File spoon-archives/aut-op-sy.archive/aut-op-sy_2001/aut-op-sy.0104, message 77


Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 12:31:34 -0400
From: Richard Singer <ricinger-AT-inch.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Quebec City


At 03:36 PM 4/24/2001 +1000, Peter Jovanovic wrote:

>hi all
>
>I was wondering if anyone on this list took part in the recent fun in Quebec 
>City and would like to tell us about their experiences there.
>

	Yeah, I was there, so I'm forwarding an excerpt from my own journal entry
(below).  You may find that some of my observations are mirrored in a
longer account from Shawn Ewald on the IMC Web site
((http://indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=36221&group=webcast), as Shawn
and I were in the same affinity group.  I also admit to being influenced by
a very enlightening conversation with some people in the Emile-Henry group.


Richard Singer
(IWW NYC GMB, DAN Labor, AAC, etc.)

_____________________________________________________


The Quebec City anti-FTAA protest was a terrific and moving experience.
Although, then again, I could have done with a little less tear gas... 

I guess that was the most outrageous/disturbing feature of this experience:
 The cops gassed us everywhere, even when we were sitting around and not
doing anything blocks away from the perimeter. They gassed at least a
hundred of us while we were quietly mingling and chatting outside CMAQ (the
Quebec City independent media center), and they gassed us on just about
every street that we stumbled upon within several blocks of the
perimeter... And that gas got stronger and stinkier as the weekend went on,
burning our eyes and throats badly, even through our swimming goggles and
vinegar-soaked bandannas.  

Admittedly, however, confrontation with the police was fierce on the part
of some protesters too, and if this had been NYC or Philadelphia, some
people would probably have been shot with much more than tear gas and
plastic bullets.  Toward the end of the protest, activists and, especially,
pissed-off locals were flinging rocks and sticks and even (so I hear) a
couple of molotov cocktails.  Many people in the crowd also picked up and
flung back tear gas canisters.  At one point, protesters damaged and turned
around a water cannon (though I didn't get to see that happening, as my
eyes were full of tear gas at the time), and a good contingent of militant
activists ripped down the perimeter fence in at least half a dozen places.

The protest had good effects in terms of disturbing the summit as well.
There were reports that the summit was delayed due to the excessive tear
gas everywhere, and it became quite clear to everyone that an awful lot of
people were taking major risks because of their strong opposition to the
FTAA.  Additionally, a lot of people publicly expressed their outrage that
half of Quebec City had been turned into a fenced-in prison and then a war
zone just to "protect" this highly undemocratic meeting being held by top
leaders of the global ruling class.

The locals in QC seemed, for the most part, to be very supportive of the
the demonstration.  This was true especially in the residential
neighborhoods that had been inundated with tear gas.  Contrary to the
predictable words of propagandist mass media and some misguided pacifists,
the locals did not blame the "violent protesters" for the gassing of their
neighborhoods; they knew it was completely the responsibility and fault of
the police and their bosses, who clearly had little regard for the
residents of Quebec City.

The protest, however, was not simply limited to battles with police.
Reportedly, there were 30,000 to 60,000 (?) protestors engaged in a variety
of activities by Saturday.  The brief part of the legal march that I saw
was tremendous -- better than any of us had expected -- though it, too, got
invaded by the stench of tear gas early on.     

There was some great, spontaneous creativity displayed throughout the
protest.  One high point was the massive percussion section formed along
the highway, in which hundreds of us stood banging rocks against metal
singposts, disturbing the delegates well into the night.

Also inspiring were the bonfire parties, mostly staged by the locals, and
the Temporary Autonomous Zone (an RTS-style political rave) set up in the
park near the bonfires.  

Sunday's jail support march was very good too, though smaller and far less
confrontational than many events of the prior two days.  The speeches and
slogans here were among the best I'd heard all weekend, as this small crowd
defiantly ignored the escort of heavily armed and padded riot police (who
seemed to amass in particularly large numbers when we walked by the
bourgeois shopping mall).

Last I heard, 400+ people had been arrested (about the same number as in
Philly on August 1...though this protest was larger and fiercer).  Some of
the reports of arrest were particularly disturbing, such as the beating,
kidnapping and arrest of Jaggi.

But despite the excessive police repression and the other snags we'd
encountered, many of us (perhaps even most of us) walked away from this
protest with strong feelings of hope, accomplishment and solidarity.

Overall, this was an unforgettable experience -- the most impressive
protest that I have been to so far.


Richard Singer
 






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