“The principle that the government has invoked to drag the people into the abyss could not be more pleasing: that of liberty. ” Continue reading The War – Ricardo Flores Magón (1917)

The documentary film and books that I have chosen here are some of the Native-created media that have moved me the most over the years, strongly influencing my thinking, writing, and action. Continue reading Indigenous persistence reading list

In other words, looking after each other to such an extent that individuals couldn’t accumulate wealth at the expense of others. Continue reading Divide While Anything Remains

“Other Chicago anarchists were also interested in the ‘Indian Question'” Continue reading Anarchists and the Wild West – Franklin Rosemont (1986)

Personally, I’m disappointed to see that someone else is disappointed by critical thinking around state nationalism, particularly European and subsidiary settler colonial nationalisms. Continue reading A Response To A Response About Militarism, Nationalism And War

These differing views however relate to more than just terminology. Different words can mean essentially the same thing in different contexts, while the same word can have more than one meaning. Continue reading The Exchange Relation of Commodities in Capitalist Society

The Swiss historian and political economist Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi wrote in his 1819 book New Principles of Political Economy, “The solitary man could only labour together with land and animals; but in society the rich man could make the poor man labour.” Continue reading Capital as Automatic Subject

As everything has an end, its end is the first quality, the first determination, the first negation of everything.
It is through its end that everything begins. Continue reading Finally, Teleology – Library of Riots (1994)

“Every increase in the fighting force by one State directed against its subjects causes uneasiness to the neighbouring State and compels it to increase its army, too.” Continue reading Should Labor Be Patriotic? – Lyov Tolstoy (1894)

“We unconditionally condemn all capitalist wars, with whatever sophisms it may be sought to defend the one or the other set of pirates and exploiters as more ‘libertarian.’ We unalterably hold that war is the game of the masters, always at the expense of the duped workers.”
– Alexander Berkman (1914) Continue reading Against Militarism, Imperialism, and Wars between States

In Keston Sutherland’s article, Marx in Jargon, he asserts that there is a misunderstood idea about Marx’s book Capital, due to certain English mistranslations, as he describes them, by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, and later Ben Fowkes. Continue reading Room for Critique

“In the villages there are no police, and, for the same reason, order reigns in them. There are no rich people, so there is no need for police.” Continue reading The Death of the Bourgeois System – Ricardo Flores Magón (1915)

“This was the first revolutionary error. By maintaining the government, its old bourgeois structure was respected and around it the whole weight of the bureaucratic apparatus that it had sustained up to that point.” Continue reading Controllers and Controlled – Lucía Sánchez Saornil (1937)

“In particular, some socialists … sneer at the ‘dream’ of anarchism. Yet I have found that it is not a dream, but something aspects of which have been realized in the autonomy of the villages inherited from our ancestors.” Continue reading The Facts of Anarchy – Itō Noe (1921)

“There is nothing to it
As the Bible says
‘All politicians are liars’
Therefore, if ye would be ‘saved’
Save yourselves” Continue reading The Politician is Not My Shepherd – Covington Hall (1933)

“The only value that political activity has to the working class is from the standpoint of agitation and education. Its educational merit consists solely in proving to the workers its utter inefficacy to curb the power of the ruling class and therefore forcing the workers to rely on the organization of their class in the industries of the world.” Continue reading The IWW and Political Parties – Vincent St. John (1910)

“It is a lie that the government has pacified the Yaquis.” Continue reading The Pacification of the Yaqui – Librado Rivera (1927)

“The Mexican people are learning through long and cruel experience that freedom is never handed down from those on the higher steps of the social ladder.” Continue reading Carranza’s Doom – Enrique Flores Magón (1916)

Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was one of the most skilled warriors and dedicated community organizers in the Indigenous resistance movement, and because of this was targeted for repression by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Continue reading Anna Mae Pictou Aquash: Warrior and Community Organizer

“The federal government chose to prosecute us because we will not betray our culture, our identity. The federal government chose to prosecute us because we chose not to betray the People.” Continue reading I Believe in the Laws of Nature – Anna Mae Pictou Aquash’s Statement to the Court of South Dakota (1975)

For our peoples, the cops and prison guards are a roadblock along the way to freedom and restoring relations, but also an occupying army serving the settler colonial state Continue reading By All Means, Anti-Politics

