------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Nov. 21, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
MONTREAL AND QUITO: ANTI-FTAA PROTESTS HIT WESTERN HEMISPHERE By April Lahne Montreal, Quebec On Oct. 31, between 10, 000 and 20, 000 people marched through the streets of Montreal to protest the heinous trade bill that we know as the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA representatives were holding a meeting in Quito, Ecuador where an estimated 20,000 people, many of whom were Indigenous people and farmers, also held an anti-FTAA demonstration that was met with not only teargas on the part of riot police but by the military. This violence on the part of the repressive state did not succeed in stopping the protesters from gaining entrance to the FTAA negotiations. The FTAA bill is scheduled to be ratified in 2005. FTAA bureaucrats are pushing to have the deal signed by 2003. If this goes through, it will affect all 34 capitalist countries in the Americas except for Cuba. The Montreal demonstration was primarily a student strike and was part of a broad action aimed at showing an undeniable solidarity of people throughout the western hemisphere who are actively working to defeat the FTAA like those in Quito. This event shows the power that people have when united. The hemispheric strike said in a huge way to the rest of the world that the people of the Americas do not want the FTAA! This action is only the beginning! For more information on how to create a larger network for future hemispheric action, contact the Canadian Federation of Students Quebec at www.cfs-fcee.ca - 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] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ 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]>
