The State of Native Americans in Canada

[Kyrest]

Currently in Canada the government is going at great lengths to take away rights which native americans hold and in my opinion are still trying to covertly force them to integrate into "canadian" aka anglo-saxon/protestant society, and the more i read about it the more it sickens me that a government can get away with such things and have the rest of the population a. not care or b. be oblivious to it....your opinions?

[Elway]

Canada, and the United States, Australia, and other nations with large, pre-associations (such as native "nations" or "tribes"), are dealing with a major problem, in the slow moving U.N. sponsored agreement on indigenous right.

One of the articles in the document, can be interpreted to allow a native group within the whole, to define its members, and another article allow for tribal authority over the individual, should both, the native organization, and the would be member, agree.

This brings up matters that aim at the heart of nationalism:

A man in Nevada allegedly rapes a woman. Under Nevada law, and the federal constitution's Supremacy Clause, that man is under the jurisdiction of Nevada. He will face charges from, let us say, the Lincoln County prosecutor and courts. He'll be housed by the Lincoln County Sheriff.

But what if the mentioned U.N. treaty is ratified, and the man goes to a tribal land, and demonstrates he's 1/16th Blackfoot, and the tribe treats him as a non-U.S. Citizen, but a tribal member, subject to its jurisdiction.

It's a real mess, from the point of view of many. And I'm not sure what the board here would have to say about it, because it's not the post-Revolutionary end of law by the state, as much as it's the dueling authorities issue. Currently, where a state and federal argument cannot be resolved by the political process, the U.S. Supreme Court makes a decision. In this scenario, however, the tribal authority would probably argue, "U.S. Supreme Court? What U.S. Supreme Court?"

My personal view is that unless this aspect to the proposed treaty on this matter is agreed upon, I'm against it. It has the potential for too much abuse.

This may not have been on your mind when you wrote this, but it is on the mind of many nation’s state deparments.

[Idealism]

Their rights should not be taken away as citizens, neither should their culture. Though, as internationalists; as i hope we all are, i feel that assimilation into larger cultures will be a large problem of the future; in which there is not a good answer.

[Elway]

You're right: There is no answer.

Most cultures, deep down, have their basis in myths, religion, custom, and (recently) nationalism (or even regionalism, such as the American Indian tribes.)

Imagine a post Revolutionary society, and tell me what American Indian tradition would survive it. Every rite of passage, sacred dance, and tribal tradition would go the way of the dodo, just like Christianity and Islam.

The success of Marxism IS hemogeny, of a sense. Anyone who says different is fooling themselves. If the Lakota spirit dance is a beautiful thing, then Christmas is a beautiful thing.

At the heart of it, of course, are the next generation. The majority always attempts to fit into the mainstream. So goes the world.

[manic expression]

Imagine a post Revolutionary society, and tell me what American Indian tradition would survive it. Every rite of passage, sacred dance, and tribal tradition would go the way of the dodo, just like Christianity and Islam.

The success of Marxism IS hemogeny, of a sense. Anyone who says different is fooling themselves. If the Lakota spirit dance is a beautiful thing, then Christmas is a beautiful thing.

You're conflating religion and culture, which is incorrect. Native American cultural arts are to native religions as Arab calligraphy is to Islam or as stained glass windows are to Christianity. Further, working-class revolution does not seek to destroy religion but first and foremost to end the power of its structures. Religion, for the socialist movement, is a personal matter, nothing more and nothing less.

Also, Christmas is a very nice tradition, and it has been integrated into post-revolutionary societies: the Soviet Union secularized it and combined it with New Year celebrations. In fact, there were Soviet postcards posted on this forum that showed a Santa Claus delivering presents from a rocket ship (instead of a magical sleigh). The songs and dances of the Soviet Union's many folk traditions were similarly respected and promoted. There is no reason why this cannot be done for the Native Americans, and more importantly there is no reason why this shouldn't be done for the Native Americans.

[Elway]

In fact Manic, I never said that. I merely point out two things:

1. A post-Revoutionary society would not allow the teaching of religious based concepts. Yeah, Christmas is fun, we celebrate it in our home. But it has a link to the Bible, and a post-Revolutionary society, while perhaps not burning all the Bibles (I could care less), WILL state categroically that such views are horse-shit. It may take a few generations, but eventually Christmas would end. How could it sustain itself without religious beliefe? There may be a party during the Winter Solstice. Most societies celebrate the coming of Summer. But nativity scenes, Jesus's burth, all the songs related to Jesus being God, and the notion that if one is not a Christian one is thrown into a lake of Fire (Mathew), GET FUCKEN REAL. It's over Johnny!

