------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 3, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- QUEBEC CITY SUMMIT: ANTI-CAPITALIST YOUTHS STORM "WALL OF SHAME" CHEERED ON BY SYMPATHETIC POPULACE By Deirdre Griswold Quebec City, Quebec Is there any safe haven these days for those who make the trade and investment rules to exploit the workers of the world? Not Seattle. Not Washington, D.C. Not even the posh ski resort of Davos, Switzerland. And now, not Quebec City either. Not after the battles of April 20-21. When U.S. President George W. Bush joined 33 other heads of state here for the Summit of the Americas, this city was solidly against him. It wasn't just the tens of thousands of demonstrators, many of whom fought valiantly for two days against robo-cops, tear gas, water cannons and plastic bullets. It wasn't just the 68,000 people, mostly union members, from all over Canada who marched on April 21. It was also the people of this city, who showed their unstinting support for the protesters. A SEA OF SUPPORT They expressed it in many ways. The student associations at local schools hosted the many people from out of town, providing them a safe rear base. Residents in the neighborhoods where protesters were being gassed came out of their homes and apartments with bottles of water and washed out their streaming eyes. Some offered face masks like the kind used for spray painting. One man even chased after demonstrators with a plate full of muffins. When the street fighting became really heavy on Saturday night, people began lugging objects from their homes to build barricades against the police. The Canadian government had enraged the local population by building a 3-foot-high wall of concrete topped a 10-foot high by chain-link fence around the whole of the old city, which contains both historic buildings as well as modern office towers. No demonstrations were allowed inside this 2.5-mile-long perimeter, and only authorized persons could enter through heavily guarded checkpoints. In this beautiful French city, the perimeter was seen as an ugly affront, another assault by U.S. imperialist culture, scornfully called McDo's. It symbolized the growing gap between billionaires and workers, between rich and poor nations, that everyone equates with the spread of U.S. corporations around the world. It cost the Canadian government $46 million to build the wall and mobilize 6,000 police to protect it. THE BATTLES BEGIN René Lévesque Boulevard, named after the founder of the Parti Quebecois--the nationalist party of the French- speaking population of Quebec--runs right up to the perimeter in an elevated section of the city. On April 20 thousands of people, mostly students, gathered at Laval University and then marched two miles along the boulevard through a neighborhood of two-story houses, right up to the forbidden area. All along the way, neighborhood people watched and gave thumbs up. As the protesters massed in a large open space next to the Grand Theater of Quebec, squads of militants moved to the front and began trying to tear down the fence. Some climbed up it as others pulled it back and forth. Meanwhile, police on the other side of the fence, almost hidden behind helmets, gas masks, shields and body armor, began lobbing tear gas canisters into the crowd. A loud thud would be followed by a whistle. Everyone looked up as the canister described a lazy arc against the blue sky before exploding near the ground and releasing a cloud of gas. Instead of running away as they were supposed to do, the protesters held scarves and masks to their faces. Some intrepid individuals with heavy gloves even grabbed the canisters and lobbed them back at the police. This new movement uses puppets, costumes and other imaginative contraptions to ridicule the rich and powerful. Various devices are rolled along with the crowd. One of these looked like a medieval catapult. And so it was. At first, it was used to hurl teddy bears and pink rabbits at the Darth Vader cops. But later, the catapult lobbed more effective projectiles across the fence. Thud! Thud! Thud! The tear gas became heavier, but fortunately the wind was blowing straight at the police. Soon the demonstrators had knocked down a big section of the wall and were inside the perimeter, throwing stones and planks at the cops. Gas, plastic bullets--but the protests continue The battle surged back and forth for several hours. Helicopters whirred overhead. When the gas became unbearable the crowd would move back. As soon as it cleared, they moved up to the perimeter again. As those overwhelmed by gas retreated for a little respite from the battle, others took their place. Then the police upped the ante. They fired plastic bullets at the front of the demonstration, seriously injuring Eric Laferriere, who was hit in the throat. It turned out later that Laferriere was only a bystander and not a demonstrator. They sprayed pepper gas point blank at people nearest the fence. Around the same time, the rumble of big machinery could be heard over the yells, cheers, exploding canisters and helicopter rotors. Two immense tank-like water cannons came zipping around the corner, spraying as they went. But the militants were ready for them. They knew the weak spots. Several masked demonstrators rushed right up to the tanks and broke one of their windows. The tanks retreated. Then thud, thud, more gas. A big cheer went up when it was announced that an opening session of the summit had been postponed because tear gas had seeped into the building's ventilation system. 