No Pride In Policing Coalition - From Tkaronto to Palestine and
I missed the speakers at the start of the demonstration.
Music composed for the timelapses is my own.
Music composed for the timelapses is my own.
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NewsTranscript
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01:30fight for liberation
02:00resistance, and rising to be part of them.
02:09As a clear Palestinian, I am firm on the right for my people
02:14to resist injustice, resist occupation, and resist colonization.
02:21And allow me please to say the following message to all those fighting for resistance
02:31everywhere in Arabic without translated phrases.
02:37This resistance, in the worst case, does not depend on the force that supports it,
02:44but on what we have in our hands.
02:47So, resistance, do not ask where you came from, what is your religion,
02:53who is your family, and what is your political, social, and cultural identity.
03:00And the translation is, resistance, in its ideal form,
03:14doesn't care which side its neighbors in the nation.
03:19As resistance, doesn't ask where you are from, what your religion is,
03:25who your family is, and what your political and social beliefs are.
03:30Resistance, lives in the hearts of those who have a true desire to liberate Palestine.
03:38I am a Palestinian citizen from Yuffie, Ontario.
03:49These are the same police forces that only a few years ago turned out to be nothing
03:56than a serial killer that was operating a few kilometers from here.
04:00I take honor of the parents who are in that camp.
04:04When they were called out over an afternoon,
04:08a lady in a tunic was shot for not providing them the information.
04:15These are the same police forces that have been targeting Palestinian merchants
04:20by citing hate speech.
04:22Apparently, I was saved to die from the back of a pickup truck
04:27going 20 kilometers an hour.
04:30I would like to present to the next panel,
04:32the staff and the demonstrators of their police forces.
04:41The police have never brought violence.
04:44They were the ones who scratched the first page of the law.
04:49The police have never brought violence.
04:54A lot of things have been going on here today.
04:58Tonight we see that burning.
05:00It's like 500 years.
05:02It will not end for us.
05:09Tonight we see the almighty American fire burning for our very eyes.
05:19The all-powerful state of Israel that is crippling and is revealed for what it always was, a
05:29genocidal subversive movement that is rapidly ending.
05:40And as we see all power restrictions falling, there is a rise of phases of resistance and
05:47liberation like what we're building here today together.
05:57Every time we insist on being able to express who we are, that we don't want to live in
06:03these constrictive identities, that is resistance.
06:08Every time that workers refuse a shitty contract, strike, and demand respect from the employer,
06:19that is resistance.
06:26Every time Palestinians fight an occupying army that's trying to annihilate them and
06:32steal their land, it's resistance and it's a cry for life.
06:39And the land beneath us, it also wants to be free.
06:45And when we stop caving over it and erecting these monuments to violence, the earth will
06:52break the concrete and bloom just like our struggles.
07:01These places like today, they are sacred.
07:05They belong to us and we should never give them up.
07:09Pride is what gives face of the struggle for freedom and it was sold off to capitalism,
07:16to companies like T.V. and others.
07:23Today these places where we fight for liberation, they're multiplying because the status quo
07:29is failing increasingly more and more of us.
07:33Let's build and protect these spaces, understand them for how important they are in leading
07:39to a world of freedom.
07:41Let's build and protect these spaces, understand them for how important they are in leading
07:48to a world of freedom.
07:50What do we want?
08:03Justice!
08:04When do we want it?
08:06Now!
08:07When do we want it?
08:09Justice!
08:10I'm a rank and file member of QB 3903 and I couldn't be prouder to stand here with all
08:16of you for no pride in the leaking bullets of abolitionist pride.
08:25QB 303 just came off of a grueling two month strike.
08:29A strike where we were negotiating both the terms of our contracts moving forward and
08:35the wages stolen from us due to Bill 124's three years of unconstitutional wage suppression.
08:46Our employer knew the significance of this contract, which is why by week two they had
08:52TPS officers assaulting union members and even arresting a picket captain for mischief.
09:02A criminal charge that has been abused by the TPS for the past seven months to target
09:09protesters against the genocide in Palestine.
09:17This is nothing less than fascism.
09:21Billitant labor unions are at the forefront of fights for queer and trans protections
09:26in the workplace and our right to organize through labor disruption is perhaps the most
09:33important legal tactic available to us in this fight.
09:38But when our lines were attacked, organizations like Pride Toronto remained silent.
09:48And worse than silent, they continued to cozy up to the police against the will of their
09:55general membership.
