RW ONLINE:Fortress Quebec\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFortress Quebec\r\nFTAA protesters vs. Canadian clampdown\r\n<\/p>
Revolutionary Worker #1096, March 25, 2001<\/i>, posted at rwor.org \r\n<\/p>
The clampdown and lockdown of Quebec City in Canada has already begun. Whole \r\nsections of the city will be walled off. Thousands of people will have to show \r\nspecial IDs to get to work or home. The biggest police deployment in the \r\ncountry's history is getting ready. Protesters are already being harassed and \r\narrested. Millions of dollars are being spent to provide security for a huge \r\nmeeting of capitalist exploiters.<\/p>\r\n
From April 20 to 22, Quebec City will be the site of the Summit of the \r\nAmericas, a gathering of the heads of governments of 34 countries in North, \r\nSouth and Central America, as well as the Caribbean (with the exception of \r\nCuba). The purpose of the Summit is to put the final touches on the Free Trade \r\nArea of the Americas (FTAA) agreement--which will expand NAFTA. The goal of the \r\nFTAA is to increase privatization and deregulation--to grease the wheels for \r\neven more rampant imperialist exploitation throughout the whole Western \r\nhemisphere (North America, Central America, South America and the \r\nCaribbean).<\/p>\r\n
A broad array of forces are mobilizing to protest this meeting of global \r\nvultures. <\/p>\r\n
Veterans of the anti-capitalism\/globalization battles in Seattle, Washington, \r\nD.C., Windsor, Ontario, Prague, Czech Republic--will join with other \r\nenvironmentalists, revolutionaries, anarchists, union members, and many others \r\nfrom both sides of the U.S\/Canada border. Actions are already being planned in \r\nthe weeks before the meeting to expose what the FTAA is all about and how it \r\nwill hurt the people. One leaflet put it: \"Negotiated unilaterally, the FTAA \r\nprocess is yet another example of the kind of economic violence that aims to \r\nsuppress the gains of popular struggles of the past, and reinforce the power of \r\ncash and cops over our lives.\"<\/p>\r\n
In response, Canadian authorities are taking extreme measures to prevent \r\npeople from protesting.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Preparing for a Clampdown <\/p>\r\n
Since the anti-World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle in December \r\n1999, there have been a number of imperialist and bourgeois gatherings worldwide \r\nthat have turned into scenes of determined protest and resistance. Meetings have \r\nhad to be shortened or canceled. Attendees have been inconvenienced and hounded. \r\nBlood-soaked policies have been revealed and exposed. What used to be the \r\ncontrolled gatherings of the powerful and the privileged have become contested \r\ncenters of resistance.<\/p>\r\n
In an attempt to prevent similar disruptions at the FTAA meeting, the \r\nCanadian government is preparing to brutally contain and suppress any sign of \r\nprotest.<\/p>\r\n
The national police force of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP \r\nor Mounties), will deploy what is being referred to in the press as the biggest \r\npeacetime \"preventative security\" operation in Canadian history. In all, four \r\npolice forces will take part in the security operations in Quebec City--the \r\nRCMP, the Surete du Quebec (the provincial police force), the municipal police \r\nof Quebec City and Saint-Foy. As of this writing, 5,000 police have been \r\nassigned to the event, and have been given intensive training in crowd \r\ncontrol.<\/p>\r\n
Police forces in Canada have been preparing for months, and their plans draw \r\non tactics used against protesters at other anti-globalization \r\ndemonstrations--and more. <\/p>\r\n
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimates that the overall budget \r\nfor the police operation during the three-day Summit will be well over $22 \r\nmillion. Over 5,000 officers from the RCMP are slated to work during the three \r\ndays and there are plans to \"co-ordinate and establish the necessary liaisons \r\nwith the Canadian Armed Forces,\" if necessary. In fact, Canada's armed forces \r\nhave already been called in and have been training 800 riot police just outside \r\nof Quebec City. <\/p>\r\n
Similar to what the police did at the recent Bush inauguration, police in \r\nCanada are sealing off a huge part of downtown Quebec City. A ten-foot-high \r\nchain link fence, anchored in concrete, will mark a perimeter of the summit's \r\n\"security zone\"--a zone that includes the walls of an 18th-century fortress, the \r\nsix main hotels for the conference attendees, and the battlefield of the Plains \r\nof Abraham (from the French and Indian War of 1756-63).<\/p>\r\n
One activist wrote on the internet: \"The imposing stone walls of Old Quebec \r\nCity may not have repelled the British army in 1759, but the new wall of steel \r\nwire beginning to fence off several square kilometers of the Vieille Capitale is \r\nthis time expected to hold back more than heathen invaders--it's also intended \r\nto keep out ideas. It's a sign of how far we've come in the era of free trade, \r\nwhen the citizens of Quebec will be barred from visiting their own capital, all \r\nin the name of international capital.\"<\/p>\r\n
