Yesterday, three american activists crossed the border to join with Tijuana activists protesting the WTO, after marching through San Ysidro to the border fence. By the time we met up with the protesters on the other side the numbers had dwindled some, but the energy had not. The crowd, mostly made up of militant youth supporters of the Zapatistas, was in a stand off with the United Stated Federal Protective Services (a new Homeland Security police force?) We learned that two of the protesters had been pulled out of the crowd and into U.S. custody without provocation of any sort. The crowd demanded that the two be returned immediately, and threatened to shut down the border if these demands were not met. Realizing the seriousness of the protesters and not wanting to deal with the chaos of having the border shut down, the police finally returned the two people. A woman who had been taken hostage told me that all the police did to her was take the film out of her camera (she had been snapping pictures at the time of her arrest.)

The demonstrators then took advantage of the traffic jam that is the border crossing, and passed out information leaflets in spanish detailing the issues surrounding the WTO and explaining why we were here. It was a good opportunity to engage with people, and many of them were very interested in the issue. Not speaking very much spanish, the three of us ended up explaining the issues to American tourists and passing out information leaflets that were written in english. Meanwhile a person on a bullhorn was winding their way through the cars, delivering eloquent speaches and explaining to the masses of people in the border crossing region, why we were here.

Although the language barrier did not allow for much communication, there was a strong feeling of solidarity between the three of us and the tijuanan protesters. The symbolic nature of crossing over and standing together in the face of opression was quite meaningful to us. I was impressed by the tight organization and the courage of our friends in Tijuana as they stood up to the initmidation of not only their own police force but to the heavy presence of U.S. federal police. Hopefully this is only just the beginning for cross-border activism and solidarity between activists in San Diego and those in Tijuana.

Somos un pueblo, sin fronteras!
(We are a people without borders!)