-Caveat Lector-
[radtimes] # 195
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
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Contents:
--Quebec: Day One
--Naomi Klein on the Police Kidnapping of Jaggi Singh
--Water cannons and dogs, but the support of the community
--Activists in Quebec Show Evolution of an Opposition
--IMC FTAA SPECIAL NEWS BLAST | Friday, April 20, 2001
--Police, Protesters Clash in Quebec
--Protesters, Police Clash as Quebec Summit Opens
--Clashes Erupt at Summit of Americas
--Indigenous statement on FTAA
===================================================================
ZNet Update - Quebec Day One Report
Quebec: Day One
By Judy Rebick
It's not easy to upstage the opening of meeting with 34 leaders
including U.S. President George Bush. Despite what seemed like endless
volleys of tear gas, mostly peaceful protesters came back again and
again to Rene Levesque Boulevard in Quebec City to face down the police
and in so doing captured the attention of world media.
The battle lasted almost two hours as police chased
demonstrators off the plateau with heavy use of tear gas and
demonstrators came back after recovering from the stinging pain in their
eyes and throats. The most poignant moment was a sit down of about 20
people, flashing peace signs in the midst of a fog of tear gas.
Most media attention is on the perimeter breach and it was an
impressive action. First a few then more climbed up the chain-link,
surrounded the center of the city to protect the Summit of the Americas,
and in a rocking action pushed it down. By my watch it took less than
five minutes for the hated fence to come down. The amazing thing was
that only about 100 people rushed through the fence. The rest held back.
It was the protesters not the police who controlled the crowd. I was
astounded at the discipline. There were ten or twenty people out of
about 3,000 throwing stones and bottles. In the march that wound its
way along 6 miles from Laval University to the perimeter, these were
the Black Bloc. While the rest of the protest was noisy and colourful,
they were somber, solemn, dressed all in black, several armed with
sticks and stones and masked from the beginning of the march.
No doubt there will be debates about the Black Bloc tactics. The
creativity of the other demonstrators were lost in the confrontation.
One group calling itself the Medieval Bloc had built a 20- foot catapult
and managed to maneuver it up to police lines. Then they hurled three
stuffed toys into the police. One woman dressed as the Statue of
Liberty walked all the way from Laval on stilts. Another group of women
calling themselves "The Dandelions" wore T-shirts with painted slogans
like "the persistent radical blossom that will always bloom." A young
man painted his T-shirt with the phrase, "It's hard to hit a movement
target."
Once the perimeter went down, all attention was on the intensity
of the confrontation. And it was intense. This was the red/yellow
march. That means there was a high chance of confrontation with the
police. As demonstrators approached the perimeter, marshals announced
that people wanting a green (safe) zone should turn left. No one did.
Thousands approached the perimeter. They ran when the tear gas exploded
but they came back, time after time for two hours.
One of the most extraordinary developments on Friday was the
formation of a Canadian Labour Movement affinity group. Affiliates of
the Canadian Labour Congress formally decided to join the direct action.
Friday was the direct action day. Today Saturday is to be the
mass action day. But more than 5,000 people showed up at Laval
University for the march to the perimeter knowing that it would almost
certainly lead to confrontation with the police.
There have been long debates about what should happen today when
an estimated 40,000 people are expected to join the People's March of
the Americas. Organizers of today's march have decided to march away
from the perimeter they say for safety reasons. With so many people
involved and the narrow streets of this beautiful old city, people could
get trapped against the wall and hurt.
Others have argued that it is politically wrong to avoid the
perimeter fence, which has become a hated symbol of the reduction of
public space that free trade is inflicted upon us. What likely will
happen is once the main march is over a group will split off and march
to the wall.
Organizers of the People's Summit are upset about Friday's
action. They feel it brings discredit down on the movement . But it
seems to me that it is direct confrontation with the police that has
drawn so many youth into the struggle against anti-democratic trade
deals.
It is true that there have been many important developments in
Quebec City for the movement against free trade. For the first time,
civil society across the Americas has agreed on a single political
statement and a common strategy (pushing for a continental referendum
and referendum in every country ) to fight the FTAA (Free Trade Area of
the Americas). The importance of this development cannot be
overestimated. Up until a few years ago, the Latin American labor
movement favoured free trade. But the impact of NAFTA on Mexico,
further impoverishing the Mexican working class, has persuaded them to
join the anti-free trade forces.
Organizers of the People's Summit feel that the violence of the
direct action diverts attention from their hard won gains. But as the
saying goes, this is what democracy looks like. In a real mass
movement, no one can control what happens. There are always
differences. The trick, it seems to me, is to debate the differences
but not get diverted or divided by them.
===================================================================
Naomi Klein on the Police Kidnapping of Jaggi Singh
Published on Saturday, April 21, 2001 in the Toronto Globe & Mail
Even the Green Zone Wasn't a Safe Haven
by Naomi Klein
QUEBEC -- Where are you," I screamed from my cellphone into his. There
was a pause and then, "A Green Zone -- St. Jean and St. Claire."
Green Zone is protest speak for an area free of tear gas or police
clashes. There are no fences to storm, only sanctioned marches. Green Zones
are safe,
you're supposed to be able to bring your kids to them. "Okay," I said. "See
you in 15
minutes."
I had barely put on my coat when I got another call: "Jaggi's been
arrested. Well, not exactly arrested. More like kidnapped." My first
thought was that it
was my fault: I had asked Mr. Singh to tell me his whereabouts over a
cellphone. Our call must have been monitored, that's how they found him.