09:59It is clear that there is a massive discrepancy between what Pride Toronto thinks its celebrations
10:06need and what members of the queer and trans community actually need.
10:15While government continues to keep queer and trans people disproportionately houseless,
10:21food insecure, and subject to job and health care discrimination, Pride Toronto thinks
10:28freedom is best secured by collaborating with organizations like TD Bank, Loblaws, and the
10:35racist TPS.
10:40So as a newfound vehicle for class war, I say fuck them.
10:50We must refuse their attempts to transform our bodies into corporate billboards.
10:57We deserve so much better than what their vision of liberation looks like.
11:06Despite what PrideTO would have us believe, it is not rainbow marketing campaigns and
11:13the goodwill of multi-billion dollar pro-genocide corporations that will save us, but the strength
11:21of our collective power.
11:26It is not the militarized police force that will keep us safe, but our own commitments
11:32to agitating towards a socialist, towards a communist world.
11:41We must continue to deepen our political alliances across organizations that actually serve the
11:48interests of queer and trans working class people.
11:53We must build power amongst ourselves, and quickly, because the fight is already at our
11:59door, it has already begun.
12:02Fascism is here.
12:06But this is no reason to despair, my friends, because it is from the crucible of abolitionist,
12:13anti-capitalist struggle that we can truly find our pride this and every year.
12:21Fuck communal pride, fuck the DDS, and fuck the theft of our movement in service of class war.
12:31Abolition now, abolition forever.
12:34Please don't stop.
12:36Power to the people.
12:51One, two, three.
12:56Marie, please come forward.
12:58Thank you very much.
13:07Hello.
13:08I am Marie.
13:11This is Marvis Beach.
13:14I wanted to do something to mark our raid and to honor the people of West Africa,
13:23the West African colonial genocide, and also connecting to the history of Afghanistan
13:32and the many giants that have been happening around this genocide against Palestine.
13:41And so, we're going to ask of you if you would like to participate in a brief die-in.
13:48If you feel comfortable, lay on the ground, that's great.
13:51We also have red sashes that we've been handing out, red-shaded silencers,
13:57so folks can participate who don't want to lay on the ground.
14:04Hold them up, mark them, leave them behind to mark that we were here,
14:09we're not going anywhere, and that we will fight until everyone is free.
14:20My name is Rob.
14:22I'm a poet, and to time this die-in, I'm going to read two poems.
14:27So as we lay down, as we die, as we represent the lives of all those Palestinians
14:33who have died at the hands of the Israeli regime,
14:37I'm going to read two poems.
14:38The first is by the poet Samer Farah, a queer Palestinian poet.
14:43This is Portrait of Me at Bread Baking in Jerusalem.
14:49I was there, I was there, I was always there,
14:54a ball of dough inflating upon the saj until it fell into warmth.
15:00I was there, a breakfast laid out under the olive trees after an early morning harvest.
15:07I was there, filled with salty cheese while fish bobbed for watermelons in the icy lake.
15:15There, by the church in Idrith, to serve alongside figs,
15:20trees never predicting they were soon to be orphaned.
15:24I was there, left on the table next to still-worn cups of tea,
15:30the shuffle of keys being stowed.
15:33I was there, settlers setting fire to land.
15:37I was there, trunks falling to soot.
15:40I was there, earth mourning the bodied ash.
15:45I was there, a people dispossessed.
15:48I was always there, I am always here,
15:52the first made along riverbanks, grains older than settler, than state,
15:58than tanks, than borders, than bombs, than British, than empire,
16:04and still never leave the hands that make me.
16:10This second poem is by June Jordan,
16:13Incifada Incantation, poem 8 for BBL.
16:18I said I loved you and I wanted genocide to stop.
16:23I said I loved you and I wanted affirmative action and reaction.
16:29I said I loved you and I wanted music out the windows.
16:33I said I loved you and I wanted nobody thirst and nobody, nobody cold.
16:40I said I loved you and I wanted, I wanted justice under my nose.
16:45I said I loved you and I wanted boundaries to disappear.
16:50I wanted nobody roll back the trees.
16:54I wanted nobody take away daybreak.
16:57I wanted nobody freeze all the people on their knees.
17:02I wanted you, I wanted your kiss on the skin of my soul.
17:07And now you say you love me and I stand despite the trillion treacheries of sand.
17:14You say you love me and I hold the longing of the winter in my hand.
17:19You say you love me and I commit to friction and the undertaking of the pearl.
17:26You say you love me, you say you love me, and I have begun,
17:32I begin to believe maybe, maybe you do.
