QUEBEC/Anti-FTAA April 20—Report from IAC organizers—‘Best since Seattle’
The following article is based on a phone interview with International Action Center youth organizer Sarah Sloan, reporting from the IAC contingent to the anti-FTAA protests in Quebec on the evening of April 21. (See other articles on the IAC web site—http://www.iacenter.org/ftaa.htm--for background and analysis of the FTAA and the protests. For additional news from Quebec and the border crossings see http://www.indymedia.org/
20 April 2001--There must have been 10,000 demonstrators in Quebec City today. It seemed that at least that many were staying at the organized housing at Laval University and the other areas. Right now we’re tired, having spent over seven hours in the streets, many of them in the midst of heavy doses of tear gas during confrontations with the police.
We are all back at the housing now but expect to be out with even greater numbers tomorrow as workers from all over Canada come in the tens of thousands to join the protest. One union is bringing an entire train. We expect it to be the largest and most militant demonstration since Seattle.
Today our delegation from the IAC focused our slogans on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. We had flags calling for freeing Mumia in Spanish, French and English. Others also raised slogans about Mumia, whose case is well known throughout Quebec and Canada, and also carried banners of solidarity with Palestine, with the revolution in Colombia, along with general anti-FTAA and anti-capitalist slogans. We also carried a large orange banner that read, “Build global resistance to the capitalist death machine.”
We started this morning with a march of thousands of people from Laval University. We marched about two miles to the perimeter of the FTAA summit area. It’s an area the police have closed in with a fence. They are trying to prevent what happened in Seattle in November-December 1999, when demonstrators made it impossible for the meeting to go on.
Thousands of us went to the perimeter. Some climbed to the top of the fence. One group managed to rip down a section of the fence and got into the area. Then the police reacted and reinforced their presence. The demonstrators still managed to stay for hours.
It was only when the police began using tear gas that they were able to drive the demonstrators back. In one area the cops also fired water cannons directly at the young protesters. They fired gas canisters one after the other for hours, covering the entire area with gas. We heard that the gas was so heavy that it got into the air circulation system at the FTAA meeting hall and prevented some meetings from taking place. [The corporate media reported that the meeting’s opening was held up for an hour.]
There was tremendous solidarity among the demonstrators. I saw many people pick up the tear-gas canisters in their hands, running the risk of being burned, and then running to where they could throw them away from the demonstrators. Sometimes this was back in the police lines, sometimes into whatever open area was available. People helped each other a lot.
There was also solidarity from the local population with the demonstrators. People gave us water after we were gassed, and many thanked us for coming to demonstrate.
When the confrontation ended at the part of the perimeter where we were, many of us went back toward the housing. Then we heard that the police were continuing their repressive actions elsewhere, and a group from the IAC went back to join the demonstration. The confrontation with the police lasted over three hours.
A lot of people had eye or throat injuries from all the tear gas, but there did not seem to be many serious injuries, at least in the part of the fence where we were, except for a few people who were hit by tear-gas canisters.
It was different from the April 2000 demonstrations in Washington, DC, and the summer demonstrations in Philadelphia as there was not “hand-to-hand” combat with the police, who remained at a distance and fired gas and water cannon. There were reports in the media that police also fired rubber bullets in some areas of the demonstration.
Our focus on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal received a lot of support from the demonstrators. People grabbed bunches of our leaflets announcing the May 11-13 Encampment for Mumia in Philadelphia and helped hand them out. They also helped hand out the flag calling for his freedom.
Yesterday, our experience at the border was that the Canadian authorities—with the assistance of U.S. police—was doing lots of harassment and intimidation, but that almost all people were able to cross the border. Two of the 47 people traveling with the IAC were stopped when old arrest records were found. One person was stopped for a 1967 arrest and owed a $150 fine. The group passed the hat, paid the fine, and he was let in.
We crossed at Plattsburgh, N.Y. We also heard that the large group crossing at Akwesasne, N.Y. at the reservation was met by hundreds of police at the border but that most were able to get through. People coming by airplane had even greater harassment and attempts at intimidation.
We are looking forward to tomorrow’s demonstration, which should be even larger as tens of thousands of workers and students are coming, with a big mobilization of the Canadian and Quebecois trade unions. There is a planned march, but there will also be break-off marches more oriented toward direct action.
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