If that sounds paranoid, welcome to Summit City.
Less than an hour later, at the Comité Populaire St-Jean Baptiste
community centre, a group of six swollen-eyed eyewitnesses read me their
hand-written
accounts of how the most visible organizer of yesterday's direct action
protest against the
free-trade area of the Americas was snatched from under their noses. All
say Mr.
Singh was standing around talking to friends, urging them to move further away
from the breached security fence. They all say he was trying to de-escalate the
police standoff.
"He said it was getting too tense," said Mike Staudenmaier, a U.S.
activist who was talking to Mr. Singh when he was grabbed from behind, then
surrounded by
three large men.
"They were dressed like activists," said Helen Nazon, a 23-year-old from
Quebec City, with hooded sweatshirts, bandannas on their faces, flannel
shirts, a
little grubby. "They pushed Jaggi on the ground and kicked him. It was
really violent."
"Then they dragged him off," said Michele Luellen. All the witnesses
told me that when Mr. Singh's friends closed in to try to rescue him, the
men dressed
as activists pulled out long batons, beat back the crowd and identified
themselves:
"Police!" they shouted. Then they threw him into a beige van and drove off.
Several of
the young activists have open cuts where they were hit.
Three hours after Mr. Singh's arrest, there was still no word of where
he was being held.
Throwing activists into unmarked cars and nabbing them off streets is
not supposed to happen in Canada. The strange thing is that, in Jaggi
Singh's short
career as an antiglobalization activist, it has happened to him before --
during the
1997 protests against the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.
The day before the protests took place, Mr. Singh was grabbed by two
plainclothes police officers while walking alone on the University of British
Columbia campus, thrown to the ground, then stuffed into an unmarked car.
The charge, he later found out, was assault. Mr. Singh had apparently
talked so loudly into a megaphone some weeks before that it had hurt the
eardrum
of a nearby police officer.
The charge, of course, was later dropped, but the point was clearly to
have Mr. Singh behind bars during the protest, just as he will no doubt be
in custody
for today's march. He faced a similar arrest at the G-20 summit in Montreal.
In all of these bizarre cases, Jaggi Singh has never been accused of
vandalism, of planning or plotting violent actions. Anyone who has seen him
at the
barricades, crumbling or otherwise, knows that his greatest crime is giving
good
speeches.
That's why I was on the phone with Mr. Singh minutes before his arrest
-- trying to persuade him to come to the Peoples' Summit teach-in that I was
co-hosting to tell the crowd of 1,500 what was going on in the streets.
He had agreed, but then determined it was too difficult to cross the
city.
I can't help thinking the fact that this young man has been treated as a
terrorist, repeatedly and with no evidence, might have something to do with his
brown skin, and the fact that his last name is Singh. No wonder his friends
say that
this supposed threat to the state doesn't like to walk alone at night.
After collecting all the witness statements, the small crowd begins to
leave the community centre to attend a late-night planning meeting. In an
instant,
the halls are filled with red-faced people, their eyes streaming with tears,
frantically looking for running water.
The tear gas has filled the street outside the centre, and has entered
the corridors.
"This is no longer a Green zone! Les flics (the police) s'en viennent!"
So much for making it to my laptop at the hotel.
Denis Belanger, who was kind enough to let me use the community centre's
rickety PC to write this column, notices that the message light is flashing
on the
phone. It turns out that the police have closed in the entire area, no one is
getting out.
"Maybe I'll spend the night," Mr. Belanger said. Maybe I will too.
===================================================================
Water cannons and dogs, but the support of the community
http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=8104&group=webcast
by Mojo
Fri Apr 20 '01
The largest contingent from DC (perhaps) that has driven up to Quebec today
had its first wild and inspiring experience of resistance in the city, on
the eve of the opening of the summit.
Groupings are coded into red, yellow, and green contingents, depending on
the level of direct action that each is planning. Today there was a
convergence of two large marches, consisting of yellow and red contingents
(as has been reported elsewhere). This march of thousands ended up at the
fence (the barricade) around the perimeter, where the protestors began to
call for to bring down the wall, so to speak.
This was accomplished in little time, the fence being torn down, masses of
people streamed into the cordoned off area . By this time, police had
amassed (in riot gear with shields of course) and began firing tear gas, but
not charging at the protestors. In a short matter of time, however, they did
charge, but rather hastily retreated - a tactic they practiced over and
over - all the while firing tear gas.
Later, I heard but did not see that the cops inside the perimeter brought
out dogs, which hey did not unleash but held at bay in a display of force.
What I did see were the very large police vehicles that they brought in to
disperse us after a number of us had moved down a block away from the
perimeter (the tear gas being rather thick and affecting people). Masses
were still gathered at this intersection when two enormous police trucks
rolled in, equipped with water cannons, which they proceeded to fire at the
protestors. Protestors responded by actually breaking the windows of one of
the trucks.
I've also heard that the cops fired tear gas in residential areas, which will
only serve to rile up more people and increase our numbers in the streets.
The support of the community here is overwhelmingly with the protests and
against the FTAA and residents generally seem to perceive the FTAA as
American imperialism, at least in part.
More action continues as I write, and will continue. For an outsiders
perspective, this city seems to be a very poor venue choice for the Summit,
much like Seattle in '99.
===================================================================
Activists in Quebec Show Evolution of an Opposition
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates2/lat_oppose010421.htm
Protests: The myriad groups and individuals clashing
with police are united not as foes of globalization
but as objectors to its human cost.
