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As Canada's Democracy Trembles, a New Global Architecture Emerges
TORONTO - Nearly 600 people were arrested as global leaders and elites met behind a fortified perimeter during the G8 and G20 Summits in Huntsville and Toronto this weekend.
A G20 protester gestures to a crowd of supporters after being released from Toronto Detention Centre. The major issues being protested - lack of commitment regarding climate change and clean energy, the mounting concerns regarding the development of the Albertan tar sands, ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the imposition of fiscal austerity measures on member states despite continuing fallout from the global economic crisis which began in 2008 - were not resolved.(REUTERS/Fred Thornhill) The tension was
palpable on the subway as the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)
announced that under a "police directive" all routes in and out of the
downtown core would be suspended midday Saturday.
Several blocks north of the protests that were the assumed cause of the transit shutdown, IPS observed a police officer conducting random searches of pedestrians. Asked why he was doing so, the officer, who refused to identify himself, replied, "Do you want to be responsible for a terrorist attack?"
The officer stated that the transit system
was shut down due to a "terrorist threat" posed by anarchists, that a
cache of Molotov cocktails had been discovered, and that the crude
weapons were "all over the city".
A spokesperson for the G8/G20
Integrated Security Unit later contradicted the police officer, stating
in a phone interview, "There's no terrorist threat." The spokesperson
would not clarify the reasons for the transit closure saying only that
it was due to a "security precaution" and that it was "just part of the
[security] process".
The stealthy side of this process revealed
itself on Thursday, when police arrested an individual under the
'Public Works Act', a provision passed in secret by Ontario cabinet
officials earlier this month that allowed police to question, search
and potentially detain anyone within five meters of the G20 security
fence.
In the weeks months leading up to the summit, protesters
were under surveillance by the Canadian Security and Intelligence
Service (CSIS). One of those protesters targeted by CSIS, Stefan
Christoff, called this part of a broader "chill effect" and "culture of
fear" that the security forces were allegedly seeking to foster in
advance of the largest, most expensive, and most heavily secured
meeting of global leaders in history.
Arbitrary and sometimes
preemptive arrests became the norm as the weekend progressed, drawing
denunciations from several prominent human rights organizations.
Amnesty International decried the "curtailment of civil liberties" that
accompanied "high fences, new weaponry, massive surveillance, and the
intimidating impact of the overwhelming police presence".
The
Canadian Civil Liberties Association, some of whose members were swept
up in the arrests, decried police tactics, and expressed concern about
the conditions of those being detained. "It would appear that the
presumption of innocence has been suspended during the G20," they said
in a statement.
On Saturday, following a peaceful march of
between 10,000 and 25,000 demonstrators, hundreds of Black bloc
protesters wove their way through the streets, breaking windows of
banks and other symbols of corporate power, torched police cars that
police abandoned, and chanted anti-establishment slogans.
Decried
as "thugs that prompted violence" by a spokesperson for Canadian Prime
Minister Stephen Harper, the organization No One is Illegal defended
the protesters, stating that they were symbolically targeting global
capitalism, and were merely "engaging in corporate property
destruction".
While security forces did not step in to stop the
bloc protesters, late on Saturday night, approximately 150 peaceful
protesters were placed in detention after staging a sit-in.
On
Sunday morning, supporters of the hundreds detained at a makeshift
detention facility on Toronto's eastside rallied for their release.
They were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and more arrests. At the
time of press, upwards of 600 mostly peaceful protesters had been
detained, including several journalists.
A 'Movement Defense
Committee' emerged by Sunday night, calling on supporters to 'Free the
Toronto 500', and to "mobilize a show of political strength and
solidarity for the nearly 500 people arrested in the last four days".
The
final communiques of the G8 and G20 did little to assuage the central
grievances that were expressed before the events during the 'People's
Summit' held by activists Jun. 18-20, or in the many peaceful
demonstrations held prior to and during the summits.
The major
issues being protested - lack of commitment regarding climate change
and clean energy, the mounting concerns regarding the development of
the Albertan tar sands, ongoing wars and foreign occupations in
Afghanistan and Iraq, and the imposition of fiscal austerity measures
on member states despite continuing fallout from the global economic
crisis which began in 2008 - were not resolved.