'WALL OF SHAME' This was just one of many battles fought over the weekend as the authorities tried to isolate a big area of the city and keep it safe for the representatives of U.S. imperialism. Even the local daily newspapers expressed outrage at the police tactics. The perimeter was referred to as the "wall of shame." A cartoon on the front page of Le Soleil showed a suit saying, "We are here to discuss the free circulation of goods and services," while being guarded by a space-suited cop and wire fence. Workers all over Canada are aroused against the so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas because they recognize it as a further extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA has already caused downward pressure on wages and benefits for Canadian workers. Social services are being undermined. Canadian companies are shutting down and moving away. U.S. corporations and banks are becoming more dominant all the time. There's a struggle in Canada right now to save the national postal system, which is being attacked under NAFTA by U.S. package delivery companies because it is government subsidized. Workers throughout Canada feel all of this. And that's why tens of thousands of auto workers, carpenters, teachers, health-service workers and many others turned out to demonstrate against the FTAA. But in addition the people of Quebec have a consciousness shaped by national oppression. Quebec is majority French- speaking, and it has gone through many years of struggle to assert its identity in the predominantly English-speaking country of Canada. QUEBEC STRUGGLE FOR SOVEREIGNTY The French-speaking people of Quebec must struggle against both Ottawa and Washington to maintain their language, culture and standard of living. They also have a strong sense of solidarity with oppressed nations. The cry "So-so-so, solidarite" was taken up again and again during the protests. The biggest loser in NAFTA has been Mexico, where U.S. imports have displaced 6 million agricultural workers, driving ever more poor people to look for jobs in the United States. In Quebec, solidarity with Latin America is a popular issue. Many Canadian workers who vacation in Cuba despise the U.S. blockade. Cuban President Fidel Castro's declaration of support for the protests was widely reported in the media. There was graffiti all over the city ridiculing the way Cuba was barred from the summit for supposedly lacking "democracy"--while Quebec was under police siege. Many protesters wore Che Guevara T-shirts. Someone had artfully drawn a map of the hemisphere on plywood covering a shop window. Cuba was labeled "Free Territory of the Americas." On Saturday during the labor march, which did not challenge the perimeter, militants broke away and climbed long steel steps up the side of a precipitous hill to an area of small streets directly below the wall. While most were youths, some union members joined the breakaway groups. What began as skirmishes involving hundreds of demonstrators turned into a night of youth rebellion. Thousands of people fought the police, built huge bonfires and barricades, punched holes through the wall, and celebrated with music and dancing in the streets. Even after some were forced back down the hill by tear gas-- and were attacked by water cannon while on the steep open steps--they regrouped in the downtown area and continued the protest. By Sunday morning 463 were in jail. The police reported 80 wounded, including 37 cops. The demonstrators had taken care of many other wounded, however. The groups that called the street actions, referred to as the Carnival Against Capitalism, were the Convergence of Anti-Capitalist Struggles (CLAC) and the Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee (CASA). They were joined in the street by the Black Bloc. All these groups identify themselves as anarchists. When the masked fighters grappled with the wall or pushed back the cops, the crowd cheered them. The labor union march--one of the biggest in Canadian history--was called by the Canadian Labor Congress and endorsed by the U.S. AFL-CIO. Although many people from the United States were turned back at the border, the International Action Center managed to send a large delegation from several cities, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Bethlehem, Pa., Baltimore and San Francisco. Their bright orange banner and hundreds of flags calling for freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal were in many of the heaviest confrontations with the police. Workers World Party was also up front in the struggle. Party members passed out 2,000 copies of its newspaper and carried a banner that read "Workers of the world: Globalize our struggle against the bosses." Civil-liberties groups in Quebec are planning legal actions against the police. Andre Paradis of the League of Rights and Freedoms told Le Soleil that the police use of plastic bullets exceeded anything seen before in a demonstration and was on the scale of the wars in Israel and Northern Ireland. - 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]>
