(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2009, 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.)
By Liz Rowley, Ontario leader of the Communist Party

By Helena Astride

Border guards across the country are now carrying guns, in keeping with the increasing degree and number of armed security workers. The Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA) has a long history of harassing vulnerable persons at border crossings. Not surprisingly, minority groups who have experienced the masochistic play of particularly power-hungry border guards are quietly in opposition to this development.

     One community deeply affected by this weapons build-up is the Indian Reserve of Akwesasne: a Mohawk community that spans Ontario, Quebec and New York. Like many non-native border towns, the local economy is integrated; families live on both sides and border crossings are frequent. Unlike non-native border towns, the semi-autonomous state of Indian Reserves provides grounds for residents to have a higher level of control over what occurs on their territory.

     The Akwesasne community is finding unity in its demand that at minimum, border guards working in their community - several of whom have committed acts of violence and intimidation towards women and children - cannot be permitted to sling guns on their hip.

     For a month in advance, the community told the guards, the elected officials, the federal government bureaucrats that they were unwilling to accept the arming of guards set for the start of June. On the eve of potential protests against what the federal government diminishes to a mere policy change, guards (members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada) walked off the job, leaving the border closed.

     The Mohawk Nation has a proud historic role as guardians of the eastern door: to let up a cry and struggle to protect Haudenosaunee (Longhouse) people from attack from this direction. At Akwesasne, the band council is presently following the direction of the traditional government to be peaceful, to negotiate not in Ottawa, but on their own land. They have asked for solidarity, for unity in action, from other Haudenosaunee communities.

     The Mohawks of Tyendinaga Indian Reserve, home to news-maker Shawn Brant and a number of militants, heralded the call and shut down a bridge in support. From Six Nations Indian Reserve a small group of women and children hiked over 40 kilometers slowing traffic on a major freeway to bring media attention to the issue.

     In the Six Nations, area local media for the first time noted that arming of guards was occurring across the country. Police escorted the marchers on their long walk from Hamilton to Brantford. In Tyendinaga police spilled a substantial amount of blood before arresting 14 protesters. Water hoses were at the ready in this country community to wash away the evidence of the attack.

     At Akwesasne, the mood is similar to the first days of a militant strike action: jovial, friendly and full of visiting. The border remains closed and politicians in all three jurisdictions are clamouring over how to force the issue. Yet the slow diplomatic style of the traditional government, which continues to develop a multi-generational approach to resolving the problem of imperialist economy and colonialist ideology, remains in favour of peace.

     While the provincial and national police, the state troopers and hired militias focus narrowly on following orders for increasing violence, the warriors, like the union militants and community leaders, are developing their own dynamic abilities: to keep the peace, to teach, to speak publicly, to repossess lost lands and human rights, taking care in confrontations of all kinds and daily promoting the welfare of the people.