And perhaps the
core concern - that a select, if somewhat broadened, group of elites
are making decisions that concern all peoples around the globe largely
in secret - appeared to be flaunted by members of the corporate elite,
dubbed the 'B20' (Business 20), who were on hand.
During the
summit, several dozen of the globe's most powerful CEOs were given
exclusive, off-the-record meetings with the G20's finance ministers and
Prime Minister Harper.
The G20 includes the "world's most industrialized nations" (which also comprise the G8): Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Britain and the United States.
Its
other members are Australia, Mexico, Turkey and South Korea, Argentina,
Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, plus
the 27-member European Union.
In concert with the eventual
announcement by the G20 that they would seek to halve deficits by 2013
(with the exception of Japan), one business leader projected, "Stimulus
is winding down and the private sector is going to have to come in and
pick up the slack."
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
praised the corporate leaders, saying "The advice we get from you is
invaluable in terms of our deliberations and the deliberations of our
leaders."
Offering an indication of the B20's influence, South
Korean Finance Minister Jeung-Hyun Yoon told Toronto's Globe and Mail,
"I sincerely hope the business summit can serve as a platform for
public-private collaboration and the starting point of the new normal
in the global economic architecture."
As the effects of the
latest policy pronouncements begin to be felt, many fear that Toronto
will become known as the staging ground for the security model that
will be deployed to protect this new architecture.
94 Comments so far
Show AllCanadian democracy "trembles"?
IMO it died and left the earth decades ago, not long after it fled the United States.
B20 is the epitome of oligarchy. A handful of fabulously wealthy men rule the human and natural resources of the rest of us. And there is no redress, no justice, no democracy.
To overthrow them and release the vice-like grip they have on our throats takes a unity we cannot achieve.
Democracy everywhere is long dead and departed from the earth.
Listening to Canadian Prime Minister Harper addressing the G20 on the radio, his voice, inflection and the content of his edicts sounded a lot like Joe Lieberman.
Are Lieberman and other US corporate gunners being cloned and put in leadership roles in other nations?
Why don't these G-20 big shots hold their next meeting at Guantanamo? There's plenty of free security and nice rooms for all.
To good for them. The next protests should carry torches and not signs.
Torches are a nice touch, but they don't have near the range needed.
to underline:...
...During the summit, several dozen of the globe's most powerful CEOs were given exclusive, off-the-record meetings with the G20's finance ministers and Prime Minister Harper...
... Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty praised the corporate leaders, saying "The advice we get from you is invaluable in terms of our deliberations and the deliberations of our leaders." ...
...Offering an indication of the B20's influence, South Korean Finance Minister Jeung-Hyun Yoon told Toronto's Globe and Mail, "I sincerely hope the business summit can serve as a platform for public-private collaboration and the starting point of the NEW NORMAL!!! in the global economic architecture." ...
Yes, we know all about the "public-private collaboration" scam.
The public (taxpayers) take all the risk and all of the losses, while the private (corporations)take none of the risk and all of the profits.
The violence by "protestors" may be a complete fraud and I've seen evidence to support exactly that contention. Moreover, those organizing the protest against this elitist G-20 summit for the benefit for the elites have shown an absolute commitment to non violence. They can't control this "Black bloc" if it even is anything but a fake gang of jack asses simply seeking to discredit those protesting the G-20 elitist summit, and may well be the "Black Bloc" is nothing more than right wingers even to the extreme with their hidden agenda to sabotage those who want to get more accountability out of the elites at this G-20 summit.
The violence by the constabulary so far reeks of the 1968 Democratic National Convention violence by the Chicago police force in what the Walker Report called a "police riot."
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The violence by "protestors" may be a complete fraud and I've seen evidence to support exactly that contention. Moreover, those organizing the protest against this elitist G-20 summit for the benefit for the elites have shown an absolute commitment to non violence. They can't control this "Black bloc" if it even is anything but a fake gang of jack asses simply seeking to discredit those protesting the G-20 elitist summit, and may well be the "Black Bloc" is nothing more than right wingers even to the extreme with their hidden agenda to sabotage those who want to get more accountability out of the elites at this G-20 summit.