“Readers are welcomed to criticize this paper and assist us in formulating an objective concept of the international context of our struggle for self-determination” Continue reading Palestinians and Native People are Brothers – Native Study Group (1976)

“The Gitxsan will be fighting unjust injunctions in the courts and on the land. We are asking for support, as we continue to stand up for the Gitxsan-Wet’suwet’en Alliance.” Continue reading Gitxsan Resistance

“We were able to see it because we were members of an oppressed group of people and knew what was in front of us had to be cleared up.” Continue reading From DuBois to Fanon – C.L.R. James (1967)

Links to articles about and interviews with Lee Maracle, as well as articles she herself wrote. Continue reading Remembering Lee Maracle

“The RCMP attempted to come in to Coyote Camp and failed, for the first time since they were walked out by our Haudenosaunee relatives. We will not allow it. We can not. Our responsibilities are too great. ” Continue reading Coyote Camp – Gidimt’en Frontline

A couple of centuries before Marx wrote his book Capital, Henry Hudson suffered a mutiny by his crew and was abandoned and cast adrift at sea, in the Bay that fellow colonizers would later name in his honour. Continue reading Doctrine of the Corpse Betrayed by its Spirit

“Mike Gouldhawke on capitalism, colonialism, and how we can use Marx’s concept of value as a tool for understanding and changing our current social conditions.” Continue reading Head Hits Concrete

“The violence our people suffer at the hands of the colonizers is all connected and continues today as fervently as it did when they landed on the shores of this continent. Tabï misiyh. All our love and rage to Jared’s family.” – Gidimt’en Checkpoint (@Gidimten) Continue reading Justice for Jared Lowndes

“Spectacular and futile condemnations of race prejudice. In reality, a colonial country is a racist country.” Continue reading Racism and Culture – Frantz Fanon (1956)

“As supporters on the outside sprang into action, calling on the government to #FreeThemAll, prisoners faced up to the reality of 24-hour lockdowns, no more family visits, an already failing health-care system, and terrible food. The hunger strikes started not long after.” Continue reading “Chip away at it” – A year of COVID-era hunger strikes in Canadian prisons

Audio interview from 2010 with Wade Crawford (Oneida/Haudenosaunee) from Six Nations of the Grand River, talking about his participation in the “Oka Crisis” and other struggles (interview from the Vancouver Media Coop, with a song clip, as chosen by Wade) Continue reading Audio interview with Wade Crawford from Six Nations of the Grand River (2010)

“As we mark the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, we, the undersigned, join together to reaffirm our commitment to the Palestinian people’s struggle for justice, return, and liberation.” Continue reading Solidarity with Palestine

“Vancouver MP and junior minister for Indian Affairs Stephen Owen caused controversy in early February, 2002, when he compared young natives in Canada to Palestinian militants.“ Continue reading Indigenous Intifada: Federal MP Compares Natives to Palestinians (2002)

We spoke about the Commune and colonialism, moving from Paris to the exile of Communards like Louise Michel in “New Caledonia,” to the Red River Resistance of 1869-70 in what would eventually become a part of “Canada.” Continue reading The Commune and Colonialism

On Indigenous land defence & the care that builds the solidarity that strengthens the blockade. Continue reading Building Blocks

A review of Métis scholar Allyson Stevenson’s book, Intimate Integration, about the ’60s Scoop. Continue reading The ‘60s Scoop and everyday acts of elimination

“Does this rising generation know that those who inaugurated the eight-hour day were put to death at the command of capital?” Continue reading May Day & the Haymarket Martyrs

History keeps getting older. But sometimes to preserve is to destroy. Continue reading Unnatural System

“I remember an elder once told me on my healing journey that I should start with myself, my family, my community, and then our nation. I never understood that until the day my sister, another young man and I went to lay logs over the road.” Continue reading No More! On the blockade at Grassy Narrows – Chrissy Swain (2004)

“This is the greatest gift we gave to you, the concept of freedom. You did not have this. Now that you have taken it and built a constitution and country around it, you deny freedom to us.” Continue reading The Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy stands in support of our brothers at Wounded Knee (1973)

“The way, and the only way, to check and to stop this evil, is for all the Redmen to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was at first, and should be yet; for it was never divided, but belongs to all for the use of each.” Continue reading Tecumseh’s speech to Governor Harrison at Vincennes, Indiana Territory (August 12, 1810)

“Métis scholar and writer Mike Gouldhawke visits with Sara Mai to unpack his take on The Globe and Mail front page news story on the ‘Water Crisis’ in Indigenous communities” Continue reading Colonial Problems rebranded as ‘Indigenous Issues’ – Mbwaach’idiwag Podcast

“We, the undersigned, are Métis citizens from across the homeland and supporters who stand in solidarity with Black abolitionist organizers and the families of Black and Indigenous people who have experienced police violence. Métis people taking a position of support for defunding the police are not the inconsequential dissenting voices.” Continue reading Grassroots Métis Statement on the WPG Police and MMF: Abolish the Police!

