The Militant - September 15, 2003 -- Arson attack on Native fishing boats in Canada divides toilers

Vol. 67/No. 31 September 15, 2003

Arson attack on Native
fishing boats in Canada
divides toilers
(Reply to a Reader column)

BY GRANT HARGRAVE
In a letter, Daniel Desbois says he disagrees with a number of things in the article “Behind Canada’s fishing crisis” published in the July 14 Militant, “such as the reason given for the arson attack” on fishing boats and processing plants on May 3 of this year. The article reported that “four fishing boats and two fish processing plants in Shippagan, New Brunswick, were set on fire by a racist mob of some 200 crab fishers and others. Also a federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) office was ransacked.” One of the boats belonged to the Big Cove Mi’kmaq Indians. The other boats belonged to the DFO but were slated to be turned over to Mi’kmaqs.

“The arson attack was organized in response to the federal government’s decision to cut snow crab quotas by 5,000 tons,” the article stated, “a more than 20 percent reduction from the previous year, and to allocate 15 percent of the quota to natives and other fishers who are out of work due to the depletion of cod.”

As one of the authors of the article, I agree with Desbois’s point that not all crab fishermen are opposed to the government giving a quota to Natives. The crab fishermen’s associations are on record as supporting this. And during the visit to the Gaspésie peninsula that I was part of, Militant reporters saw examples of collaboration between traditional crab fishers and Natives. For example, one of the Mi’kmaq fishers we interviewed, Daryl Patnode, explained that the traditional crab fisher who sold his quota and boat to the Mi’kmaq, because he wanted to retire, had stayed on for five years to help train the Mi’kmaq so that they can get their captain’s licenses.

It is an undisputed fact, however, that the first response to the federal government’s decisions by a group of crab fishers and associates was directed against Native property. This can’t be ignored or papered over. It needs to be described for what it was—a racist act led by capitalist fishers against other, smaller, and oppressed fishers. It is worth noting that to this day, there have been no arrests or charges laid following the arson attacks.

It was a deadly error for any crab-boat crew members to be caught up in this racist riot by some traditional crab fishers. It turned these workers against other toilers of the sea who are oppressed and exploited and who in fact are natural allies in the fight against the real source of the problem.

From the first sentence, the article explained that those responsible for the fishing crisis are the big companies such as Fish Products International and Clearwater who, with their factory trawlers, only had short-term profits in mind instead of long-term sustainability. In this endeavor, they were aided, abetted, and highly subsidized by the federal government that defends the interests of the ruling rich. This is how the capitalist system works. The only solution for working people and other exploited producers, such as working farmers and small fishermen, is to unite to take power out of the hands of the capitalists and organize society for human needs and not profits. What happened in Shippagan went in exactly the opposite direction.

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