| Sumario: | This article offers a critical interpretation of the state and media reactions to the crisis at Oka, Québec in the summer of 1990. Drawing on Marx's analysis of Bonapartism, or fascism, it is argued that the Canadian state was willing to use excessive force to suppress the Mohawk dissidents. Its fascist methods also included racial demonizing and using the basest impulses of angry crowds to intimidate Natives. Mainstream media sources played an unmistakable role in channelling this racist violence against the rebelling Aboriginals. The function of competing nationalisms (Mohawk, Québécois and Canadian) in this episode is analyzed as well. It is argued that solidarity between the working class and the Mohawks may have resulted in a more positive outcome of the conflict. A renewed set of relations between the Canadian left and Aboriginals could reveal constructive ways forward for groups struggling under the weight of capitalist society and its state. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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