Same with ANY cultural connection to a spirit world, an all powerful being, the patriarchy built into many native cultures.

You can't be 1/2 pregnant. If you're out there and deisre the end of Preachers on TV telling me I'm going to Hell, you're out there telling Hopi kids that Kachina dolls are just toys.

CULTURE IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR LYING TO PEOPLE. I don't know ANY Marxist who believes a post-Rev society will include Christmas. It's very name means a "MASS for CHRIST."

2. Over a few generations in a post_Rev societies, who's gonna maintain the Native cultures once they're debunked? Why would ANY 16 year old kid in a Marxist society maintain something like it.

Manic: There is no such thing as "good" culture based on racism, sexism, religious practices, special "difference", or ANY, "leave us alone; we're doing our own thing."

Hey, the Taliban has a "culture" that kills women when they're raped. How do you say that's bad in a Marxist society, but giving money to your church so it can expand it's building is okay under socialism?

If there would be a true socialist revoution, you seem to have no idea that 3 generations later, no one would be around to support these "nice" cultures.

[genstrike]

Canada is an imperialist settler state, and the self-determination of the indigenous people must be respected. Period.

And isn't Canada one of the only nations to oppose the UN resolution on the rights of indigenous people (big surprise...)?

The problems is that a lot of settler attitudes are deeply ingrained in the national mythologies of white Canada. Just think of how many times you've heard people make racist jokes and comments about aboriginal people. Or just look at the comments section on any CBC story involving indigenous people. It's shameful that our national broadcaster has become such a medium to spread racism.

I think the practices of the indigenous people of the Americas are matters that culturally imperialist white socialists shouldn't fuck with or try to eliminate. And some hypothetical scenario involving some hypothetical mostly-white rapist shouldn't be wielded as some sort of wedge against self-determination.

[manic expression]

In fact Manic, I never said that. I merely point out two things:

1. A post-Revoutionary society would not allow the teaching of religious based concepts. Yeah, Christmas is fun, we celebrate it in our home. But it has a link to the Bible, and a post-Revolutionary society, while perhaps not burning all the Bibles (I could care less), WILL state categroically that such views are horse-shit. It may take a few generations, but eventually Christmas would end. How could it sustain itself without religious beliefe? There may be a party during the Winter Solstice. Most societies celebrate the coming of Summer. But nativity scenes, Jesus's burth, all the songs related to Jesus being God, and the notion that if one is not a Christian one is thrown into a lake of Fire (Mathew), GET FUCKEN REAL. It's over Johnny!

Christmas doesn't really have a link to the Bible, it was formed out of pagan seasonal celebrations throughout Europe (same with Easter). Just about everyone knows Jesus probably wasn't born in December. Anyway, a post-revolutionary society will certainly teach science and reason in public schools, but there is no reason to jettison a cultural celebration such as Christmas. To be honest, it won't be that difficult to secularize the holiday, since that's already been accomplished to a large degree.

Moreover, I just gave you a concrete historical example of a post-revolutionary society adopting the celebrations associated with Christmas. Try dealing with that instead of ranting about the Book of Matthew, because the latter has nothing to do with what I'm talking about.


Same with ANY cultural connection to a spirit world, an all powerful being, the patriarchy built into many native cultures.

Where did I propose that we accept patriarchy? Did you even read my post or are you just trying to be difficult? Song and dance predating socialism can certainly be integrated into a socialist society, I've given multiple reasons for this before.


You can't be 1/2 pregnant. If you're out there and deisre the end of Preachers on TV telling me I'm going to Hell, you're out there telling Hopi kids that Kachina dolls are just toys.

Those are preachers on TV, they are in the public sphere. That's the actual problem. Make it a private matter and leave it at that. Going out of your way to berate kids doesn't make you more revolutionary, it shows your lack of confidence in a socialist education system, probably because you can't comprehend the historical examples of such institutions.


CULTURE IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR LYING TO PEOPLE. I don't know ANY Marxist who believes a post-Rev society will include Christmas. It's very name means a "MASS for CHRIST."

Try the Soviet Union. Thanks.


2. Over a few generations in a post_Rev societies, who's gonna maintain the Native cultures once they're debunked? Why would ANY 16 year old kid in a Marxist society maintain something like it.

The people who like to do those dances and sing those songs, just like any other cultural tradition. You don't "debunk" culture, because like I said culture and religion are two very different things and are not inherently intertwined. It would be like "debunking" trabeated architecture (after all, it was used in Greek temples).

