Anti-FTAA Border Action Caravan
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001________________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
http://www.ainfos.ca/
________________________________________________Community activists in Kingston, ON. would like to invite all FTAA opponents to take part in a border action caravan the day before demonstrations at the Summit of the Americas conference in Quebec City. We encourage all of those either organizing locally or travelling to the Summit of the Americas to fight against international capital every inch of the way.
Ensure Safe Border Crossing for All People
Organizers, and activists from Peterborough, Belleville, Toronto and all points west are invited to stay in Kingston with billets on the evening of Wednesday, April 18. We will leave Kingston at 7am Thursday 19 in caravan and travel towards Quebec City, along the "NAFTA Free Trade Corridor" Hwy 401. We will do this very slowly, creating a clogged artery in a major Canada-US trade route. We will stop at the 1000 Islands International Bridge past Gananoque to wait for allies from Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton, the rest of New York State and beyond.
A cell-phone number will be available for any comrades from the US. If they are not allowed free passage, we will close down the border. If they can't pass, nothing will.
From the 1000 Islands bridge the Caravan will continue east, picking up activists from Ottawa at the junction of Hwy 401 and Hwy 16. (If we are blocking the bridge Ottawa activists could join us)
Shut Down the Life-Lines of the Global Economy or Block the Locks!
The caravan will stop in Cornwall, again to ensure safe crossing at the border for anyone who wants to enter Canada.
Near Cornwall are a series of locks for the St.Lawrence Seaway. We will lock down these locks, stopping the vast commercial shipping volume in or out of the Seaway. Paul Martin, Canada's Finance Minister owns CSL (Canada Shipping Lines) Closing the locks closes down not just an inhumane economic system but directly affects the pocketbooks of the very people implementing the neo-liberal agenda.
From here caravaners could continue to Quebec City or keep the locks shut down. We hope to be in Cornwall by noon, which would leave lots of time to get to Quebec City the evening before the all of the action.
Please visit the Smash FTAA website at www.tao.ca/~kdawg/smashftaa.html
When up and running the site will include
- Cellphone numbers for the caravan.
- Contact numbers for local activists from towns and cities in Ontario and New York who will join the caravan.
- A detailed timeline of the caravan.
- Maps.
- Links to more anti-FTAA direct actions including the border action at Buffalo
If you are interested in joining the anonymous "Smash FTAA" list serve to discuss the Anti-FTAA Border Caravan or other regional (ON/NY) organizing please send and email with "Smash FTAA" in the subject line to msilburn@kingston.net
In solidarity and resistance,
The People's Community Union