Socialist Action /May 2001
Quebec City: Police Battle Protesters
By CARLOS PADILLA
The author is a member of Students for Justice
at Evergreen Valley Community College in San Jose, Calif.
People from all over the Americas united to fight
the FTAA in Quebec City, Canada. As delegates and heads of state met to
discuss the exploitation of their countries' peoples, thousands of activists
struggled against the Canadian paramilitary units who sought to deny them
their democratic right to protest.
At the Montreal Airport, people were sent back
home for minor reasons. Many were detained for long hours for reasons like
having too many articles of clothing and not having enough money.
"It made me angry because I knew what they
were doing was not standard procedure," states Marissa Arterberry,
a Students For Justice member from San Jose, Calif., who was detained for
four hours at the Montreal Airport. "They did not talk to us about
the reasons for our detention, except that we had a ski mask and a raincoat.
Being in another country and not knowing your rights in that country is
frightening."
Two members of the La Raza Unida Club from West
Valley College in California were strip-searched. Their film was destroyed
and they were told that they were being sent home. "It was degrading,
I felt lower than human, especially knowing that we were strip-searched
without a precise crime," says Teddy Aguiniga from La Raza Unida.
The U.S. government facilitated the airport interrogation.
An e-mail was sent to the airport by the U.S. Embassy stating that all travelers
must be detained and sent back if possible and listing all the minor reasons
a person traveling to Montreal could be sent back home.
As you entered Quebec City you could feel the revolutionary
spirit. Paintings on the walls had words like "resist" and "revolt,"
and pictures of Ernesto "Che" Guevara were drawn on walls and
on vans.
The people of Quebec treated activists with the
utmost kindness and appreciation. Ordinary people who sometimes could not
speak English pointed activists in the right direction. Stores would welcome
activists who just two blocks away were being tear gassed. Some residents
of Quebec City would even wave at activists who walked the streets.
On Thursday night, April 19, people marched to
start off the protests. Spirits were high as people chanted. The event was
held in French, English, and Spanish. Residents cheered the activists as
they marched by their neighborhoods. Solidarity became not only a word but
also an action. People from the United States, Mexico, and Canada put arms
around each other as they chanted.
On Friday, April 20, crowds tried to stop the meeting
of the FTAA. To do that, they needed to get through the chain-link fence
that was placed around the old city. Some held artistic demonstrations in
front of the fence as a creative way of showing the horrors of corporate
globalization.
A march of thousands approached the fence; as people
pulled on it, a way was opened. As quickly as we entered the forbidden city,
the paramilitary lined up to close the streets.
The crowd was then pushed back by painful tear
gas. Some objects were thrown at the Canadian police in retaliation but
the overall point of the demonstration was to get through the police line
and stop the meeting.
A paramilitary unit then appeared from the right
side of the demonstration. It moved slowly, shooting gas into the crowd.
If a peaceful demonstrator came too close to the line of police, a soldier
would run close to the demonstrator and shoot a canister of tear gas at
the activist's body. One demonstrator was shot in the face with a canister
as he walked raising the peace symbol.
Then the paramilitary unit started to run in formation,
charging the protesters as they launched gas in the air. The activists began
to move back, but a high-power water hose truck came from behind the protesters
and pushed them back up to the police line.
Activists stopped the vehicle by standing in front
of it, and then climbing on top and breaking the windows. This forced the
truck to move back in order to get away from the people.
The smell of gas filled the city. The Summit of
the Americas was delayed on Friday because of tear gas reaching the building
where the delegates were meeting.
On Saturday, April 21, protesters met at the People's
Summit to start a legal march, which led the people in the opposite direction
from the fence, while another group decided to march towards the fence.
The confrontations were heated. The paramilitary
started using rubber bullets as well as stronger and more potent tear gas.
People were being arrested for sitting on the street or in a park.
The police arrested 300 people between Saturday
and Sunday. One person was reported to have been shot in the throat by a
rubber bullet. The medics' tent was not only invaded by police but also
tear gassed with injured activists still inside.
Activists made fires around the fence to overpower
the smell of tear gas. Gas masks were sold out in the city. Kids who lived
in the city played outside with gas masks to protect themselves from the
air. People helped each other with vinegar and water to relieve the pain
of the tear gas.
As over 30,000 were challenging the police at the
fence, over 60,000 were in the streets celebrating the city's takeover.
Streets were filled with people dancing, walking, relaxing, and having fun.
Drum circles were held in the middle of big intersections, blocking the
normal traffic that happens in the downtown streets.
On Sunday, April 22, the crowds were smaller. The
police continued to harass activists and tear gas was still being shot but
many were participating in jail solidarity demonstrations. Many were released
on Sunday after spending the night in a bus.
Many in Quebec are troubled by the Canadian government's
neoliberal policies. "I feel that we have stepped back as a society,"
states Daryle Lebrecht, a resident of Quebec City. "We are now being
pushed to become a part of the agenda of the United States, and I just think
it is time for us as Quebecois to keep out imperialism."
Marissa Arterberry says, "It [Quebec] changed
me as an activist; I want to be more involved. It inspired me to go forward
and keep fighting."
Socialist Action /May 2001 |