Contact Dawn Roberts, 773-334-9142, ahoyden@earthlink.net; Christine Karatnytsky, 212-662-4030, christinekaratnytsky@juno.com
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Joint statement released by New York City and Chicago Direct Action Network activists in attendance at the Labor Notes Conference in Detroit, Michigan, April 21, 2001. Read by Jane Slaughter as an announcement at the conference.
Today, after the anti-FTAA solidarity rally sponsored by the Labor Notes Conference, about two hundred protesters spontaneously decided to continue marching. We returned to the international border linked by the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel with the intention of shutting it down, which we did.
Over the course of an hour, activists from the New York City Direct Action Network, the Chicago Direct Action Network, Anarcho-Greens, Campus Greens, the Miami Worker's Center, the IWW, SEIU, UNITE!, the UAW, AFSCME, Carpenters, Teamsters, local protesters and other groups took over the streets, blocked traffic and staged an action that temporarily closed the international border. We were accompanied by observers from the National Lawyers Guild. There was no violence on the part of the protesters and no serious injuries or arrests. The police were on mounts and motorcycles, in squad cars and wore riot gear.
As we approached the tunnel, the police attempted to block our way and to close us in, presumably for arrest, so we decided to move into the street, where we sat down, blocking traffic. One of the protesters received a bloodied lip when the police attempted to pick him out of the group for arrest, but he was quickly pulled away by his comrades.
Despite continued attempts by the police to intimidate, harass, separate and shove us, the protest continued through the streets and back to the steps of the conference hall, where it ended with the burning of the American flag.
We did this action in solidarity with our sisters and brothers from all over the world who are risking their lives in Quebec City and in honor of Detroit's history of militant worker struggles.
Resistance is everywhere.
[This statement has been slightly modified from the one read. Images of the shut down will appear at www.chicago.indymedia.org]