G-20 Protest Notes – One Humanity, One Struggle

A Few Digital Photos by Gary Morton
Ottawa Coalition Against the Tories

Regular Photos from Rob Stauffert
Bonfire in the Street

G-20 Protest Notes – One Humanity, One Struggle
By Gary Morton

   Evening Nov.17th   On the highway out of Ottawa the new moon of Ramadan appeared as a silver sliver in an illusionary blue lake. The landscape resembled the darkness at the end of the world while a mystic symbol rose in cloud fragments and radiant sunset light. It seemed to herald some unfathomable future.

   This surprised me because I hadn't heard any visionary statements from the world leaders gathered in Ottawa for the meetings of the G20, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin opened there by saying that the war on terror will help the world's poor  … and I'm wondering if there will be a follow-up announcement to the effect that Canada will be dropping welfare cheques with the US bombs hitting the poorest people on Earth in Afghanistan.

   Poverty is also an issue with the citizen protest groups that showed in Ottawa. They distributed a free book that nails the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization as Engines of Poverty. It should be distributed everywhere and is called "Does Globalization Help the Poor."

   Protest began on Friday Nov 16th with the Ottawa Coalition Against the Tories hitting the streets. I arrived in sunny Ottawa to find Jaggi Singh addressing the crowd. Nearby Toronto undercover officer Steve Irwin looked on. It was too late for me to get the gist of Jaggi's words and I didn't have to as I know that OCAT opposes the right wing agenda of Ontario's Tory government. Much of that Tory agenda falls in line with the Free Trade policies of the G-20/IMF/WB/WTO.

   John Cavanagh of the International Forum on Globalization says the world powers of globalization hate us because we have the youth on our side. The OCAT demonstrators were nearly all young, and part of a generation in Canada that has been robbed. Not so many years ago we had a good social benefits system. I used it to climb out of homelessness myself … an opportunity that these kids don't have. And Canada wasn't the only country that lost. Up until the 70s, the world was improving on all indicators. Then globalization came in like a crash. Wages have dropped for everyone but the wealthiest. Social programs and public services have been chopped or privatized world wide. Never have so many people had so little, and never have so few had so much.

   Dressed in black with hoods, bandanas and gas masks, the OCAT crowd began a snake march behind a banner with the message Smash the State, End the Hate. This was a gutsy march through the downtown streets of Ottawa with drumming and chanting. It was risky enough that I was afraid I would get arrested before covering the larger Saturday demonstration. Lines of riot cops kept emerging and the march kept shortcutting and turning here and there to avoid them. At the war memorial the group was completely boxed in by riot police in war class body armour. They had rubber bullet guns and fire extinguishers of pepper spray. I ducked out to avoid arrest and stood on some steps, pretending to be photographing the dancing protesters. RCMP and undercover cops were milling around and the guy beside me had a CSIS badge on his coat. After while the OCAT protesters marched out and a line of riot cops started running to cut them off. I sped ahead of them, escaping on roller blades. A confrontation almost developed, then police moved and the OCAT march continued for some time with a cop army following and blocking off streets. If police had a problem it was that they found themselves too heavily armed. Opening up on protesters with their weapons would have meant another PepperGate, so they let the march go on.

   It ended at a MacDonald's where police looked on as a few demonstrators tore apart a kiosk with pro life posters and smashed windows. People began to fade away and later eight people got arrested.

   The Ottawa press called this "smashing windows in the name of democracy", and the police seized the propaganda opportunity to victimize the Nov 17th demonstrators. The marches left early in morning sunshine from three locations - Le Breton Flats, Ottawa University and Hull. They were to meet on the way to the Supreme Court, but problems began to develop. Police swept in and kidnapped people at Le Breton and Hull. I was with the Ottawa U crowd of leftists and anarchists and our problem came when we got to a bridge we had to cross to reach the Supreme Court. Hordes of heavily armed police had blocked it and police camera men and gas and rubber bullet gunmen had the high ground on the steps.

   There were hundreds of us and march organizers wore red toques. I believe one of them got snatched later by police. We were told that a check point had been set up and they were going to search all of our bags. Of course we said no to that and a long standoff developed. People chanted then sat down on the road. A spokes council circle meeting took place to decide what to do. Some of the far left people called it a circle jerk and started preparing to march off. The council ended up weighing two options. One was that we lock arms and march against police lines. It likely would have meant pepper spray but our point would have been made. The other option was to march off and try to make it to the court via a longer route. The decision was 16 to 14 in favour of the longer route.

