A-Infos (en) The Northeastern Anarchist #2 Building a Campaign of Solidarity and General Amnesty

[Worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>(http://flag.blackened.net/nefac/magazine/02/solidarity.html)]

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      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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Since the Summit of the Americas, a large movement
of solidarity with all the political prisoners arrested
around these protests has developed. People from all
over the world have taken to the streets in solidarity.
Organizations of all types, and individuals from across
the US and Canada, have sent money toward the
non-sectarian CASA defense fund. This movement
didn't appear out of nowhere. The fact that people and
organizations are willing to be in solidarity with black
bloc militants and peaceful demonstrators alike is
clearly a result of the emergence of a new respect for
a diversity of tactics.

         Taking the Lead of Solidarity

The aftermath of the Summit could have been like
other mass demonstrations. In fact, in the morning of
A21, there was an isolated denunciation of "protestor
violence" by the mainstream Peoples' Summit
representative, Françoise David, and Quebec
"non-violence" guru, Philippe Duhamel of Operation
SalAMI. However, as the day unfolded, it became
difficult to denounce "marginal groups planning for
violence" since, as one Montreal medic put it, the black
bloc wasn't "the violent minority of protestors," but
rather "the minority of the violent protestors". At the
end of the day, Philippe Duhamel was alone, with
journalists and politicians, to denounce the violence of
the protests.

We knew that the mainstream media, and some
"respectable activists", would do all they could to
swing the sympathies of the public back to "law and
order" and "business as usual". That's why, on April
23rd, at its first general assembly after the Summit, the
CASA tried to take the lead for solidarity with clear
demands and an immediate plan of action. Since we
were the first to issue demands -- immediate and
unconditional liberation of all the political prisoners and
a general amnesty for all protestors -- and a call to
action, others had little choice but to follow the lead
and the hardcore non-violent dogmatics were caught
off guard.

     A Movement of Unconditional Solidarity

The first activist group to answer our call and to align
it's demands and actions with ours (outside of CLAC,
but that was obvious), was OQP-2001. To their credit,
during the Summit they had an absolutely
irreproachable attitude and afterward they
unanimously decided to support everyone, regardless
of politics. The coalition, under pressure in their
rank-and-file, simply made our demands theirs,
mobilized for our actions and started asking for money
on the behalf of our defense fund.

The first wave of demonstrations was launched on the
week of MayDay. In Quebec City, over 600 people
showed up for a powerful demonstration of solidarity,
while in Montreal hundreds joined the union march
under anarchist and anti-capitalist banners demanding
a general amnesty. Solidarity demonstrations were
also held in many other cities. On May 3rd, another
demonstration disrupted the annual benefit dinner of
the Canadian Liberal Party. During the protest, some
150 protestors clashed with Montreal police.

After that, CLAC and CASA issued a call for three days
of actions in solidarity with the remaining political
prisoners, starting on May 22nd. In the meantime, the
"movement to free Jaggi" gathered momentum in
English-speaking Canada and Quebec with almost
daily actions and press coverage. He was finally freed
on May 7th on a $3,000 cash bail, and with peculiar
conditions such as "not having a megaphone at
demonstration" and "not being in a position of
leadership in demonstration". After the release of Jaggi
Singh, the struggle to make the rest of the political
prisoners known intensified. Indeed, there were not
many people who knew that there were still eight
people behind bars because of the Summit. To
highlight these cases, the CLAC and CASA demands
for the days of actions were "Free the 'Germinal Five'
and All Other Political Prisoners" and "General
Amnesty for All Protestors".

It's during these days of actions that the first Summit of
the Americas political prisoner, Stéphane Paquet, was
sentenced on May 15th to nine months behind bars
and a three years probation for smashing a few
windows. Another political prisoner, Jean Pierre
Bélanger, was also sentenced to six months in jail for
"death threats against a police officer". Finally, the
case of Vaughn Barnett, a non-violent activist who
crossed the fence on Sunday, April 22nd, who
challenged the legality of his arrest and refused bail,
also came to light during these days.

Finally, on May 22nd, a demonstration was held in
Quebec City. Some 150 people took to the streets and
headed toward the City Hall Building where there was
a meeting in session. Upon arrival, about 50 protestors
got inside and disrupted the meeting, pressing for the
City Council to back a demand for an independent
inquiry of the police work during the Summit. Outside
the city flag was brought down and replaced with a
black flag. Other solidarity demonstrations also took
place in Toronto and Montreal .Harassment continued
as two people were arrested after the Montreal demo
for allegedly having Molotov cocktails in their bags,
while two others were fined in Quebec City for wearing
scarves and making "too much noise".

The ‘Germinal Five’ were finally released on conditions
on May 28th. These conditions not only include
"having a good behavior" and "keeping the peace" but
also forbade from communicating with each other.
They must also report every two weeks to the police
officer who conducted the investigation against them,
and their parents where forced to agree to pay a fine
of $10,000 if they break these conditions.

              Where to Next?

Right now, as the energy of the Summit has died out
and all of the political prisoners that could realistically
be freed have been, spirit is low in Quebec City. With
more than 300 trials to start this autumn, and a handful
of activists to deal with this massive work, CASA is
clearly exhausted. We've raised a lot of money, but we
will need much more. Hopefully, people will be able to
take some rest during the summer and we can
develop a political plan of actions for the autumn.
Because we all know that this battle started in the
street, and, ultimately, will be won there. As usual, we
need to agitate, educate and organize (and not burn
out while doing so!).

Contribute to the defense fund!
In Canada, you can send a check or money order
made out to "CASA" and send it to:
Le Maquis, C.P. 48026, 110 boul Rene Levesque,
Quebec (Quebec) G1R 2R5.

In the US, make check payable to "Lower East Side
Fund" and mail them to:
Nathalie K. Williams, 2078 Second Ave. #3B, New
York, NY 10029 [mark check to "Quebec solidarity"]




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