Members of Solidarity Halifax
joined with many others in the community on the evening of
Tuesday August 15th for a rally against racism and the white
supremacist far right, in the context of the horrific events
inCharlottesville, Virginia
over the weekend.
Michelle from
Solidarity Halifax
spoke at last night’s rally on behalf of our
organization, saying:
“As we have heard tonight, we know that Canada has a
problem with racism. Nova Scotia has a problem with racism.
Tied closely to capitalism, racism is everywhere. Its in
the geographic, cultural, and economic segregation in our
cities and communities.
Capitalism is the economic ideology of liberalism and
liberals, with a kind white face and confused political
outlook, and which gives us false hope in the Justin
Trudeau’s of the world while everything around us
continues to burn to the ground, deepening political
disenfranchisement and despair.
Right now the internet is full of photos of the faces of
white men, lit brightly by torches, mouths contorted by
anger, chins uplifted and loudly, surely, claiming what is
theirs.
They yell “You will not replace us”. They threaten Black
lives, Jewish lives… any life that is not white. Its easy
for most white people to reject these faces, identifying
them as the face of white hate, overt racism, fascism, white
nationalism.
The difficult thing to admit is that we, every last one of
us who benefits from the oppression of others, is inherently
racist.
Capitalism and racism are all about self preservation.
Keeping what white people have. We call it self
preservation. But really, its hate normalized. If preserving
or keeping what we have leads to the oppression of others,
our preservation is oppression.
Racism reinforces this white skin privilege both in our
institutions and our personal relationships. White skin
privilege is a reality and racial segregation is present
under capitalism. Now is the time to stand in solidarity and
resist.
We need to learn the ways that white people and settler
governments have broken treaties in past and continue to
break and ignore treaties right now.
We need to learn to say the words “We are all treaty
people” comfortably with an understanding that we are
all responsible to respect the treaties.
We need to acknowledge that there is geographic, cultural,
and economic segregation in our cities and communities and
question what is our role in this?
We know that Capitalism allows for virtually unmonitored
and uninterrupted use of our natural resources,
contamination of our land, air and water and is resulting in
climate change. Racialized communities are the most likely
to have their rights ignored and denied.
Garbage dumps, factory farms, industry, environmental
violations are most frequently located in close proximity to
black, indigenous and communities of colour.
We need to learn more about what environmental racism is,
where it is happening in NS and in Canada, and speak out
vocally against it.
We need to support organizations and people that are
asserting their rights and fighting environmental racism by
offering our time and financial support .
We need to learn about the role of police under capitalism.
We need to learn about Street Checks and carding.
We need to learn about the ways that black, indigenous and
people of colour are disproportionately affected by
criminalization.
We need to remember that black, indigenous and people of
colour are disproportionately represented in our prison
system and learn about why this is.
White people benefit both consciously and unconsciously
from structural racism in institutions like policing. Lack
of recognition and action of this reinforces both white
supremacy and oppression.
We need to ask ourselves why we haven’t had to think about
this before. Emiliano Zapata said “If there is no
justice for the people, let there be no peace for the
government”. We need to demand better.
We need to financially support initiatives from communities
of colour; artists of all kinds, authors, events, projects
etc by black people, indigenous people and people of colour.
Choose to support these first. Go out of our way to find
these. Our city is FULL of these efforts.
We need to financially support projects and organizations
that support black, indigenous and youth of colour,
especially those that originate in or are organized by
people from these communities. We need to volunteer our time
when its needed and where its wanted.
We need to think long and hard about about all the statues,
the place names, schools, streets, parks that exist with
names like Cornwallis and the fact that we are a city that
venerates murderers. Is this okay with us? Why is it not
okay with us? If its not okay with us, what do we want to
see done about it.
Start by demanding of our city officials that the
Cornwallis Statue come down & that the park be
officially renamed. DEMAND THAT THE CORNWALLIS STATUE COME
DOWN. We cannot allow this beacon of hate and white
supremacy to continue to exist in Halifax.
We cannot continue to sit back, comfortable in our Canadian
privilege, our Canadian Racism, separating ourselves from
the white people we saw carrying torches in Charlottesville.
We cannot expect Indigenous, Black and people of colour to
continue to carry this burden of fighting racism, virtually
on their own.
For Black, Indigenous and People of colour, existence, is
resistance.
Desmond Tutu said that “To be neutral in situations
of injustice, you have chosen the side of the
oppressor.”
While its easy and satisfying to say Fuck fascists, white
supremacists, alt rights and everyone like them, the real
work is dismantling the systems that allow these ideas to
exist.
We need to think about the privilege that capitalism and
racism give us in our own life.
We need to stop accepting the status quo because we benefit
from it. We need to ask other white people around us to do
the same.
Demand equity at every opportunity, every day.
Don’t wait for torches in our city.
Do something.
Now.”