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ftaa eyewitness account
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."
This article was written by Carlos Padilla, who is a member of Students for Jusctice in San Jose, CA.