17:37I am tasting myself in the mouth of the sun.
17:42Thank you.
17:44Applause.
17:51Thank you, thank you Robin Lee.
17:54I'd like everybody to stand and we've got a gentleman coming now.
17:59Thank you.
18:01Thank you so much.
18:03And we're moving.
18:06Um.
18:28The language that was stolen from me by many of the people in there,
18:32their ancestors here in this space.
18:35I wanted to bring messages and greetings from Waterloo Region.
18:40Applause.
18:43Unfortunately I'm not very proud of Waterloo Region.
18:46I'm also affiliated with the University of Waterloo,
18:48who serves Gaza House Encampment,
18:51a trespass notice on National Indigenous Peoples Day.
18:55Applause.
18:57And they're suing the students for $1.5 million dollars in student loans.
19:02Applause.
19:04We can all agree the corporations, the cities, municipalities and regions
19:08and the banks situated on stolen land make far more than that
19:12and they have absolutely no reason to take from the very marginalized
19:16and oppressed students that they so uplift and say they're educating.
19:21It is the exact opposite of what they're doing.
19:25I'm also part of a Waterloo Region who Grand River Transit
19:29kiboshed the pride wrap
19:32because there was a Palestinian person on it
19:35and there was a land-backed Indigenous trans person
19:38and they quietly pulled the Muslim person and the First Nations person
19:42on the selection committee just before they asked the artist to change the design.
19:47Applause.
19:49The erasure of Palestinians,
19:52the erasure of First Nations people on stolen land
19:55and the funding of a genocide on stolen land.
19:59Nobody pays reparations to any of the First Nations
20:03that the lands you are standing on.
20:05Nobody pays rent.
20:07And it's not okay to include us with your rainbow stuff
20:11if you're going to marginalize other people.
20:14There are queer people in Palestine.
20:17Applause.
20:22I am very angry.
20:24I am not so wagatsimuni at all.
20:27When I think about my children,
20:29when I think about all the people that work in these buildings
20:32who wake up every day and continue to fund a genocide on other lands
20:38and they go home and look at themselves in the mirror
20:41and they look at their children in the mirror
20:44and what will you do in generations from now when you have nothing?
20:48When you have nothing, when you have no people, you have no values,
20:52you have absolutely nothing but greed and money left to soothe your heart
20:57when you go to sleep at night.
20:59I think it's shameful that you're conducting your business on stolen lands
21:02and you're continuing to fund genocide both on the lands and in another place
21:07and you have absolutely no qualms about that.
21:10It hurts my heart.
21:12It rips out my soul.
21:14I can't look at my children's faces.
21:17And I would think to myself, what would I say if I did nothing?
21:21And these people continually walk into the places of unethical investment
21:26and corporate colonialism on stolen lands.
21:31And I'm going to give it to Anne-Marie before we also bring words from Dan from Bassy Narrows.
21:39Thank you so much.
21:54So I think I want to take some time today to explain
21:58how all of these things that have been manifested by the state
22:04is actually white supremacy.
22:08It is the white man that is causing all of this shit.
22:13Racism.
22:15Racial capitalism.
22:17Oppression.
22:18Death.
22:19It is the white man.
22:21And it's financed by Royal Bank of Canada.
22:24It's financed by TD.
22:26It's financed by Social Bank.
22:28And all of those lovely banks who actually make banks on the backs of black people in slavery.
22:37What we see manifested here today is the direct result of the slavery
22:43of millions and millions and millions of African people who are now in the diaspora
22:48and we can no longer be on our lands.
22:52And it's all protected by them.
22:58They are the protectors of the white man.
23:00They are the protectors of the white man's property.
23:03They are the protectors of corporations that destroy Mother Earth.
23:10For what?
23:11For fucking profits?
23:15They want to destroy us?
23:17They want to destroy the land and everything that sustains us?
23:21Because of money?
23:23Come on guys.
23:25Look at you.
23:27Because you have nothing that is sustainable.
23:30We are on a path of crisis.
23:34And all they want to do is make more fucking money.
23:39And the people don't want them doing that.
23:42That originally comes on the backs of slavery.
23:46We think about what's happening in the Democratic of Congo.
23:50We think about what's happening in Sudan, in Haiti, in Somalia, in Palestine.
23:56All of it is connected to what is happening right now on Turtle Island.
24:00Trying to steal the land.
24:02We're putting it to our capital growth.
24:04We need lessons.
24:06Lessons.
