[mobglob-discuss] Eyewitness to Calgary:WE'RE STILL WINNING!

[Julie Devaney]

Hi Everyone,
Here are two eyewitness articles that expose the
corporate media lies about what happened in Calgary.
They are from Socialist Worker newspaper, anyone who
wants more eyewitness accounts and analysis should
check out www.socialist.ca.
Solidarity, Julie.


Their hypocrisy, Our democracy

June 24, 6,000 marched through Calgary, unionists,
environmentalists, anti-capitalists, in a fantastic
and spirited demonstration.
The counter-conference — G6-Billion — was expecting
600 to
attend, and saw almost double that.

June 26, Calgary, 1,000 marched in the morning against
sweatshop conditions in The Gap, 2,500 at night
rallied outside a
$300,000 dinner put on for G8 delegates.

June 27, 3,000 marched against the G8 in Ottawa, 2,500
in Calgary and 700 in Toronto. In the evening in
Calgary, 500 people crammed into a 130-strong car
caravan, driving as close as possible to Kananaskis
before being stopped by a police roadblock.

n June 28, 4,000 march in Ottawa in a "No one is
Illegal" defence of immigrant rights.

TRADE UNIONISTS AND TURTLE KIDS

By Carolyn Egan

Thirty Toronto Steelworkers boarded a Canadian
Labour Congress charter bound for Calgary along with
members of the CAW, CUPE and other anti-globalization
activists. There
was a feeling of excitement and anticipation as the
plane took off. The G8
was about to start, and a western protest movement had
been organizing in
Alberta.

The city of Calgary had denied permits for activities,
refusing to
allow the use of public parks for political purposes.
The planed
Solidarity Village had been refused a venue. Visas had
been
denied African visitors, and Americans had been turned
away at
the borders. The mayor was openly hostile to
protesters. There
was a huge military and police presence. Some elements
of the
anarchist movement in eastern Canada were demanding a
tax be
paid by anyone who traveled to Alberta.

But at the same time, the Alberta labour movement and
the
anti-globalization movement had been forging strong
links. The
Calgary District Labour Council represents only 26,000
workers,
but it made sure that trade unionists were front and
centre in the
organizing. The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL),
the
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and affiliates such as
the
Communication Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) and the
United
Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) were very active.

Local churches and community centres made their
facilities
available for billeting and for meetings. 

The "trade union-turtle" alliance that was formed in
Seattle, and
manifested itself again in Quebec, was strong, vibrant
and
out-front in Alberta. For months spokescouncils had
been
meeting planning the mobilizations, the activities and
the
workshops, overcoming incredible obstacles put up by
the state.
Trade unionists were integral to the process. 

The community solidarity march, which took place on
Sunday,
had a strong trade union presence. It drew many
elements from
the local community, seniors, mothers with kids in
strollers, and
many, many young people radicalizing as part of a
growing
movement. They marched hand in hand with workers. 

There had been an unfortunate legacy left from the
Quebec
protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas,
when labour
leaders led the huge march of 80,000 away from the
fence out to a
deserted parking lot, kilometers away from the centre
of the city.
It had left a bad taste in the mouth of many
protesters, who felt
that they had been abandoned by labour.

For some activists it unfortunately overshadowed the
fact that
60,000 of the 80,000 who demonstrated in Quebec City
were
organized workers, and many were shoulder to shoulder
with
them at the fence.

Calgary left no such memory; labour was there at every
turn.
There was a debate within the unions, whether or not
to officially
participate in the "unpermitted" snake march on
Wednesday
morning. It was to go through the down town core of
the city. A
meeting took place among the unions and after
discussion, it was
unanimously decided that workers would officially
march. And
they did! 

Young activists were overjoyed, and workers were in
the front
lines of the illegal march. The UFCW later held an
illegal
lunchtime barbecue in a city park where a permit had
been denied
them. They fed thousands of demonstrators in defiance
of the city
of Calgary. A caravan of 130 vehicles carrying trade
unionists and
other activists then traveled out to Kananaskis, and
got as far as
the first check point into the summit before they were
stopped.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers had been there
before
them attempting to carry mail to the G8 leaders. 

