Author
amoshaun
Please edit these headlines
PEOTS:
As the Summit of Americas approaches, poets from throughout the Americas will converge on Quebec city to protest the FTAA and speak their words at Free Verse of the Americas on April 20th in Quebec city. The event will encourage open participation from all different voices and hopes to unit poets to find common ground on the mass struggle against corporate globalization. The event will take place on the evening of the 20th at the cafe of CEGEP Limoulou, 1300 8th Ave Quebec City. Come to attend an evening of Free Verse in opposition to global capitalism. Free Verse of the Americas: CEGEP Limoulou, 1300 8th Ave. April 20th. for more information contact: Stefan Christoff 514.938.2672 Montreal Shawn Whitney
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FOREST ACTIVIOSTS IN QC:
Greetings Comrades, There will be a meeting of forest activists in Quebec City on the 18th at 6 PM -- location TBA. The discussion will be focusing on media messaging around forests as well as organizing a forests/FTAA demo -- or at the very least some messaging with a banner, etc. during the days of action; all great ideas I think. We are trying to find out if there are some good targets in Quebec City for a forest demo as well. Interested activists should contact Jason at 740/594-5441 -- this is also good for messages during the days of action (He doesn't have a cell phone.); email at tockman@americanlands.org . Yours in solidarity, Native Forest Network Eastern North American Resource Center PO Box 57 Burlington, VT 05402 (802) 863-0571 fax (802) 864-8203 www.nativeforest.org
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GENERTAL DYNAMICS ACTION IN VT:
Media Advisory PROTEST THE FTAA PLAN COLOMBIA AND GENERAL DYNAMICS MARCH AND RALLY Monday, April 16, 2001 11:30 AM Meet: The Burlington, VT Federal Building (Post Office) Elmwood Avenue and Pearl Street March from the Federal Building then down Church Street to Main and then Pine to General Dynamics for a rally with guest speakers. PHOTO OPS PHOTO OPS PHOTO OPS Sponsored by ACERCA (Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America), AFSC (American Friends Service Committee), instant anti-war action group and NFN (Native Forest Network). All four groups are endorsers of the Vermont Mobilization for Global Justice. ______________________________________________ ACERCA (Action for Community & Ecology in the Regions of Central America) (Acción para La Comunidad y La Ecología en Las Regiones de Centroamericana) P.O. Box 57, Burlington, VT 05402 USA (802) 863-0571 (802) 864-8203 Fax Email: acerca@sover.net http://www.acerca.org ACERCA is a project of the Alliance for Global Justice and a member of the Native Forest Network ----- End forwarded message ----- Brandon Coordinator Vermont Mobilization for Global Justice (VMOB or VMGJ) (802) 862-4737 Office (802) 862-6948 Fax vmob@riseup.net VermontActionNetwork.org vermont.indymedia.org
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FOREST Activists:
Native Forest Network (NFN), Northern Hemisphere; Eastern North American Resource Center, ATTN. Jason Ford -- (802) 863-0571 -- see email return above; NFN, Southern Hemisphere; NFN Tasmania, ATTN. Adam Burling -- Ph. (03) 62664654. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR FORESTS AND AGAINST FREE TRADE: April 19th and 20th, world-wide. Native Forest Network (NFN), a global autonomous network of forest protection organizations and representatives committed to protecting the world's remaining native forest ecosystems, as well as indigenous forest communities, call for an INTERNATIONAL DAY OF NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION FOR FORESTS AND AGAINST FREE TRADE ON: APRIL 19TH (Northern Hemisphere) and APRIL 20TH (Southern Hemisphere), 2001. This day of action is being held in solidarity with direct actions against the SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, also occuring on the above dates. This summit of trade ministers, representatives, and government officals will be working toward the implementation of the FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS (FTAA). The FTAA is the expansion of a NAFTA-like (North American Free Trade Agreement) throughout the Western Hemisphere, excluding Cuba. If the FTAA takes effect, it will provide the international timber industry with yet another incentive to decimate global forest ecosystems. The Summit Of The America's trade minsters will be pushing the Advanced Tariff Liberalization (ATL), known by its critics as the Global Free Logging Agreement (GFLA). The GFLA was tabled at the ill-fated November 1999 Seattle ministerial of the World Trade Organization (WTO), largely due to the work of activists, organizers, and citizens like ourselves. It seeks to eliminate tariff and non-tarriff barriers on raw logs and timber products. This is projected to increase the timber harvest globally by 3-4%, and thus provide further impetus for unsustainable logging practices in order to supply this gluttonous demand. The timber lobby will seek to move forward with this agreement this April at the Summit of The Americas in Quebec City. In addition, the FTAA will nullify common sense regulatory measures including Non-Tariff Barriers to Trade (NTBs). NTBs include: sanitary/phyto-sanitary regulations, regulations controlling the flow of uninspected forest products, possible hosts to ecosystem- ravaging invasive species, as well as GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TREES. Common sense regulatory measures like state, regional, national, and international environmental laws protecting workers, prohibiting toxics, and controlling pollution, among others will be nullified by the FTAA. The FTAA will provide legal avenues for the timber industries to expand their operations to previously unlogged areas with less regulations and no accountability. The FTAA is a direct threat to the ability of forest communities to decide how to utilize and protect local forest ecosystems. JOIN US! In a day of protest and nonviolent direct action against the explosion of multinational corporate globalization that threatens our world's forest ecosystems and climate with unregulated logging practices, increases demand for forest products, and continues deforestation on a global scale. JOIN US! As forest protection groups around the world work in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Quebec City during the days of action during the Summit of the Americas against the FTAA: a thoroughly undemocratic body meeting behind closed doors, make sweeping