A-Infos (en) Canada, Vancouver, Media, During the Olympics, two young activists learn the finer points of militant action, , Printer-Friendly Version

In monumental buildings in Vancouver, people gathered to bear witness to the strength of 
the human body and the spectacle of the recent Olympic games. On the streets, thousands 
gathered to mourn and protest to its current and future cost: the mountains and trees 
removed to build lodges and ski trails on un-ceded indigenous territory; the eviction of 
low-income people from homes designated for Olympics inspired renovation and demolition; 
the homelessness beyond “Project Civil City,” an initiative that criminalized aggressive 
panhandling and sleeping outdoors. ---- Beneath the surveillance cameras recently 
installed on public streets, two Seattle residents, Michelle Woo and Stephen Clark, raised 
their voices in protest. ---- When did you decide to go and why? ---- Michelle:  We 
decided a month or two before the Olympics, but I had been thinking about it for a long 
time. We participated in the WTO 10-year anniversary and it was great, but at the same 
time kind of disappointing.  I was hoping the Olympics would be the energy I was looking for.

Did you find that in Vancouver?

Michelle:  Yeah.  I’ve been to really big protests before but the energy in Vancouver was 
different.  There was more frustration and people were ready to express their frustration, 
not only though words, but through actions and different avenues of being.  There were 
choir groups and more militant protesters.  There was that festive energy that made the 
WTO ’99 well known: puppets and people dressed up. That carnival feeling.  At the same 
time there was a sense of urgency and it felt really powerful.

Stephen:  Other protests or demonstrations I’ve been in have seemed to me superficial and 
not effectual in the way I wanted.  There’s never been a high enough concentration of 
people that want to do militant demonstrations with anarchists taking over the streets 
with flags and fire.  I knew they’d do that in Vancouver.

Did that happen?

Stephen:  Momentarily, I think.  There was a march with over 200 people and the anarchist 
black-block [Anarchist black bloc:  A protest tool characterized by anarchists wearing 
matching outfits to conceal identities during volatile direct action.] merged with them 
and went on a rampage in downtown Vancouver.  That was an expression through property 
destruction of corporate media centers and facades of buildings.  All the major supporters 
of the Olympics got their windows smashed.

For you, what does militancy mean and why is it important?

Michelle:  A lot of people think militancy means violence, which I think is not true. 
Militancy can include non-violent direct action, and often that is the main type of action 
used.  I feel militancy is about being confrontational in the sense you are challenging 
something and not being passive.  You are breaking laws, challenging norms and 
stereotypes, making people feel uncomfortable.  The channels given to us to express 
ourselves are very often ignored.  I don’t think any movement has been able to win their 
demands without having some form of confrontation.

What injustices were you hoping to confront?

Stephen:  In going to Vancouver nobody anticipated the crowd was going to shut down the 
Olympics.  It’s impossible.  There’s been infrastructure development going on in Vancouver 
for five or six years preceding the Games. They’re getting bids right now for the next 
location.  You have to nip it in the bud. That happened in Chicago.  They told the IOC 
[International Olympics Committee] that if you come to Chicago, we will shut you down. 
Now it seems bids are going to developing, semi-industrialized countries so there is less 
protest.

Michelle:  Well, in those countries it’s definitely more militarized and they have less of 
an ability to express themselves. Even in Vancouver there was a huge amount of security 
presence and people were really resistant to it.

How was the police state in effect during the protests?

Stephen: The police were everywhere: They were cruising the streets in all kinds of 
vehicles. There were often groups of 15 or 20 officers in yellow reflective vests that 
would walk in crowds, marching through the streets.

At the protest Friday [February 12] there were relatively few police officers for the 
majority of time.  We marched totally unrestricted for four city blocks.  When we got to 
the convention center there were normal street officers; they weren’t even riot police.  I 
didn’t see any kind of guns on the major march day, although they did always have 
surveillance on rooftops. The next day the anarchist march happened and there was 
significant property damage.  They came out with riot police and huge guns and weaponry.

Michelle: The border security was very present in Vancouver, which I did not expect.  They 
were looking for people who should not be there, who weren’t contributing in terms of 
tourist activities.  I’m sure there were more security personnel that we didn’t see, that 
were undercover or remained hidden.

What was your experience crossing the border into Canada and was it different on the way home?

Michelle:  Crossing into Canada was fairly easy for us but we had received advice on how 
to avoid any concerns or questions.  We took precautions to make ourselves less obvious.

Stephen: Why would you want to be less obvious?  Is protesting illegal?

Michelle:  No.  Protesting is not illegal.  They were claiming that they weren’t turning 
away people for wanting to go to Canada to protest.  They wanted to make sure people 
weren’t violent protesters.  In order to do that they punish them [protesters] by making 
them go through extra security and having their stuff searched.  We didn’t experience that 
on the way in, but we definitely experienced it on the way out.

How did the corporatization of public space play out in Vancouver?

Stephen:  The only advertising allowed in the city, on the billboards, the buses, and the 
signs were from Olympic sponsors; so pretty much everything was Coca-Cola or McDonald’s. 
Huge corporate advertisements with pictures of immaculately dressed and perfectly sculpted 
Caucasian people with winter clothing that said “Canada.” It was really fucked up because 
they were obviously covering up buildings that were less attractive.

What impact did you want your actions to have and do you feel like they did?

Stephen:  It serves to support the people living there and struggling and also to 
disseminate information.  If people don’t go and witness what’s happening and take those 
stories away and share them all we have left is the corporate media to feed you.

Michelle:  The point is to exercise our freedom of speech and reclaim spaces even if it is 
momentary, to feel that power and be inspired to keep doing things like that. Being able 
to get together and have a shared consciousness; that we’re all similar, that we’re all 
facing struggles, that we’re willing to take time out of our lives to be there for one 
another.
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