(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Excerpts from a speech by Cheryl-Anne Carr on behalf of the Métis Federation of Manitoba, to the Public Service Alliance of Canada National Aboriginal Peoples' Conference in Winnipeg, Sept. 19.

(T)hrough Canadian history we have gone from being the demonic, the savage, the unknown, to the enemy, the radical, the crazy, to the forlorn, the scorned, the victim, the robbed, to a place where we are just another piece of "Canadian" culture under the Maple Leaf flag....

     The racism that drags us down acts like a giant anchor on the wages of our non-Métis and non-Aboriginal sisters and brothers, our huge pool of super exploited workers creates super profits for the wealthy and corporations, and allows corporations to get away with paying workers less because they know non-Aboriginal workers will sell their labour power even more cheaply because we are around. We are the first fired, last hired. But we are not the enemy of the non-Métis, Non-Aboriginal workers.

     The anchor argument is a compelling reason to use in building active anti-racism campaigns in the union movement, for having unions carry out campaigns in public - campaigns that are independent, your own. This is not an issue that can be contracted out to a political party. No one should be saying "we are your voice in Parliament, we will speak for you, you don't need to say anything and keep quiet since we are here."

     Unions need to have their own voice to the public. The broad mass of people need to hear from unions that we have a common interest in fighting racism. A common interest in fighting for all kinds of issues. A healthy, vibrant society cannot do without active, political peoples' movements, especially the trade union movement.

     The capitalist system is what it is - it is where racism in all its forms is a necessary tool. The Métis Nation will never progress within the confines of this imperialist, settler state.

     If being Métis means loving freedom, if we dream of a Canada where all nations are equal and respect each other, then the state is against us. At our best we are compromised and must be a quaint and charming addition to multi-culturalism.

     We must, if we long for change, actually change. We cannot work with a system that would allow people to live jobless, hopeless and helpless for generation after generation.

     In this election as in all elections who are we trying to kid when we hold up one old party or another who in over 100 years has done nothing at all tangible to relieve the suffering of thousands of Aboriginal People? Even Dr. Phil tells us to look at past behaviour to predict future behaviour.

     The Conservative Party of John A. MacDonald established the same RCMP that was used to suppress the Métis. The RCMP are suppressing the people of Haiti who had their democratic government overthrown by our Canadian military. There really is no separation of domestic and foreign policy in Canada or any other country. What happened to the Aboriginal people in the U.S. also happened to the peoples of Vietnam, Cuba, Chile and so on.

     The Canadian government presents our country as a model of human rights, but the racist reality is far different. The same image is projected in foreign policy, that we support the United Nations and the replacement of failed states that are not mature enough to take care of themselves, in a kind, benevolent way or by force if necessary. We have been treated as wards of the state of Canada, so who do you believe about the real nature of our foreign policy? The government or your own experience?

     If we had our land claims settled fairly, would we be free peoples happy with occupying Afghanistan and Haiti?

     Paper liberation is no liberation at all. Voting means nothing if you will not vote for people who mean to truly replace and overturn the system.

     Education is worthless if it teaches the same answers that have never solved problems.

     Resource sharing, resource ownership, land redistribution, economic deals are still evil if the only change is that brown people are now in charge of destroying the planet.

     I cannot see a renaissance of Métis culture unless the system is changed and I do not see the system allowing change without a real fight. Can we fight this battle alone, half starved, half blind, our shoes nailed to the floor and one hand tied behind our back by racism, divided from all our non-Métis sisters and brothers who are also victims of this discriminatory, consumer oriented, wasteful, pro-war, violent, selfish, narrow, dominating capitalist system with a growing prison population?

     Of course not. We can't fight alone. We must band together with the other Aboriginal Peoples who need the system to change as well and not just them but other organized groups who are disaffected.

     Women, immigrants, people of colour, people with disabilities, the movements for peace, student rights, the poor and homeless, the LGBT community, family farmers, every group in society that is suffering from the consequences of the unsustainable and disastrous consumer society that we live in, dominated by a handful of wealthy and powerful people.

     And where will we find the organizers, the leaders, the people of vision to use their collective power to make sure this common voice gets heard? The workers, the unions. We need to start with you, since you are the most organized section of Canada's big working class.

     The largest part of the working class in Canada, the non-Aboriginal workers, would have the firmest ally in their struggle in a call for unity if they add to the call that we need unity of workers and all nations in Canada denied their full national rights, their land, their culture!

     I want to add this: the non-Aboriginal workers will only gain, not lose, if the rights of Métis and all Aboriginal People are respected and resolved. It is the wealthy and elite who will pay.

     There, I've said it. Capitalism. The working class. This I hope has not been a speech about saving middle class values in a world gone and going wrong. We need to advance humanity's agenda, not the agenda of a handful of people who are narrow and selfish.

     In contrast to the hopelessly narrow and selfish aims of our corporate leaders who make promises they don't keep, our aims need to be broad and emancipatory...

     Before I close let me tell you what was said about May Day at the Kateri Aboriginal Catholic parish. The annual parade was announced after Mass. People responded well to the idea that Aboriginal people are Canada's original workers. One elder yelled out "Yes, we've been working for thousands of years!"

     People who participate in May Day parades in other countries have a saying - "Workers of all lands unite!" It is often forgotten, but the saying continues "You have a world to win!" The way things are going recently, you have nothing left to lose but your chains.

     Unite and lose those chains! Win that world!