Your logic follows that since Latin is part of Catholic mass, learning Latin is religious and therefore counterrevolutionary. This belief in this is as nonsensical as it is impractical.


Manic: There is no such thing as "good" culture based on racism, sexism, religious practices, special "difference", or ANY, "leave us alone; we're doing our own thing."

Hey, the Taliban has a "culture" that kills women when they're raped. How do you say that's bad in a Marxist society, but giving money to your church so it can expand it's building is okay under socialism?

If there would be a true socialist revoution, you seem to have no idea that 3 generations later, no one would be around to support these "nice" cultures.

:lol: Yeah, saying that Native American dances are valid expressions of culture is JUST like murdering rape victims. You really got me there, big guy. :rolleyes:

Try this: deal with what I'm actually writing, then form a response. Make sure you think about it for a few seconds, too. Thanks a bunch.

[Rebel_Serigan]

Marxism might have ideals about obolishing religion and all things connected to it but we don't live in the 19th century comrade. We are modurn revelutionaries and as such should create a modurn goal of a post-revelution society. Yes Native American dances and rituals are beautiful it is connected to an ethnic religion as well, but is the religion based around control and opression, no. Youcan not clear the whole board and call it good. You must allow that which poses no threat to exist or else you are no better than that which yuou dispise. Think about it we would be destorying a culuture, that is imperialism 101. We must modify our theories to fit the situation, without adaptation all we are are a bunch of out of date extreamists.

[FreeFocus]

I don't have the time to give the reply I would like to at the moment, but first and foremost, Canada is an imperialist settler state as another user previously observed. First Nations have the right to self-determination - I do not support nation-states, as an anarchist, but free communities determining their destinies are not nation-states. Moreover, nations do not necessarily have to be conflated with states, as Native societies prove and have proven (dating back to pre-Columbian times).

Second, with some of the rather offensive and racist rhetoric in here, is it any wonder why many non-white leftists opt for identity politics?

[LOLseph Stalin]

Currently in Canada the government is going at great lengths to take away rights which native americans hold and in my opinion are still trying to covertly force them to integrate into "canadian" aka anglo-saxon/protestant society, and the more i read about it the more it sickens me that a government can get away with such things and have the rest of the population a. not care or b. be oblivious to it....your opinions?

You would think that after the whole residential school incident the government would change their attitude towards native people. Unfortunately not. THey have been mistreated and oppressed since the first settlers arrived.

[Elway]

Manic, I not only disagree with nearly everything you wrote, I disagree with the basis of your thinking. There are too many examples to demonstrate how idiotic your thinking is. OF COURSE the American Indian tribes interwove their religion and their culture.

This one statement you made has shown you to be a 100% f***ing moron:

You don't "debunk" culture, because like I said culture and religion are two very different things and are not inherently intertwined.

WOW. I mean f***ing, WOW!!! Did you attend school?

Here's a list of peoples whose religion WAS their culture, and INHERENTLY INTERTWINED:

Egyptians
Babalonians
Hebrews
Aztec
Inca
Maya
Europe FOR THE PAST 2,000 YEARS
Southwest Asia and North African Islam, FOR THE PAST 1300 YEARS, and a majority there will kill you if you attempt to secularize them.
China until the Revolution
The Indus Valley
All North American Indian Tribes (Man, Manic, are you ever retarded. You are such a racist you seek to view their dances and special clothing as not religious, but the Kings of England who are also head of the English Church, Now THEY'RE religious!)

Take any of these cultures and TRY and separate their religion from their "culture".

I can't believe you wrote that and believe your point of view.

I can go on but will now stop. I will not discuss this with you any longer. What a stupid ass!

BTW...
While most biblical authorities believe Christ was born in springtime, and that the manger story may not be entirely true, you have your facts completely wrong:

Christmas was not Pagan, it borrowed pagan concepts (the holly, decorating trees, yule log) to "launch" a Mass for Christ when the Pagans were drunk (3 days into the Solstice holiday) as a marketing tool to "sell" Chrstmas, and supplant the Solstice with Christmas. They were rather successful. (As a burner, I know loads of Pagans.)
So you blew it again on that one.

Write what ever you want...I'm not gonna respond. You're really shown yourself to be an idiot.

[Plagueround]

It's amazing how many so called leftists have a completely racist and ethnocentric view of native americans. I don't know why I even visit threads like this anymore. I work at a college* on a reservation with a program dedicated to teaching and preserving native american culture...I wish I could sit some of you down with these people so they could educate you and stop you from being so goddamned ridiculous.


*I'm leaving that job in a week though for a different one. I'll miss it. :crying:

[manic expression]

Manic, I not only disagree with nearly everything you wrote, I disagree with the basis of your thinking.

