Huge protests expected in Quebéc City
All out against the FTAA!
By Gery
Armsby
Québec City, Canada
Labor unions, environmental groups and anti-capitalist
activists from across Canada and the U.S. are heading to
Québec City April 19-22 to stage mass demonstrations
at the barricades of the Summit of the Americas--a meeting of
CEOs, trade officials and heads of state of all the countries
of the Western Hemisphere except socialist Cuba.
At the summit, 34 heads of state will begin the process of
adopting the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a plan to
extend the super-exploitative imperialist policies of the
North American Free Trade Agreement onto an additional 31
countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Three and one-half kilometers of concrete and barbed-wire
barricades are being erected around a central portion of
Québec City to keep protesters away from the
high-level meetings. Seattle-style police deployment is also
planned to confront anti-FTAA demonstrators.
Many local community members are outraged at the blockade
of their neighborhoods and plan to join street actions in
what may be the largest protests here in recent history.
Two hundred protest planners from Québec along with
organizers from all over Canada and the U.S. packed a
gymnasium in Québec City March 24-25 to design actions
to disrupt the April summit. In New York City, over 250
people filled a March 27 meeting of the NYC Coalition to Stop
the FTAA.
Similar large meetings have been held in communities and
campuses across the Northeast. Organizers, students and
youths are hungry for information about the demonstrations,
how to cross the borders and where to get housing during the
Québec City protests.
First Nations along with groups like the Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty have voiced support for protests against the
Summit of the Americas and are mobilizing a "Day of Rage" on
April 19 to demonstrate Native sovereignty over the
illegitimate international border. The Mohawk Nation's
Akwesasne reservation straddles the U.S./Canada border at the
Three Nations Bridge Crossing near Cornwall, Ontario, and the
"Day of Rage" is also aimed at helping U.S. protesters cross
the border.
More border actions are planned for Vermont, where
protesters are intent on crossing to get to Québec.
Solidarity demonstrations will be held in cities such as
Buffalo, N.Y.; Tijuana, Mexico/ San Diego, Calif.; and other
international border locations.
Québec's Laval University is extending housing to
thousands of out-of-town activists during the protests as a
result of coordination efforts by students and local
organizers that welcome the anti-FTAA actions.
More information about anti-FTAA protests is available
from the International Action Center. Contact the IAC at
(212) 633-6646 on the East Coast or (415) 821-6545 on the
West Coast; email iacenter@iacenter.org; or see
www.iacenter.org.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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