George:

Report from the Front April 19, Thursday, 11 PM

Lesson One, how to get a van full of hippies across a foreign border. We went to a major tourist crossing, dressed everybody up to look slick, and WALKED them across one by one. Then the van came across, with a token hetero couple who claimed the mountain of stuff in the vehicle as their own. Aren't we lucky Americans are such consumptive slobs we can get away with that. Quebec city is very French, many people speak no English at all. The actions are dispersed (mostly training and what not so far), and the city is laid out on a non-grid. Navigation is difficult and tiring. The masses converged this afternoon in a spokes-council meeting at Laval University, about 4-5 miles from the fortress where the dignitaries are meeting. After an afternoon of meetings and discussion, we convened a march this afternoon. We started with about 1500 and finished with 2000 or more people. This crowd is very young and very spirited. Heavy anarchist presence. Very ready to tangle with authorities. The march was very energetic, drums, dancing in the street. Tremendous support from the people in the houses and apartment buildings, and stopped cars, as we passed. Many joined us. The police escorted us, and stayed clear. No confrontation. Tomorrow afternoon the confrontations will begin. Reports indicate the Quebec police suffer not shortage of machismo. Many people ready to engage in civil disobedience. There is little doubt that there will be some bruises and (hopefully minor) bloodshed tomorrow afternoon. The march has ended in a dance party rave under a set of bridges in a gritty downtown area. Spirits are very high. Media center well organized. Liberals have their own peoples conference going, but that is not so interesting as all this. Wish us luck, lexus

Update, Quebec City, Friday 8 PM, April 20th

Well, things have warmed up today, in more ways than one. (Did I mention that there are LARGE piles of snow all over here still ... ) There were many events starting this morning, but the main coalescing of people was at Laval University, about 5 miles from the fortress where the delegates are meeting. Our numbers have radically swelled. We are tens of thousands now, though it is hard to say exactly. The main march left from Laval around 1 PM. Unfortunately, there is serious disorganization and turf struggles going on within the local groups (CLAC and GOMM). So at the beginning of the march, there was a group of people directing the marchers in two different directions. The CLAC march was the larger. But the CLAC people were trying to hold it back to keep it together, so the crowd swept around the leadership. Heavy Anarchist presence, some unions, also many mainstream liberal groups. A lot of puppets, and good street antics, including a teddy-bear hurling catapult. Stilt walkers, and what not. The march continued in good spirits. (It takes a couple of hours to walk from Laval to the Fortress.) At one point, some foolish soul tried to shove his minivan through the marchers. This was NOT a permitted march, and thus police cooperation was minimal. Someone talked to the guy in the van and announced to the crowd that he was a delegate of the OAS meeting. After a bit, the anarchists descended on him and started lecturing him on the error of his ways. One started letting the air out of his back tire. He rolled up his window and started backing out. They removed his side mirror with a baton blow. When we were about 10 blocks from the fortress, the police drove a line of riot cops into the center of the march to break it in two. There was a standoff that lasted a while. (I went around and got behind the cops and kinda just hung out with them for a while. This whole demo is a most bizarre mix of civility and confrontation.) Most people I think eventually just went around the police. Finally I arrived at one of the three entry points in the fence surrounding the fortress. The anarchist climbed in mass on the chainlink fence and brought a large section down. The police quickly brought in reinforcements. I don't know if the rock throwing started first, or the tear gas, but pretty soon there was a lot of both. Everything became a projective, sticks, rocks, helmets, paint ballons, anything. The cops fired copious amounts of tear gas, at first they kept it close, firing only tens of feet at a time. There was a strong wind at our back, so the gas mostly blew back on them. As the cops got frustrated with the situation, they moved up to flank the demo and fired more deeply into the crowd. Thus ensued an unending game of street jousting, whereby the cops would push the crowd back with gas, and then the crowd would advance again. At first people were inclined to run, but soon they became aware that walking reduced the chances of trampling each other. After a few hours, the cops, who had advanced well beyond the fence, started firing long rang gas canisters that landed hundreds of feet back into the crowd. Rude. I am no rock thrower, but I have developed and affection for the brave souls who return those cannisters to sender. Mostly I was able to stay clear of serious gasing or so I thought. The stuff builds up on your skin and clothing. I suddenly found after I was away from the demo site that I suffered a sudden severe attack, burning eyes, burning skin, hard to see or breathe. With some help from some strangers, I washed the stuff out of my eyes as best I could. The edginess of the organizers has proven justified. One of the lead CLAC organizers was grabbed by three men in a van and taken away. I do not know his current circumstances. Hopefully, it was the cops. The other entrances also held a blockade. There was no opportunity to do any "sit in the street" civil disobedience because of the prolific use of tear gas. The cops have not, to my knowledge used pepper spray or concussion grenades. Rumor has it that our favorable wind caused the tear gas to blow back upon the delegates and cause them some discomfort. All the mainstream media is reporting on the event. The opening ceremonies have been postponed. Another interesting affect of this demo is that a large section of downtown Quebec has been converted to a magical pedestrian city. Everywhere you go, there are tons of people in the street. Spontaneous parties here and there. The anarchists have destroyed some things but to their credit there is not a single bit of graffiti or damage on any local business that I have seen. Shell gas stations have not fared so well with windows smashed. The big-media vans have also been attacked, which is not so smart public -relations wise. Apart from a vague burning left over from the tear gas, I am well. Tomorrow promises larger demonstrations. As of this evening, there are a lot of riot cops in various places in the city, and now they have dogs. I would hope they should not plan to use them. bye, lexus shit, just coming into the newsroom as I am typing, the cops are grabbing people off the streets. "snatch and grab" as it is known. I shall go see what's up and keep the head low. bye again, lexus