24:10We need violence.
24:12Fuck all the banks.
24:13Fuck the police.
24:16We are not fools anymore.
24:20We are fighting for our liberation.
24:22And that means the white man has to fall.
24:40From Dan of Grassy Narrows.
24:43Grassy Narrows people are powerful leaders in the movement for indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice.
24:48They have shown that together we can fight for justice against all odds and make real gains.
24:54Grassy Narrows secured a historic no-logging on their territory for the next 10 years.
24:59And built a much more sustainable life.
25:03We have the longest running indigenous blockade in Canadian history.
25:07Which has helped foster indigenous resistance across Turtle Island and saved 15 million trees from being cut.
25:18But so much is still needed to right the wrong of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows.
25:22In September 2024, community members and leaders will travel 1,700 kilometres from Grassy Narrows to Toronto.
25:30To demand that Ontario and Canada compensate everyone in Grassy Narrows fairly for the mercury crisis.
25:41Respect the Grassy Narrows indigenous protected area and end mining and logging plans in Grassy Narrows territory.
25:50Support Grassy Narrows in restoring their community and way of life from the damage that mercury has done.
25:57And I will end by saying that it's funny that they think that we're not doing enough.
26:02We're not all here. We're not doing things.
26:05Because we gather in numbers. We have strength in numbers.
26:08And if you don't respect our existence, you'll expect our resistance.
26:17Thank you.
26:19We have a tough movement here.
26:21So, can we...
26:27We have a tough movement here.
26:33I'm Shush. I'm a black and indigenous mother and physician living, working and raising three sons in downtown Toronto.
26:41I'm an inter-generational survivor of the Indian residential school system through my mother.
26:48And the daughter of a Tunisian father.
26:50And I am a funding member of Doctors for Two Funding the Police.
26:56As we much as celebrate so-called Canada Day tomorrows and Pride today, we are here to reflect on what it means to live in this country, what it means to be free, and what it means to be a state, and what it means to live in parallel universes on stolen lands.
27:17This country was built with the explicit non-consent of Indigenous and Black people, in the colony of a democratic monarchy whose sole aim was to extract resources of the land from maximum profits of the Empire.
27:31Shame.
27:34The total negation of civilizations living here already, diverse civilizations that embrace advanced ceremonial practices, that honor two-thirds people, and that revere Mother Earth.
27:49Settler colonialism relied on the total dehumanization of Indigenous, Black, and queer people to advance the hoarding of resources and amassing of wealth.
28:01Shame.
28:03And nothing of this oppression could be possible, nor will continue to be possible, without the police.
28:10The police are dangerous for our community.
28:14Pride originated as an anti-police liberation movement.
28:21Polices, like circulation, banks, and genocide-supporting governments, have no place in Pride.
28:32Our community is being under-protected and over-policed, as colonial and corporate interests are prioritized.
28:43Black and Black people are 20 times more likely to be physically shot by the Toronto Police.
28:50Indigenous women, girls, and LGBTQ people face astonishing rates of violence.
28:58We are 12 to 19 times more likely to be whipped or murdered than anyone else in Canada.
29:05While at the same time, yes, shame, and while at the same time, we make up more than 85% of incarcerated females in some provinces.
29:14Shame.
29:17In 2021, when survivors took to the streets to mourn the children killed in residential schools, the police came out in full force.
29:27Intruding on the deep grief felt by our community.
29:31When I asked the police to step back and give survivors space to grieve,
29:36I was told by an officer in the background of an ongoing genocide of our relatives,
29:41don't worry, I'll make sure we're nowhere close when you get murdered.
29:48That is a fact I already knew.
29:51Police don't keep us safe, we keep us safe.
29:58As a physician, I see every day that the safest communities are not those who are the most abused.
30:06They are the communities with the most violence.
30:09Poverty, homelessness, mental and physical illness are our greatest concern for public safety.
30:15And the ever-increasing police budget comes with no taste in evidence.
30:22The city spends an astonishing amount of public funds on armor, weapons, drones, and military equipment.
30:30Wildly disproportionate use of force is used to evict, unarm, unhouse people from public parks,
30:38to establish safe fires and picnic ceremonies by indigenous people on their own remote lands,
30:44and to criminalize the Free Palestine Movement.
30:49So, we do not need police in our rallies, and we certainly do not need them in our liberation movement.
31:01We do not need a way to validate.
31:04In Canada, we are spending $45 million every day on policing.
31:12And more on the days when police are said to antagonize, surveil, and brutalize peaceful protests against genocide.