hemispheric economic policies that will affect international forests, and, in the end, all of us. JOIN US! In resisting the FTAA's disastrous effect on global forest ecosystems and climate. The FTAA would prioritize the free flow of goods, services, and products across international borders, without a thought for workers, indigenous peoples, and forest communities. SIGN ON: Sign your organization on and join the growing international resistance, which will only continue to grow after the days of action on April 19/20th. Contact the following NFN representatives (Northern and Southern Hemispheres respectively.) and let us know what you are planning for an action. The idea is to see who is working where, and then come together to share information and resources, network, educate our forest communities about the FTAA, and make connections within the international forest protection community for the long term campaign against globalization, including the FTAA's, effects on native forest ecosystems. Organization Sign-up List: Native Forest Network NFN Tasmania NFN New Zealand NFN Australia NFN-Western North American Resource Center NFN Yellowstone, MT, USA NFN- Eastern North American Resource Center ACERCA (Action For Community And Ecology In The Regions Of Central America), Burlington, VT, USA Nairobi, Kenya Node of ECOTERRA INTL. (Actions also in Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, and Tanzania!) Szymon Ciapaza, with Nature Protection Polish Science Academy, Krakow, Poland Action! club at University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Ashland, OR, USA Public Information Network, Seattle, WA, USA Brian Mack, student journalist living in Santa Cruz, CA, USA Global Response, CO, USA Blue Ridge EF!, Williamsburg, VA, USA MA EF!, MA, USA GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING TOOLS AVAILABLE THROUGH NATIVE FOREST NETWORK AT WWW.NATIVEFOREST.ORG AND ACERCA (ACTION FOR COMMUNITYAND ECOLOGY IN THE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA) AT WWW.ACERCA.ORG IN THE NEAR FUTURE, IN-DEPTH FTAA ANALYSIS AND ACTION PACKETS INCLUDED! Utilize contact information below. FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Northern Hemisphere NFN-ENA Jason Ford, Northern Forest Campaigner POB 57 Burlington, VT 05402 (802) 863 -- 0571 fax (802) 864-8203 nfnena@sover.net www.nativeforest.org Southern Hemisphere NFN Tasmania Adam Burling, Representative PO Box 433 Huonville 7109 Australia Ph. (03) 62664654 aburling@nfn.org.au www.nativeforest.org
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PRISON GUARDS ARRESTED AND STRIKE COMMING UP:
Hi folks,
The prison guards in Quebec wanted to use the opportunity of the Summit of
the Americas to improve their wages. They told the government that they
would do a 'day of study' as they are not allowed to strike. The representative
of the prison guards union of the Quebec City prison also said, a month
ago or so, that they would go protest with the other protesters at the
Summit. Yesterday, they did their best to slow down the transfer of
inmates from the Orsainville prison to other prisons, as the autorities
are emptying it to make room for protesters.
According to Le Soleil of April 10th, the prison guards made barricades
yesterday in Quebec City to block access to the prison. The
police forced through their blockade and arrested 13 of them. Three prison
guards had to be hospitalized for cardiac problems. The transfer of inmate
proceeded by helicopter. Journalists were repeatedly prevented by the
police to approach. Journalists still managed to take some good pictures.
According to Guy Samson, from the Quebec correctional center, there have
been 18 protests throughout the Province of Quebec yesterday. There was
also an arrest in the city of Hull.
The union representative, Jean Paquet, complained that "they arrested us
as if we were real criminals."
You will find in attachment a picture of a prison guard being handcuffed
by police officers... Enjoy! The prison guards may not be that
unsympathetic to protesters in Quebec City next week.
Alain
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PROSECUTERS THREATEN TO QUITE:
================================ Thursday 5 April 2001 Lawyers shun summit Prosecutors say they're being used to control protest WILLIAM MARSDEN The Gazette Quebec prosecutors are threatening to quit a special eight-member team set up by the provincial government to prosecute protesters arrested at the Summit of the Americas this month. They are objecting to what they claim is political interference with the judiciary on the part of summit organizers. One prosecutor has already left the team, and others are expected to follow. Prosecutors say provincial Justice Minister Paul Begin has directed them to delay all bail hearings of arrested protesters for the maximum three full days allowed by law, as a way of keeping them off the street for the duration of the summit, April 20-22. "This is political interference, and we should not stand for it," said one prosecutor who did not wish to be named. "It's a plan of battle to hold them in jail. We will not accept these directives." The Criminal Code allows bail hearings to be delayed for a maximum of three "clear days" between the day of the arrest and the day of the hearing. This means that protesters could find themselves behind bars for five days. Normally, defendants are processed within 24 hours of their arrest. Often they are released the same day from a police station with a promise to appear in court. The prosecutors also say they do not want to prosecute people who are protesting against repressive governments represented at the summit. The Quebec government has built a concrete and chain-link fence around a large section of the Old City where the summit is to take place. About 25,000 protesters are expected to show up. Jails have been cleared and thousands of police officers from the Montreal Urban Community force, the RCMP and the Surete du Quebec are being brought in for security. Prosecutors say they have been told not to subpoena police as witnesses during the week of the summit because they won't be available. Prosecutors noted that the Criminal Code allows them to seek publication bans on bail hearings. One prosecutor said he believes that after the five days of incarceration, charges will simply be dropped in most cases. He said the provincial government is just using the judiciary to keep protesters off the streets. Montreal prosecutors plan to make public within the next few days a letter of solidarity with the protesters, one prosecutor said.