Right, because you're not a Marxist and you're most certainly not a revolutionary. I'm glad you've realized that at least.


There are too many examples to demonstrate how idiotic your thinking is. OF COURSE the American Indian tribes interwove their religion and their culture.

Conveniently enough, I did not imply that they didn't. However, what I said was that those cultural traditions are not inherently religious. Were culture inherently tied to religion, Latin, stained glass windows, trabeated architecture, Arabic calligraphy, arabesque designs, bharatanatyam and other cultural arts which were intertwined with religion would have no place in secular society. History shows us otherwise, and history shows us that you're wrong.


Here's a list of peoples whose religion WAS their culture, and INHERENTLY INTERTWINED:

Egyptians
Babalonians
Hebrews
Aztec
Inca
Maya

Egyptian culture was pagan, then Christian, and now Islamic. It's ridiculous to think Egyptian culture is indebted to one religion when they've had quite a few.

The Babylonians haven't been around for awhile, which again shows us that you don't know what you're talking about.

The "Hebrews" converted to other religions in many areas and time periods, and in modern times have oftentimes become secular and a-religious while holding on to their culture. In fact, the place of Jewish culture in increasingly secular environments just proves what I've been saying.

There are many Aztec, Maya and Incan traditions which have been incorporated into Christianity. More importantly, other traditions within these cultures exist outside of organized religion. Therefore, they are not tied inherently to any religion.


Europe FOR THE PAST 2,000 YEARS

Oh, wait, most European culture today has about nothing to do with religion. Funny that.


(Man, Manic, are you ever retarded. You are such a racist you seek to view their dances and special clothing as not religious, but the Kings of England who are also head of the English Church, Now THEY'RE religious!)

:lol: You DO realize that made absolutely NO sense, right? :lol:


Take any of these cultures and TRY and separate their religion from their "culture".

As I said, that has already been accomplished to large degrees already, especially in Europe. As I said, you haven't been reading what I've been writing, kid.


I can't believe you wrote that and believe your point of view.

I can go on but will now stop. I will not discuss this with you any longer. What a stupid ass!

:laugh: Stunning logic! :laugh: Unimpeachable argumentation! :laugh:


Christmas was not Pagan, it borrowed pagan concepts (the holly, decorating trees, yule log) to "launch" a Mass for Christ when the Pagans were drunk (3 days into the Solstice holiday) as a marketing tool to "sell" Chrstmas, and supplant the Solstice with Christmas. They were rather successful. (As a burner, I know loads of Pagans.)

Yeah, so it was a pagan holiday. Thanks for playing, kid.

And pagans today have no direct correlation to the pre-medieval European pagans. Sorry.


Write what ever you want...I'm not gonna respond. You're really shown yourself to be an idiot.

It's not surprising you're refusing to respond, because you haven't been able to compose a response yet. In fact, I'm quite sure you're entirely incapable of doing so.

Tell you what, kid, if you go back, read and comprehend my posts, think about the subject with some degree of logic and then make a reasoned response, I might consider you worth my time.

[Communist Theory]

I don't know much about Canada and their policies on Native Americans if you would elaborate your thread more or give links I would be happy to give my opinion.

[STJ]

Currently in Canada the government is going at great lengths to take away rights which native americans hold and in my opinion are still trying to covertly force them to integrate into "canadian" aka anglo-saxon/protestant society, and the more i read about it the more it sickens me that a government can get away with such things and have the rest of the population a. not care or b. be oblivious to it....your opinions?

It really angers me. It happens here to.

[Communist Theory]

It really angers me. It happens here to.
It happens in Arizona?
Hmm strange we're left to ourselves in Wisconsin it seems.
Although our tribal legislature is trying to change our ways.

[Charles Xavier]

The national question in Canada is quite complex and the powers to be do not even recognize nations within Canada, they don't not because they are just ignorant who don't but because it is not in their interests to do so.

Canada is a multinational country, with many nations in its borders some are a vulgar definition of nation others native nations are quite well organized and defined such as the Iroquoians.

What is the answer to the nation question and the state of Native Americans in Canada as the communist party of Canada believes? Well it is the complete settlement of all land claims and disputes, the recognition of their national rights up to and including succession. And Canada needs to transform into a multinational republic which requires the senate to be abolished and replaced with an assembly of nations.

I think this is a good explanation of the situation.