   Enthusiasm, shouts and whistles rose as we marched off. The police held their stations and looked somewhat baffled. Echoes rose as we headed down under a bridge. Then some people broke off and ran up the embankment.  A few cops guarded the top. There was an argument and people rushed through and waved for the rest of us to follow. Racing up the embankment we took the bridge and excited people began the long march across with others running ahead to scout for police. We beat them with speed and marched through the rest of Ottawa, with a great cheer rising when the other march showed coming up the hill by the parliament buildings. Back at the bridge I had looked through some windows and saw a number of police inside. It dawned on me that the Defense Ministry on the bridge we were originally supposed to cross was likely filled with scores more cops. It had been a trap and if we had attempted to go through the papers wouldn't be listing 17 arrests (apparently the actual figure was 48 arrests), it'd be more like 800 people pepper sprayed in mass arrest.

   Corporate media in Ottawa is portraying us as rioters with headlines saying we clashed with police and failed to shut the meeting down. The truth is that Nov 17th was planned as a peaceful post Sept 11th event. Arrests happened when police attacked some of the 2,000 demonstrators that gathered at the War Memorial. Using tear gas, rubber bullets, attack dogs, water hoses and pepper spray police seized people that breached a barricade. It was hardly a riot or an attempt to shut the meeting down and police cruelty to animals is an issue. They used attack dogs on demonstrators and reporters. Protests are not a place for dogs. They could be injured and police should know that.

   Numbers were smaller than some other globalization protests, but they were good considering it was hastily and perhaps poorly arranged. National Peace demonstrations probably cut the Ottawa numbers considerably. I got a call from Toronto saying a large peace demo was underway, yet it appears to have gotten little media coverage. If the Sept 11th Peace Coalition and Ottawa protest groups were hoping that holding protests nationally on the same day would draw media coverage, they were wrong. Corporate media gave almost no coverage to the peace events, and there was no in depth coverage of the Ottawa demos.

   The Issues:
   An Engines of Poverty forum in Ottawa Friday night covered the issues of this demonstration quite well. There must have been 800 people in the huge church. Here are just a few of the interesting things that came out.

   Poverty -  Most of the world's starving people now live in nations that have a surplus of food. Free Trade means importing that food to consumer markets elsewhere. We have the food capacity to feed 12 billion more people on this planet. The problem is an economic and trade system that gives food only to consumer classes with money. Places like Ethiopia and India are now net exporters of food.

   There are 1.1 billion undernourished people on this planet. The majority of them are women and children. Every day 11,000 children die of hunger. Even the United States has hungry people – 10 million of them, and globalization and Free Trade are making it worse.

   Debt - The IMF Structural Adjustment Programs have savaged nations world wide, leaving them with collapsed local industry, zero social and public programs and debt they can't repay. In spite of that Paul Martin ends the G20/IMF/WB meetings with a plan for nations that collapse from debt. His plan creates an international arbitrator and freezes the offending nation's capital markets, while a deal is made with creditors. All it will be is an opportunity for Global Corporations to pick the bones of dead nations, and restructure debt so they can rob them of any possible future prosperity.

   Maude Barlow on the (WTO) World Trade Organization meeting in Qatar
   In an attempt to hide from protests the WTO met in the oppressive desert state of Qatar. A place where Arab rulers prohibit all forms of free speech and protest. They met in an opulent hotel designed like a golden pyramid and issued hypocritical statements on how they are helping the poor and improving human rights. Their meetings continue to build a system that gives special preference to the 200 corporations and 475 billionaires that have pocketed nearly all of the wealth of the world.

   Through dirty dealing that Canada participated heavily in they have agreed to a new a round. A clause has been snuck in that would exempt multinational corporations from all regulations that protect the environment world wide, and it sets things up so nations won't sign environmental treaties like the Kyoto deal on global warming.

   So let me end by echoing other speakers and writers. Globalization doesn't help the poor. It doesn't help anyone when the planet's resources are being devoured by greedy men. Yes a Better World is Still Possible After September 11th, but we are going to have to fight the Third Reich of War and Globalization to get it.
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Ottawa Coalition Against the Tories
contact: ocat@tao.ca

Nov 17th people
Contact: info_N17@flora.org or (613) 237 0730
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Read - Starhawk's Report Back from Ottawa
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