Generating Colonialism Manitoba Hydro and the State

In this paper I seek to answer the following primary research questions: What does an examination of Manitoba Hydro and its responses to Indigenous-led resistance reveal about the internal dynamics of the Canadian state and the ongoing Canadian colonial project? How has Manitoba Hydro’s stance towards First Nations and other Indigenous communities changed, and why have these changes occurred? In this paper I utilize three main theoretical frameworks: Nicos Poulantzas’s understanding of the state as the condensation of social relations, Antonio Gramsci’s notion of hegemony and Peter Kulchyski’s view of the “totalizing” nature of colonial capitalism. I utilize insights from Poulantzas to examine Manitoba Hydro’s relationship with the larger Canadian state. I focus on the corporation’s role in the state’s modernizing project, its relation to industrial capital, and the role of electricity exports in inter- and intra-state dynamics. I use Kulchyski’s notion of a totalizing colonial capitalist state to examine the impacts of Manitoba Hydro’s activities on Indigenous communities in northern Manitoba. I use the Grand Rapids Generating Station, the Lake Winnipeg Regulation project, and the Churchill River Diversion project as examples of the ways in which Manitoba Hydro has undermined Indigenous gathering and hunting modes of production and introduced capitalist relations to previously insulated territories. Drawing on Gramsci, I chart the development of “hydro hegemony” in Manitoba. I argue that much of Manitoba Hydro’s 20th century activities were characterized by coercion, but in the 21st century hydroelectricity became the hegemonic energy strategy in Manitoba through Manitoba Hydro’s partnerships with First Nations and the increasing global importance of “sustainable” energy. Ultimately, I argue that Manitoba Hydro functions to further the Canadian colonial project by both undermining the viability of a gathering and hunting mode of production by degrading the lands and waters it affects, and also by spreading the reach of capitalist wage relations to previously insulated iii Indigenous communities. I further argue that while hydroelectric projects in the 20th century were fiercely contested, in the 21st century hydroelectricity has achieved hegemonic status in Manitoba. Finally, I argue that Manitoba Hydro’s adoption of a “partnership” approach with First Nations is a reflection of changes in the relational state brought about by Indigenous struggles against colonialism. Although in this new approach Manitoba Hydro offers material concessions to First Nations in Manitoba, the colonial nature of the corporation and state remains unchanged.