31:22Whose interests are they protecting? Not ours.
31:28We should be caring for our environment, resourcing our public transportation,
31:33supporting our children by funding school, libraries, child care, and people activity,
31:39addressing our housing and homeless crisis,
31:42and mitigating poverty for the thousands of families and people in dire straits,
31:46including the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people in this city,
31:5292% of whom live below the low income cut-off line.
31:58This is settler colonialism.
32:01People are in crisis, and the people and the police are making it worse.
32:07They are driving poverty and entrenching racial hierarchies that make liberation movement so difficult to fight.
32:15And I want to remind you before I end,
32:17that even if we were magically to find an additional $2 billion to address the many unmet needs in Toronto,
32:25we would still have to defund and abolish the police.
32:29No crime and genocide.
32:43Land back.
32:47Abolish the police.
32:50Free Palestine.
32:55Free the people, free the land.
32:59From Gaza to Sudan.
33:33We need to ensure that violence eradicates capitalism,
33:36because every single part of Toronto,
33:38including the peaceful non-profit,
33:40the queer arts festivals,
33:42are funded by voter opportunity,
33:44anti-black money,
33:45and the suffrage system.
33:46Celebrating the queer strife in the West cannot be financed by $2 billion.
33:50Neither that nor the ongoing genocide against Palestinian people,
33:53or the West's most definitive anti-suffrage movement,
33:56can be won through suffrage.
33:58Our ongoing struggles for queer liberation
34:00are tied with all anti-colonial,
34:02anti-imperialist struggles for liberty,
34:05for liberation,
34:06by any means necessary.
34:08We cannot allow mass conversion to an LGBT de-organization
34:13to distract us from the right to participate in,
34:16and profit from,
34:18occupation,
34:19settler colonialism,
34:20and genocide.
34:22While we echo the call for divestment from war profiteers
34:25and weapons manufacturers,
34:27under imperialism,
34:28divestment is not enough.
34:30The entire capitalist infrastructure
34:32is built off of the suffering of colonized people,
34:35and true liberation can only come from the abolition of capitalism
34:39and the death of imperialism.
34:43We, as Christian abolitionists,
34:45are part of the global struggle against imperialism.
34:47In the months since the beginning of the revolutionary Al-Aqsa blood battle,
34:51we have seen more visible state repression
34:53than Palestine's solidarity organizers.
34:55While we experience political repression
34:57because we are demanding the end of genocide,
35:00simultaneously there is everyday personalization
35:03happening against people who are black,
35:05indigenous,
35:06low income,
35:07drug users,
35:08and other police groups
35:09because of the state's racist war on war,
35:11or what they call a war on crime.
35:16Police violence in Toronto is not an aberration.
35:19None of this is new or unique.
35:21It may just be more in your face these days
35:23because it's happening to people who usually
35:25wouldn't be arrested or brutalized by cops.
35:28Our movement for power, security, and liberation
35:30must continue to index policing.
35:32We must be in solidarity with all colonized people.
35:35The state community, just like Israel,
35:37is a separate body,
35:38occupied solely with its headland,
35:40so the way it functions will always be violent.
35:43Policing forces here have raised criticism
35:46for working with the IOM.
35:48However, ending this arrestment
35:50will not make these police forces
35:51any less instruments of occupation and genocide.
35:55Police forces are not bad for working with the IOM.
35:58They work with the IOM
35:59because they share the same purpose.
36:03This is what we came here to say.
36:05TPS.
36:06TPP.
36:07IOM.
36:08We're all the same.
36:10TPS.
36:11IOM.
36:12We're all the same.
36:13They all fight counter-violence
36:15with their libertarian movement,
36:16putting their bodies and lives on the line
36:18in daily confrontation
36:20with the oppressor,
36:21a Zionist popular policy authority
36:23and reactionary and imperialist resistance.
36:26The Zionist occupation
36:27and popular policy authority,
36:29especially,
36:30target members of the IOM
36:31who resist in an effort
36:32to crush their revolutionary potential.
36:40In addition to the escalated genocide in Gaza,
36:42the occupation and its imperialist popular allies
36:45have imprisoned TFFP resistance leaders
36:47Ahmad Sadat and Khalida Duran,
36:49Hamas commander Abdullah Barghouti,
36:51and at the West Bank,
36:52targeted Palestinian Islamic Jihad TV
36:54and TVa 4K.
