The movement started with three signature events: First, the Direct Action Network (DAN) organised the shut down of the WTO meeting on November 30, 1999, through arm locks, physical blockades, etc.
Then later that afternoon, the AFL-CIO march broke the movement along lines quite familiar to many from previous generations (but still startling those, both young and older, who had not experienced such before) of the reformist and system-loyal Trade Union Bureaucrats selling out of the more radical sections of the movement. The DAN march and blockades had originally been slated to coincide with the official labour march. During the course of the afternoon, when the labour tops got wind of the tear gas and rubber bullets going on in the core of the city, they re-directed the entire march away from the original location, so as to make sure they would remain "respectable" (and receive a chance to negotiate at the table).
The third event of significance is, of course, the emergence of the Black Bloc. The Black Bloc has also come to symbolise much of the movement, even if since Seattle it has remained physically a very small part. The BB represents, first and foremost, resistance. That it is, in the words of yesterday, "right to
rebel". It also represents the "diversity of tactics" that has become a very large part of the movement up until this point. It also represents the "propaganda of the deed" that has succeeded so far in galvanising people in this movement. This has also given way to the "Tute Bianche" and other direct action coalitions (these "White Overalls" constitute an allegiance to Zapatism) which seek to challenge the legitimacy of locking us out of negotiations. In other words, their fighters are trying to defend democratic rights.
Since that time, the state- whichever one was host to whichever conference- has not allowed people to actively stop their meetings. The movement has adjusted its tactics- very slightly and almost by accident- to enforcing the right to protest. In order to prevent people from disrupting the usual state of affairs (peaceful little meetings, etc), capitalist "democracies" have- the world over- removed our right to protest wherever we see fit in the name of "security". This has given the BB a very positive role to play in the demonstrations that have followed since Seattle. Then came the demo in Quebec, where the right of protest was single-handedly squashed by the state in an unconstitutional move. The Wall was built. The BB here helped tear it down, yet another manoeuvre that helped the movement with what has become the implicit strategy: the continuing delegitimation of the international ruling class and their murderous agenda of poverty, national and environmental subjugation, and the elimination of all restrictions on capital.
The governments of globalisation and their masters have now got to contend with the fact that they can no longer hold a meeting to decide our fate without our response being immediate and clear. The Wall represented what lengths they will go to in defence of their number one agenda, even in Canada. Then came the G8 meeting in Genoa, Italy. The level of state repression involved in Italy was by far the worst that had been meted out so far. It was far more than simply murderous as well.
The next G8 meeting is in Kananaskis, Alberta (near Calgary). Many people have begun to feel that the movement itself needs to confront the meeting directly. The first Spokescouncil meeting was held in Edmonton, Alberta recently. The basic tenor of the meeting fell around the two ideas: do we go into Kananaskis Valley and try to disrupt their meeting (where the location was obviously chosen for A) military purposes of how easy it is to defend, B) we would be dealing with a major demonstration on Nati0onal Park land that would inevitably cause major environmental damage. Or, the other choices are yet to be defined- from simply having a massive demonstration to taking on another form of direct action/confrontation of the G8 policies through another symbolic target.
My bias is probably already clear: We need to steer clear of the Kananaskis Valley. It is highly admirable that people fear being seen as succumbing to retreat- but it is a false fear, UNLESS we do not go into "K Country" in order to do nothing. This movement has been successful around being as desperate in appearance (and as uncompromising) as the political and environmental situation warrants. However, thus far the major problem that we have faced as a movement has been the division among protesters into two march routes and two lines (reformist or revolutionary).
The first speaker who spoke to what was needed was a unionist from Winnipeg. He was quite clear: we are not here to confront capitals' cops, but capital as enforced by cops. We have been a major influence on political discourse so far for all of the reasons outlined above, and not limited to just these reasons either. Mainly, the unifying features are all around things that coincide with why people feel increasingly disenfranchised; people are no longer receiving their leaders' cant about democracy and believing it. In the process of creating all of these international trade bodies, the international ruling class has threatened their talisman: democracy. Our defiance has caused them to repress increasingly- also giving the lie to their speeches about democracy. Finally, the results of "free trade" are becoming increasingly obvious as everyone continues to lose more and more from both their paycheques and their
"democratic" franchise. As such, it would be utter suicide for the anti-globalisation movement to NOT be militant and confrontational. People have instinctively become vastly aware that capitalism's triumph is not beneficial to all- and people vote less and sigh petitions barely at all, since they know such actions are window dressing on the lie itself.
The response to the total rejection of Oliver Twist politics of "please sir, can we have some more?" is so positive because people know that the directly defiant are the first hope since the collapse of the multi-polar world. The Wall in Quebec represented precisely the right target- it was an attack on democracy, and it was erected to shield their economic attacks on the entire hemisphere. Clearly, the reason so few people challenged the justness of tearing down the Wall was that it represented a "thus far and no further" statement by the population in Canada. Defiance resonates, and must continue.
However- this is the key factor here- masses of people repeatedly throwing themselves into the machinations of the state, in order to protest the policies of global capital (when only one meeting means little) has now come very close to exhausting it's potential for further galvanisation of people. It was symbolic, and so be it: as Napoleon said (to paraphrase from memory) "the moral is to the material 3 to 1". The feeling that people do have a social power is wondrous and that lesson has been learned in the opening slavos of the struggle. But to repeat the tactic of trying to shut down the meeting- as the capitalists continue to move their struggles to more inaccessible places is utter suicide. It is a trap we must avoid at all costs.
There are huge numbers of people who are going to fight the machinations of capital regardless. In these situations, we need to have targets that continue to be real and representative of the real issues. Stock exchanges cannot be moved out of city centres. Highways continue to be the major route for the transport of almost all goods across Canada. Finally, the best part is that the ports across the entire Western seaboard of North America are run by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), who have been the most actively supportive of direct action to confront "globalisation", having broken with Sweeney (and others) when they tried to sell-out the blockades at the front in Seattle and protesting through work stoppages the murder of our fighter Carlo Guiliani. We should consider immediately trying to arrange a total shut down of the ports, as well as a blockading of the transport highways. The target for the anarchists and others who want to take on a direct challenge to capitalism symbolically and militantly should involve the Stock Exchanges in calgary, the largest city in the same region as Kananaskis. We need not to "surrender" to the forces that be- but scare the Hell out of them, and give hope to others by changing our strategy to one of economic disruption. We need to be MORE militant, in that we move to a more disruptive symbol of what is wrong with globalisation- and finally: we need not to fall for the trap of being lured into fights which we cannot win, cannot survive and onto a plane in which the power of labour can be decisive and the Trade Union Bureaucrats, so far skittish and timid, will have but no choice to unleash the power of the worker or face an internal revolt.
We can and will continue this struggle by advancing on our strengths: the targets we have chosen thus far (as well as the issues chosen- globalisation and trade packages decided by a few White Men in a small board room) have been absolutely correct- the line has given us global sympathy and international significance. The movement cannot move away from that at all. Here's to hoping we are becoming sophisticated enough to change our tactics to yet another area where the governments and capitalist that wish to smash us down cannot defeat us. Let us prove the most important lesson yet: That we have learned not to be a one track minded bunch- but that we know how to respond to their escalation.
For an entire month of disruption- globally- next June in Alberta! Let us ignite the next series of sparks in the praries of Canada. Let us mature as rapidly as the economy is rotting the world over.
------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Bertholt Brecht