The violence by the constabulary so far reeks of the 1968 Democratic National Convention violence by the Chicago police force in what the Walker Report called a "police riot."
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Yeah, keep attacking you own allies...
It is liberal peacenicks like you who play into the hands of the pigs.
Even Naomi Klein was careful not to disparage the Black bloc on "Democracy Now".
Smashing inaninate construction materials is not "violence", OK? Are ploughshare actions ever called "violent"? Performed by the most famous and principled quaker and catholic pacifists in the world, they have done hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to aircraft and nuclear bomb components. Are they "violent"?
'It is liberal peacenicks like you who play into the hands of the pigs.'
Go back to your Karl Rove primer; your pretend outrage at the 'liberal peaceniks' and the 'pigs' is as transparent as the eagerness of BP to respect the environment.
I am a socialist and as my nick suggests, an anarcho-syndicalist. Please learn the classic difinition of "Liberal". Liberals are not leftists, indeeed their belief in the sanctity of "private property" make it very difficult for the left to work with them.
By "peacenick" I mean the nonviolence-purists who will make progress as impossible as it would have been if MLK didn't have the rioters in Watts and the Black Panthers on his left flank.
Since at least Seattle in '99, the actions of the "Black Bloc" have been used by the authorities as the primary justification for the entire security apparatus they have established using massive (taxpayer-funded) expenditures. This is the reason why the "Black Bloc' has never been directly confronted by the police at any of these events. The opportunities for endless video loops of masked people smashing things is too delicious and works so extraordinarily well for those who want to transmit the message that any opposition to corporatist power equals destructive chaos, and these video loops are also effective as a smokescreen to hide the fact that the police assaults and arrests are solely directed at people who had nothing to do with the vandalism.
I am not one to disavow any oppositional tactics out of hand, but I fail to see how the so-called "Black Bloc", at least in these situations of protests against corporatist international meetings, has done anything but justify an increase in the apparatus of repression.
Let's all keep a healthy dialogue over tactics going, but I suggest that the direct action folks dig out some Sun Tzu sometime. And let's consider practical results along with the theories.
If the "Black Bloc" had never existed, though, don't you think that the authoritarians in charge would've just invented some other motive to do the exact same thing? The problem isn't the Bloc-it's what they're reacting to.
In the end, it is about outcome.
Whether smashing things is violent or not, is an irrelevant debate. You want to smash things? What do you hope to achieve?
The truth is hard to hear. I don't want to hear it. It calls me out of my comfort zone. But I will speak it, first to myself and then to all:
The goal of non-violent action is to change the hearts of the people. The way this is done is to act non-violently, so obviously non-violent that the people can do nothing but realize the actors are harmless, but to act so counter to the oppressors' purposes that the oppressors respond with violence on the non-violent. This, according to King and Ghandi, must be rooted in love, even of the oppressors. The point is to see the actual tools of the oppressors as real people who are capable of change and who will not be able to continue to act violently towards those who are obviously harmless. These kind of self sacrificing acts of non-violent love in pursuit of justice will also change the hearts of the people as they also have to deal with the internal distress that their support of the status quo is in fact a support of oppressors who harm the harmless.
Any act of violence by those engaged in non-violent action destroys the power of the non-violent action. This is why King spent so much time in teaching and training those who would engage in the acts.
I don't question the anarchists' motivation for our cause. But I do not believe the actions they take further our cause.
But we who are committed to "peaceful protest" need to do more than just carry signs or engage in sit ins. We need to engage in actions that while harmless still challenge the status quo so severely that we will get more response than being arrested and then released. What we need to do needs to be positive, acting in ways that build the reality we want, and in that challenge the status quo. For example: Ghandi making his own salt instead of buying British controlled salt and paying their tax. Another example: King marching African-Americans to register to vote.
As I said this is scary. I'm afraid I'm not ready myself for that kind of action. But I have a line that when it is crossed I will take such action. I will resist if and when the U.S. invades Veneuzuela. I will do more than hold a sign on a corner or sit on the street.