By ROBIN WRIGHT, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, April 21, 2001
QUEBEC CITY--One is a young cellist whose long blond hair cascades
over preppy attire. Another is a professor of Native American studies. A
third is a septuagenarian engineer who claims he can still do a 5K race
in less than 20 minutes. A fourth is a college junior majoring in
consumer affairs who drove up with friends from Vermont.
And about 150 others, all clad alike in black trousers, shirts, caps
and kerchiefs over their mouths, refused to say who they are, where
they're from, what they do or what they think. They're the anarchists.
These are among the melange of individuals and groups who have come
from almost three dozen countries to this romantic 17th century city on
the St. Lawrence River to protest the planned creation of the world's
largest and most ambitious trade bloc.
Once again, as at the 1999 World Trade Organization summit in
Seattle, their demonstrations Friday erupted into confrontations with
police. Tear gas and smoke bombs filled Quebec City's streets for a few
hours, threatening to overshadow this weekend's Summit of the Americas of
34 nations of North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
The images were familiar, but the opposition has evolved over the
past decade, even over the past two years. The vast majority of the
groups today oppose violence and actually favor international trade and
investment--even globalization.
"The movement has evolved a great deal since 1990, when we were
labeled protectionists. We're more sophisticated now. We're no longer
opposed to a free-trade agreement," said John Cavanagh, director of the
Institute for Policy Studies in Washington and one of the opposition
organizers in Quebec City.
"Now we have developed our own detailed alternative. And now we want
a dialogue, not a confrontation."
What motivates the myriad opposition forces to travel across
countries and continents isn't the way the new Free Trade Area of the
Americas proposes to open commerce among all the nations of the
hemisphere, save Cuba. What alienates them is that they think the
implementation will be heartless.
"No country can nor should remain isolated from the global economy,"
declares the opposition's platform, called "Alternatives for the
Americas." "The issue for us is not one of free trade versus protection
or integration versus isolation, but whose rules will prevail and who
will benefit from those rules. Any form of economic integration among our
nations must serve first and foremost to promote equitable and
sustainable development for all of our peoples."
The other noticeable difference is the movement's size. In the early
1990s, the opposition to a regional free-trade agreement brought together
groups from three countries--the United States, Canada and Mexico. Today,
the opposition represents about 45 million people in hundreds of groups
from northern Canada to southern Chile. Even little Aruba has some
dissidents in Quebec City.
"This is the launching of a hemispheric social alliance," said
Cavanagh.
The diversity of the opposition assembled here was reflected in how
the first incident of unrest erupted. It followed a march from Laval
University by about 2,500 predominantly young people. It was peaceful,
almost festive. Horns tooted. Banners showed pictures of the Earth with
the words "Not for Sale" underneath.
Most of the marchers--dressed in overalls, boots, old fatigues--were
reminiscent of earlier protest movements. A young couple pushed
go-cart-size military tanks crafted from cardboard and painted pink with
yellow flowers. "Ours are harmless," the young woman said. At several
junctures, the youths shouted rounds of "So-so-so-solidarity."
They are in solidarity only in their opposition to the FTAA,
however. The small group of anarchists with CLAC, the French initials for
the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, carried big black banners calling for a
"revolutionary offensive."
The march ended at the concrete and wire mesh barrier erected around
the summit area to protect the 34 heads of state. The youths in black
were able to breach it. Just as notable, however, was that at least
two-thirds of the crowd had peeled off before the confrontation.
"There are different degrees of radicals and anarchists," explained
the cellist, Rebecca, who supports a nonviolent, feminist group with the
misleading name Blood Sisters.
"I don't like the idea of a world controlled by the values of
corporations. And I don't feel the needs of the majority of people are
given any serious consideration by the new trade agreement. But I'm not
into violence, and I don't agree with all the people in this crowd," she
said.
Another protest involved a wide array of trade unionists,
environmentalists and social activists. They have spent most of their
time here at what amounts to a teach-in. In a large white tent outside
the summit barrier, they listened to lectures and discussed how to
promote gender rights, international labor standards, health care and
access to education.
Among them was Dick Troy, the septuagenarian with a gray ponytail
and a top hat, who came from Toronto with a coalition called Mobilization
for Global Justice--or "Mobs for Glob," its nickname and Web site. Its
members filled 19 buses.
"I'm here to make a statement about protecting the environment . . .
and preventing trade that has no conscience," he said.
Troy and several hundred other activists marched around the summit's
so-called Wall of Shame. They shouted a lot and demanded inclusion in the
summit process, but their confrontation lingered for hours as little more
than a standoff.
===================================================================
IMC FTAA SPECIAL NEWS BLAST | Friday, April 20, 2001
From: Sheri Herndon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [IMC-News] IMC FTAA SPECIAL NEWS BLAST | Friday, April 20, 2001
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 23:38:25 -0700
:
IMC FTAA SPECIAL NEWS BLAST | Friday, April 20, 2001
Stay tuned for more coverage.
A compilation of breaking stories, photos, video, and audio from the
Independent Media Center Network on Friday, April 20, 2001 covering the
Summit of the Americas, or FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas).
http://www.indymedia.org/ftaa
Summary of Today's Breaking News: Estimates of at least 20,000 people were
in the streets of Quebec today, 1/3 of what is expected this weekend. As of
this afternoon, EST, the security wall put up to deter protesters from
interfering with the Summit discussions had been torn down. 30 arrests have
been confirmed in Quebec, more at the border and police brutality in the
streets of Sao Paolo with 62 arrests and several activists hospitalized.