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TURNED BACK AT THE BORDER:
Just some information. 9 of us traveled to the Champlain, NY border crossing, meeting about 11 pm, leaving about 1:30 and arriving at 9:30 Sunday morning. After breakfast, we went through customs and then immigration, where they only approved 4 of us to cross. There were people who had arrests for protests in the US, which are not crimes in the US. One man said he felt the disempowerment of it. He had been arrested in the US for standing in a legally permitted protest. Those not approved were told they were not allowed entry for 5 years. Watching the search of my car and the daypacks that were in it, I said it seemed very invasive, but the officials whose primary language was French, did not understand the word invasive. When I explained, they told me that one is always searched in crossing borders, but, "There is a summit, and we have been told to be very thorough." Among other things, they took (and presumably copied) my grocery list and some directions to my son's house, though there was no address on it. They looked at all papers in the backpacks, and copied some. Several in our group were dressed as protesters (I had on my protester -- Stop the WTO shirt from Seattle.) Two were dressed as huge dollar bills. One was dressed as a Monsanto tomato, another as an HMO doctor, and one with a George Bush DWI mask. (He would not be allowed across the border except that his father cleared the arrest charges.) There were people from the Canadian media, from Platsburgh media and indy media, who took notes and recorded the events. When we had all been told of the disposition of our requests, an official announced in a loud voice, "You must leave now and return to the US." The officials, including a public relations man, then moved in a line urging us out the doors and into our vehicles. This was delayed for about five minutes as the press had more questions. After we left, the Canadian immigration officials spoke with the press. pointed out that entering Canada is a privilege, not a right, although one answered a question that protesting is not illegal in Canada. They said that their responsibility is to protect Canadians from any possible harm. If you listened this morning to Democracy Now, you know that today there are several hundred people who linked hands in a chain around Canada's building of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. They had requested copies of the draft FTAA text. They were going to read a statement that said in part, "...in the name of democracy and freedom, there is a right of all Canadian citizens to know what their government is planning on trade.....based on the powers conferred on us by more than 19,000 citizens, we ask you, the police, to assist us in receiving this text which is our rightful information......" At the same time, there was a group that had taken over the street in San Francisco in front of the Levi Strass Company building, demanding information, because Levi Strass (and many other corporations) has copies of the FTAA text. You know the rest............ Grace
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ARGENTINA DEMO:
> Our resistance is global. >Argentine groups ready protests for FTAA meeting > >By Missy Ryan > >BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -
Argentine groups ranging from labor >unions to student organizations said > >Tuesday they were preparing a rough welcome for ministers arriving in the >capital this week for talks on a pan-American free-trade deal. > >Trade officials from 34 countries are meeting this week in Buenos Aires to >sketch out plans for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA >would be the world's largest free-trade zone. > >The agreement would facilitate free trade among the hemisphere's 783 million >people and could represent 40 percent of the world's gross product. It will >be a key issue at the Summit of the Americas set April 20 to 22 in Quebec >City, Canada. > > General Labor >Confederation (CGT), said the agreement had not written in the participation >of unions, which could secure workers' rights. > >"It doesn't exist on the agenda," Daer said. > >Social, environmental and nongovernmental organizations argue the FTAA will >grease the palms of big business while chipping away at living standards for >millions of Latin Americans. > >More than 100 groups from Argentina and other Latin American countries are >expected to stage nonviolent protests, organizers said. Officials are >expected to meet Thursday through Saturday. > >"Because the deal links countries with different labor standards, the danger > those standards. This is something >the governments of all these countries should be worrying about," Daer said. > >Daer's CGT is planning a march in central Buenos Aires Wednesday and other >unions say they will stage demonstrations and information sessions. > >"We fully reject the FTAA and its contents because it would mean a loss of >national identity for Argentina and all participating countries," said Marta >Maffei, head of main teacher's union in Argentina. > >Many Argentines believe the economic opening undertaken in the last decade is >behind the chronic double-digit unemployment rate of recent years. > >Unions had planned a general strike for Thursday and Friday but those plans >were scrapped after the government pledged to pay "unemployment insurance" to >more than 200,000 impoverished families. > >But hostility toward the FTAA remains. > >"We don't believe this is a project about integration but a project about >economic subordination," said Julio Piumato of the maverick Teamsters' union. > >16:59 04-03-01 > > All rights reserved. PA Fair Trade Campaign c/o PCAN 122 S. 5th St. >Reading, PA 19602 610-478-7888 610-478-7457-fax www.pcan.org
600 Brazilian FTAA Protestors Stopped at Argentinean Border
Dana Borcea 2001-04-15
Photograph 21.8 KB
“In the name of public safety”. This was the logic offered by Argentinian police, when they stopped 23 buses carrying over 600 Brazilians from crossing the border to Argentina the night of April 5 to participate in the demonstrations against FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) negotiations.
Over 600 Brazilian unionists, students, small agriculturalists, and PT (Workers’ Party) members were on route to Buenos Aires to join thousands of others in protest of the meeting of the trade ministes, gathering in preparation for the upcoming Summit of the Americas. Border officials and police imposed various tactics to block their entrance, levying exorbitant fees and threatening arrest.
The majority of the passengers were activists from the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sol, whose capital, Porto Alegre, played host to last January’s World Social Forum. It was at the Forum that the group initially organized the trip to Buenos Aires, coordinated by the PT and the CUT (Central Workers’ Union).
One 17-year old activist and member of the PT, Felipe Baltazar, described how organizers could have been better prepared, stating that “nobody was waiting for us on the other side of the border, leaving us to negotiate our own entrance. It would have been better if delegations were waiting for the buses on both sides of the border to help apply pressure.”
