------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 3, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- UNION MEMBERS SWELL LARGEST QUEBEC MARCH EVER By G. Dunkel Quebec City, Quebec Members of the Canadian Auto Workers local from Kitchener, Ontario, got off their buses here April 21 wearing bandanas and checking their swim goggles. Swim goggles are not normally issued to union members going to a demonstration, but they are useful to protect your eyes against tear gas. Leaders of both the CAW and Ontario Canadian Union of Public Employees had announced that they were considering a breakaway from the march route that the big Quebec union leaders had picked, since it headed straight away from the summit and the "wall of shame" surrounding it. The North American Free Trade Agreement, an earlier version of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, has decimated the CAW. One member told Workers World: "The FTAA would abolish us." CUPE members face the threat of privatization and layoffs as cities consolidate and provinces cut back. CAW brought 5,000 to 7,000 members to Quebec on April 21. CUPE, which does not organize in Quebec, had 2,000 to 3,000. The Metalos/Steel Workers union, whose members feel that the FTAA would eliminate most of their jobs, rented a train from Hamilton, Ontario, and filled it. The demonstration visibly swelled when the steel workers marched in from that train. Their presence was smaller than the CAW's. Some of the Metalos' handmade signs raised the idea of a hemisphere-wide general strike against the FTAA. There was a contingent from Steel Workers District 4 from Buffalo, N.Y. It appeared to be the only U.S. labor contingent that came to Quebec City. The banners that the International Action Center, a U.S. group, brought calling for freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal in English, French and Spanish were widely carried. It was obvious that everyone knew what had happened here April 20. One Metalos was overheard telling another: "You've got to compare those kids yesterday to the Palestinian kids taking on the Israelis. They should be an inspiration to us." The other Metalos agreed. Still, there wasn't a cop in sight, except for a few directing traffic as the buses pulled in full and out empty. A thousand members of the Federation of Quebec Workers (FTQ) provided security and order. The FTQ includes most of the unions in Quebec affiliated with U.S.-based internationals. These are generally large, well-established unions. The other large contingents were from two other labor confederations: the Confederation of National Unions (CSN), which includes most of the smaller unions and is closer to the Quebec nationalist movement, and the Confederation of Quebec Unions (CSQ), which comprises almost all the teachers. Most CSQ slogans protested privatization. The CSQ even turned out its affiliate from the Gaspe Peninsula and the Madeleine Islands. These areas are an 18- hour drive east of Quebec City. And they came from the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, about an eight-hour drive from the northeast. Over two hours long The front of the march reached the rally spot two hours before the last groups--an environmental contingent from Greenpeace and the Anti-Capitalist Convergence's anti- imperialist contingent--stepped off. Cops estimated 25,000 people in the march. Organizers say a figure closer to 60,000 is accurate. Everyone seems to agree that it was the biggest march ever held in Quebec. The march reached a street called Couronne. There, marchers were supposed to turn right, but turning left would have brought them up the hill toward the wall surrounding the Summit of the Americas. A series of scuffles between the FTQ security and union members and others who wanted to split from the march broke out. The FTQ was able to keep any major breakaway from happening. But groups from the CAW, CUPE and the Metalos left later and worked their way up the hill and into the thick of the action and tear gas. At the Grand Theatre on Boulevard Rene-Levesque, they joined repeated attempts to take down the fence. Union banners flew in the midst of clouds of tear gas. The CUPE contingent even had gas masks. Other sizable marches took place April 21. The Confederation of Canadian Students led students--some 4,000 according to some reports--from the University of Laval about two kilometers to the Plains of Abraham. There they met a gathering of public-service unions and marched a few blocks away from the perimeter along its length to join the main union march. Five to ten buses from Montreal pulled into Laval too late for the student march, so people just formed up and marched down Boulevard Rene-Levesque to the action at the Grand Theatre. All the 6,500 cops and 1,200 soldiers deployed in Quebec City were inside the perimeter guarding the 34 heads of state and their staffs. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