WHAT IS THE IMC NEWS BLAST?
Once again, the Independent Media Centers (IMCs) are reporting live from the
streets -- capturing and distributing some of the most exciting and
historical media ever produced. Follow along as grassroots media-makers
document and distribute across the Web live and near-live coverage of the
FTAA protests in Quebec City and solidarity protests across the Americas.
At least 12 out of 60 Independent Media Centers worldwide (listed at
www.indymedia.org/ftaa) are posting raw and up-to-the-minute coverage of
FTAA-related events throughout the April 20-22 weekend. We will be
synthesizing the best of this content for you in a series of regular news
blasts.
FOCUS ON FTAA
Thousands of demonstrators have already filled the streets of Quebec, and
even more are expected this weekend in what has become an outpouring of
opposition to international trade negotiations in which only the interests
and privileges of capital are represented or seriously considered, while the
most basic rights and interests of citizens, consumers, workers and the
environment are relentlessly recast as "trade barriers."
As anti-globalization protests continue to grow around the world, the use of
police state enforcement tactics has also stepped up, increasingly denying
the basic democratic rights of those who speak out.
Rather than thwarting the grassroots movement against corporate
globalization, militant police repression has resulted in more widespread
and defiant demonstrations.
With hundreds of media activists in Quebec City and hundreds more around the
world, the IMC coverage is immediate and authentic. There is sophisticated
background information to bring you up to speed along with live coverage
that is otherwise lost or ignored. This is media democracy in its most
vibrant and truest form, with a refreshing and captivating range of
perspectives you won¹t find anywhere else.
But the power and success of the IMC Network is not just about the
individual expression of our grassroots perspectives. The IMC Network is
also on the forefront of the media convergence that others merely write
about. The uploading and downloading of photos, audio and video content by
thousands of media activists is creating a new form of revolution. From
Chiapas to Brasil to Israel to Quebec City, the IMC's put you in the middle
of the dialogue.
++++++++++++++++++++
Quote of the Day:
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience.
Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed
the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war,
and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem
is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and
starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people
are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while
the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."
Howard Zinn, "Failure to Quit", p. 45
++++++++++++++++++++
FTAA COVERAGE - BY REGION
**CANADA**
====== IMC QUEBEC / CMAQ - http://quebec.indymedia.org
Thousands March With Torches in Quebec City
A peaceful but loud march kicked off Quebec City actions against the FTAA
and global capitalism. Thousands marched through the streets with torches,
shouting in French, English and Spanish. Union members, anarchists and
others walked together in solidarity. The march ended with a live music
show, freestyle hip-hop and tons of free food from Food Not Bombs.
http://quebec.indymedia.org/viewarticle.ch2?articleid=1185&language=english
Summary of A20 Anti-Capitalist Events in Quebec
The anti-capitalist protests in Quebec City today were extremely militant
and possibly responsible for shutting down large parts of the Summit of the
Americas.
http://sf.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=2845
====== IMC MONTREAL http://montreal.indymedia.org
Police Violence in Quebec (photos)
http://montreal.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=486&group=webcast
Piégés Par une Taupe
Deux jours après l'arrestation de six personnes qui auraient comploté "dans
le but de poser un geste d¹éclat dangeureux afin de nuire aux activités du
Sommet", la version des forces de l'ordre est mise à mal par différents
témoignages rapportés par les grands médias.
http://montreal.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=484&group=webcast
====== IMC ONTARIO http://ontario.indymedia.org
Popular Activist/Organizer Jaggi Singh Assaulted by Police, Disappeared
A group of disguised policemen assaulted and kidnapped the non-violent
activist Jaggi Singh this afternoon. His whereabouts are still unknown and
no charges have been laid.
³About five o¹clock we were standing talking on rue Saint-Jean, a ³green
[minimum risk] zone,² Helene Nazon reported, ³when three or four
³demonstrators² suddenly attacked Jaggi from behind. They grabbed his arms,
pushed him down onto the pavement and began beating him. Jaggi shouted out
and nearby protesters rushed to his rescue,² she continued.
http://ontario.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=646&group=webcast
====== IMC VANCOUVER - http://vancouver.indymedia.org
Tear Gassed Area Has Calmed Down to Some Extent, Fresh Protestors Arrive
At the main gates to the inner sanctum, tear gassing halted for a while as a
group formed a giant dance circle in front of the gates. It seems that after
some singing and dancing peoples' spirits were revived, including ours,
after we got a whiff of some tear gas.
http://vancouver.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1183&group=webcast
**LATIN AMERICA**
====== IMC BRASIL - http://brasil.indymedia.org
Activists Beaten, One Hospitalized in Brasil Actions against the FTAA
At noon today approximately 600 Brasilian anti-capitalist activists
converged on the steps of the Gazeta building on Avenida Paulista, the
financial centre of São Paulo, for a demonstration against the FTAA. Less
then two hours later, the group was violently repressed and dispersed by
heavily armed military police. Two activists were reportedly beaten by
police. Pablo, an activist and independent reporter with IMC Brazil, was
hospitalized with wounds to his leg and arm inflicted by the police. So far,
there have been 62 arrests.
http://brasil.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1001&group=webcast
====== IMC ARGENTINA - http://argentina.indymedia.org/
Reprimen Movilizacion Contra el ALCA en Brasil
62 jóvenes anticapitalistas fueron detenidos hoy durante una protesta contra
la cumbre del ALCA en Brasil. Los más de 1000 manifestantes que marchaban
por la avenida Paulista, fueron recibidos por la policía militar con gases
lacrimógenos, palos y otros gases de alto poder. Los jóvenes se defendieron
como pudieron, resultando varios de ellos hospitalizados. Entre los heridos
y golpeados, se encuentran dos reporteros de Indymedia Brasil. A todos
ellos, nuestra mas ferviente solidaridad.