36:56For colonel Islands of Palestine,
36:57it is proper to demand the release
36:59of so-called non-violent offenders
37:01who appear not to have taken
37:03revolutionary action against the state,
37:05but we must demand the release
37:06of all prisoners,
37:07including the steadfast resistance fighters
37:09who take up arms against their oppressors.
37:13At the start of Pride Month,
37:15the President apologized
37:16in Al-Qaeda's statement
37:18reflecting on Kurdish attacks and genocide.
37:20I would like to share an excerpt from it.
37:22It is time to reframe our collective understanding
37:25of sexual and gender violence
37:26carried by Zionist enemies
37:28in this genocide and beyond
37:29as an inherent pillar of its settler colonial project.
37:32The footage that we have been witnessing regularly
37:35of Israeli children posing with their rainbow flags
37:37and other Western gay symbols
37:39atop the ruins of our society,
37:41alongside genocidaries
37:42boasting of their sexual abuse,
37:44torture, and rape of Palestinian men,
37:46women, and children,
37:48only affirms what the Palestinian care movement
37:50has been saying for decades.
37:52The Zionist colonial enterprise
37:54is predicated on the sexual abuse of Palestinians.
37:57As often an anti-colonial,
37:59anti-capitalist,
38:00or fear-striken group,
38:01they understand that our reality
38:02is not only merely an accident,
38:04but an essential epitome.
38:06The outlook is built upon the demands
38:08of Kurdish and Palestinian
38:10and the steadfast Palestinian movement.
38:13Do you want anti-colonial fear
38:15to cut to decades?
38:16Reflate the narrative
38:17and set the tone for the conversation,
38:19this time about Palestine.
38:21What is happening in Palestine is genocide.
38:23Israel is a settler colony.
38:25Palestinians are illiterally occupied
38:27and colonized society.
38:28Israel does not have the right
38:30to defend itself against attacks
38:32by the occupiers,
38:33while Palestinians do have the right
38:35to resist their occupation.
38:41In the words of the PSLT,
38:43escalate, organize, institutionalize.
38:45The Palestinian resistance
38:47and all that we're fighting for
38:48to colonize people
38:49are at the forefront of the revolution.
38:51Only they can build
38:52a deathblow to imperialism.
38:54Those of us in the imperial core
38:56have a responsibility to,
38:57at the will of God,
38:58escalate by all means and methods
39:00and all our means
39:01to destabilize our power from within.
39:06Our responsibility is to decolonize
39:09so that our colonial movement
39:11cannot begin and end
39:12with the current escalating genocide in Gaza.
39:15We refuse to accept a return to normal,
39:17to the apartheid regime
39:18accepted by the Palestinian Authority
39:20and the military of world wars.
39:22We will fight for the end of occupation
39:24of all of Palestine,
39:25from the river to the sea.
39:27We will fight for the end of imperialism
39:29and the settler colonial Zionist entity.
39:31We will fight for the abolition
39:33of all forms of prison and policing
39:35from Turtle Island to Palestine.
39:37I present now
39:39the Chancellor of the Republic,
39:41Lord William Shakespeare.
39:47Thank you.
39:50Congratulations.
39:53We have one more speaker,
39:55Nicole Newmont.
39:57Please stand outside.
40:03I present the Grand Solidarity Collective.
40:08I want to start by saying
40:09that today is the anniversary
40:10of a dark day in Sudan's history.
40:12On this day in 1989,
40:14the Islamist military government,
40:15which ruled Sudan for over 50 years
40:17under Amir al-Bashir,
40:19took power.
40:20And in 2019,
40:21the Sudanese revolution
40:22ended its rule.
40:27Glory to the martyrs
40:28of the Sudanese revolution
40:29and to all civilians
40:33and to all civilians
40:34that have lost their lives
40:35in this current war
40:36and in the past ones.
40:37May all the wounded be healed
40:38and all those soon to return
40:40from Sudan to Congo
40:41to Palestine to Haiti and beyond.
40:44We are the Sudan Solidarity Collective.
40:46We are anti-war
40:47and we are pro-peace.
40:49We come in response
40:50to the outbreak of war in Sudan
40:52in the evening of last year
40:54and have been organizing
40:55to align mutual aid efforts
40:56and to educate about Sudan.
40:58We want to see a new era in Sudan
41:00and we know this struggle
41:01is connected to other
41:02anti-slavery,
41:03anti-incarceration struggles
41:05for border, police,
41:06and state abolition.
