the worst sulfur dioxide pollution in the world.

During our discussion with the Surgarbush Crew, we talk about why the group is fighting construction of the mine, the protest encampments which have been set up to block mine construction, and how they are pushing back against several recent evictions of elders living on the nearby Winnemucca Indian Colony. At one point during our conversation, we are also joined by two elders, who share their anger and thoughts on attempts to remove them from their homes on the colony to make way for housing for miners.

Land defenders are currently calling for supporters to donate, bring supplies and building skills out to the land, and stand in solidarity with elders resisting eviction at the Winnemucca Indian Colony. For more information and ways to donate, follow Sugarbush Crew.

Music: Aztlan Underground

Note: Sugarbush Crew is not associated with Deep Green Resistance (DGR).


by It's Going Down via It's Going Down
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Impending Planetary Disaster Should Unite Us, Yet We Remain More Divided Than Ever

Listen to a reading of this article:

❖

Charles Bukowski has a quote: “We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.”

Terrorized and flattened by trivialities, eaten up by nothing. I think about this quote a lot not just as pertains to the inevitability of our individual deaths, but to the looming death of the entire world.

The website Antiwar.com has been doing a good job keeping track of all the many US cold war escalations against Russia and China, which seem to be coming out on a near-daily basis now. Just right off their front page today there’s a story about how the US considering is putting more military aid in Ukraine on the allegation that Russia is plotting an invasion, another about Moscow claiming that US bombers just practiced a simulated nuclear strike on Russia and have have greatly increased their activity along its border, another about Beijing’s anger over increased US war ship activity in the Taiwan Strait, another about Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton’s assurance that Australia would join the US in a war against China to defend Taiwan, and yet another about Beijing and China signing an agreement to deepen their military cooperation to counter hostilities from Washington.

This, along with the myriad symptoms our biosphere is showing us of impending collapse, and we still somehow manage to remain terrorized and flattened by trivialities. Eaten up by nothing.

Divisions and hostilities are hotter than ever, even in those political sectors where people are fully aware of just how bad our ecological situation is and the horrifying realities of cold war nuclear brinkmanship. We should rationally all be coming together at this point in history. Our collective plight alone should make us love each other. But instead we’re at each other’s throats more than ever before.

And it’s not just this ideological faction versus that ideological faction. Even among socialists and anti-imperialists there are subfactions, sub-subfactions and sub-sub-subfactions, all of whom despise each other, and all of those divisions are far worse and far more inflamed in online forums. People will spend months on end engaging in online sniping at others over some perceived difference that would be undetectable by someone with a more mainstream perspective, like that episode of Star Trek where a group of aliens who are black on the right side and white on the left are warring with a group whose colors are the opposite and only they notice the difference. Our precious newfound ability as a species to network and share ideas with each other like never before gets bogged down in petty squabbling instead of organization toward a movement into health.

Part of it is information; because the only large-scale distributors of information in our society are controlled and manipulated by the powerful, most people see very little evidence of just how much trouble the systems sustained by the powerful have gotten us into. Part of it is perspective; because most human behavior is driven by ego, a lot more of our interest and attention goes toward the petty differences between ourselves and other humans than large-scale problems which threaten all of us.

So you’ll see even relatively lucid minds spending their time talking about obscure sectarian disagreements, or about the dangers of political “wokeness”, or about the entirely empty theatrics of mainstream electoral politics, even as the destruction of our entire world dangles above our heads suspended by a rapidly eroding thread.

That alone should make us love each other. That alone should make us focus on what matters. That alone should bring us together to move as one against the globe-dominating forces that are going to end us all if they are not stopped.

_______________________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. 

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source https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/11/25/impending-planetary-disaster-should-unite-us-yet-we-remain-more-divided-than-ever/
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New video by Unicorn Riot on YouTube - go check it out ;-)


Watch on YouTube here: Family and Friends Celebrate the Life of Daunte Wright
Via Christian Gasper
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Class war in Cadiz: Armored vehicles try to suppress a strike

This update on the indefinite and spreading strikes in Spain was originally published by Perseus999 and syndicated via Enough14.

Cadiz. Spain.

Class War: Not just two words, representing the political and economic war of the 1% and their army of politicians, bureaucrats and the police forces against the rest of the socio-economic classes, but an actual reality as depicted in the video below from the southern city of Cadiz in Spain, where a tank was deployed on Monday 22 November 2021, in the working-class neighborhood of Río de San Pedro de Puerto Real.

For 8 days since Tuesday 16 of November 2021, thousands of metalworkers have been on an indefinite strike in the southern Spanish province demanding wage increases, in line with the country’s surging inflation rate. While inflation spikes, their salaries stay the same.

