The Young Communist League of Canada is proud to announce the broadcast of a webinar featuring Evo Morales, ex-President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, this Sunday, June 21 at 2 p.m. (EDT) on the occasion of the National Indigenous Peoples’ Day here in Canada, and the Andean and Amazonic New Year in Bolivia. The seminar will be held under the title “From Canada to Bolivia, Indigenous Resistance Against Militarism and Imperialism”.

In addition to Evo Morales, two young Indigenous activists from the Gitxsan nation, Kolin Sutherland-Wilson and Gina Mowatt, will join the discussion. They will have the opportunity to draw the parallels between the struggle of the indigenous peoples in Canada, in particular the struggle of the Wet’suwet’en against the TransMountain Pipeline, with the resistance of the indigenous peoples of Bolivia which brought Evo Morales to power, as the first Indigenous President of the Americas.

In a letter to the Central Executive Committee of the Young Communist League of Canada confirming his participation to the webinar, “Tayta Evo” writes: “In the same way that the Indigenous peoples of Canada heroically defend their ancestral lands and their natural resources, our government has adopted a position of resistance against imperialism, colonialism and the exploitation of our strategic reserves. This is what sparked a coup in November 2019 in which the police, the military, economic power groups and imperialism having interests in the Bolivian lithium participated. ” 

“In this context, he adds, this virtual meeting with the indigenous peoples [of Canada] will be important since the struggle for sovereignty, dignity, and the right to freely decide our destiny is part of the struggle for all the peoples of the world. ”

Beyond drawing parallels between the struggles of the indigenous peoples of Canada and Bolivia, this meeting is an opportunity to promote solidarity and friendship between the peoples who are fighting against a common enemy: imperialism. The interests which have at heart the construction of the TransMountain pipeline are the same as those which want to plunder the Bolivian natural richnesses.  

The webinar is co-organized by the Communist Party of Canada, the Canadian Peace Congress, People’s Voice and endorsed by Common Frontiers. It will be moderated by Tyson Strandlund and Kimball Cariou, two Métis organisers committed to the cause for the sovereignty of indigenous peoples and nations.

The webinar will be transmitted on YouTube through the following link: https://youtu.be/Bk4WuY4qea0 and will be broadcast in English with simultaneous translation into French. Evo will speak in Spanish and will be translated sequentially into English. Participants wishing to attend the seminar are asked to register on the list here. Everyone will be able to ask the presenters questions via the chat option, however, depending on the number of questions, we cannot guarantee that all will be answered.