When looking at a map of the world, one sees that territories have been assigned to states. The underlying ideology of this situation becomes clear when we think about how static these maps are, while the colonial project in so-called Canada is actually quite dynamic. From piplines to dams that reach further and further north, a map that would accurately depict the evolution of Indigenous and settler occupation of these territories would refute any pretentions that colonialism is over.
Furthermore, these lines are drawn as if borders have always been enforced to the same degree. Meanwhile, profit circulates on one side of the border, while on the other side, immigration restrictions leave those who produce this wealth increasingly stuck in their territories of origin. It's been said a hundred times, the worse the working conditions in any given country, the more profitable this work is to the rich, and the stronger the exclusion mechanisms of priviledged countries become.
We can think, for example, of Trump's wall, or of the numerous tradgedies where increased naval controls have led hundreds of migrants to lose their lives in the Mediterranean Sea. These revolting mechanisms continue to develop while the lines on the map stay the same : cold and neutral.
When we think of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (among others), we have to realize that this isn't about geography but control. Governments want to control who can work and when. They want workers who can be fired at any time and who will have no access to the costly social programs that benefit workers in the Global North. Governments and their accountants want to know that it's as easy to move around Mexican workers as it is to move the cucumbers that these same workers pick in the summer. This desire for control is also apparent in the construction of migrant prisons, built to "welcome" anyone who might dare to defy this control. To maintain it, the governments of our so-called "civilized" countries are perfectly happy to lock up children.
This imprisonment is enmeshed with other racist systems. Indigenous people represent 27% of the federal prison population in Canada and only 5% of the total population. Local experiences of racism and international economic domination form a vicious circle at the expense of those that produce global wealth while receiving nothing in return.
This year, on May 1st, it's time to put our solidarity into practice, with concrete actions against those who benefit from this injust system. Those who build prisons, those who invest in colonial projects, and Canadian mining companies all have storefronts here in Montréal. We're the ones that produce wealth through our labour, whether it's paid or not. Here, as in the global South, it's high time that this wealth finally improve our living conditions. It's in our cities that money is traded, stained red by the blood of racism and global domination. Let's no longer let our passivity make us complicit. Let's rip up maps and borders, let's overthrow states and capital, and let's drive out the cops and border agents that protect them.