The perimeter will cover approximately four square miles of the downtown \r\ncore. All those who live or work inside this area--nearly 25,000--will have to \r\nhave security passes issued by the police to come and go to their own homes or \r\nbusinesses, along with the 5,000 official delegates and nearly 3,000 accredited \r\nmedia attending the FTAA meeting. <\/p>\r\n
Originally, the police planned to run criminal record checks on all Quebec \r\nresidents receiving a pass--but they had to back off this after widespread \r\npublic outrage. <\/p>\r\n
The RCMP announced that it has rented all vacant apartments and houses within \r\nthe security perimeter, as well as reserved all hotel accommodations within 55 \r\nmiles, to avoid leaving anything vacant for protesters. And all sewer entrances \r\nwithin the security perimeter will be sealed.<\/p>\r\n
Back in November, Quebec's minister for Public Security announced that the \r\nOrsainville provincial prison will be emptied of its over 600 inmates during the \r\nSummit to make room for arrested protesters. He later went on to justify the \r\nneed for such drastic police measures by saying, \"If you want peace, you must \r\nprepare for war.\" <\/p>\r\n
In another move against protesters, the city councils of Saint-Foy and Quebec \r\nCity passed bylaws prohibiting the wearing of scarves to cover a part or a whole \r\nof the face, not only during the demonstrations, but also in the weeks leading \r\nup to the FTAA meeting. People are subject to fines and\/or a jail sentence. (The \r\nsame thing was done in Philadelphia before the RNC.)<\/p>\r\n
During the Nazi occupation of Denmark during World War 2, the Nazis ordered \r\nall Jews to wear a yellow Star of David so they could be identified for \r\n\"transport.\" In response all the Danish people, including the king, put on \r\nyellow stars. Inspired by this example, activists in Canada called for \"A Scarf \r\nWearing Call-out on April 2\"--a day of vigils and marches and a day where people \r\nall over wear scarves on the street, to work, school, etc.<\/p>\r\n
Faced with the prospects of thousands of people breaking the anti-scarf law, \r\nthe Canadian authorities backed off this new regulation.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Political Police<\/p>\r\n
In early January the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) began \r\ngoing to the homes of people they suspected were planning for the FTAA to \r\nquestion them about the upcoming actions. A lawyer who represents people \r\narrested at earlier demonstrations said the CSIS were targeting relatively \r\ninexperienced protesters hoping they could be more easily intimidated into \r\ngiving them information. The CSIS is trying to get information that will allow \r\nthem to more effectively attack the FTAA demonstrators. Canada, like the U.S., \r\nproclaims itself a \"democracy\" but is nothing more than a bourgeois dictatorship \r\nthat needs its political police to carry out its dirty work. <\/p>\r\n
In the forefront of these police operations is the RCMP, an agency with a \r\nlong and sordid history. The RCMP has been widely exposed for carrying out \r\nbreak-ins, wiretapping, opening mail, planting agent-provocateurs and other \r\nassorted political-police measures against people stepping out against the \r\nsystem. Especially in the late '60s and throughout the 1970s the RCMP was \r\nexposed for targeting radical groups, U.S. draft resisters living in Canada and \r\ntheir supporters, and the Quebec independence movement. Much of this activity \r\ncame to light in the late '70s and early '80s, when at one point there were four \r\nmajor investigations into \"Mounties.\" In the early 1990s the Mounties were \r\nmobilized against the Mohawk Indians who were fighting for their land.<\/p>\r\n
The CSIS was formed in the early 1980s to take over some of the \"security\" \r\noperations from the RCMP. According to a recent UPI (United Press International) \r\nreport, \"CSIS planted an agent inside a neo-Nazi group, and was embarrassed when \r\nthe agent became one of the leaders and got carried away with planning and \r\nparticipating in anti-Jewish and neo-Nazi activities.\"<\/p>\r\n
The RCMP and CSIS have a tight working relationship with the FBI, CIA and \r\nother U.S. spy agencies. The RCMP in particular has worked closely with the FBI \r\nand CIA on everything from \"routine\" criminal cases to hostage negotiations to \r\ncoordinating high-tech surveillance. All the indications are that they are \r\ndrawing on that relationship in preparing for the FTAA.<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Border Wars and Biometrics <\/p>\r\n
Quebec City is located in the Canadian province of Quebec about 160 miles \r\nnorthwest of Montreal (about 400 miles due north of NYC). Activists from outside \r\nof Canada who want to go to the demonstrations will have border \"choke points\" \r\nwhere Canadian authorities hope to stop any anti-FTAA protesters.<\/p>\r\n