But another participant described how organizers from the CUT, in anticipation of problems, did in fact take various measures to secure entrance, including strongly urging all demonstrators to have all their identification papers in order. The CUT even recommended that everyone get vaccinated for diseases as obscure to the south as yellow fever, to avoid any technical barriers. The observer explained that “organizers were prepared for delays and complications, but never at this level.”
The PT state president of Rio Grande do Sol, Quintino Marques Severo, compared the police attitude with that of “the dictatorship era” stressing the enormous symbolic weight of the block.
Prevented from entering Argentina, the passengers went instead to the Argentinean consulate in the border city of Uruguaiana to hold a vigil of protest in what one Brazilian described as “true Latin American fashion”. Later, the demonstrators blocked the border between the two countries for one hour.
Meanwhile throughout the day of April 6, demonstrations were getting under way in Buenos Aires. The largest of these was organized by the CTA (Argentinean Workers Union). Over 8000 participants, representing 58 organizations from Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, the United States, and Canada, marched for 5km crossing the center of Buenos Aires from the national congress to the Sheraton Hotel where the trade ministers and delegates of the 34 countries participating in private FTAA negotiations were housed.
There the demonstration was met by a large police force. Violence ensued when a molotov cocktail and rocks were launched by some protestors and the crowd was dispersed using police force and tear gas. One participant described how the tear gas directed at the demonstrators was pushed back by the wind into the ventilation system of the Sheraton hotel, where trade ministers, unwilling to face the protestors, were then subjected to an uncomfortable couple of hours.
As demonstrators were pushed back, windows of a McDonalds store and a Boston Bank, for many symbols of neo-liberal imperialism, were smashed.
Claudio Duarte, a Brazilian PT activist, who managed to enter Brazil via airplane, described the March as a powerful expression of protest which received large public support as speeches on the impact of neoliberalism and the FTAA drew large groups of observers.
Commenting on the buses stopped at the border, Duarte lamented how the authorities nurture negotiations in the private arena while repressing expression in public spaces. The act at the border as well as the police repression at the hotel, described Duarte, “demonstrates how economic integration is protected while the integration of workers’ solidarity is impeded.”
On April 11, in Porto Allegre a small group of PT and CUT members gathered outside the Argentinean consulate to protest the bus blockade and demand an explanation. Organizers were granted a meeting inside the consulate and were promised that an investigation into actions by Argentinean authorities would be launched and a written response returned to organizers via the consulate.
Outside the consulate, Lisette Knopf, a 22-year old PT activist stopped at the Argentinean border, held a sign reading, “We are not pseudo-tourists, we are citizens.” And for many citizens of the hemisphere, preparing to exercise their right to demonstrate at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec, the experience at the Argentinean border serves as a sober warning of what may come.
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HELICOPTER LOGGING AND FREE TRADE IN VT:
In early January, just after the new year, loggers from Claire Lathrop Co., a local logging outfit and lumber mill based in Bristol, VT, cut roughly 180,000 board feet of northern hardwood -- mostly maple -- from the Lincoln Brook II timber sale in the National Forest in Warren, VT. Previous to the cut, Lathrop had negotiated an amendment in their contract with the Forest Service to allow for the first time use of helicopter yarding in our National Forest. Columbia Helicopter of Portland, OR provided the chopper, crew, and support team by way of Florida. The saw logs were yarded over the course of a week, and then, this reported by Vermont media sources, trucked via Lathrop to Boston harbor, where they would be shipped to China to be processed into maple flooring. The National Forest was logged not only for the profit of Claire Lathrop, but for the profit of Chinese businessmen. I snowshoed into the 80 acre cut and witnessed first hand the effects of this "selective cut," with its mini-clear cuts and high grading, on the integrity of the forest canopy, slope stability, and wildlife habitat. As I looked at what was left of the hardwood stand, I thought of the loss of potential jobs during the cut. A small crew of local loggers made the cut, but then an out-of-state heli-logging crew finished the yarding, and out-of-state -- even out-of-country workers finished the job! Vermont workers had no part in the milling or processing of the maple trees cut in its National Forest. The hardwood maple flooring will not be used in Vermont, and if it is, will be sold back to us from China. Vermont workers, and National Forests, lost out with the Lincoln Brook II cut. This story is probably familiar to many activists and organizers reading it, but what are some of the larger picture causes and players behind Public Lands timber sale fiascos like Lincoln Brook II? International trade agreements, like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and NAFTA are increasingly having an effect on the use, and misuse, of our National Forests. The latest so-called "free" trade threat to our Public Lands is the Free Trade Area Of The Americas (FTAA), whichWestern Hemispheric trade reps. and government officials, including George >W. Bush -- who has made the FTAA a top priority on his economic agenda -- hope to pass into international trade law by 2005.