'Let's all keep a healthy dialogue over tactics going,... '
I agree and am interested in learning about various tactics (I myself favor massive worldwide boycotting). However, my harsh words toward Sabocat were made because I don't believe he's anything but a plant, a troll, one that tries to make all left-leaning websites and their commenters seem violent-prone--a continuing, and successful strategy from the rovians.
Come on guys, Hockey Night in Canada. Canadians love the occasional riot. After a hard fought important game, fans come boiling out full of beer and topping out on testosterone and bang heads, throw bottles, tear up street signs, break windows, tip over cars and burn them. All in good fun, just the boys letting off steam. No way to predict when it's going to happen so police just have to have a few extras on call if they need them for any game. Wall to wall star wars storm trooper clones are frightfully expensive, local police forces cannot afford them.
So you spend a billion dollars on the plastic dolls and helicopters and fences and what all and dare these guys not to break loose? Good luck! The thing that really freaks out the people who organize these events are that the demonstrators are still laughing at them and having the party of the decade. And the hosts of the event are falling all over themselves trying to explain, "they are not usually like this" to all their important guests.
Harper doesn't hear anything unless you hit him on the side of the head with a two by four first. This was just about getting his attention. He's only one vote of non confidence away from having to dissolve parliment, if only those opposition leaders could get together and give up enough of their tiny patch of turf to field one reasonable candidate. I'd even go for the Bloc. Hope they heard what we were saying to Harper.
Exactly.
I haven't lived in a city where drunken sports-fan riots were not far more destructive than anything the black bloc did. Lexington (ky.) got trashed when the wildcats won the NCAA; parts of Pittsburgh gets trashed when the "Pens" win the cup or the "Stillers" win the super bowl. Yet, in these cases, the cops just treat it as just so much healthy youthful exuberance - especially when they are all white kids. (black kids is an ENTIRELY different story)
Considering,
"Offering an indication of the B20's influence, South Korean Finance Minister Jeung-Hyun Yoon told Toronto's Globe and Mail, 'I sincerely hope the business summit can serve as a platform for public-private collaboration and the starting point of the new normal in the global economic architecture,'"
welcome to the new mercantilism. Long live democracy!
The best "non-violence" is that which hits them in the pocketbook.
Pick your "target"...then dig into what their means of resource are,
then "target" that. The consumer can be a powerful tool with their
own pocketbook...if they know where to aim their non-purchases.
The economic elites have seized control and democracy is an illusion. We must not vote. We must not give legitimacy to this charade. End the denial. It was s good try but democracy was not sustainable. Capitalism is it's assassin.
I will actively campaign against all Democrats and all Republicans in this election. It is not just the person you vote for, but the party and all it represents. I have never voted for a candidate who was not D or R before, but I will never vote for either party again. I do NOT think the voting will make a difference, so long as corporate media - particularly TV - controls the minds of 50% of our population, but as an American, a vet and an Irishman, I will continue to fight against an overwhelming enemy. Our government is controlled by corporate interests. Not by us. Can we change that? I hope so. I fear not. I will not quit trying until one of the pricks shoots me dead - an eventuality likely for all of us on this website.
"....an eventuality likely for all of us on this website."
Ironblood, you've likely hit the nail square on the head.
Someone once said that non-violence is nice.....but it's
not nearly effective as that which smacks them in the face.
On the contrary, not only should we vote, we shold remain engaged in the political process. We should continue to call and writ to our elected representatives. We should also seek solutions that do not involve the self interested politicians. For example, do you generate any of your own electricty? Have you improved the efficiency of yor energy consumption?
'One business leader' sez: "Stimulus is winding down and the private sector is going to have to come in and pick up the slack."
***
That was the preordained outcome for these "meetings".
For the details, read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein, if you have not yet done so.
Then watch and see how those "fiscal austerity measures" are applied to banksters et al.
-30-
Police fear mongering, right out of the handbook.
Democracy is a sham.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
"While security forces did not step in to stop the bloc protesters, late on Saturday night, approximately 150 peaceful protesters were placed in detention after staging a sit-in."