Canada: A Multi-National Country
Canada includes small and large nations, each of which is an historically-constituted community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and national consciousness manifested in a common culture. Nations come into existence and pass out of existence, by forcible and peaceful historical processes, or a combination of both. It is a dynamic process in which, in each case, the path of development into nationhood is specific and different. As a result, the struggle for a democratic solution to the national question requires an understanding and respect for these objective differences.
Amongst the smaller nations in Canada are groups of Aboriginal peoples who are exercising their right to sovereignty with the demand for autonomy and self-government. Amongst these are the Northern Cree in Quebec, and the newly created territory of Nunavut, the Nisga'a on the west coast, and others. The Acadians in the Maritimes also constitute a smaller nation in Canada. The two largest nations are English-speaking Canada and Quebec.
At the heart of the crisis of confederation is the refusal to recognize the right of every nation to self-determination up to and including the right to separation; that is, the right to choose the form of sovereignty which the majority of the people of that nation desire.
Sovereignty may be expressed in a free national choice of one of three following forms: a separate state, a confederation of equal nation or states, or autonomy.
For many years, the Communist Party has put forward the proposal for a new constitution based on the equal and voluntary partnership of Quebec and English-speaking Canada. Such a new constitutional arrangement must also guarantee the full participation of Aboriginal peoples and protect and extend their inherent national rights, including the right to genuine self-government, the right to consent over any change in their Constitutional status, and the right to accelerated economic, social and national development.
The Communist Party proposes a confederal republic with a government consisting of two chambers; one, such as the House of Commons today, would be based on representation by population, elected through a new system of proportional representation. The other chamber – a House of Nationalities – which would replace the present Senate, would be composed of an equal number of elected representatives from Quebec and from English-speaking Canada, with guaranteed and significant representation from the Aboriginal peoples, Acadians and the M'tis. Each chamber should have the right to initiate legislation, but both would have to adopt the legislation for it to become law. Furthermore the Aboriginal peoples must have the right to veto, on all matters pertaining to their national development. This structure will protect both fundamental democratic principles: equality of the rights of nations whatever their size, and majority rule. Structural changes reflecting this confederal arrangement would need to be made throughout the legal system and state apparatus.
A genuinely democratic constitution should correct the historic injustices suffered by the Aboriginal peoples by recognizing their full economic, social, national and political equality, and the just settlement of their land claims based on treaty rights, Aboriginal claims and scrip. This includes the rights and demands of Aboriginal women. The right of nations to self-determination must be entrenched in the Canadian constitution.
This fight for constitutional change is crucial to the overall struggle for democracy, social advance and for socialism. Uniting the working class across the country will not be possible without combating national oppression and fighting to achieve a new, equal and voluntary partnership of Canada's nations.
The sharpest expression of the constitutional crisis relates to Quebec's national status and the failure of the Canadian state to recognize Quebec's right to national self-determination, up to and including secession. This non-recognition of Quebec's rights is itself an expression of the historic national oppression of Quebec – its political, economic and social oppression – since the British conquest of New France in 1763. This national oppression has in turn aroused national indignation among the Quebec people, and spawned bourgeois and petty-bourgeois-led nationalist and separatist movements there.
The fight to defend Quebec's national rights and sovereignty is a pivotal social and democratic struggle. However, the separatist solution as expressed by the petty-bourgeois nationalist parties would not solve the crisis in the interests of working people. Quebec has reached the advanced stage of monopoly capitalism; its economic relations with English-speaking Canada are no longer those of a colonial character. The separatist solution would bring severe additional economic hardship to the working people of both nations and would weaken their political unity against the common enemy – finance capital, both domestic and international – and weaken the common struggle for fundamental change.
Recent changes to Canada's constitution have perpetuated the structural flaws and built-in inequalities of the original British North America Act (BNA Act) of 1867. The adoption of a new Canadian constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, while formally a step forward from a colonial Act of another country, nevertheless failed to address the underlying source of the crisis of Confederation. The current constitution perpetuates the injustices and inequities of the old BNA Act. "Provincial rights" were substituted for genuine national rights, thus accentuating the trend to decentralization, while doing nothing to uphold Canadian independence or to recognize the national rights of Quebec and the Aboriginal peoples.