“This is the substance of decolonization; it is crucial that Indigenous peoples be free to develop and regain their relationships with the land rather than settlers taking it upon ourselves to do it in their stead.” Continue reading Another Word for Settle: A Response to Rattachements and Inhabit

This Brief outlines the compounding crises, and the resistance, that have constituted Indigenous healthcare in this country. Continue reading The Failure Of Federal Indigenous Healthcare Policy In Canada

“We, the native Americans, re-claim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery. We wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with the Caucasian inhabitants of this land, and hereby offer the following treaty…” Continue reading Proclamation of the Indians of All Tribes at Alcatraz (1969)

“From the vantage point of the colonial state, by the time the 78-day standoff at Kanesatake had begun things were already out of control in Indian Country.” Continue reading IdleNoMore in Historical Context – Glen Coulthard (2012)

“We are inmates of not only institutions of incarceration, but every other institution that has dominated us for years. We are inmates of poverty, of high suicide rates, of disease, and of overrepresentation in the justice system.” – Cory Charles Cardinal Continue reading Prisoner Resistance Across the Prairies

Gerald’s Kaboni’s police custody related death reopened wounds in Victoria’s Indigenous community, as the family of Anthany Dawson, a 29 year-old Native man who was killed by Victoria police in August of 1999 continued to struggle for justice. Continue reading Police Brutality (2002)

Posts challenging the BC Metis Federation’s (BCMF) recent statements regarding Secwepemc sovereignty and false claims to Métis territorial rights in BC; a link to an article about similar claims made by a different organization, the Metis Nation of BC (MNBC); and some personal-historical commentary about Métis in BC. Continue reading Against false claims to Métis territorial rights in British Columbia

Since the September/October 2020 Land Back Issue of Briarpatch Magazine was published, there have been several podcasts that have had episodes expanding on the topics covered in it and on Briarpatch Magazine itself. Continue reading Podcast episodes related to the Land Back issue of Briarpatch

“Ce texte de M. Gouldhawke (2020) retrace l’histoire de la Gendarmerie royale du Canada, le corps policier fédéral aux racines coloniales, capitalistes et impérialistes.” Continue reading L’histoire de la GRC, police coloniale et impérialiste au Canada

“This type of cultural genocide was intentionally planned by a more aggressive, power-hungry nation of people in order to further exploit a nation of people whose socialistic ideas could not be destroyed otherwise.” Continue reading Cultural Genocide, Intentionally Planned – Rose Bishop (1975)

“We are proud that the Métis Society of Saskatchewan was one of the few organization that supported the Native people of Kenora as they fight for justice.” Continue reading The Truth About the Anicinabe Park Occupation of 1974 – Linda Finlayson

“We are a collective of community members, prisoner advocates, and penal abolitionists who stand in solidarity with prisoners at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre (SCC), where 130 people (107 prisoners; 23 staff) or roughly 20% of the population have tested positive for COVID-19 as of November 30, 2020.” Continue reading An Open Letter in Solidarity with Prisoners at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre

A short outtake from my interview with the Flash Forward Podcast (in reference to the Briarpatch Magazine LandBack issue), and a link to the full episode of the podcast. Continue reading Give The Land Back? – Flash Forward Podcast

“The white power structure has used every possible method to destroy our spirit, and the will to resist. They have divided us into status and nonstatus, American and Canadian, Métis and Indian. We are fully aware of their ‘divide and rule’ tactic, and its effect on our people.” Continue reading Native Alliance for Red Power – Eight Point Program (1969)

“The ‘nation’ among the white people is a recent concept. The U.S.A. was the first white nation as all the other countries were kingdoms.” Continue reading The Indian Claims Commission is illegal, unjust and criminal – Karoniaktajeh (1965)