More evidence that either unwitting, or by infiltration, the dumber-than-dirt militant anarchists, are tools of the corporate elite, and their authoritarian security thugs.
Or, you know, if the destructive protesters were not arrested and the peaceful ones were, maybe ALL should break windows?? I'm only half kidding.
Plausible explanation.
The fact that peaceful protesrers were arrested but not those breaking bank windows and burning police cars renders the word "Democracy" as it is used nowadays quite meaningless. War is peace, etc.
The question is . how will the Canadian Electorate react to these actions in the next elections?
Will they passively continue to vote for the same Political parties or will they abandon them and vote NDP and Green?
Now I really do not like the direction the NDP has taken over the past decade as they have shifted from their roots in order to look more "Corporate Friendly" , but an abandonemnt of the Conservatives and Liberals for the NDP can send a very strong message.
In the elections of the early 1990s the RULING PC party of Brain Mulroney went from a majority government to 2 seats in parliament. We CAN get that angry but will we?
If that does not happen kiss it all goodbye.
The NDP is sold out. When my brother emmigrated to Toronto, he was looking forward to working with the NDP MP in his urban riding, but became quickly disillusoned with them. They are not really distinguishable from the Liberals.
My impression, sitting here on the south side of the lakes, is that the only party that preserves any genuine left-populism at all is the Bloc. Most of the more militant-left elements in Toronto this weekend were speaking French too.
Sad but most likely true. I have pointed often to the irony that the Bloc Quebecois, a party whose intent is to seperate Quebec from Canada, is in truth the strongest voice for a Canada that is "Independent" of the Corporations.
Ooh, the French guys came, excellent! Saw them in action in Quebec City. Nasty Boys! No one can jerk a policeman's chain quite like those Quebeoise. Anglos just don't have that style. They must practice a lot at home.
"One of those protesters targeted by CSIS, Stefan Christoff, called this part of a broader 'chill effect' and 'culture of fear' that the security forces were allegedly seeking to foster in advance of [My CAPS] THE LARGEST, MOST EXPENSIVE, AND MOST HEAVILY SECURED MEETING OF GLOBAL LEADERS IN HISTORY."
99 9/10th of us are THE PEOPLE. Truly we should work toward rounding up these GLOBAL LEADERS and any others who couldn't make the meeting and/or qualify in terms of highest levels of annual income and over-all networth.
Transport these glorious, wise leaders to a sunny, sandy, uninhabited island, with the ocean rising a half-inch or so a month. Supply them with sandbox frames and a Monopoly game for each one, and once a week do an airdrop of food, and periodically airdrop a change of underwear, some bandaids and iodine, peroxide and medical alcohol, and water purification tablets.
Also supply them with a one-way radio so they can tell us about their problems and experiences and what they've learned.
Depending on what they say, individuals among the group may qualify at a certain point ... a year minimum ... to be picked up by helicoptor and a return to whatever mainland they come from to apply their hard-earned wisdom for the benefit of The People of their home territory and ideally with benefits for The People everywhere.
Particular fantasties are wonderful and satisfying to contemplate once in a while, and ya' never know. ....
/cm
nice fantasy cm...........mine would have more to do with medieval executions.
10-4 coco....the airdrops are a profound waste of aviation gasoline.
Corporations increasing their strangle hold on world governments - they always had 3rd world dictators, now they reach for 1st and 2nd world nations.
Scary the plans that totally undermine demoncracy and a free society are put in place so willingly as so-called security measures. Passage of secret laws, pre-emptive detentions and arrests, crazy arrests of peaceful demonstrators - what is the world coming to. They won't deter, they will inspire greater action in the name of people.
Observation of Common Dreams comment trends: everyone is attacking everyone. One progressive blasts another for not being hard-core enough, or calls them a plant or troll, or whatever.
This reminds me of a revolutionary point not too far back in history: MLK, Jr. was trying to persuade the more anarchist and violent prone Black Panther Party to pursue a non-violent path....some of those kids were being ignited with misguided and harmful ideas - reckless & vengeful instead of strong willed, loving, and patiently but intelligently enduring the non-violent route. MLK, Jr. felt he had failed, but he tried his hardest and saw they were already on their own path.
