Language

Whose Autonomy?

Submitted January 28, 2005 - 5:13 pm by Sean Donahue
Thanks, Luis, for putting forward a very important critique that reminds us all of the importance of really examining the situation before making a stand based on an abstract principle.

This all reminds me a lot of an aspect of the Quebec secession controversy several years ago that got very little covereage in the U.S.

The Quebecquois were demanding autonomy in order to prevent their culture from being swamped by Anglo-Canadian culture . . . But in order to secure economic independence and viability they were prepared to build hydroelectic dams flooding most of the traditional territory of the Cree nation.  The plan was that the dams would provide cut-rate electricity that would then attract aluminum smelters to the region.

The Grand Council of the Cree voted that if Quebec seceded they in turn would more forcibly assert their sovereignty and secede from Quebec, and made a strategic alliance with the Canadian government in hopes that Canada would defend its land in a confrontation with Quebec.

I got into huge fights with some fellow anarchists whose knee jerk reaction was to support any autonomy movement regardless of its goals and consequences.  

In the end everyone lost out.  The Quebecquois lost their referendum.  But Hydro Quebec pushed forward with the dam project.  And in a move controversial within their community, the Grand Council of the Cree decided that they couldn't win a struggle against such a big company and negotiated a settlement in exchange for funds for tribal programs.

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