41:08For indigenous sovereignty
41:09from Palestine to Toto Island,
41:11for clear liberation
41:12against resource extraction
41:14in the Congo,
41:15for climate justice
41:16and so much more.
41:18The war in Sudan
41:19is between two factions
41:20of a military regime
41:21that left power
41:22in October of 2021.
41:24This is a counter-revolutionary war
41:26that is attempting
41:27to dismantle
41:28a powerful, popular revolution
41:30in Toto and Haiti
41:31and to overthrow
41:32the dictatorship
41:33of Abu Bakr al-Bashir.
41:34The backbone of the revolution
41:35consisted of neighborhood
41:37and district communities
41:38of which there are
41:398,000 across the country
41:40but also independent
41:41farmer and labor unions,
41:43youth and student formations,
41:45queer and feminist organizers.
41:48This revolution showed us
41:49that we can dream
41:50and fight for a world
41:51outside the nation-state
41:52that is inherently violent,
41:54ethno-nationalist,
41:55hetero-empirical,
41:56and extractive.
41:58As my great comrades said earlier,
42:00on one side of the war in Sudan
42:02we have the right
42:03to support forces
42:04formerly known
42:05as the Djenjerites
42:06who were responsible
42:07for the genocide
42:08in Baghdad,
42:09who started in 2003
42:10led by General Khamenei
42:12and its allied militias
42:13whose leaders
42:14control much of the illicit
42:15gold trade in the country
42:17which was funneled
42:18through the gold markets
42:19of the UAE
42:20and sold to Russia
42:21and other countries.
42:22Sudan is the world's
42:2312th largest producer
42:24of gold,
42:27the second in Africa,
42:29and the UAE
42:30is its main trading partner
42:31and is now providing
42:32critical military support
42:33to the RSF
42:34as it extracts our gold.
42:36That's why
42:37there have been calls
42:38to boycott
42:39the UAE.
42:40The RSF was legitimized
42:41by something
42:42that was called
42:43the Khatun Process
42:44in 2014,
42:45a process in which
42:46the European Union
42:47funded the RSF
42:48to the tune
42:49of $200 million
42:50to militarize
42:51the border
42:52between Sudan
42:53and Libya
42:54in order to
42:55impede the migration
42:56of East Africans
42:57into Europe.
42:58Thank you.
43:02The EU paid
43:03the RSF
43:04to externalize
43:05its border,
43:06the EU legitimized
43:07one.
43:08The European border
43:09controlled
43:10quite literally
43:11the legitimized one.
43:12And on the other
43:13side of this war,
43:14we had the Sudan forces
43:15and allied with
43:16countries led
43:17by General Bikram
43:18who controlled
43:19large sectors
43:20of Sudan's economy
43:21close to two
43:22major companies
43:23in rubber and
43:24livestock,
43:25ink,
43:26cement,
43:27real estate
43:28and construction
43:29which are in turn
43:30backed by gold
43:31and silver.
43:32In March,
43:33the Sudan and Iran
43:34recently started
43:35supporting the
43:36army of General Bikram
43:37and in an attempt
43:38to challenge
43:39the power
43:40and wealth
43:41of the EU
43:42and Russia
43:43are accumulating
43:44in this war,
43:45the RSF
43:46and SFF
43:47worked to
43:48achieve
43:49peace in Yemen
43:50and decided
43:51to assist
43:52with help,
43:53thereby expanding
43:54their term
43:55in national security.
43:56The Saudis
43:57and the Maldives
43:58have invested
43:59a combined
44:00of
44:01oil,
44:02gas
44:03and
44:04chemical
44:05resources
44:06to
44:07achieve
44:08peace
44:09in Yemen.
44:10Here in
44:11Canada,
44:12there are
44:13PR,
44:14weapons,
44:15manufacturing
44:16and mining
44:17companies
44:18that are
44:19implicated
44:20as well.
44:21The month
44:22of August
44:23was a
44:24massive
44:25PR campaign
44:26led by
44:27ex-Israeli
44:28intelligence
44:29and
44:30a
44:31revolutionary
44:32war
44:33that is
44:34meant
44:35to
44:36protect
44:37the
44:38interests
44:39of the
44:40Sudanese
44:41state
44:42and
44:43business
44:44elements
44:45and
44:46their
44:47international
44:48partners
44:49and
44:50allies.
44:51Sudan's
44:52civilian
44:53population
44:54of 45
44:55million
44:56is now
44:57caught in
44:58a
44:59global
45:00crisis.