**UNITED STATES**
====== IMC VERMONT - http://vermont.indymedia.org/
Security Perimeter Torn Down
Quebec City, 6:00 pm (EST), April 20: The security wall which was intended
to prevent protests from affecting the FTAA meetings has been partially torn
down by demonstrators. The streets are alive! Quebec city officials erected
the security wall to keep people out. Now a large chunk, possibly up to 300
feet of fence, has been torn down. Some protestors have thrown teargas
canisters back at police. Canada's CBC news reports that rubber bullets are
being used.
====== IMC MAINE - http://maine.indymedia.org
Border Crossing Information and Breaking News
There are reports that the great crush of people in the Quebec City are
beginning to cause the barricades surrounding the city to buckle. Police are
beginning to don gas masks and guns, and an inner barricade has been
erected. Tear Gas has been fired and people are on the run...
====== IMC BUFFALO - http://buffalo.indymedia.org/
Differing Views on Impact of Free Trade
The FTAA, as it's known, would establish the largest free trade zone in the
world. But it's sparking much controversy, especially here in Buffalo.
Activists say existing free trade treaties have hurt the area's economy.
Supporters of free trade say that's not so
http://buffalo.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=80
====== IMC HUDSON/MOHAWK - http://nycap.indymedia.org/
Mohawk Nation Thanks Those Who Stayed Away from the Protest at Akwesasne
Mohawk Nation statement to the community of Akwesasne, and to FTAA
Protesters who did NOT try to cross the border to Canada via Akwesasne
http://nycap.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=420&group=webcast
====== IMC SEATTLE - http://seattle.indymedia.org
FTAA Protests: Speaking Truth to Power
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Quebec City, in
resistance to what one critic called "the latest major campaign for the
occupation of the planet by the global corporate system." The proposed FTAA
agreement, like its predecessor NAFTA, would "free" global corporations to
easily move capital and jobs from place to place in search of higher, faster
profits--but leaving in their wake destroyed local economies, eviscerated
health care systems, ruined worker-safety and labor laws, environmental
disaster, and more. Protests against the FTAA continue this weekend in
Quebec City, at the Canadian border in Blaine, WA, here in Seattle and
elsewhere.
====== IMC SAN FRANCISCO - http://sf.indymedia.org/ftaa/
Undercover Police Van Grabs Protesters in Quebec
Quebec, April 20 9:10pm (EST) - People are still gathered at the security
perimeter and the tear gas is heavy. An undercover police van just drove up
chasing down and grabbing 6 protesters. This is happening just down the
street from CMAQ (the quebec indymedia center for this week). Most
protesters are sick from the tear gas they have been inhaling for hours.
http://sf.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=2823
====== IMC WASHINGTON DC - http://dc.indymedia.org
Press conference discusses the dynamics of the organizers against the FTAA,
including CASA and CLAQ from Quebec.
http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=8027&group=webcast
====== IMC SAN DIEGO/LOS ANGELES - http://sandiego.indymedia.org/index.php3
NAFTA Harms Workers in All Three Countries
An evaluation of NAFTA on its seventh anniversary finds a continent-wide
pattern of stagnant worker incomes, lost job opportunities, increased
insecurity, and rising inequality, according to NAFTA at Seven, a new report
by the Economic Policy Institute.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LIVE AUDIO COVERAGE:
Quebec Radio CMAQ
http://microradio.net/radiodesam.pls
Philly¹s Radio Volta
http://www.radiovolta.org/
DC¹s Studio 2412
http://dc.indymedia.org/audio/
NYC IMC
http://nyc.indymedia.org/audio/
Vermont IMC Radio
http://vermont.indymedia.org/vtimc.m3u
IMC PRINT COVERAGE:
Print.Indymedia.org
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER
The IMC is a decentralized network of independent media makers, organizers,
and activists working to increase democracy and social justice by reporting
events and producing information as acts of autonomy, resistance, and
liberation from corporate control.
The IMC was established to cover the WTO protests in Seattle November 1999.
Since then, many media activists have set up independent media centers in
London, all over Canada and the US, Sydney, Melbourne, Chiapas, Israel,
Mexico City, Prague, Belgium, France, Brasil, Argentina, Italy, Germany,
Sweden, with more to come.
Contact information: IMC-Vermont at 1-802-862-0313.
Freely Repost. Distribute widely.
===================================================================
Police, Protesters Clash in Quebec
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010420/aponline175532_000.htm
By Tom Cohen
Associated Press Writer
Friday, April 20, 2001
QUEBEC --- Protesters ripped down part of a concrete and chain-link
security barricade at the Summit of the Americas on Friday and
threw cans, hockey pucks, bricks and pipes at police officers, who
responded with smoke and tear gas canisters.
The confrontation broke out about two blocks from the convention center
where hemispheric leaders were getting ready to open a three-day summit.
An estimated 1,000 protesters faced off against about 150 police
officers, who marched in time to the beat of night sticks on their
plastic shields.
