For whom flows the Lac Saint-Jean? But, how many people must have asked this
question since the beginning of the colonization of the periphery of Pekuakami (Lake Saint-Jean in the language of the Ilnuat )? From the Ilnuat who saw the
rivers blocked by the pitounes and the animals change roads with the industrial
destruction of the forests to the farmers who saw red when the waters started to
rise for good on a large part of the arable land... the Pekuakami saw the
dispossessed succeed one another while the great capitalists came to exploit its
wealth. ---- The question does not sink into the past. In 2021, it remains on the
lips of many Ilnuats and many residents of the lake rim with the control and
management carried out by Rio Tinto-Alcan over the Pekuakami. This does not
happen in a country that one would like to be exotic with its well-spoiled
dictators as gifts from multinationals ... No, it is in this "developed" colonial
state called Quebec that a multinational is allowed to treat a so big a lake like
a beast reservoir for its dams. Here, when we receive a notice for a septic tank,
the notice also bears the Rio Tinto-Alcan logo to remind us who are the real
masters of the territory.
The question is so hotly topical so that the multinational has created its
consultation committee which includes mayors without power who only serve to
repeat like parrots the sacrosanct speech of the company. Faced with the
devastation of the banks, it is always the same answer: "RTA is doing everything
possible to do for the well-being of the region. "! The residents quickly
understood that their town or village would do nothing to stop the rampage. It's
a lot of people who see erosion advancing dangerously from their house, their
septic tank, parks where children play or even roads to which we passively tell
that everything is under control... And it's the same speech when anger rises
over the repeated spills at Resolute's Kraft pulp mill in Ashuapmushuan. It is
obvious that the local bourgeoisie does not have more control now than it had
during the illegal expropriation of the cultivators in the 1920s. Faced with the
pressures and the popular anger, RTA for its part tries to save itself. the face
by lame gestures. As his management of the Pekuakami has the effect of destroying
the banks, it continues to "reload" them by adding gravel. Yet for decades, in
government reports, the process of artificializing the banks has been denounced
as a harmful intervention for ecosystems. If reincarnation is possible, we must
believe that the colonization agents of William Price's time have reincarnated as
environment ministry agents because their blindness in the face of organized
theft is just as appalling.
Finally, for the Aboriginals, one can wonder what meaning could have the question
"for whom flows the Pekuakami?"". The idea that a lake could belong to a single
species believing itself to be independent of the others or even to a handful of
selfish people among this species was undoubtedly foreign to the way of life and
the way of thinking of the Ilnuat. At a time when a bourgeoisie in the band
council controls several dams, the question nevertheless deserves to be asked
within the communities. The defense of the territory of Nitassinan remains a
necessity. Greenbacks are crumbs thrown away after centuries of colonialism; they
will deliver neither justice nor freedom. Band councils once again act as bodies
conceived by and under the control of the colonial state.
Looking at history, we can see how monarchies were abolished. In the "Kingdom",
let us continue to organize ourselves to bring down the king and his servants ...
and so that the lake does not flow for anyone, but for all living beings on Earth.
A Pekuakami anarchist
Posted 19 hours ago by Collectif Emma Goldman
http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2021/09/pour-qui-coule-le-lac-saint-jean.html
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten