solidarity

Below is a speech that trade union activist and feminst Winnie Ng is giving to the Toronto and York District Labour Council on June 4

During the spring of 1989, thousands of students and workers occupied the Tiananmen Square calling for an end to corruption, freedom of speech and political reform. At the height of the protest, 1 million plus people were demonstrating across the country with such fervent hope for human rights and democracy in China.  At first the Chinese government let the protest be then on June 4, 1989, they launched a bloody military crackdown where as many as 2,000 students and workers were killed.

I first met Rosalia a couple of years ago at an environmental demo in front of City Hall in Toronto.  She and two other  indigenous women from South American women were holding a Wipala, the flag I came to know as a symbol of the struggle in Bolivia.  As I was speaking, I talked about the meaning of the Wipala .  They were delighted that I knew what it was and came to talk to me afterwards.  Later we worked together in the Toronto Bolivia Solidarity and always had warm sisterly relationship.  Below very near her death, she is at a small rally to honour the Stolen Sisters, aboriginal women murdered and disappeared in Canada.  She was an amazing activist in many ways.  Most powerfully she always brought an indigenous feminist perspective to all our events, explaining the deeper meaning of whatever we were discussing.  She fully participating in the struggles she found in her adopted country as well as organzing solidarity with the struggles in Latin America.  She brought a wisdom and richness to our events that will be greatly missed. She was an extraordinary woman.

Yesterday I visited the Tamil sit-in in front of the US embassy.  After a couple of months of protesting in Ottawa and Toronto in the largest demonstrations in memory with little response from the government,  the Tamil community has decided to block University Avenue demanding that the Canadian and US government pressure Sri Lanka to stop killing civilians and allow humanitarian aid into to assist Tamils trapped in the war zone.  More than 6,500 ethnic Tamils are already dead according to the UN.

Acting in solidarity means supporting people in their struggle: being there for them. Sometimes, though, it feels like we're not really present when we're being there: we could have been there, or we could as easily have been somewhere else. Or, we think we're present, but others perceive us, actually, as being quite distant. There's a cookie-cutter quality to a lot of solidarity - today it's Palestine, tomorrow it's Six Nations - that often bothers me. Can you begin to build a full and equal relationship without learning what makes each of us, as individuals or collectives, what we are?