But it is not just the metalworkers. The whole province of Cádiz went on strike in solidarity with the metalworkers’ struggle yesterday, on the 23d of November, also joined by the city’s student union. The strike is widely supported in the region, which has the highest unemployment rate in Spain, with 23% unemployment and over 40% among youth. The trade unions report that 98% of workers are striking as anger surges across the region.

And it’s not just Cadiz. The street unrest is spreading all over Spain. Truck drivers have called a 3-day strike over Christmas due to the rising diesel prices, while workers in the auto sector called for a protest in Madrid over factory shutdowns caused by car chip shortages. Also, consumer associations have already organized several marches against rising electricity bills, and even hairdressers have been staging sit-ins to demand lower value-added tax rates. What connects them all is the rising cost of living.

At the same time, rural Spain is up in arms again over the low prices that intermediaries pay for their products, as well as the rising production costs, so farmers are planning their protests too. According to El Pais over the past year, the cost of electricity has gone up by 270%, tractor diesel by 73%, fertilizer by 48%, water by 33% and seeds by 20%.

Back to Cadiz, a city of 116,000 located on the coast near the Strait of Gibraltar. The metalworkers struggle has rapidly developed into a rebellion against the union bureaucracies and a clash with Spain’s government coalition, made up of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Podemos party. According to wsws.org, the unions initially called one-day protests to try to blow off steam, with one called on November 10 gathering 4,000 protesters in Cádiz and 2,000 in Algeciras. With CCOO and the UGT [two major Spanish unions] having recently agreed to close an Airbus factory in Cádiz, however, they felt obliged to call an indefinite strike, fearing that they would lose control as anger surged among workers. Now, union executives are openly admitting that they have lost control of the situation and do not know how to order workers to end the strike and accept wage cuts and job losses.

And then it is the police fueling the tense situation with their violent attempts to crush the strike: cops marching to the occupied plants and assaulting workers, not just with batons and teargas, but even with rubber bullets and armored vehicles. Despite their violent attacks, the workers of Cadiz hold the line, with flaming barricades all over the city to block the access routes, roads and bridges to the refineries. The cops have been thrown back time and again, unable to retake the plants from the workers for the 8th straight day.

Updates: #HuelgaMetalCadiz


by IGD Worldwide via It's Going Down
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Canadian Anti-Semites and Far-Right Conspiracy Theorists Try New Tactic: Aligning with Indigenous Communities

An antifascist report from Canada about how some white nationalist and far-Right conspiracy theorists are attempting to make inroads into Indigenous communities.

While the Covid pandemic may or may not be coming to an end, various anti-fascist twitter accounts have been trying to guess where the Canadian far-Right will focus their attention on next. I would like to propose a theory that, whether by design or not, the far-Right has managed to get a foot in the door with Indigenous communities – a development which should greatly alarm antifascists and anti-colonial militants.

The new, more palpable, talking points of fascists that the Alt-Right showcased to the world were very successful in luring an open audience to their messaging. So much so that they managed to recruit some POC allies, proudly displaying these people to deflect from the reality that their movement is fascist and racist. And they have done so with a fair degree of success. In Canada, when the Alt-Right started to become more notable, their propaganda tried to claim nearly all opposition to liberal governments as its own. This included issues such as the unsuitable drinking water on so many reserves in Canada, with articles even being written on the subject by the far-Right propaganda website the Post-Millennial, home to far-Right disinfo troll, Andy Ngo.

The success of this propaganda filtering into Indigenous circles has probably been noticed by anyone in land defense Facebook groups. With videos being shared that feature far-Right conspiracies and some directly from far-Right propagandists. Covid misinformation has also provided a strong vehicle for further infiltration, since those in Indigenous communities are justifiably distrustful of government medical systems.

As the anti-lockdown/mask/vaccine movement rolled into summer, people in Alberta started to see some odd and confusing imagery on anti-lockdown posters. Posters started to display Indigenous themed images. A person in a head dress, an image of turtle island, a medicine wheel, and even the emblems of two nations around the city of Calgary. Early October marked a notable shift in the infiltration however from online commenting to a strong physical presence of support in the form of setting up a camp with Pat King, a well known Albertan white supremacist.

Originally Pat King came to the Alberta legislature demanding a meeting with the province’s premier, in what seems to be an end to a long saga of how Pat King doesn’t understand the law, legal documents, and the confusing bureaucratic structure of Canadian courts. For the first few days of Pat being on the ledge grounds there was nearly no visible Indigenous involvement. Just before the new day for “truth and reconciliation,” Pat put out a call out, without giving a time, for people to come down to “stand with our First Nations.” After that it appears he dropped talking about his legal case. It looks like an event had been planned for that evening but in the afternoon some people had already gathered and a few seemed to know Pat. We must assume that not everyone that came down to the Alberta legislature grounds did so at Pat’s request, but it does seem like some did. Including one person that came to talk with Pat the night before, saying she had heard he was a white supremacist, but was convinced by him that he was not.