"Free trade means open markets, which means power goes to the powerful
and not to the people," said protester Michael Sacco, 25, a student from
Toronto who wore a Canadian flag like a cape.
Sacco said he had hoped free traders would have gotten that message in
December 1999 when 50,000 protesters interrupted the World Trade
Organization meeting in Seattle. Gangs of anarchists smashed windows and
vandalized cars in Seattle, and police battled the crowds with tear gas
and rubber bullets.
"The establishment hasn't learned its lesson," Sacco said. "There's been
no change. It's like Seattle never happened."
One protester, teary-eyed from the tear gas and bleeding from his nose
and lips, was arrested and led away in plastic handcuffs. Later,
authorities loaded two other men, their hands bound in plastic handcuffs,
into a police van.
As protesters faced off with police officers, President Bush was
beginning a series of meetings with leaders of Andean nations and
Caribbean and Central American countries. Some of Bush's schedule of
meetings were delayed by the protesters, who tore down more than 150 feet
of fence -- part of a 2.3-mile security perimeter encircling the
summit.
Asked about the protests, Bush said:
"I think trade is very important to this hemisphere," Bush said at his
meeting with Central American leaders. "Trade not only helps spread
prosperity but trade helps spread freedom. So I would disagree with those
who think that somehow trade is going to negatively affect the working
people and people for whom hope doesn't exist in some places."
More than 45 minutes after the initial breach in the security fence, the
standoff continued with police still firing tear gas at the crowd of
several hundred, down from about 1,000 at the beginning of the clash.
Police called over loudspeakers for people to leave the area, drawing
jeers and more hurled projectiles, including hubcaps and orange traffic
cones. Some ignited firecrackers.
Thick white smoke drifted over the area, driving back some of the
protesters who held cloths to their faces to cover their noses and mouth.
The hardiest demonstrators sat down in the street and danced arm-in-arm
and waved flags at the column of police officers.
One woman protester offered the police a yellow flower, but none of the
officers accepted it. Police fired a cannister at near point-blank range
at one protester who was filming them at close-range with a video camera.
Morgan Hall, 25, of Toronto, said he went to the protest out of
curiosity, but decided to stay, without a face mask, on the front line.
"I's a Canadian citizen and I'm being denied my rights to gather
(assemble) freely in a Canadian city," Hall complained.
Before Friday's clash, the city was braced for demonstrations. The center
of old Quebec looked like a Depression-era city, with plywood sheets
covering the windows and signs reading "ferme" -- "closed" in French --
on many doors. A downtown McDonald's restaurant, often a target of
anti-globalization activists, even removed the lettering and trademark
golden arches from its facade.
Initial protests on Thursday were peaceful. The largest was a candlelight
procession by about 500 banner-waving marchers from a local university
who stepped to a steady drum beat.
The major demonstration planned for the summit was a Saturday march, with
organizers expecting thousands from Canada, the United States and Latin
America to take part.
In the days before the summit, seven men were arrested on charges of
planning violence during protests and police seized military smoke
grenades and small explosives.
The protesters represent a diverse range of activists -- organized
labor, human rights organizations, environmental groups and other who say
the trade talks should be held in public instead of in a locked
conference center.
===================================================================
Protesters, Police Clash as Quebec Summit Opens
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates2/lat_summit010421.htm>
Trade: Demonstrators disrupt gathering of leaders of the Americas.
President Bush says the nations are poised to create 'a hemisphere of
liberty.'
By JAMES GERSTENZANG and CHRIS KRAUL, Times Staff Writers
Saturday, April 21, 2001
QUEBEC CITY - Police and protesters battled at the barricades Friday with
tear gas, pepper spray and chunks of cement as 34 heads of state from the
breadth of the Americas gathered to embark on what President Bush called
the building of "a hemisphere of liberty."
On the streets of this 400-year-old city, the protesters railed against the
potential human costs of political and commercial globalization. In a
luxury hotel behind old stone walls and modern chain-link fencing, Bush
pressed his agenda of hemispheric cooperation during brief private meetings
with groups of colleagues from Central America and the Andean nations.
But the protests, and the response by the Quebec provincial police, dressed
in military green, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in black,
disrupted the summit schedule almost from the start.
Caribbean leaders were unable to reach a meeting with Bush at the Loews
Concorde Hotel. The habitually punctual U.S. president was forced to wait
20 minutes for Andean leaders to show up, and not all made it. An opening
reception was postponed for about an hour.
Throughout the afternoon, some motorcades, although not Bush's, came so
close to the demonstrations that they encountered clouds of tear gas
wafting near the hotels where the summit host, Canadian Prime Minister Jean
Chretien, and the other leaders are quartered.
"Violence and provocation are unacceptable in a democracy," Chretien said
at the initial reception. He denounced the "small group of extremists,"
calling their behavior "contrary to the principles of democracy we all hold
dear."
At the center of the discussions in Quebec City is the effort to set in
motion a Free Trade Area of the Americas by Jan. 1, 2005. It would expand
the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by the U.S.,
Mexico and Canada, to a market of about 800 million people stretching from
the Arctic to Argentina.
Even if the rest of the weekend's events take place as scheduled, the
demonstrations underscore the political controversy that surrounds an issue
that former President Clinton championed in 1994 and Bush has taken on as
his own: the removal of tariffs and other trade barriers.
Police arrested 25 people. Five officers were injured, authorities said.