The unity forged between workers and activists marks
this protest
one of the most significant that has taken place in
this country.
We are a part of a growing global movement, and labour
has
played a central role in the success of the Calgary
anti-G8 protests.


WE'RE STILL WINNING

By John Bell

Arriving home after spending over a week in Calgary
protesting the G8 summit, I started to scan the
newspapers that had piled up to see what I had missed.

Hidden away in there was a story about how the
Canadian
Government had scrapped a project to study depletion
of the
ozone layer over the Arctic, to save $300,000 a year.

This struck me, because $300,000 is exactly the amount
spent by
the city of Calgary to host a big dinner party for the
business elite
and Junior B delegates at the summit.

It shows how our bosses order their priorities.

The people of Calgary will get the irony immediately,
if their
scabrous local press ever bothers to carry the story.

They saw their streets overrun by an army of riot
cops, including
our old friends from the OPP.

They lived through a McCarthy-style moral hysteria
from their
local government and media worse than anything I've
ever seen.

They learned that hundreds were stopped at the borders
from
coming to their town, including 58 invited delegates
to the G 6
Billion counter-conference held at the University of
Calgary.

Altogether they were terrorized, wound up and played
for fools
by all three levels of their government and by the
local and
international business elite.

And when we finally came together in protest
Calgarians
witnessed a series of small but effective actions
which were
tactically clever, self-disciplined and essentially
good-natured.

The cops - especially the OPP thug squad - were
clearly
uncomfortable: millions of dollars worth of chemical
weapons,
tasers and tanks, and no excuse to use 'em.

The ink stained wretches of the press were clearly
uncomfortable.
Without their standard "rioters run rampant" articles
they actually
had to think about what we were saying, and about the
issues.
One or two of them even wrote a decent story.

And what about the people of Calgary?

Even the sceptical among them began to get behind the
protests
when the city made the mistake of trying to ban a
prayer vigil
from a city park. People, rightly, went ballistic.

And there was the behaviour of the protesters. It
wasn't just that
we were "peaceful" - it was that we were tactically
wise and
smarter than the goons on the other side.

Demonstrations and rallies were not huge, but each
event was
well planned, bringing together local activists with
people from
out of town. Labour organizations were involved in the
planning
and decision making meetings right from the start, and
activists
from both sides - from the movement and from labour -
were
conscious of what an achievement this was.

All the events were colourful and fun, but the issues
were sharply
in focus. 

By contrast, the ineffectual and divisive squabbling
taking place in
the mountains showed the G8 to be a half
billion-dollar farce. The
only real agreement reached by Chrétien, Bush and Co.
was the
agreement not to issue the traditional joint
communiqué outlining
what they agreed on.

People joined together in Calgary - and in Ottawa, and
in every
other place where the G8 was protested - not just to
stage an
event, but to build a movement.

Everyone who had that perspective was thrilled with
what we
were able to achieve in Calgary.

After one of the actions, I was chilling outside the
community
centre that served as protest convergence centre. A
cab pulled up
outside, there to do an errand for organizers.

The cabbie - not your typical protester: mid-50's,
paunchy and
sweat stained - took a drag on his cigarette and said:
"Tell
everyone inside there that you're winning. You've
already won."

He told us how all his riders were complaining about
the cost of
the policing, the hysterical overkill, and the vacuous
summit
pronouncements.

This man was volunteering his time and his car to the
protest. "I
picked up a police superintendent at the airport. You
should have
heard the way he talked about you guys. Soon as he got
out of the
car I drove straight here and volunteered."

So there you have it, you can't argue with a cabbie
when it come
to the mood on the street. Despite the small numbers
of actual
participants in actions, a huge layer of people
watching from the
sidelines was won over or pulled closer to our
anti-capitalist
movement.

The local activists came out inspired and better
organized. The
global issues, and the inability of the G(reedy) 8 to
even address
them, were clearly stated.

We're still winning.



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