Central Executive Committee, YCL-LJC

February, 2015

Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women!

End the Harper government’s racism and environmental destruction!

This February, the Young Communist League of Canada stands in solidarity with those in the street demanding an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW). Both the annual day of action on February 14th, and the grassroots campaign “#ShutDownCanada”, send a necessary message that urgent action needs to be taken to end the oppression of Indigenous people.

Colonization and capitalist industrialization in Canada developed at the expense of its original inhabitants. The resistance of the Indigenous peoples to colonial encroachment was brutally crushed. A policy of genocide was adopted by the state. Entire nations were exterminated. Indigenous peoples were infected with deadly disease, forced to relocate into impoverished reserves and their children were abducted and sent to an abusive colonial school system with the intent of eliminating their culture.

The crisis continues to this day, especially for Indigenous youth. Suicide rates for First Nation youth are 5-7 times higher than non-Indigenous rates, infant mortality is 1.5 times higher, and Indigenous youth are more likely to end up in jail than graduate high school. Indigenous peoples in Canada are systematically deprived of their human rights, their equality rights, and their inherent rights to land and self-government. We consider the approach of the ruling class and the Canadian state towards Indigenous nations as a continued policy of genocide.

This national oppression is compounded by the oppression of women under capitalism to create unliveable conditions in the lives of Indigenous women. One of the most horrendous manifestations of this is the large and growing number of missing and murdered Indigenous women. According to the RCMP, over 1000 Indigenous women have been murdered since 1980 and that more than 100 others remain missing under suspicious circumstances.

First Nations peoples and specifically the Native Women’s Association of Canada have been calling for a federal inquiry into this systemic violence for a number of years. Last year, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also called for a state response to violence against Indigenous women and girls, as has the Auditory General of Canada. Starting in 1991 in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, February 14th has seen growing demonstrations demanding an end to the silence, an end to the impunity of racist policing, and an end to government inaction.

Despite these longstanding demands and ongoing violence, the Conservative government has continuously refused to launch an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. To add insult to injury, in 2010, Harper eliminated funding for the database project of Sisters in Spirit, an Indigenous run initiative that had supported these women and their families.

Harper has continually denied the deep roots of sexism and racism in these murders and disappearances. At an international meeting he declared that Canada “has no history of colonialism”. Last year, he stated that the murders of Indigenous women should be seen as “crimes” and not as “sociological phenomenon”. This reflects the Tory “tough on crime” policy of increasing criminalization of Canada’s most vulnerable populations. At the same time it allows the government claim ignorance that these particular crimes are rooted in the terrible material conditions of Indigenous peoples and allows for their further dispossession, which is in Canadian capital’s interest.

This year, a grassroots call to action on February 13th, under the banner of “#ShutDownCanada”, reiterates the demand for an inquiry and links the issue of Indigenous sovereignty to the capitalist destruction of the environment. The oil and gas monopolies exert tremendous control over the federal and provincial governments, giving them relative free reign to exploit the natural environment, poisoning local communities and threatening the whole planet with irreversible climate crises. Indigenous communities are affected more greatly than other populations in Canada, resulting in what is commonly called “environmental racism”, and consultation processes by industry and government that have little to do with consent and the right to self-determination.

Today, there is a renewed spirit of militancy and unity among the Indigenous peoples in their struggles. The YCL-LJC of Canada stands in solidarity with Indigenous women struggling for an end to the violence. It is time for the Canadian state and corporations ‘to pay the rent’ — for stolen lands and justice denied. We call for the swift and just settlement of all Indigenous land claims, and for emergency action to improve living conditions, employment, health and housing of Indigenous peoples. We call for an immediate end to the dangerous practice of “fracking”, the cancellation of the reversal of the “Line 9” pipeline, an end to the development of the “Northern Gateway” pipeline, “Energy East”, “Kinder Morgan”, and all other dangerous corporate attempts to play profitable games of Russian roulette with the environment.

We also support the Communist Party of Canada’s longstanding demand for relations of equality and justice among the nations in Canada with a new, democratic constitution based on an equal and voluntary partnership of the Indigenous peoples, Quebec, the Acadians and English-speaking Canada, recognizing the national rights of Indigenous nations, Acadians, and Quebec to self-determination, up to and including secession. We see solidarity and support for Indigenous peoples’ self-determination and struggles as an essential part of any vision of a better Canada, and a socialist future.