Over the next week and a half Pat posted videos saying he was introduced to a member of the keepers of the water, formerly keepers of the Athabasca, Nancy Scanie. It seems like a camp was created with her as a figure head or leader. On October 9th the camp had 3 large teepees set up and various tents. That day also had speakers and performances, all of which were anti-vaccine and quite a few of which were visibly Indigenous. It remains unclear what degree of influence and connection Pat King has in any Indigenous communities, but it is clear there is some and that there is a receptive audience to far-Right vaccine myths and conspiracies.

So far this has only been noticed in Alberta, so it is unclear to what extent this might be indicative of the direction of the Patriot movement at large. But, it would be worth noting and thinking about the ramifications of what such attempts might be. One of the few differences between the Canadian and American far-Right is Canada’s lack of visibly racialized spokespeople. Having Indigenous people either fill this gap or defend prominent people in the Patriot movement will give them better potential to deflect criticism.

Would far-Right infiltration further divide Indigenous communities and threaten important land defense projects taken up by various nations? This situation also brings to mind another question: how can antifascists guard against infiltration of far-Right figures and ideas into specific communities?


by Canadian Tire Fire via It's Going Down
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Kingston, ON: Blockade of the LaSalle Causeway

Report on march and action in Kingston, Ontario in solidarity with ongoing Wet’suwet’en struggle. Originally posted to North Shore Counter-Info.

On the afternoon of Sunday November 21, about 100 people blocked the Lasalle Causeway in Kingston in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters, following an RCMP raid on Thursday and multiple arrests.

People met up at a nearby location, smudged and then walked onto the causeway. We held the bridge for about an hour for speeches, drumming and songs. We left as some cops were amassing, but before they had started trying seriously to remove us from the causeway.

Just a few thoughts on angry drivers, for anyone thinking about planning similar actions in the future:

Dealing with angry bystanders is a typical part of any disruptive action. One story in particular that we heard at least five times from angry drivers who got out of their cars to intimidate us was that they had a sick child to get home to. I hate to say it, but most of them are probably lying. They are grasping wildly for whatever they think will make you most likely to let them through. Or they are just mad and they are saying the thing they think will reveal you to be a total monster who wants to kill children or some other nonsense.

We tried to calmly but firmly reassure people that we weren’t going anywhere, it was going to be a long time, and they were welcome to wait but that if they truly were rushing home with a sick child it would be a lot faster to stop wasting their time yelling at us and just take a detour to the other bridge.

(We would *of course* let an ambulance through. Or a fire truck. But that one guy who’s screaming about how we are blocking emergency vehicles, with no ambulance in sight? No way.)

It can be hard to stand your ground in a situation where people are getting out of their cars and being aggressive, or acting like they are going to drive through the crowd. But letting individual cars through “because they have a good reason” can quickly create a chaotic and dangerous situation for everyone involved. It is difficult to coordinate with the people blocking traffic going the other way and it can make other drivers more impatient and more determined if they see that other people were able to talk their way through somehow. It is easier and safer to hold the entire roadway until folks are ready to leave. We’re thankful that the crowd held solid, even though for many in the crowd, this was their first time participating in direct action.


by Northshore Counter Info via It's Going Down
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Phone Zap: Help Saratoga Lakeview Mobile Home Residents Fight Eviction Threats

Call for a phone-zap campaign in support of residents at the Saratoga Lakeview Mobile Home Park. For more information on their struggle, check the interview on This Is America, here.

photo: (CC BY-SA 3.0), Wikipedia

Don’t let Mike Giovanone turn affordable housing into boat storage! Residents of Saratoga Lakeview Mobile Home Park have been subject to an aggressive campaign of intimidation since Giovanone took ownership of the park in June 2021. His tactics have included weaponizing the police and using ableist language to alienate/discredit a community advocate. Starting Monday 11/22/2021, call Mike Giovanone at Boat N RV Storage 518 583-1600. Please be polite to people who answer the phone who may be Fellow Workers.

Suggested Script:

Hello, I heard on It’s Going Down (bit.ly/30OpARP) that Mike Giovanone has been moving forward with his plans to build luxury boat storage where low-income people are residing at Saratoga Lakeview Mobile Home Park. People need homes, boats don’t. I demand Mr. Giovanone stop harassing residents and commit to maintaining the park as affordable housing while reversing the environmental damage he has done.

Phone Zap Image for Sharing:


by Anonymous Contributor via It's Going Down
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