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TURKEY DEMOS' AGAINST THE IMF:
Story Filed: Saturday, March 31, 2001 8:07 AM EST ANKARA (Reuters) - Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across Turkey on Saturday to protest at economic reforms backed by the International Monetary Fund. Shouting ``IMF go home,'' they gathered mainly in downtown Ankara and in Istanbul amid a heavy police presence. The protests came as the government met union leaders and employers in a bid to muster broad public support for a new economic program after a devastating financial crisis. A senior economic official said the government would call for sacrifices from all sides at a Social Council meeting, including restraint in upcoming collective wage negotiations. Economy Minister Kemal Dervis is working on a program of major structural reforms that he says are essential to win support from international lenders and the markets. Dervis, a former senior World Banker, was brought in to take over the reins of the economy at the start of March after a crisis that ripped apart an $11 billion IMF program. ``The policies of the IMF and the World Bank do not aim to help Turkey but to assure that Turkey can pay its debts on time and in full,'' said Bayram Meral, president of Turkey's largest union confederation Turk-Is, in the text of a speech prepared before the meeting with the government. Major unions under the umbrella of the Labor Platform say a new IMF-backed economic program based on the principles of the Fund will be unacceptable and that protests and stoppages will be the response. They want wage rises to match real inflation rather than price targets which have been missed in the past. ``In the program that is being prepared there should be a remedy for poverty because as in all economic crises the price of this crisis is paid most heavily by the workers,'' said Recay Baskan, head of the Hak-Is union confederation. FRICTION WITHIN GOVERNMENT The latest financial crisis was sparked by a political row which quickly engulfed the markets. Turkey was forced to float the lira on February 22, abandoning a crawling currency peg that had been the centerpiece of a three-year, IMF-backed disinflation program. The lira has since lost around a third of its value against the dollar. On Friday, Turkish military and political leaders signaled unity in efforts to combat the crisis, condemning speculation that the government could soon fall to make way for an ``interim regime.'' That helped drive shares up 12 percent on Friday. The High Planning Council, a government forum for economy-related ministers and bureaucrats, issued another reassuring statement later on Friday, saying drafts of key reforms would be sent to the prime minister's office next week, paving the way for swift passing of new laws. Worries about apparent friction within the three-party coalition over Dervis's stewardship and the government's ability to implement reform laws had sent markets tumbling. But the military-dominated National Security Council (MGK) tried to scotch such talk on Friday, saying it had discussed speculation about an ``interim regime'' -- a euphemism for a non-political government sponsored, if only tacitly, by the military which has carried out three coups since 1960. Turkey reached a framework agreement with the IMF earlier this month on a new economic program which it aims to finalize with a letter of intent to the Fund to be signed by the end of April. The IMF wants to see concrete evidence that Ankara is implementing its promises, particularly in reforms of the banking sector, before it will discuss any new lending. But privatization and reform of state banks which have for years supported industry via subsidized lending are likely to be painful, at least in the short term. ``Today in the real economy, production is approaching a standstill,'' said Refik Baydur, head of the Turkish Employers Unions Confederation. ``Our country is facing the threat of major unemployment. The government has to listen to our demands.''
Thousands in Turkish economy protests
The police were out in force
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Istanbul and other Turkish cities on Saturday to protest at the government's handling of an economic crisis that has cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Amid a strong police presence, demonstrators brandished placards reading "No to the International Monetary Fund," "We want job security," or "Save workers and public sector employees - not bankrupt banks."
We will all have to tighten our belts
Economy Minister Kemal Dervis
There were also demands for the government to resign - a step it has ruled out - but there were none of the violent incidents seen earlier in the week.
The demonstrations, called by an alliance of trade unions, coincided with the unveiling of a new economic recovery programme designed to attract loans and calm public anger.
Shrinking economy
Economy Minister Kemal Dervis, who promised stabilisation, but at the cost of everyone having to tighten their belts, came in for special abuse from the crowd.
Mr Dervis, a former IMF vice-president, cautioned that "growth is a long term process", adding that Turkey's economy would shrink by 3% this year before achieving a 5% growth in 2002.
Dervis: Growth is a long term process
The rate of inflation would reach 57% before dropping to below 20% next year, he said.
The minister said foreign loans were still being discussed. Mr Dervis estimates that Turkey needs up to $12bn in foreign support.
The country's economic crisis has led to about 500,000 layoffs, rocketing prices and rising interest rates which are crippling businesses.
Daily protests
The BBC's Chris Morris in Ankara says the minister's warning that there is no quick fix is unlikely to go down well with protesters who have already been hit hard by the crisis.
For more than two weeks, protests against the economic crisis shaking the country have become a daily occurrence.
I can't earn enough to feed my children because the value of the Turkish lira has dropped
City Hall employee
On Wednesday, some 70,000 protesters rallying in central Ankara clashed with security forces injuring more than 200 and leading to 100 arrests.
As a result of the violence, demonstrations were banned in some cities, including the capital Ankara.
The trouble began in February after a public row about corruption investigations between Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
Money market panic
The argument prompted fears of prolonged political instability and triggered panic on the money markets.
As a result, the government was forced to abandon exchange-rate controls, and the anti-inflation programme it had agreed with the IMF collapsed.
Now, international lenders say Turkey will only get the assistance it wants if the government shows it is serious about reform.
The government in Ankara is resisting any kind of reshuffle and it has ruled out resignation. But observers say there is a growing demand for change.
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SC CITY COUNCIL VOTES GAINST FTAA:
Santa Cruz, CA - On Tuesday, March 13, the Santa Cruz City Council voted to officially oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas, becoming perhaps the first municipality in the country to do so. In a 6-1 vote, the city council passed a resolution calling for the U.S. Trade
Representative to withdraw from any further negotiations on the proposed FTAA. The council
was urged to act by the Santa Cruz Coalition Against the FTAA, an ad-hoc group of local
activists. Mayor Tim Fitzmaurice, a Green Party member, agreed to introduce the resolution to the
rest of the council.
The FTAA will be the focus of the April 20-22 Summit of the Americas meeting in Quebec City,
where the 34 "democratically elected" heads of state from North, South and Central America and
the Caribbean will meet. The FTAA combines elements of the North American Free Trade
Agreement and the World Trade Organization and would encompass the entire Western Hemisphere, excluding Cuba. Santa Cruz joins Vancouver, Canada in officially opposing the FTAA. While local resolutions don't have a direct impact on the status of the FTAA negotiations, they do draw public scrutiny to what has otherwise been a secretive process aided by a mainstream media blackout.
