Palestinian Youth & Student Solidarity with Mi'kmaq Blockade

20.10.13

Palestinian Youth & Student Solidarity with Mi'kmaq Blockade:

A statement of solidarity initiated by the Progressive Student Action Front - Palestine and the Palestinian Progressive Youth Union. Endorsements welcome:

From one stolen land to another, we express our highest solidarity with the Mi'kmaq and Elsipogtog people, the Mi'kmaq Warriors Society and the members of their blockade, defending their lands and confronting colonial resource extraction and profiteering. The blockade, which began September 30, closed Highway 134 in New Brunswick, in the Canadian state, in order to prevent devastating resource extraction (hydraulic fracturing or "fracking") by SWN Resources, a large U.S. corporation.

This blockade is a powerful action of Indigenous people exerting their right to their land, to protect it and prevent its exploitation and destruction taking place, and demanding justice, dignity and decolonization. SWN Resources claims the blockade has cost it $60,000 daily as it attempts to carry out natural gas exploration in the area for hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is a destructive process to extract shale gas that is devastating to the environment and water.

The Mi'kmaq Warriors Society and their allies at the blockade were attacked on October 17 by approximately 200 armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), who besieged the blockaders, releasing tear gas, tasering protesters, using police dogs and firing rubber bullets. At least 40 land defenders, including Elsipogtog Chief Arren Sock, Mi'kmaq Warriors, and reporters, have been arrested.

[...]