According to UPI, \"The days before Quebec could be the first test of the new \r\nborder security agreements on intelligence sharing between America's FBI and \r\nCanada's RCMP.\" The agreement made in June 2000 by the U.S. Attorney General and \r\nthe Canadian Solicitor General announced the formation of the Integrated Border \r\nEnforcement Team (IBET), a multi-agency law-enforcement operation that includes \r\nCanadian and U.S. police, immigration and customs agents One IBET is already in \r\noperation on the Washington State\/British Columbia border. The agreement also \r\ncalls for sharing of law enforcement technology, like developments in videotape \r\nenhancement and security systems, to help further control the border.<\/p>\r\n
Videotapes of previous demonstrations in Seattle, and in Washington, D.C. \r\nlast April, have been scanned to record faces of demonstrators to identify them \r\nat the border. According to UPI, \"FBI sources say some of the new facial \r\nrecognition software that was tested at this year's Super Bowl is so good that \r\nit can identify suspects even if half their faces were concealed with bandanas.\" \r\n(The technology used at the Super Bowl was supplied by a U.S. company called \r\nViisage. The RCMP uses the technology of a company called Imagis. See sidebar \r\nfor more on the RCMP's use of biometrics.)<\/p>\r\n
The use of biometrics coincides with the open use of cameras to monitor \r\ndemonstrators in Quebec City, which the Quebec Public Security Minister has \r\nalready said will be in place--along with possible laws outlawing covering your \r\nface, making it illegal to not<\/i> be wide open to this kind of surveillance. \r\nThere is a blatant bit of fascist ideology being put forward with this. \r\nSaint-Foy police spokesman Capt. Andre Fillion said, \"When there is a danger of \r\nbeing identified, you will think before you act. Fear is the beginning of \r\nwisdom.\" <\/p>\r\n
The border lockdown has begun well in advance of the demonstrations. \r\nAccording to the Stop FTAA website, on January 26, 10 New York City-based \r\nactivists who were driving to Quebec City for a strategy meeting organized by \r\nthe Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (CASA in French) were denied \r\nentry at the border. The activists included members of the Urban Justice Center, \r\nNYC Direct Action Network, NYUC Ya Basta! Collective, Independent Media Center \r\nand some independent activists. Police searched their van (without permission), \r\nand proceeded to collect and copy documents related to resistance at the FTAA. \r\nOne Canadian official explained, \"It is my job to protect the Canadian \r\neconomy.\"<\/p>\r\n
To counter this, organizers and supporters are planning to demonstrate along \r\nthe border itself. According to the Stop FTAA website, \"There are several border \r\nFTAA actions being planned for April at both the U.S.\/Mexico and U.S.\/Canada \r\nborders. Major actions are being planned at the Buffalo, San Diego, and \r\nVancouver borders. Mass border crossings are also being planned in Vermont and \r\npart of New York.\"<\/p>\r\n
*****<\/p>\r\n
The FTAA will affect the everyday lives of millions by extending the North \r\nAmerican Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the entire Western hemisphere. It has \r\nbeen the subject of secretive negotiations since the first Summit was held in \r\nMiami in 1994. Negotiators have set 2005 as the FTAA's implementation deadline. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
Like NAFTA, the FTAA will submit health, education, environmental and labor \r\nstandards to the forces of the free market--which will mean even more rampant \r\nexpansion of sweatshops, destruction of the environment, unsafe working \r\nconditions, etc. <\/p>\r\n
But the imperialist plans to implement the FTAA are being exposed and \r\nchallenged. And in the face of an intense crackdown in Quebec, there are \r\ndetermined plans for protest and resistance.<\/p>\r\n
Large and diverse coalitions have brought together dozens of \r\norganizations--including unions, campus groups, community organizations, and \r\npolitical parties, as well as individuals--to protest the Summit. Protests will \r\naddress a range of issues, including FTAA's impacts on labor and the environment \r\nand the threats on civil liberties resulting from the Summit itself. <\/p>\r\n
A \"People's Summit\" is planned for April 17-22 that will bring together \r\nactivists from across the hemisphere and feature workshops, conferences, \r\nteach-ins, and demonstrations. There are plans for an \"Alternative Media \r\nCenter.\" The Montreal-based Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) and the Quebec \r\nCity-based Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (CASA) is planning a \r\n\"Carnival Against Capital\" with workshops, teach-ins, concerts, conferences, \r\ncabarets, street theatre, protests, and direct action. CLAC has also organized a \r\n\"FTAA Caravan\" across the northeastern United States and Canada. Other actions \r\nare aimed at ensuring that activists coming into Canada to protest will not be \r\nstopped at the border. <\/p>\r\n
April promises to be an important month of struggle.<\/p>\r\n
More information on the upcoming actions can be found at www.stopFTAA.org and \r\nwww.A20.org (These sites include links to other organizing websites.)<\/p>\r\n
\r\n<\/p>
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\nOnline
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