Union members swell largest Quebec march ever
By G.
Dunkel
Quebec City, Quebec
Members of the Canadian Auto Workers local from Kitchener,
Ontario, got off their buses here April 21 wearing bandanas
and checking their swim goggles. Swim goggles are not
normally issued to union members going to a demonstration,
but they are useful to protect your eyes against tear
gas.
Leaders of both the CAW and Ontario Canadian Union of
Public Employees had announced that they were considering a
breakaway from the march route that the big Quebec union
leaders had picked, since it headed straight away from the
summit and the "wall of shame" surrounding it.
The North American Free Trade Agreement, an earlier
version of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, has decimated
the CAW. One member told Workers World: "The FTAA would
abolish us." CUPE members face the threat of privatization
and layoffs as cities consolidate and provinces cut back.
CAW brought 5,000 to 7,000 members to Quebec on April 21.
CUPE, which does not organize in Quebec, had 2,000 to
3,000.
The Metalos/steel Workers union, whose members feel that
the FTAA would eliminate most of their jobs, rented a train
from Hamilton, Ontario, and filled it. The demonstration
visibly swelled when the steel workers marched in from that
train. Their presence was smaller than the CAW's.
Some of the Metalos' handmade signs raised the idea of a
hemisphere-wide general strike against the FTAA.
There was a contingent from Steel Workers District 4 from
Buffalo, N.Y. It appeared to be the only U.S. labor
contingent that came to Quebec City.
The banners that the International Action Center, a U.S.
group, brought calling for freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal in
English, French and Spanish were widely carried.
It was obvious that everyone knew what had happened here
April 20. One Metalos was overheard telling another: "You've
got to compare those kids yesterday to the Palestinian kids
taking on the Israelis. They should be an inspiration to us."
The other Metalos agreed.
Still, there wasn't a cop in sight, except for a few
directing traffic as the buses pulled in full and out empty.
A thousand members of the Federation of Quebec Workers (FTQ)
provided security and order. The FTQ includes most of the
unions in Quebec affiliated with U.S.-based internationals.
These are generally large, well-established unions.
The other large contingents were from two other labor
confederations: the Confederation of National Unions (CSN),
which includes most of the smaller unions and is closer to
the Quebec nationalist movement, and the Confederation of
Quebec Unions (CSQ), which comprises almost all the teachers.
Most CSQ slogans protested privatization.
The CSQ even turned out its affiliate from the Gaspe
Peninsula and the Madeleine Islands. These areas are an
18-hour drive east of Quebec City. And they came from the
northern shore of the St. Lawrence, about an eight-hour drive
from the northeast.
Over two hours long
The front of the march reached the rally spot two hours
before the last groups--an environmental contingent from
Greenpeace and the Anti-Capitalist Convergence's anti-
imperialist contingent--stepped off.
Cops estimated 25,000 people in the march. Organizers say
a figure closer to 60,000 is accurate. Everyone seems to
agree that it was the biggest march ever held in Quebec.
The march reached a street called Couronne. There,
marchers were supposed to turn right, but turning left would
have brought them up the hill toward the wall surrounding the
Summit of the Americas. A series of scuffles between the FTQ
security and union members and others who wanted to split
from the march broke out.
The FTQ was able to keep any major breakaway from
happening. But groups from the CAW, CUPE and the Metalos left
later and worked their way up the hill and into the thick of
the action and tear gas.
At the Grand Theatre on Boulevard Rene-Levesque, they
joined repeated attempts to take down the fence. Union
banners flew in the midst of clouds of tear gas. The CUPE
contingent even had gas masks.
Other sizable marches took place April 21. The
Confederation of Canadian Students led students--some 4,000
according to some reports--from the University of Laval about
two kilometers to the Plains of Abraham. There they met a
gathering of public-service unions and marched a few blocks
away from the perimeter along its length to join the main
union march.
Five to ten buses from Montreal pulled into Laval too late
for the student march, so people just formed up and marched
down Boulevard Rene-Levesque to the action at the Grand
Theatre. All the 6,500 cops and 1,200 soldiers deployed in
Quebec City were inside the perimeter guarding the 34 heads
of state and their staffs.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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