RW ONLINE:Heading for Quebec City\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHeading for Quebec City\r\nProtesters prepare for anti-globalization protests\r\n<\/p>
Revolutionary Worker #1098, April 15, 2001<\/i>, posted at rwor.org \r\n<\/p>
Quebec, April 19-22, is promising to be another major flashpoint in the \r\nspirit of Seattle, Washington, DC, and Prague. Momentum is building toward a \r\nshowdown between anti-globalization protesters and the Summit of the Americas-- \r\nwhere the heads of 34 countries in North, South, and Central America, and the \r\nCaribbean will be discussing the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas \r\nAgreement).<\/p>\r\n
On one side the U.S. and Canadian imperialists are determined to silence and \r\nsuppress opposition to their plans to expand their plunder of poor nations of \r\nthe Western Hemisphere. They want FTAA in place so capital is more free to flow \r\nto seek the greatest profit, more free to exploit labor without the hindrance of \r\nhealth and safety laws, and more free to expand into areas it hasn't been \r\nallowed in --like public services. With FTAA, the Western Hemisphere will be an \r\neven more integrated global market serving the needs of U.S. capital. And FTAA \r\nwill increase the impoverishment and environmental destruction of the people and \r\nlands of the oppressed nations of South and Central America. <\/p>\r\n
Once again, the lords of capital have assembled a massive machinery of \r\nrepression. Once again, they stand in complete fear that they will lose control \r\nand be dealt an embarrassing defeat--as they were when tens of thousands of \r\nprotesters disrupted the WTO's annual meeting in Seattle. <\/p>\r\n
One activist posting to the Center for Media Alternatives Quebec (CMAQ) \r\nwebsite noted, \"Not since the War Measures Act, 30 years ago (when the army \r\noccupied the city of Montreal after two public officials were kidnapped by the \r\nFLQ-Quebec Liberation Front), has there been a greater display of the armed \r\nmight of the state in Canada than there will be in Quebec City,\" and not since \r\nthen \"has there been a greater need for people of conscience to speak out \r\nagainst the repression of dissent.\"<\/p>\r\n<\/b>
FTAA Protest Plans <\/p>\r\n
Many activists have been building opposition to the FTAA, and preparing for \r\nthe Quebec Summit for well over a year. Organizing activity has gone on all over \r\nCanada and the east coast in the U.S. The protests in Quebec are building on \r\nother actions against globalization that have taken place in Canada, including \r\nagainst meetings of the OAS in Toronto in 1999 and Windsor, Ontario last year. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
A wide range of different forces are planning activities for Quebec. A large \r\n\"People's Summit of the Americas\" will be held April 17-21. The summit is being \r\nheaded by the RQIC (Reseau Quebecois sur L'integration Continentale-Quebec \r\nContinental Integration Network) and includes the major Canadian labor unions. \r\nIt will bring together activists, scholars, representatives of labor and peasant \r\ngroups, and non-governmental organizations (NGO's) from all over the Western \r\nHemisphere. There will be forums and plenary sessions on education, agriculture, \r\nhuman rights, the environment, and labor. The People's Summit is also involved \r\nwith the organization of a large permitted demonstration for April 21. <\/p>\r\n
Another broad coalition organizing for protests is called Occupation Spring \r\nQuebec 2001 or OQP2001. OQP2001 includes about 30 different groups. It's also \r\npart of a broad grouping called The Convergence Table (TAB), which includes \r\nunions, student organizations, NGO's, religious groups, etc. TAB supports plans \r\nfor direct action against the Quebec summit. TAB was launched by a group called \r\nSalAMI that has called for non-violent direct action at the summit as well as a \r\npeople's teach-in. A call for a women's action has also gone out all over the \r\nworld. <\/p>\r\n
