Richard D. Wolff

Here in Canada, as in the US, we created our economy out of a foundation of stolen land and resources. Although we did not steal human labour on the same scale as America did, we still participated in slavery and genocide. Much of the land (including the land on which our Parliament stands, as well as the school at which I work) is unceded, meaning that it was never handed over for white settlement, and no treaty or other document exists that gives up ownership. Settlers just......settled, but without any real legal or moral justification, even under biased European law systems. Something like 75% of the province of Ontario is unceded, 90% of Quebec, and pretty much all of Nova Scotia, as well as most of B.C. The UN has repeatedly told both the US and Canada that these lands should be given back. The UNDRIP, (United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), which both the US and Canada signed (under pressure), along with most of the rest of the world, states unequivocally that the rights of Indigenous peoples includes land rights and control over the resources in traditional territories. Can you talk a bit about what the actual adoption of these policies would be like from an economic standpoint? I'd like to hear more on your show about the origins of North American economies in general, based as they are on the theft of labour and land.