The Acadians, who today live mostly in the Maritimes, are also a nation. Originally 16th century settlers from France, the Acadians were driven out of Nova Scotia by the British who seized their lands after the defeat of the French in 1755. While significant numbers of the Acadian people remain geographically dispersed, substantial numbers constitute a stable community within the Maritimes, and maintain their unique language, culture, history, and collective national consciousness.
The rights of the Acadians to protect and maintain their national identity with full state support, including the right to self-government, must be guaranteed.
The M'tis nation emerged in the period of merchant capitalism in the 18th century based on the fur trade and was mainly situated along the rivers flowing into Hudson Bay. The assertion of national rights by the M'tis in the rebellions of 1869-70 and 1885 was brutally crushed by the dominant English-speaking ruling class, who were backed by the expansionary industrial capitalism of Ontario and Quebec. Nevertheless, the resistance of the M'tis led to the establishment of the province of Manitoba and helped keep alive the spirit of resistance against all national privileges in Canada today.
The Aboriginal peoples had been in Canada for thousands of years when the first white settlers arrived. Prior to European settlement, the social organization of many Aboriginal communities was progressing – depending on the development of the productive capacities of each community – from smaller, dispersed and relatively isolated tribes into more complex, organized and technologically advanced societies. But European colonization and subjugation of the Aboriginal peoples interrupted and arrested this nation-building process.
Colonization and capitalist industrialization in Canada developed at the expense of its original inhabitants. The resistance of the Aboriginal peoples to colonial encroachment was brutally crushed. A policy of genocide was adopted by the state, which continues today in economic, social and cultural forms. There was the extermination of the Beothuk in Newfoundland, the scalp bounty on the Mi'kmaq in the Maritimes, the enslavement of some and the deliberate starvation and infection of others with deadly diseases, their forced relocation onto remote and impoverished reserves, the abduction of their children and consignment to residential schools where many were sexually assaulted, and brutalized for speaking their own language, and the organized suppression of their culture, including the banning of the communal Potlatch. Such is the record of Canadian history.
Presently, Aboriginal peoples have the highest rates of suicide, infant mortality, impoverishment, and incarceration in Canada, with a life expectancy of less than 50 years. Deprived of their human rights, their equality rights, and their inherent rights to land and self-government, Aboriginal peoples continue to be victims of state sponsored policies of genocide.
Even today, the state, acting on behalf of finance capital, refuses to recognize the status and national rights of Aboriginal peoples. This has produced acute poverty and oppression on the reserves and other areas inhabited by the Aboriginal peoples. Denied an adequate land base, acceptable living standards, the ability to live in their traditional manner, or the opportunity to mount successful cooperative commercial operations where they live, Aboriginal people for many years have migrated to urban areas where they face high unemployment, discrimination and the further destruction of their cultural identity.
The Communist Party struggles for immediate redress of historic injustices to Aboriginal peoples. This must include preferential treatment in the provision of housing, health care, education, and job creation, as a priority. Furthermore, immediate achievement of national rights, just and early settlement of land claims and self-government will help to improve the prospect for the fuller development of several Aboriginal peoples as nations, a process that the Communist Party fully supports.
The CPC also supports the struggle of those nations such as the Cree in Northern Quebec who are seeking full recognition of their right of self-determination.
Today, there is a renewed spirit of insurgency among the Aboriginal peoples. There is increasing unity between various Aboriginal peoples in their individual and particular struggles against the capitalist state. The Communist Party supports the increasing unity of the Aboriginal peoples in their just struggle.
Within each nation, there are national minorities whose national homeland is within the borders of another nation within Canada. Francophone minorities living in English-speaking Canada, Anglophone minorities living in Quebec, and Aboriginal peoples and Acadians living away from their national homes are all national minorities with the right to educate their children and receive state supported services in their own languages, wherever numbers warrant.
With the exception of the Aboriginal peoples, Canada is a country of immigrants, old and new. Comprised of hundreds of diverse ethnic groups, who will eventually merge with French-speaking Quebec or English-speaking Canada, these ethnic groups have the right to preserve their language and heritage and to pass it on to succeeding generations through state-supported language and cultural programs, and through state-supported cultural and community activities. The Communist Party recognizes that this two-sided process of merging and preserving language, culture and heritage, is of long duration, influencing and enriching Canadian culture as a whole.
Immigrant workers from many lands have played a vital part in building Canada's industries, railways and agriculture. New immigrants form a considerable portion of Canada's labour force. Immigrant workers continue to suffer from acute discrimination, arising in the main from capitalist exploitation and attitudes of national chauvinism. From its foundation the Communist Party has struggled to end discrimination against immigrant workers, working to expose how capitalism generates racism and national chauvinism, profits from low wage areas, and divides the working class to hold back the overall struggle.