Update from Quebec 9:45 PM, Saturday Night, April 21

Everything grew in scale and intensity today. The Union People showed up in mass for their permitted march. Canadian Auto Workers, Steel Workers, dozens of other unions. They reported 23,000 headcount. That many more and then some in sundry other protest groups. The union march was lively and large. Lots of puppets, scads of people, drumming in the street, dancing, lots of fun, The original route for the union march was near the fortress fence, but they rerouted it to take it far away from there. Even so, the union people marching were all choking from the tear gas that was being fired a quarter mile away. The police pulled out all the stops today. They were using many different chemical agents, some of them far stronger than the gas they were using yesterday. Nobody knows what it all was, just that it was intense as hell, even when you were at a great distance. They were also using two different kinds of rubber bullets. Both were about the size of a 10 gauge slug, or the size of child's fist. One kind was quite heavy, and thus very bad to get hit by. The guy who showed it to me was hit and said it broke the skin under his clothing. The other kind of bullet was the same size, but much lighter, thus not as high impact. Even as the union march began, the anarchist had begun their street battle with the police. The peaceful protesters were trying to protest as well, but the whole thing just got more and more insane as the day wore on. The cops used copious amounts of very powerful gas. It was difficult to get anywhere near the fence most of the time because of the intensity of the gas. Even so, the anarchist managed to take down several sections in several different areas. There were ambulances circulating in and away from the protest areas, indicating the power of the gas. News reports say 8 police injured, 2 serious. I do not know how many protesters or anarchists have been injured. The police are arresting minimum numbers of people, trying to identify leaders and decapitate the groups. That does not seem to be working. The anarchist have been throwing bricks, a flaming christmas tree, and molotov cocktails (not many, thank god) at police. The anarchists attempted to set a house, and a bank on fire. Neither attempt was successful. They did hit one of the police water cannons (heavily used) with a fire bomb. There were heavy explosions in the air numerous times at a distance. I think they were some kind of chemical weapons fired from cannons. Enormous amounts of anger on all sides this afternoon. The police repeatedly fired cannisters of very strong gas at protesters who were seated peacefully. They also repeatedly used their various weapons to fire on people at point-blank range, hitting people with gas cannisters, and all manner of projectiles. At one point, I hooked up with Starhawks group. They were a number of middle aged women (about 20, they called themselves Living River) and various people, dressed in simple costumes. They approached one area where the fence had been breached. There was a large crowd, very tightly packed in an alleyway, facing riot cops, chanting. Living River wove its way into the crowd and toward the front. I was with them to support my friends in their company, although my instincts said this was a very bad scene. Living River started singing and chanting to calm the crowd. As they were doing this, the riot cops had moved through the breached fence and made a line. The gas guy (they all look like Darth Vader, for God's sake), had his finger on the pin of a gas grenade and was pointing sternly for us to retreat. We all sat down, and tried to calm the cops. It worked. They chilled, and so we all sat chill and sang for a bit. Someone read a proclamation declaring that water belongs to everyone (water supplies are increasingly being privatized globally.) Just as she was finishing, some supreme idiot from the crowd that was packed tightly behind us threw a brick over the seated people and smacked a cop (his shield, no injury.) That was not a pleasant moment. People vocalized their disapproval of the act. The cops held calm. I turned around so I could watch the idiot anarchists behind us. Things calmed back down after a bit. The river backed out and moved on to their next bit of business. The anarchist this afternoon seemed to be using more fire. Last night, they had set a couch on fire at the edge of the fence. Looking over the crowd of protesters, with flames leaping into the air in front of them, and rows of riot cops beyond, it was an eerie scene. Tonight I was at the CMAQ office, which is a quarter mile from the fence and an organizing point. I was helping being bouncer at the door to control traffic flow. A report came from inside that one of the people hit in the head by the cops weapons had died. (unconfirmed) A meeting was called to figure out what to do. The tension ratcheted upward. In another fifteen minutes, the cops, without warning, used their long rang gas lauchers to throw a heavy volley of some very powerful gas into the streets outside. (I have been gased repeatedly today, and, aside from the living river adventure, I have not come anywhere near the rock throwers.) The street had been full of people milling about, playing drums. Like I said, the effect of the demo is to create a pedestrian city, with tons of people just hanging out in the street. They gased a large area without warning. There was sheer chaos. People were trying to get into the building. We were trying to keep the gas out. One of the people I came up with got hit bad. He was carried in and attended by medics. He was in a lot of pain, vomiting. They hung with him until he stabalized. When the gas cleared in the street, the CMAQ people suggested non-vital people consider leaving. Most of our group was present, so we decided it was time to go. I had to go to the front line to retrieve one of our group, but that came off without dire consequences. Most of us are home, though two have decided to stay down there. The situation as of 10 PM was that the city is full of angry young people, and angry cops. There is no moral high ground left. I am a pacifist, but I have to say that the affect of being repeatedly gased for no immediate reason is to generate a lot of anger. There are a lot of angry people down there tonight - thousands. I think the police are using their gas to try to keep the density of the crowd down, to prevent full scale riots. That is most likely tonight. As far as I can tell, there is nothing to gain politically down there tonight. I will remain at home. see y'all, lexus