Some of the most active and radical opponents of the summit are the \r\nAnti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) and its sister group CASA-Summit of the \r\nAmericas Welcoming Committee. These two groups have called for a \"Carnival \r\nAgainst Capitalism\" from April 17-22. CLAC is planning on opening a convergence \r\ncenter to help organize and meet the needs of protesters. Plans for the carnival \r\ninclude outreach to the population of Quebec city, a torchlight march to \r\n\"welcome\" the opening of the summit, a day of action against the summit that \r\nallows for \"a diversity of tactics,\" and spokescouncil organizing meetings. CLAC \r\ndescribes itself as anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist. Its basis of unity \r\nstatement says, \"We fundamentally reject a social and economic system based on \r\nthe private ownership of the means of production and exchange. We reject a \r\nsystem driven by an exploitative logic that sees human beings as human capital, \r\necosystems as natural resources, and culture as simply a commodity. We reject \r\nthe idea that the world is only valuable in terms of profit, competition and \r\nefficiency.\" <\/p>\r\n
CLAC has especially been singled out by the authorities for its radical \r\nopposition. Because they refuse to disavow in principle the right of the masses \r\nto fight back and resist, they have been targeted for \"advocating violence.\" In \r\nthe face of this, it's become especially important for activists to unite and \r\noppose these \"distancing\" tactics, as well as other efforts by authorities to \r\nisolate and set up radical forces for attack. <\/p>\r\n
A number of defiant and creative border actions are planned as part of \r\nopposition to the FTAA. Ya Basta, a New York City collective, has called for a \r\nPeople's Caravan to mobilize from all points in the Americas, to cross the \r\nCanadian border at Cornwall, New York. The crossing is being coordinated with a \r\ngroup from the Mohawk Indian tribe, who have people living on both sides of the \r\nborder and have historically resisted oppression by both the U.S. and Canadian \r\ngovernments. A group of traditional Mohawks has reportedly pledged to open the \r\nbridge at Cornwall across the border. <\/p>\r\n
The Ya Basta call states, \"As world capitalism relentlessly promotes \r\n'investment' and the 'free market' to the detriment of the freedom of people, \r\nindeed exploiting and destroying everything in its path, we will travel to \r\nQuebec City as citizens of the world, defying the archaic notions of \r\nnation-states and borders, and asserting the right of free movement of people \r\nacross all borders.\"<\/p>\r\n
On the U.S.-Mexico border at San Diego\/Tijuana, a mass mobilization of people \r\nfrom both sides of the border will gather to demand \"Liberate the Border, No \r\nMore Blockades!\" The organizers of this action are demanding an end to \r\nmilitarization of the border, NAFTA sweatshops, the FTAA and WTO, and respect \r\nfor the rights of indigenous people. A protest in Seattle plans to march to the \r\nINS building to oppose the FTAA and \"highlight issues of immigration and \r\namnesty.\"<\/p>\r\n
Organizers in Kingston, Ontario have announced plans for an \"anti-FTAA border \r\ncaravan\" to Quebec City. Activists are planning on clogging highway 401, a main \r\nartery for Canada-U.S. trade, and proceed to the border to hook up with people \r\ncoming across from New York state. They say if people aren't allowed to cross, \r\n\"We will close down the border. If they can't pass, nothing will.\" From there \r\nthe caravan plans to go to the crossing point at Cornwall and shut down the \r\nlocks of the St. Lawrence Seaway if people aren't allowed across the bridge. \r\nBorder support actions are also planned for Buffalo, New York, Vermont and the \r\nborder near Vancouver, B.C. Other solidarity protests will be held in over 50 \r\nother locations throughout the Americas.<\/p>\r\n
Many thousands of students, workers, farmers and people's organizations are \r\nexpected to protest a meeting of the Ministers for the Economy and Trade from \r\nall countries of the Americas on April 6-7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This \r\nmeeting is helping prepare the FTAA text for Quebec City. <\/p>\r\n<\/b>
Opening Shots <\/p>\r\n