Most immigration to Canada has been structured to support colonialist expansion and capitalist exploitation. In the colonial period, the English and French ruling classes not only directed white settlement that oppressed and displaced Aboriginal peoples; they also exploited most immigrants as a source of cheap labour and primary production. Later patterns of immigration under the Canadian state continued racist, chauvinist, and anti-labour policies in expanding settlement and building capitalist industry. The notorious treatment of Chinese labour in the building of the CPR and of immigrant labour in the textile industry and agriculture are characteristic of how Canadian capitalists have tended to segregate and super-exploit groups of immigrant workers.
Canadian state immigration policy is also class-oriented. Working class immigration is used as a reserve of ready labour to undercut average wages and conditions. Capitalist investors are privileged while victims of imperialist aggression, labour activists and political progressives are turned away.
There is a massive uprooting of millions of people as a result of the growing impoverishment of less developed countries, destabilizing imperialist-inspired wars and environmental disasters, and the growth of criminal trafficking in immigrants. To reduce these international movements of dispossessed people and political refugees requires progressive policies for world economic development and peace – not more repression of immigrants or elimination of their democratic rights. The communists demand priority in immigration to refugees, elimination of privileged entry to capitalist investors, phasing out of guest-worker provisions except for genuine educational, scientific or cultural exchange, and the full protection of immigrants through an immigrant bill of rights.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is also seriously flawed. While formally recognizing certain fundamental rights – freedom of association, assembly, religion, and of the press, and the rights to liberty and security, and equality without discrimination based on race, gender, religion or national origin, etc.- it also permits the federal and provincial legislatures to simply use the "notwithstanding" clause to deny these basic human rights in practice. A Bill of Rights for Labour was denied the working people of Canada, leaving the trade union movement with no constitutionally guaranteed rights.
Municipalities continue to be denied status in the repatriated Constitution. Though the majority of Canadians live within urban municipalities, these bodies can be created and dissolved at will by provincial governments.
A new constitution would prohibit the violation of the civil liberties of immigrants. It would outlaw racism and discrimination. It would assure the democratic, cultural and language rights of the non-French, non-English ethnic groups in Canada. A new constitution must embody a Bill of Rights, and a Bill of Rights for Labour, to provide guarantees of trade union and democratic rights which apply to the people of all nations within the Canadian state. These guarantees must ensure economic, social, cultural and linguistic equality, the right of assembly, the right to organize and strike, the habeas corpus right not to be arbitrarily deprived of one's liberty, the right to a job, to freedom of movement, to health, to education, to housing. The rights of women, youth and children must be guaranteed.
A genuinely democratic constitution must be accompanied by basic structural reform. To overcome regional inequality, these reforms must be based on the necessity for all-sided economic development in all parts of Canada, combined with nationalization of all natural resources, above all energy. Through publicly-owned corporations, benefits from the development of natural and energy resources must serve the people of Canada as a whole as well as industrial and social development in the provinces where the resources are found.
The erosion of local democracy has its roots in the absence of constitutional status, jurisdiction and rights for municipalities. A democratic constitution would recognize municipalities, guarantee local municipal autonomy, and create the most favourable conditions for local democratic control.
A new constitution should unify social legislation to provide equal opportunity and high standards in all of Canada while respecting the sovereignty of Quebec, and the right to self-government of the Aboriginal peoples. It must ensure that the corporations will not be able to escape responsibility for the contribution they owe to public education, living standards, and the health and social welfare of all Canadians.
Most important, a new constitution will help to remove the causes of the long-standing disunity, friction and resentment between English-speaking Canada and Quebec, and the Aboriginal peoples' inequality and national oppression.
The Communist Party sees the struggle for a democratic solution of the constitutional crisis as an integral part of the struggle against capitalist rule. The Communist Party stands for the unity of the working class in the struggle against this common enemy – domestic and international finance capital. Victory in the struggle for democracy and against political reaction, for Canadian independence and for socialism requires a powerful alliance of the working class of English-speaking Canada and Quebec, together with the progressive forces in Aboriginal and Metis communities and among national and ethnic minorities.
The historic direction of these struggles is toward the achievement of a higher form of democracy through the establishment of a socialist state and the rule of the vast majority of the Canadian people.