45:01The
45:02war
45:03has
45:04produced
45:05the
45:06largest
45:07internal
45:08displacement
45:09crisis
45:10in the
45:11world
45:12with
45:13over
45:1410
45:15million
45:16people
45:17and
45:18yet
45:19no
45:20country
45:21has
45:22issued
45:23free
45:24expedited
45:25visas
45:26for
45:27the
45:28people
45:29of
45:30Sudan.
45:31The
45:32war
45:33has
45:34produced
45:35the
45:36largest
45:37internal
45:38displacement
45:39crisis
45:40in the
45:41world
45:42with
45:43over
45:4410
45:45million
45:46people
45:47and
45:48yet
45:49no
45:50country
45:51has
45:52issued
45:53free
45:54expedited
45:55visas
45:56for
45:57the
45:58people
45:59of
46:00Sudan.
46:01The
46:02war
46:03has
46:04produced
46:05the
46:06largest
46:07internal
46:08displacement
46:09crisis
46:10in the
46:11world
46:12with
46:13over
46:1410
46:15million
46:16people
46:17and
46:18yet
46:19no
46:20country
46:21has
46:22issued
46:23free
46:24expedited
46:25visas
46:26for
46:27the
46:28people
46:29of
46:30Sudan.
46:31The
46:32war
46:33has
46:34produced
46:35the
46:36largest
46:37internal
46:38displacement
46:39crisis
46:40in the
46:41world
46:42with
46:43over
46:4410
46:45million
46:46people
46:47and
46:48yet
46:49no
46:50country
46:51has
46:52issued
46:53free
46:54expedited
46:55visas
46:56for
46:57the
46:58people
46:59of
47:00Sudan.
47:01The
47:02war
47:03has
47:04produced
47:05the
47:06largest
47:07internal
47:08displacement
47:09crisis
47:10in the
47:11world
47:12with
47:13over
47:1410
47:15million
47:16people
47:17and
47:18yet no
47:19country
47:20has
47:21issued
47:22free
47:24expedited
47:25visas
47:26for
47:27the
47:28people
47:29of
47:30Sudan.
47:31The
47:32war
47:33has
47:34produced
47:35the
47:36largest
47:37internal
47:38displacement
47:39crisis
47:40in the
47:41world
47:42with
47:43over
47:4410
47:45million
47:46people
47:47and
47:48yet no
47:49country
47:50has
47:51issued
47:53free
47:54expedited
47:55visas
47:56for
47:57the
47:58people
47:59of
48:00Sudan.
48:01The
48:02war
48:03has
48:04produced
48:05the
48:06largest
48:07internal
48:08displacement
48:09crisis
48:10in the
48:11world
48:12with
48:13over
48:1410
48:15million
48:16people
48:17and
48:18yet no
48:19country
48:20has
48:21issued
48:22free
48:23expedited
48:24visas
48:25for
48:26the
48:27people
48:28of
48:29Sudan.
48:30The
48:31war
48:32has
48:33produced
48:34the
48:35largest
48:36internal
48:37displacement
48:38crisis
48:39in the
48:40world
48:41with
48:42over
48:4310
48:44million
48:45people
48:46and
48:47yet no
48:48country
48:49has
48:50issued
48:51free
48:52expedited
48:53visas
48:54for
48:55the
48:56people
48:57of
48:58Sudan.
48:59The
49:00war
49:01has
49:02produced
49:03the
49:04largest
49:05internal
49:06displacement
49:07crisis
49:08in the
49:09world
49:10with
49:11over
49:1210
49:13million
49:14people
49:15and
49:16yet no
49:17country
49:18has
49:19issued
49:20free
49:21expedited
49:22visas
49:23for
49:24the
49:25people
49:26of
49:27Sudan.
49:28The
49:29war
49:30has
49:31produced
49:32the
49:33largest
49:34internal
49:35displacement
49:36crisis
49:37in the
49:38world
49:39with
49:40over
49:4110
49:42million
49:43people
49:44and
49:45yet no
49:46country
49:47has
49:48issued
49:49free
49:50expedited
49:51visas
49:52for
49:53the
49:54people
49:55of
49:56Sudan.
49:57The
49:58war
49:59has
50:00produced
50:01the
50:02largest
50:03internal
50:04displacement
50:05crisis
50:06in the
50:07world
50:08with
50:09over
50:1010
50:11million
50:12people
50:13and
50:14yet no
50:15country
50:16has
50:17issued
50:18free
50:19expedited
50:20visas
50:21for
50:22the
50:23people
50:24of
50:25Sudan.