Things have been heating up in Quebec as the summits draw near. In the past \r\nseveral months harassment and repression by the Canadian state has increased. \r\nAccording to an article in the Link<\/i>, a newspaper from Concordia \r\nUniversity in Montreal, the RCMP began making surprise visits and phone calls in \r\nJanuary to activists organizing for the summit protests. Through internet \r\nspying, they developed a list of groups and individuals to target. A \r\nspokesperson for the RCMP told the Link <\/i>that they were trying to \r\ndetermine how many people from each group were coming to Quebec City and who was \r\nin charge of security for the different groups. In a blatant effort to try and \r\nencouraging snitching and divisions within the movement, the RCMP said if groups \r\nacted as informers to turn in demonstrators who \"break things\" then police would \r\nonly target these demonstrators instead of \"the whole group.\" One activist who \r\nwas called by the RCMP said, \"Cops try to become friends with you and take you \r\nunder their wing before demos. But they're really interested in repressing \r\nus.\"<\/p>\r\n
In March, two members of CLAC and a member of the Independent Research \r\nCollective (CRAC) were stopped from leading a workshop on capitalism and the \r\nFTAA. The workshop, planned for Sorel-Tracy College in Quebec, was cancelled by \r\nthe school administration. Authorities gave little explanation, stating only \r\nthat that CLAC had a \"confrontational attitude\" towards the FTAA. At Concordia \r\nUniversity, two leaders of the Concordia Student Union had charges brought \r\nagainst them in March for violation of University rules arising from student \r\nprotests in February. Students were demonstrating against the Canadian Armed \r\nForces and CSIS for their role in suppressing and criminalizing dissent in the \r\nsummit protests and in general. Meanwhile, the Concordia University senate voted \r\nunanimously to allow students to defer final exams in order to attend the \r\nprotests!<\/p>\r\n
People have been outraged at Canada's repression against anti-summit \r\nactivists. Calls have been circulated for tearing down the security wall around \r\nOld Quebec City where the summit will occur. A Quebec lawyer filed an injunction \r\nin March in Quebec Superior court against the erection of the wall and to \r\nprevent police interference with demonstrations. <\/p>\r\n
There is broad opposition to the FTAA on many levels. One of the demands of \r\nseveral of the organizing groups in Quebec has been for the FTAA draft agreement \r\nto be made public. But the Canadian (and U.S.) government has refused to even \r\nallow people to see the contents of this plan--which will increase exploitation, \r\npoverty, and hardship for millions! <\/p>\r\n
In Ottawa on April 2, 400 people organized by SalAMI gathered outside the \r\nforeign ministry building to demand the release of the FTAA text. Eighty-seven \r\npeople were arrested when they climbed over barricades to conduct a \"Citizens \r\nSearch Warrant.\" Meanwhile, Canadian Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew announced \r\nthat the release of the FTAA text was \"absolutely unacceptable.\" <\/p>\r\n
Thousands of riot police, miles of steel fences and at least one prison have \r\nbeen readied for the protesters. Liaisons between the RCMP (Royal Canadian \r\nMounted Police), CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) and the Canadian \r\nmilitary have been established. Border enforcement teams are scanning IDs and \r\nfaces for known activists coming in from other countries. A number of people \r\nfrom the U.S. have already been prevented from crossing into Canada. And public \r\nopinion is being created by the police to try to intimidate protesters and cut \r\noff their support from the people. <\/p>\r\n
On the other side, thousands of ordinary people from all over Canada and the \r\nU.S., from Mexico and South America, are mobilizing to descend on Quebec, full \r\nof determination that a different future will be written through their actions. \r\n<\/p>\r\n
An excellent situation is shaping up for the people, with growing and broad \r\nresistance to the FTAA, imperialist globalization, and the whole \r\npeople-destroying workings of the system. April 19-22 promises to be an exciting \r\ntime as two very different futures, on different sides of the barricades, line \r\nup in Quebec City.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n<\/p>
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker \r\nOnline
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