[Elway]

What is the answer to the nation question and the state of Native Americans in Canada as the communist party of Canada believes? Well it is the complete settlement of all land claims and disputes, the recognition of their national rights up to and including succession. And Canada needs to transform into a multinational republic which requires the senate to be abolished and replaced with an assembly of nations.

And so Tupac posts exactly what not only Canada is worried about, but the United States: That nations forged during the past 2 centuries by piecing together parts that, in modern retrospect, are viewed by many in the majority as having been wrongful, solve the past wrongs by creating authorities within the greater whole, not answerable to the whole, or its devices (ultimate court, body of congress, executive office.)

It is, of course, the end to nationalism, and very few institutions pass resolutions that read, "Hey, we blew it creating this nation state. About 75% of it should never have been incorporated into its body, and so we're breaking it up." Suicide is not a pleasent notion.

Ironically, the last power to do this was the USSR. :(

By ANY notion of fairness, the sale of Florida, Louisiana Purchase, Mexican Cesion were wrongful to the extreme. But no one's arguing the United States end its existence.

Yeah, Tupac, it's can be argued to be a fair solution, but probably aint gonna happen.

[FreeFocus]

But no one's arguing the United States end its existence.

Says who? Certainly not anarchists or any principled anti-imperialist who is not a hypocrite.

The United States is even more of a settler state than Israel. In fact, Israel learned much from the American model of dispossession and ethnic cleansing.

I also disagree with the Communist Party of Canada's proposed solution. The answer does not lay in settler state apparatuses, or trying to reform them. The answer rests in self-determination of communities, something along the lines of the Zapatista model.

[Charles Xavier]

And so Tupac posts exactly what not only Canada is worried about, but the United States: That nations forged during the past 2 centuries by piecing together parts that, in modern retrospect, are viewed by many in the majority as having been wrongful, solve the past wrongs by creating authorities within the greater whole, not answerable to the whole, or its devices (ultimate court, body of congress, executive office.)

It is, of course, the end to nationalism, and very few institutions pass resolutions that read, "Hey, we blew it creating this nation state. About 75% of it should never have been incorporated into its body, and so we're breaking it up." Suicide is not a pleasent notion.

Ironically, the last power to do this was the USSR. :(

By ANY notion of fairness, the sale of Florida, Louisiana Purchase, Mexican Cesion were wrongful to the extreme. But no one's arguing the United States end its existence.

Yeah, Tupac, it's can be argued to be a fair solution, but probably aint gonna happen.


The solution we purpose is the best case solution for Canada in current conditions, we do not ask "what could happen" we ask what is happening when formulating a position.

We are not arguing for Canada to end its existence either, we are arguing for a just settlement of land claims and national rights to the nations in Canada.

What I want to find is a indepth work on the national question in the United States.


Says who? Certainly not anarchists or any principled anti-imperialist who is not a hypocrite.

The United States is even more of a settler state than Israel. In fact, Israel learned much from the American model of dispossession and ethnic cleansing.

I also disagree with the Communist Party of Canada's proposed solution. The answer does not lay in settler state apparatuses, or trying to reform them. The answer rests in self-determination of communities, something along the lines of the Zapatista model.


Comrade, I apologize but I fail to see the practical application of such a model. A community with a hospital versus a community without a hospital, a community with a steel mill versus a community without a steel mill, a community with an 8 hour work day versus a community without an 8 hour work day. This whole autonomy for communities will lead to rich communities separating from poor communities, this happens in the United States on a daily basis, several affluent districts of major cities had broken away from the lower citiy so they get to pay less property tax since the lower city is poorer and requires more social services.

[Elway]

What I want to find is a indepth work on the national question in the United States,

You're not going to find this because only extremisit groups question this:

Alaskan Independence Party

Hawaiian Independence Movement

Reconquista de Aztlan

San Francisco International City Movement

U.N. Treaty on Indiginous Rights

All of these organized movements to disassociate one group from the authority of the whole. The "problem" with the United States in this respect is the Supremacy Clause of the federal constitution (Art. 6, Cl. 2).

I could bore you with why we have it, but the bottom line is that only a Constitutional amendment could really allow any such movement of which you write to succeed. This clause means, for example, Arizona is part of the United States and will always be so, and is bound to the federal laws and court decisions of the national government.

[Charles Xavier]

You're not going to find this because only extremisit groups question this:

Alaskan Independence Party

Hawaiian Independence Movement

Reconquista de Aztlan

San Francisco International City Movement

U.N. Treaty on Indiginous Rights

All of these organized movements to disassociate one group from the authority of the whole. The "problem" with the United States in this respect is the Supremacy Clause of the federal constitution (Art. 6, Cl. 2).

I could bore you with why we have it, but the bottom line is that only a Constitutional amendment could really allow any such movement of which you write to succeed. This clause means, for example, Arizona is part of the United States and will always be so, and is bound to the federal laws and court decisions of the national government.

The CPUSA and other communist parties have a duty to answer the national question. I mean whole voting patterns are done on this, they redistrict ridings for this purpose.

[Communist]

The CPUSA and other communist parties have a duty to answer the national question. I mean whole voting patterns are done on this, they redistrict ridings for this purpose.

The CPUSA on the National Question (from 2003) is here (http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/512/1/58/).