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A Proposal to Un-Occupy Nova Scotia

by Ifo Ikeda

See video

On November 12, a rally was held at Parade Square in solidarity with Occupy Nova Scotia. 

Ifo Ikeda spoke at the rally, and offered the crowd a short history lesson on colonialism.  He reminded the group that they were standing on occupied Mi'kmaq territory and suggested that Occupy Nova Scotia be renamed UnOccupy Nova Scotia. 

Thank you to Andrea Stewart for this video. 

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Topics: Indigenous
62 words

Comments

"Un-Occupy NS"

The British East India company was not founded 800 years ago. It was founded in the 1600s.

Was the intention of this odd aside to suggest that all we 'white' protesters and supporters 'go home'? It read that way and leads to obviously ludicrous conclusions. By all means, let us bring attention and support to the ongoing horrible way we are not accommodating or supporting the First Nations and aboriginal peoples around the world in taking their rightful place in our society.

But to suggest that any non-Mi'qmaw peoples don't belong here, if in fact that's what the speaker was saying, is byond ridiculous ... talk about trying to jump on a boat that's long ago set sail!!

I appreciate the importance of opening the floor to the variety of voices that make up the movement, but this doesn't help other people understand the point of the protests and allows Occupy to be dismissed as a bunch of  idealistic dirty hippies and stupid, uninformed liberals.

Don't even get me started on the next speaker: "let's move to all local currencies. I don't really understand it, but..."

It was not a corporation it clearly was a company

It was not a corporation it clearly was a company...Google 'Creation of first corporation'...

The idea today is for the 99 per cent to live in harmony and love for each other and the natural world and for the one percent to also do the same..

The victims of colonialism is all of us on this planet..

Terminology of the day

If you take the term company in context of the period, it seems very similar to what we would consider a corporation today.  'Royal charter' sounds a lot like 'registration', given to a 'company' (the company you keep), to form a body to do business, business which usually involved a government sanctioned monopoly.  It could be argued that corporations go back at least a 1000 years when using this type of analysis.  The City of London Corporation (which some could argue is one of the centers of financial power in the world, especially today) claims  to have existed in one form or another prior to its first recorded charter in 1067, and is recognized as such.  So when he (Ifo Ikeda) refers to an 800 year old corporation, I believe he is only applying todays terminology to old world practices which he sees in todays world.  On the other hand he may just have mis-spoken and meant 400 years, describing the East India Company specifically.  But the observation that the Incorporated City of London became what is now a dominant institution in the world of finance (housing both the legal and financial centers of the western world) is certainly important in the context of the Occupy Movement, and I believe that is what he is refering to.

When he refers to decolonization, i don't believe he is refering to living human beings (but you'd have to ask the author, and I suggest you do that), I believe he was refering to corporate colonialism.   To attempt to de-colonize any of the worlds counties would certainly be impossible.  But to give back freedoms to people which have been stolen under corporations (governments are corporations) is well within the grasp of a united, informed group of human beings. 

I have to stop here, work calls in about 5 minutes.

 

Does not matter..the fact is

Does not matter..the fact is that the word was not inexistance until the first corporation created in 1912..

we can not change the past we can only understand it and then make changes for the future to make things better for all.. We need to fix this planet with love and truth. The occupy movement is about all of us doing that together.

I hate the colonial history as much as anyone... But we are here today and we are all native to this planet...we need to fix the horrible problems unleashed onto this planet by criminal corporations..

We are all in this together..

I'm all for it!

I'm all for the name change... (Un)Occupy Nova Scotia, with the (Un) in brackets to respect the origin of the movement.

Until we acknowledge just how deep this problem goes with the origin of present day Canada in the Fur Trade and subjugation of Native Peoples then we won't be able to solve our problems. Most wars and colonial designs are about resources and resources should belong to everyone! They are the commons provided by nature, not for corporate use but rather public trust. 

We need to de-colonize our minds and hearts and let all people speak their piece until there is understanding.

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