Clutches of protesters had been milling about the 2½-mile security
perimeter, a one-story-high chain-link barrier rooted in concrete road
dividers, when several dozen people pushed down a large section of fence
about 3:15 p.m. With that, teams of police advanced behind plastic
shields, and the two sides began an exchange that lasted into the evening:
The police fired canisters that spewed tear gas and pepper spray. The
protesters returned fire with ice balls, baton-like sticks, chunks of
cement, rocks, using a catapult at one point to gain firepower, and the
occasional gas canister they could hurl back.
This being Canada, there was an occasional hockey puck in the
demonstrators' arsenal. At least one American flag was set on fire, the
flames fanned by a stiff breeze that also sent the tear gas drifting
several blocks across the hilltop Old City neighborhood.
The exchanges broke out at several points along the fence, dubbed "The Wall
of Shame" by protesters, who likened it to the Berlin Wall.
At the intersection of Rue d'Aiguillon and Autoroute Dufferin-Montmorency,
with the St. Lawrence River visible in the distance, about 1,000 protesters
had gathered. Only a few at the front tried to scale the fence, prompting
police to set off perhaps half a dozen gas canisters. But at one spot,
about 100 people appeared to be tugging at the fence.
Bush administration officials were reluctant to acknowledge the impact of
the protests, with one saying only that the Caribbean leaders failed to
show up for their session with the president. The official would give no
explanation.
In the meeting with Central American leaders, Bush noted that, in one
official's words, "there were some outside who were trying to isolate the
process" and that "he disagrees with their view about trade."
As midnight approached, sporadic demonstrations continued.
The protesters, an amalgam of anarchists, labor activists,
environmentalists and others, oppose, to varying degrees, efforts to lower
barriers that restrict international commerce. They are concerned, among
other things, that accords to open trade will lead to reduced protection of
the environment and labor rights.
The demonstrations follow violent protests in December 1999 that derailed a
summit sponsored by the World Trade Organization in Seattle and less
violent protests a year ago at a meeting of the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund in Washington. "The protests will be a
challenge to the Bush spin machine," said Richard Feinberg, a UC San Diego
professor and former Clinton advisor on inter-American affairs. "They want
this meeting, President Bush's first international meeting, to be a
success," Feinberg said. "He could say in fact that the summit is tackling
many of the issues being advanced by the protesters, while at the same time
separating out those demonstrators who are more interested in confrontation
and violence than dialogue."
Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), an ardent free-trade advocate, said: "Who
is the big loser? Here we are trying to improve the quality of life in
developing nations to get them climbing up the economic ladder, and here we
have protesters, many of whom are literally there for the party." Dreier
was trapped briefly in his hotel by the unrest.
In a departure statement delivered earlier Friday on the White House South
Lawn, Bush said:
"Our goal in Quebec is to build a hemisphere of liberty. Progress requires
a commitment to tearing down the barriers of poverty, disease and ignorance."
===================================================================
Clashes Erupt at Summit of Americas
By Angus MacSwan
Reuters
QUEBEC CITY (April 20) - A clash erupted between police and
anti-globalization demonstrators in Quebec on Friday hours before the start
of a summit of leaders from across the Americas, with police firing tear gas
at protesters who hauled down part of a security fence around the city
center.
Several thousand protesters converged on several points in the fence to
denounce plans by the leaders to forge the world's largest trading block in
the Americas.
About 100 of them, including apparent anarchists masked and clad in black,
tore down about 15 segments of the fence and hurled bottles and cans at
police, who responded with tear gas and a baton charge.
The violence, only half a mile from the conference center and hotels where
the leaders were staying, followed street battles at similar international
meetings in Seattle in 1999 and Prague last year.
Canadian authorities had mounted a huge security operation to avert trouble
at the Summit of the Americas, attended by 34 leaders of North and Latin
American and Caribbean countries.
President George W. Bush had arrived in Quebec only shortly before the
clashes broke out and was in a hotel within the security cordon.
The demonstrators oppose a key topic of the summit -- the creation by the end
of 2005 of a trading bloc stretching from Canada to Chile and embracing 800
million people.
They say it will favor the rich and exploit the poor, whereas proponents of
the Free Trade Area of the Americas say it will spread prosperity underpinned
by democratic rule.
CALM BEFORE THE STORM
Just before the clashes, a carnival-like air mood prevailed among the diverse
international anti-globalization army of protesters linking
environmentalists, anti-capitalists, human rights groups, anarchists and
others.
Protesters had festooned the chain-link fence -- which they had dubbed "The
Wall of Shame" -- with balloons, posters, slogans and even a collection of
brassieres in recent days.
Thousands of marchers streamed toward the fence, shouting "Whose streets, our
streets" and the revolutionary slogan "The people united will never be
defeated."
Then a squad of militants attacked the fence and hauled down about 15
sections of 10-foot high chain-link wire fencing embedded in concrete.
About 100 got inside the security zone, throwing cans and bottles and hurling
back tear gas canisters fired by riot police. They had come prepared, wearing
surgical masks. Reporters also saw protesters throw two petrol bombs.
They retreated at the run as police baton-charged them.
A line of police in riot gear with helmets and shields slowly stepped forward
and the crowd edged backward as a handful of protesters danced and waved red
flags in front of the line. Some protesters donned swimming goggles to
protect their eyes from tear gas.
In a separate incident earlier, a Quebec City policeman was injured when
several militants attacked him with an iron bar in his car, police said.
Violence had always been a possibility at the summit, which brings together
some of the biggest and smallest countries in the world and the most
prosperous and the poorest.
