Fwd: ZNet Update - Quebec Day One Report

Sat Apr 21 11:09:21 CDT 2001

...correctio to the mass media whitewash...

>From: "Michael Albert" <sysop at zmag.org>
>Subject: FW: ZNet Update - Quebec Day One Report
>Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 09:08:32 -0400
>
>
>
>Hello,
>
>ZNets Commentator Judy Rebeck, Canadian correspondent, activist,
>reporter, feminist, is on the scene in Quebec. Here is her day one
>report
 (and to remove yourself or change your address for ZNet Updates,
>please use the links on the top page of ZNet  www.zmag.org/weluser.htm)
>
>
>
>Quebec: Day One
>By Judy Rebick
>
>Its 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, Its 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 Peoples March of
>the Americas.  Organizers of todays 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 Peoples Summit are upset about Fridays
>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 Peoples 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.

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