"Local resolutions like this one have been instrumental in defeating other destructive trade
agreements such as the Multilateral Agreement on Investment," states the resolution.
The Santa Cruz Coalition Against the FTAA is currently organizing affinity groups that will
participate in non-violent direct action in Quebec and at national borders during the Summit
of Americas on April 20-22. It is also organizing a direct action training camp, which will take
place on the UC Santa Cruz campus Saturday, March 31. Visit www.stopftaa.org/sc for more
information.
Other local groups opposing the FTAA include the Santa Cruz Green Party, the Santa Cruz Direct Action Network Against Corporate Globalization, the Student Media Activist Coalition, the Santa Cruz Coalition to Free Mumia and All Political Prisoners, People Power, and the Santa Cruz chapter of the Alliance for Democracy.
The text of the Santa Cruz resolution:
Whereas, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is an expansion of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); and
Whereas, the FTAA was initiated in 1994 by the 34 countries of North and South America
(excluding Cuba) and would create the world's largest free market zone - affecting 650 million
people and $9 trillion in capital; and
Whereas, NAFTA's Chapter 11 Investor to State Lawsuits, which will be included and strengthened in the FTAA, directly threaten the sovereignty of local and state governments; and
Whereas, this sort of corporate power would diminish the efficacy of local environmental laws
and regulations; and
Whereas, the FTAA will undermine the social services that are essential for a thriving
community; and
Whereas, the strict intellectual property laws within the FTAA will have devastating
impacts on the people living in the global south; and
Whereas, local businesses and workers would be harmed by the increasing powers granted to
large corporations; and
Whereas, local resolutions like this one have been instrumental in defeating other destructive
trade agreements such as the Multilateral Agreement on Investment.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Santa Cruz that it hereby:
1. opposes the FTAA;
2. petitions the Federal government to refuse to sign any new trade agreement and investment
agreements, such as the proposed FTAA, that include investor-state provisions similar to the
ones included in NAFTA;
3. urges the U.S. Trade Representative to withdraw any further negotiation on the FTAA;
4. requests the U.S. Trade Representative to release proposals for the agreement and written
submissions to the nine negotiating groups of the FTAA;
5. requests the release of a comprehensive list of the representatives to the FTAA
negotiating groups from all 34 countries involved; and
6. urges the State Legislature to adopt stronger sovereignty safeguards in implementing legislation for the FTAA and other trade agreements, now and in the future; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor is authorized to communicate the City's position to the U.S. Trade Representative, State Legislature and Congressional committees with trade
jurisdiction.
for more information email smacruz@onebox.com
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RELEASE THE TEXT LAWSUITE IN WA:
WASHINGTON - March 7 - At the same moment the new U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, was urging Congress to grant President Bush new international trade powers, a lawsuit was filed against him down the street in U.S. District Court. The suit challenges Zoellick's decision to keep the public in the dark about the administration's latest trade negotiations for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would expand the North American Free Trade Agreement -- NAFTA -- to encompass the entire hemisphere.
The lawsuit, being filed Wednesday by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for International Environmental Law, seeks to force the USTR to disclose written proposals it has made to other governments concerning provisions of the FTAA agreement, a treaty that would bind the United States to powerful new trade rules. USTR refused CIEL's request to make the documents public.
"USTR is negotiating binding rules that could affect the ability of the United States to protect the environment and human health," said Stephen Porter, Senior Attorney with CIEL. "To hide what it is doing from concerned citizens is shameful for a government that considers itself the world's model for democracy. The USTR is willing to give these documents to 33 foreign nations, but not the American public."
Using the Freedom of Information Act, CIEL asked USTR to disclose documents it provided to foreign negotiators during meetings last year to discuss potential FTAA provisions protecting foreign investors. Similar provisions in the NAFTA have been the basis for a $970 million dollar challenge to a California plan to phase out the use of a harmful gasoline additive. Extending these rules to the FTAA could further weaken the ability of the United States to protect the environment and human health.
Although USTR admitted the existence of the documents, it refused to make them public, claiming they were protected by FOIA's exemption for "inter- and intra-agency communications protected
by the deliberative process privilege." However, as CIEL made clear to USTR before filing its complaint today, the documents do not qualify for the exemption and USTR waived any privilege when it disclosed the records to foreign governments participating in the treaty negotiations. USTR did post sketchy summaries of the documents on its website, but they conceal more than they reveal, according to CIEL and Earthjustice.
"Transparency and public participation are hallmarks of democracy," said Martin Wagner, Director of International Programs for Earthjustice. "If citizens are kept in the dark until negotiations are completed, they will never be able to provide useful advice concerning rules that would directly affect their lives and health. The important decisions happen early in the process. We are only left to wonder what they're trying to hide. Are US trade officials giving foreign investors the power to overturn our health and environmental laws? The Bush administration won't say. We are suing for openness."
A copy of the complaint is available online at
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WOMEN and the FTAA CONVERGING IN QC:
On the weekend of April 20-22, leaders of thirty four countries will come to Quebec to tie a new strand in the web of corporate globalisation: the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), the regional accord that will expand NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) throughout the hemisphere. In response, thousands of us will come to Quebec City to resist them. From Canada to Argentina, women and men will take action to express our opposition to the extension of the corporate web.
Women bear the brunt of the violence of globalisation, yet despite all the oppression, repression and exploitation, women continue to rise up. This is a call to rise up as we join together in a Women’s Action, to take place alongside the many actions and events of the weekend.
We are taking action because we will no longer tolerate the web of corporate control that binds us down and constricts our lives. We will notallow this system to continue. We have taken its measure: its time is done. Instead, we will become spiders, spinning a new web of connection, of solidarity out of our rage, out of our love.
