[Bloquez l'empire!] Photo-report and flyer: March 17, 2007 Anti-imperialist contingent (Montreal)

[bloquezlempiremontreal at resist.ca]

This past Saturday, March 17, 2007, Block the Empire-Montreal (BLEM),
a direct-action anti-war collective, facilitated an anti-imperialist
contingent as part of local anti-war demonstrations on the 4th
anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

--> A PHOTO-REPORT from the anti-imperialist contingent is linked at:
http://gallery.cmaq.net/march17contingent

--> The text of the FLYER that was passed out in the hundreds is linked here:
http://blocktheempire.blogspot.com/2007/03/flyer-text-bush-out-of-baghdad-canada.html

--> AUDIO excerpts from the Anti-Imperialist Contingent, including
speeches by Sophie of BLEM, Nastaran of BLEM reading a statement about
Iran, Louis-David of the Association pour une solidarité syndicale
étudiante (ASSÉ) speaking about counter-recruitment efforts, as well
as Houda of Tadamon speaking about the boycott, divestment and
sanctions campaign against Israeli apartheid. Audio recorded by David
Tacium for CKUT's En Profoundeur (in French only):
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=22416

--> IMPORTANTLY, the anti-imperialist contingent is a prelude to an
upcoming action against a speech by Canadian Minister of Gordon
Defence O'Connor on TUESDAY, April 3 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
Details about that action are linked here:
http://blocktheempire.blogspot.com/2007/03/april-3-protest-minister-of-defence.html


The March 17 anti-imperialist contingent took place on the morning
after a snowstorm, but still approximately 500 demonstrators marched
thru downtown Montreal. The contingent stopped at the Canadian forces
recruiting station to highlight ongoing anti-recruiting efforts by
local student and unemployed workers organizations, as well as at
Chapters Books, where the current boycott of the Chapters-Indigo
chain, for their connections to Israeli apartheid, was highlighted by
speakers from Tadamon Montreal and the International Solidarity
Movement (for more info about the boycott campaign, consult:
http://www.caiaweb.org/node/137 ).

The contingent then joined with the local "Echec à la guerre"
coalition (symbolically, a meeting of 1960s Bob Dylan playing on the
Echec soundsystem, contrasting with Dead Prez and Keny Arkana's "La
Rage du Peuple" blaring from the Block the Empire soundsystem; you can
listen to "La Rage du Peuple" at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92o_Bn4Uw-w )

Together we were more than 1000 people as the demo continued along
Ste-Catherine Street.

The anti-imperialist contingent detoured to the American consulate --
hearing from speakers from a local Filipino solidarity group, as well
as from La Otra Campana ? before again meeting with Echec à la guerre
outside the Complexe Guy-Favreau (the offices of the Canadian federal
government in Montreal).

The demonstration ended with a call to protest and disrupt the
upcoming speech by Canadian Minister of Defence,Gordon O'Connor in
Montreal at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel this coming April 3. More
details about the disruption effort are linked at:
http://blocktheempire.blogspot.com/2007/03/april-3-protest-minister-of-defence.html


The following groups and organizations endorsed and participated in
the recent anti-imperialist contingent: À Babord * Action
créative/Acción creativa * L'Association étudiante du Cégep de
Saint-Laurent (AÉCSL) * L'Association générale étudiante du Cégep du
Vieux-Montréal (AGECVM) * L'Association facultaire des étudiants en
sciences humaines de l'UQÀM (AFESH-UQÀM) * L'Association pour une
solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) * Center for Philippine Concerns
(CPC) * Le Centre d'Asie du Sud (CERAS) * Collectif Piranha (Québec) *
La coalition Guerre à la Guerre: Val-Cartier 2007 (Québec) * Coalition
Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees (CADPR) * Le Collectif
opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP) * Le Comité des sans-emploi
(Montréal-Centre) * Documentation Information Ressources Alternatives
(DIRA) * Food Not Bombs * Le Frigo Vert * Le Front Rouge * Groupe
d'action et de sensibilisation au pouvoir étudiant (GRASPÉ-McGill) *
le Groupe de Recherche d'Intéret Public (GRIP-UQÀM) * Haiti Action
Montreal * La Otra Campaña Montréal * Immigrant Workers Center (IWC) *
International League of Peoples' Struggles (ILPS)-Montreal *
International Solidarity Movement (ISM)-Montreal * Kabataang Montreal
* Liberterre * Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC) *
No One Is Illegal-Montreal/Personne n'est illégal-Montréal *
L'Observatoire de l'Asie Centrale et du Moyen-Orient * La Pointe
Libertaire * La RueBrique * Libertad (Cégep du Vieux-Montréal) *
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (Quebec) * Phillipine
Women's Center of Montreal * PINAY (Filipina Women of Quebec) * Projet
Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie (PASC) * Quebec Public Interest
Research Group (QPIRG-McGill) * Quebec Public Interest Research Group
(QPIRG-Concordia) * Réseau anarchiste en milieu étudiant (RAMÉ) *
Résistance haïtienne au Québec * Société Bolivarienne du Québec *
Solidarité sans frontières/Solidarity Across Borders * South Asian
Women's Community Center (SAWCC) * Students Taking Action in Chiapas
(STAC) * Tadamon! Montréal * Unité des socialistes iraniens à Montréal
* Unité théâtrale d'interventions loufoques (UTIL) and others.


ABOUT BLOCK THE EMPIRE MONTREAL: Block the Empire-Montreal is an
anti-authoritarian, direct-action collective opposed to war and
militarization, and their roots and manifestations: colonialism,
imperialism and capitalism. We seek to expose the links between
capitalist globalization and patriarchy, racism and all forms of
oppression, both here and abroad. Our work locally aims to disrupt and
directly impact the interests of those who are actively complicit in
these systems, from companies who fuel and profit from war and
occupation, to the supporters and outposts of US Empire and the
Canadian state. We endorse the People's Global Action (PGA) hallmarks,
and we act in direct solidarity with all those on the frontlines of
resistance and struggle against occupation and exploitation - from
those resisting the racist "War on Terror" in the Middle East, Latin
America, Africa and Asia, to the struggle for indigenous sovereignty
here on Turtle Island (occupied North America).


TO STAY IN TOUCH:
bloquezlempiremontreal at resist.ca
514-848-7583
blog: http://blocktheempire.blogspot.com
web: http://bloquezlempiremontreal.resist.ca

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