We have to remember, turning on each other and excessive criticism is just counterproductive. If all of us who long for a better planet would just FOCUS on ONE MAJOR THEME instead of a million different little niche sub-topics (save the whales, change this ammendment to some legislation here or there....etc...etc..), we would have a much more powerful and united effort.
What is this incredibly important goal? What sums up the lacking ingredient for peace?
Justice
(not legal justice, but the deeper meaning - right relationship, not letting others starve in a world of abundant food, seeing that you treat the planet with respect)
I agree with your points.
But as a point of clarification, I am not attacking the moderates that attack and insult the radicals (those who seek the roots of things), for being "insufficently left". What I have ben trying to explain is that even moderate change is not possible without a radical left flank. Appeals to be "nice" is not how one gets concessions from the powerful. The Powerful only make concessions to moderates (like MLK) if the cost - to their power and wealth - of not making concessions is greater than the costs of making them. And the only element that creates a cost to not bargaining - in terms of breakdown of order and property losses, is the radical element.
Indeed, it is because the powerful calculated the cost of not bargaining on MLK's post-Riverside agenda of anti-imperialism and economic justice as acceptable, that they arranged for his assasination a year later. Perhaps if there had been a stronger and better organized radical movement on his left, things would have turned out differently.
And lets be clear here - the Black Panthers never initiated violence - the cops did. Free meals and assistance to the people in the ghettos, and arms for self-defense like patriotic white people have, is not violence.
And lets be clear here - the Black Panthers never initiated violence - the cops did. Free meals and assistance to the people in the ghettos, and arms for self-defense like patriotic white people have, is not violence....
that's how i remember it....mighty's link sounds like disinformation..
That's a very cool word. I think in all cases it should be used sparingly and wisely. The 95% of the have-nots had a grocery list of complaints and they are individual grievances, group grievances, etc. Not every one will be weighed equally or dealt with fairly and equitably. That is why we see this cornocopia of have-nots. It says to me that the course we are on is the tsunami to end all tsunamis. It is not discriminating at all. It is obliterating everything in its path, naturally. Justice will have to wait; we have an entire planet to rape, pillage and plunder first. That is the only message we are getting out of the G8/G20 summit. The boot is on the throat of the have-nots and we're still asking: " Oh, pretty please can I have dog biscuit for my supper, kind sir? That has never worked and will not work in these crucial times. Justice for murderers is annulment. Same as it ever was!
Excellent. Well said.
"the more anarchist and violent prone Black Panther Party to pursue a non-violent path." this is not a correct or fair description of the black panther party. very righteous and proper, however....
I believe he was referring to the time of MLK in the sixties when the Black Panthers were calling in alarms and murdering the policemen and firemen that answered the calls.
I would be interested to see documentation showing:
1. that ever happened during the 1960s;
2. that ever happened at all, at any time
The Panthers had many problems, which led to their eventual collapse but shooting at emergency responders? Where? When?
When people are helping others and are becoming a threat to the establishment, they have to be discredited with lies.
Lies? You are just unaware or just don't know history.
i was around then and the history i remember was co-intel pro. the murders i remember were by the fbi and the police.
i was living on the lower east side in n.y.c. at the time, i witnessed or friends witnessed police shooting and sometimes killing black and hispanic CHILDREN the newspapers didn't even bother to report it.. ...thanks to a friend of mine, i was able to witness police bringing heroin into harlem in police cars... there is also current documentation of cointelpro infiltration of the panthers and the black muslims. and clearly documented murders of black panther leaders by police and fbi. and how did mlk die?
Look it up. It was not exactly a secret. The reports were quite clear. They ambushed a number of policemen and firemen, they even murdered other BP members as I remember.
An excerpt.."The Black Panthers, established in California in 1967, had adopted a policy of ambushing police and engaging in open warfare with them. The Chicago Panthers had also set up a breakfast program for children and other community welfare projects" (From:http://legacy.roosevelt.edu/chicagohistory/mod3-chap4.htm)
I'm surprised you were unaware of the Panthers history.