We will, as women, weave together our hopes and dreams, our aspirations, our indictments, our testimony, our witnessing, our demands, our visions. We will write on ribbons, on strips of cloth, on rags. We will draw, paint, knot cords, braid yarn, whisper into pieces of string. And from these materials we will weave our web.
If they ignore our voices and continue their deliberations, the cries of women will haunt them and undo all their plans. Though they erect a fence to stop us, we will twine our web through its mesh to be the visible symbol of the power of women, of the revolution we weave. When they try to wall us out of their meetings, they will only wall themselves in. We claim all of the world beyond their wall.
We ask our brothers to support us, to honor our women’s space so that we who have so often been invisible can stand forth and be seen. We ask you to support us by looking honestly at the ways that, even within our own movements, women are ignored, suppressed, or discounted. And when you support us in this action, where we stand together as women, it will spark actions where we fight side by side. For we know that you too, are weavers of this web.
We ask the ancestors to stand with us. For the web of life links the living and the dead. We ask the generations of the future to stand with us, for we fight for the world you will inherit. We ask the spirits of the earth to support us and be our ground, for we fight for the continuance of life. We are invincible, for life itself weaves with us.
AN INVITATION TO THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD TO…
Form an affinity group…
An affinity group is a group of 10-20 people with whom you have “affinity”; that is, a common bond (family, friends, common issue, work colleagues, etc.), that meets regularly to discuss common issues and to act. Choose one or two members to represent your group at the Council of representatives. The Council of representatives will “meet” in virtual space until the week before the Summit of the Americas, at which point meetings will take place in Quebec. The Council of representatives meetings will be the forum to decide on strategy for the action. Keep your eye on the CMAQ (Quebec Centre for Independent Media) website (www.cmaq.net ) for a Women’s web of solidarity action link.
Initiate (or continue), in your affinity group, a dialogue on the impacts of globalisation on women in your home area…
Women around the world bear the brunt of globalisation… our voices together will allow us to add to the feminist analysis of globalisation, and to strengthen our cause.
Weave your part of the web of solidarity…
Take what comes out of your dialogue on women and globalisation, and, as a group, weave a section of the web of solidarity to represent your consensus. Use your imagination… use yarn, materials, photos, newspaper clippings. The sky is the limit.
Add your section of the web to the web of solidarity in Quebec City in April 2001…
Here are some suggestions on the many ways to join your section of the web to the larger web of solidarity:
*Come as an affinity group to Quebec City in April 2001, to participate in the collective weaving of the web of solidarity… A fence is being erected around the buildings where the Summit is being held in order to keep protesters out - residents inside the perimeter are required to have identity cards in order to gain access to their own homes during the Summit. This fence symbolises, for us, the anti-democratic process of the FTAA - we want to reclaim that fence, that space. Those wanting to weave (literally or symbolically and non-violently) their parts of the web into the fence are invited to do so on the 19th of April (the day preceding the opening of the meeting). Affinity groups not wanting to approach the fence are invited to plan other kinds of actions using the web parts (blocking an intersection to catch Summit negotiators in the web, or decorating a park with parts of the web, etc.). Creativity and imagination are key! The sky is the limit!
*Send your section of the web to the address below and the women present in Quebec will ensure that your section is woven into the larger web.
*Send a photograph of your section of the web to the address below, and the women present in Quebec will enlarge it and add it to the larger web.
*Get together with other affinity groups in your area and weave your sections together closer to your home.
Québec contact information:
E-mail address: toile_femme@moncourrier.com
Mailing address: Toile femme Québec 2001, C.P. 70021, Québec, Québec (Canada) G1R 6B1
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AFLCIO UNION PARTICIPATION IN DEMOS':
Last year, the AFL-CIO launched an ambitious Campaign for Global Fairness: a multi-year, multi-issue campaign to build international solidarity, educate our members, incorporate workers' rights into international trade and investment agreements, and hold corporations accountable for their actions globally and locally.
This year, we will take our work on global fairness into new arenas with renewed vigor and focus. We will launch a major campaign, together with our affiliates, the international trade secretariats, and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), to ensure that workers worldwide know the rights they are entitled to under the International Labor Organization's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work by posting those rights in every workplace.
In the weeks leading up to the May 1 launch of the ILO poster, we will, as part of our effort to localize the movement for global justice, bring the campaign to cities and towns all over our nation. We will urge that employers display the poster in all of their facilities worldwide, that
state and local governments and universities insist that all of their contractors do the same, and we call upon all of our allies to join us in this effort.
We will continue and expand our work to build alliances and solidarity with our brothers and sisters in developing countries -- both organized and unorganized -- to bridge the growing divides in wealth, education, technology, health,services, and the protection of workers. We will work domestically to increase funding for deep and meaningful debt relief, to ensure that the international financial institutions ease up on draconian structural adjustment policies, and to ensure that governments can limit patent protection where necessary to protect public health and safety.
This year will also be a crucial turning point in the ongoing negotiations toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and the AFL-CIO will ensure that our members' voices are heard in the debate over the rules and institutions of hemispheric economic integration. The trade ministers and heads of state of the Western Hemisphere will hold their Annual Trade
Meeting in Buenos Aires on April 4th and the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in mid-April this year. They will be continuing negotiations toward a trade and investment agreement that will encompass the entire hemisphere (with the exception of Cuba). This agreement has been under negotiation for several years, with a projected conclusion date in 2005 (or earlier, if an agreement can be reached before then). But this year, the trade bureaucrats and corporate lobbyists will have company. Our trade union brothers and sisters in the hemisphere are working with civil society allies to organize teach-ins, corporate tribunals, and street demonstrations. Trade unionists, environmentalists, students, family farmers, women, people of faith, and representatives from indigenous communities will be gathering in the streets, convention halls, churches, and schools of Buenos Aires and Quebec City to make their voices heard.