CHRETIEN: PROTESTERS' FEARS MISPLACED
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who was scheduled to open the summit
at 6:30 p.m. ET, said on Thursday night that protesters' fears about the
negative effects of the FTAA were misplaced.
"If they looked at the texts on all these subjects that are on the table...in
fact we are making sure that there will be a better preoccupation in many of
these countries about human rights and democratic rights," he said.
Canada wants the summit participants to sign up to a clause that would compel
those taking part in the FTAA negotiating process to agree to adhere to
democratic principles such as freedom of expression and free elections.
In that spirit, communist Cuba -- whose name was frequently invoked by the
demonstrators -- was not invited to the summit. It was the only independent
nation in the Americas excluded.
Before leaving Washington, Bush said: "Our goal in Quebec is to build a
hemisphere of liberty."
"We must approach this goal in a spirit of civility, mutual respect and
appreciation for our shared values," he said.
It will be Bush's first major encounter with Latin America -- a region the
United States has at times ignored and at times interfered in and which the
U.S. leader has pledged will be a priority for his administration.
===================================================================
Indigenous statement on FTAA
National Chief Matthew Coon Come Remarks On Behalf Of Indigenous Peoples
"Contribution Of Civil Society" Summit Of The Americas Québec
<http://www.afn.ca/Press%20Realeses%20&%20Speeches/april_20.htm>
April 20, 2001
Wachiya! Bonjour!
(Very briefly in Cree: remark about being in the traditional territory
of the Huron Wendake People.) [Translation:] I am thanking the Huron
People on whose traditional territory this city stands.
We, the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, are the original governments
of this continent. We are still here. Yet we have not been invited to
be full participants in these deliberations. Instead, I have been
invited here to do the impossible. In four minutes, one indigenous
leader cannot speak to 500 years of colonial history across a continent,
to our injuries, to our concerns, to our aspirations, and to our
rights.
Please do not construe my presence here as meaningful involvement or
consultation.
Indigenous Peoples are not a component of "civil society". Our
contribution to the political, economic, cultural and spiritual
landscape of this continent is as Governments, as Nations and as
Peoples.
As Peoples, we have the fundamental human right of self-determination.
This means, as stated in the International Bill of Rights, that we have
the right to determine our own political future. It means we have the
right to freely dispose of our natural wealth and resources. It means
we have the right to never be deprived of our means of subsistence. In
short, it means that indigenous peoples, like all peoples, have the
right not to be subjected to colonization and dispossession.
These human rights, which are universal and indivisible, have to this
day been universally denied to our peoples, throughout the Americas.
Even Canada, which holds itself out to be a leading nation in human
rights, was recently condemned by the U.N. Human Rights Committee for
policies and practices that deny our right of self-determination, and
for violations of our right to freedom from discrimination.
These human rights are fundamental. They are rights which we have. They
are rights which we will defend. They are rights for which indigenous
peoples have died, and are still dying.
Just a few weeks ago, with the facilitation of the government of Canada,
leaders of the indigenous peoples of the Americas assembled in Ottawa at
the first Indigenous Peoples Summit of the Americas. The result of this
Indigenous Summit was a Declaration, reflecting the universal experience
of the Indigenous Peoples throughout the Americas.
We have certain fundamental concerns about governance and trade in the
present day. As the Peoples that have been pushed aside and sacrificed
in the 500 year rush to colonize and exploit this continent, we are now
insisting that our fundamental social, economic, environmental and other
human rights be respected and made paramount.
Since our first contact with Europeans, our position and condition in
the Americas has failed to improve. For us, the taking and theft of our
lands and resources, and the imposition of alien forms of governance and
economic activity, has meant mass poverty, ill health, marginalization,
loss of language, and - often - extinction.
Our historic Declaration of the First Indigenous Summit of the Americas
must be read, understood and heeded. In particular:
The fundamental collective human rights of Indigenous Peoples as
Peoples, including our right of self-determination, must be recognized
and respected in accordance with international law.
Where our rights may be affected, Indigenous Peoples have the right to
full, direct and effective participation in domestic, regional and
international institutions and processes, as a democratic entitlement.
It must be explicitly recognized in any FTAA that the principles of
democracy and respect for human rights are inseparable from free trade
and that our fundamental human rights, including our right of
self-determination, are paramount. Protection of the environment must
also be safeguarded, particularly in or affecting Indigenous territories
and lands. Trade and development must be environmentally, socially and
culturally sustainable and equitable from the viewpoint of Indigenous
Peoples.
The FTAA must holistically benefit Indigenous Peoples, and must include
active measures for us to participate in resource development to reduce
the extreme poverty and marginalization suffered by Indigenous Peoples.
Ladies and Gentlemen inside these Walls, please heed this message:
Indigenous Peoples are awaking after a long period of suppression and
invisibility. We are determined that we will no longer be ignored. We
are united in our determination, as peoples, that we will now survive.
We are even more united in our determination, as peoples, that we will
now thrive.
Miigwetch. Merci. Gracias. Thank you.
===================================================================
"Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control."
-Jim Dodge
======================================================
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
-Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
======================================================
"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."
-J. Krishnamurti
======================================================
"The world is my country, all mankind my brethren,
and to do good is my religion."
-Thomas Paine
======================================================
" . . . it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate,
tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds . . . "
-Samuel Adams
======================================================
"You may never know what results come from your action.
But if you do nothing, there will be no results."
-Gandhi
======================================================
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man
who is able to think things out for himself, without regard
to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably
he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under
is dishonest, insane, and intolerable."
-H.L. Mencken
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