Topics – Politics
The way we organize and allocate power — in government, institutions, movements and communities — is at the root of all injustice. From foreign policy to crime and punishment, politics are central to the exercise of authority and oppression, but also to resistance, freedom and self-determination. Here you’ll find stories on imperialism, colonization, sovereignty, migration, electoral politics, law, and the political questions being asked by movements confronting these issues.
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Politics based on justice, diplomacy based on love
What Indigenous diplomatic traditions can teach us
Treaties are not about the cession of land but rather a commitment to stand with one another.
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Organizing for Gaza’s land and sea
Farmers and fishers on the front lines of a one-sided ceasefire
Gaza’s farmers and fishers are on the front lines of a military occupation intended to force them from their land and seaways. The Union of Agricultural Work Committees is organizing Palestinian farmers and fishers to support their efforts to remain on the land and sustain an independent agricultural economy. With the help of a growing international boycott against Israel, their strength is growing.
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Innu not idle as Plan Nord advances
Resistance to repackaged neoliberalism grows in Quebec’s North
As Pauline Marois’ Parti Québécois tries to repackage the Charest government’s neoliberal policies, resistance to the massive Plan Nord project is escalating among the northern Innu people and their allies. Even as band councils enter negotiations with the Canadian government, grassroots activists inspired by Idle No More are fighting for Indigenous autonomy and their traditional territories.
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Good ideas are not enough
Book review
Crass sees “collective liberation” – a term borrowed from an essay by bell hooks – as a “vision of what we want and a strategic framework to help us get there.”
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40 years of Briarpatch
A champagne magazine on a beer budget
There are two schools of thought. One is that government should be neutral and provide funds for magazines. The other is that if you’re reliant on government for funding, chances are that you’ll back off from criticism, which we never did, and we paid the price.
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Down in a Hole
Imprisoned activist Alex Hundert on incarceration and solitary confinement
This is the kind of place where Ashley Smith died in 2007. It is also the kind of place where Julie Bilotta gave birth on a cement floor last year.
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An outlier’s dream
Improving post-secondary education opportunities for Aboriginal inmates
“So what do you plan to do with your university education?” Rosa asked me after our restorative justice meeting in the chapel.
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compass/check/pulse point
Book review
Cynthia Dewi Oka’s first collection of poetry, nomad of salt and hard water (Dinah Press), drops anchor in the transoceanic struggle of bodies against borders
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A tour of home
Creative non-fiction honourable mention
Home n casa1 f; (for old people) residencia f de ancianos; (native land) patria
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Letter from the editor
Settler treaty card redux
It’s been an enormous pleasure to return to Briarpatch to guest edit this issue.