Update, Quebec City, 10:30 AM, Sunday Morning, April 22

Correction, earlier mention of 8 police casualties false. Over thirty police injured. One traffic cop caught by a gang of somebodies and beaten with a steel pipe. Many injuries among demonstrators. Quebec city exploded last night. Two of our people stayed down there. The police gased every collection of people they could find. The anarchists etc. tried to burn the city down. Massive property damage. Broken windows everywhere. Police pulling the masks off of people, gased the medical clinic. Report of fatality remains unconfirmed. May have been a rumor circulated to inflame the masses. Local papers, if you can believe it, remain favorable to the demonstrator's original cause. French language paper Sunday cover has a picture of a line of riot cops standing over demonstrators, headline Tears of Democracy. English language newspaper, picture of riot cops, Tear Gased Activists Remain Defiant. Madness. alexis

Update, Quebec City, 8:30 PM, Sunday Evening, April 22

A cool wet wind blew into Quebec today, and the riots subsided this morning. The police rounded up whoever was left, bringing the total arrested to something around 400. The rumored fatality, according to best information available, was shot in the neck with a rubber bullet. He was critical, but has stabilized now. Previous characterizations of property damage innacurate. Seems like most of the rage was directed at the police, not at property. A lot of grafitti downtown, but very little damage to local businesses and homes. There was a massive outdoor party in a park last night that the cops gased. That pushed the people into the commerical area beside the park. Buildings there did not fare so well. (Smart cops .... ) Acrid dust of tear gas everywhere today, and the smell of recent fires. The dust alone was enough to makes your eyes water and your throat burn. There was some tangling between cops and anarchists today. Several hundred people exchanged rocks and tear gas with the cops in the central park at the fence. On any other day, that would be an enormous event. Today it seemed like one final skirmish at the end of a war. I stayed far clear. Enough gas for me thank you. I helped out at the CMAQ office and walked around a bit. Quebec residents, as much as we have talked to them, remain supportive of our effort, in spite of the riots. I acquired a westward ride, but the riots disrupted my plans. Headed home.

alexis (Alexis Zigler, electronic mail, April 22, 2001)