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Quebec City Demonstrators' Dilemma - To March To or Fro?
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Quebec City Demonstrators' Dilemma - To March To or Fro?
Route of final rally sparks debate fraught with symbolism
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by Thomas Walkom
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QUEBEC CITY - On the outskirts of town, in the morning cold, another convoy of police motorcycles rumbles by - reinforcements heading for a city that is preparing for siege.
Downtown, the first wave of those gathering to protest the upcoming Summit of the Americas has already arrived. Officially, the roughly 3,000 who have so far made it to Quebec city are here to participate in what is called a Peoples' Summit - a series of long, and often impenetrable, panel discussions in English, French and Spanish on issues such as the role of the state under free trade.
French anti-globalization activist Jose Bove lights his pipe as he leaves the terminal building at the airport as he arrives in Quebec City to attend the People's Summit of the Americas Tuesday, April 17, 2001. Critics of the Summit of the Americas _ politicians, activists and others _ gathered Tuesday at a"peoples summi" to demand a voice at the upcoming gathering of Western Hemisphere leaders. (AP Photo/CP, Paul Chiasson)
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But in the hallways and among organizers, the real talk centres on a more vexing dispute within the anti-summit coalition.
When demonstrators rally on Saturday for what is planned to be the climax of their protest, should they march toward the fenced compound in the centre of town where the 34 leaders of North and South America are meeting?
Or should they march in the other direction?
Organizers explain this debate isn't as foolish as it might sound. It is, say proponents of both views, fraught with symbolism.
``It's a good symbolic act to walk away,'' says Canadian Labour Council President Ken Georgetti. ``It's important that people listen and not just dismiss us as people who want to knock down their fence.''
But to others within the anti-summit movement, this is exactly the problem.
``An awful lot of people don't like the symbolism (of walking away),'' says Maude Barlow, director of the nationalist Council of Canadians.
``It's too much like we're just doing what we're told.''
And there is the rub. The anti-summit protest, like the summit itself, is the result of months of planning and negotiation - in this case among protesters, the governments they accuse of pandering to corporate capital, and police.
Indeed, the anti-summit is, in some respects, a bizarre mirror image of the summit itself - complete with simultaneous translation in three languages, well-stocked media rooms, press briefings, detailed accreditation forms and helpful trilingual officials.
The government's summit provides reporters with experts and academics who can explain, in numbing detail, why the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas will benefit all.
The anti-summit serves up academics and activists who can explain in equally numbing detail why the proposed FTAA is evil.
The federal government has given demonstrators tens of thousands of dollars to help fund their protests, a tiny fraction of what Ottawa is spending on the summit itself.
The protesters in turn, negotiated an arrangement with police designed to minimize any disruption - the key element being the agreement to head their big Saturday march in the wrong direction.
But now, with thousands more protesters expected to converge on Quebec city over the next few days, no one is sure that anyone will be able to control anything, particularly since a minority of anti-summiteers associated with so-called direct action groups are expected to launch a full-scale assault on the fenced compound Friday night.
``It depends on what happens Friday,'' said one labour official. ``If it's really bloody, then we won't be able to march away from the fence on Saturday. We'll have to march towards it for solidarity.''
Barlow says that if that happens, she and about 35 others from the Council of Canadians will be in the frontlines to act as what she calls a ``buffer'' between Quebec riot police and other, more vulnerable, protesters.
Georgetti says he won't be there at all. He says he has a longstanding prior commitment in British Columbia.
Copyright 1996-2001. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited
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