They are demanding that any future regional trade or investment pact reflect their concerns -- not just those of the multinational corporations and policy elite of the hemisphere.
The labor unions of the hemisphere (represented by ORIT, the Western Hemisphere federation of trade unions) are united in calling for a process of economic integration that respects internationally recognized core workers' rights, that allows scope for legitimate national development policies, and that ensures that governments may take appropriate measures
to regulate speculative and destabilizing capital flows.
The AFL-CIO joins with our brothers and sisters of the hemisphere in demanding an end to the secrecy and exclusivity of the FTAA negotiations. We join their call for a rejection of the current FTAA and for a new direction in the negotiations -- away from the failed NAFTA model of corporate privilege and toward a new hemispheric model that prioritizes equitable, democratic, and sustainable development. We call on our members to make their voices heard
in Quebec City as part of the international actions, and join in activities to "Localize the Movement for Global Justice" in partnership with Jobs With Justice and other allies in communities across the country.
The FTAA negotiations have been carried out in excessive secrecy, and the negotiators have granted privileged access and consideration to corporate representatives to the exclusion of more representative groups. While labor unions, environmentalists, and other progressive activists in the hemisphere have made repeated efforts to communicate their concerns and views to the negotiators and to their own governments, there is no evidence that any of these concerns have been addressed in the negotiations to date.
Instead, by all indications, the FTAA is being modeled on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) -- a model that, in our view, has utterly failed to deliver the promised benefits to ordinary citizens in any of the three North American countries. NAFTA's main outcome has been to strengthen the clout and bargaining power of multinational corporations, to limit the scope of governments to regulate in the public interest, and to force workers into
more direct competition with each other -- reinforcing the downward pressure on their living standards, while assuring them fewer rights and protections. Instead of addressing the severe problems caused by the NAFTA model, the FTAA instead seeks to extend the most problematic aspects of NAFTA -- the investment measures, including the corporate right
to sue governments. In addition, FTAA negotiators are likely to incorporate the very broad service sector coverage laid out in the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which could increase pressure on governments to privatize public services. And the FTAA negotiators have resolutely rejected any attempts to place workers' rights or environmental standards on the agenda.
If the negotiations continue along their current path, they will yield an agreement that undermines workers' rights and environmental protections, exacerbates inequality in the hemisphere, and constrains the ability of governments to regulate in the interests of public health and the environment. The AFL-CIO vigorously opposes the continuation of an FTAA negotiation process crafted along these lines. Such a process and any agreement it may produce will face fierce and broad public opposition in many countries, as well as in the United States.
In order to provide a new progressive model of trade and development policy, a hemispheric agreement must incorporate:
---> enforceable workers' rights and environmental standards in its core. For workers in the hemisphere to share the benefits of increased trade and investment, they must be able to exercise their core workers' rights, which the International Labor Organization's 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work identifies as freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, and the right to be free from child labor, forced labor, and discrimination in employment;
---> protection under national law and international treaty obligations for the rights of migrant workers throughout the hemisphere, regardless of their legal status;
---> measures to ensure that countries retain the ability to regulate the flow of speculative capital in order to protect their economies from excessive volatility;
---> debt relief measures to improve the ability of the developing countries to fund education, health care, and infrastructure needs, thereby contributing to closing the gap between rich and poor nations, and reducing inequality within nations;
---> compliance with the "revised drug strategy" adopted by the World Health Organization, which says that public health should be paramount in trade disputes;
---> equitable and transparent market access rules that allow for effective protection against import surges; and
---> a truly transparent, inclusive, and democratic process, both for the negotiation of the FTAA and for the implementation of any regional agreement. In addition, if there are to be hemispheric negotiations on investment, services, government procurement, and intellectual property rights, any resulting agreement must not undermine the ability of governments (at all
levels -- federal, state, and local) to enact and enforce legitimate regulations in the public interest:
---> investment rules should not discipline so-called indirect expropriations, should rely on government-to-government rather than investor-to-state dispute resolution, and should preserve the ability of governments to regulate corporate behavior to protect the economic, social,
and health and safety interests of their citizens;
---> services rules must be negotiated sector by sector, must not apply to public services or air transport and related services, must not undercut regulation of services in the public interest, and must not include commitments on temporary work visas until these visa programs are revised to protect the rights of all workers;
---> government procurement rules must allow federal, state and local preferences for domestic purchases to continue and must give governments scope to serve important public policy aims such as environmental protection, economic development and social justice, and respect for human and workers rights;
and
---> intellectual property provisions must allow governments to limit patent protection in order to protect public health and safety, especially patents on life-saving medicines and life forms.
An acceptable hemispheric agreement must not simply replicate the filed trade policies of the past, but must incorporate what we have learned about the problems and weaknesses of the current rules. The success or failure of any hemispheric trade and investment agreement will hinge on governments' willingness and ability to develop an economic integration agreement that appropriately addresses all of the social, economic, and political dimensions of trade and investment, not just those of concern to corporations.
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Longshoreman Anti-FTAA Resoultion
These resolutions passed the International Executive Board of the ILWU.
Statement of Policy on the Free Trade Area of the Americas
The free trade policies of NAFTA and the WTO have already wreaked their damage-exporting well-paying union industrial jobs from the First World and turning the Third World into one big maquiladora. The globalizing policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have already extended the harm of the free market to some of the farthest corners of the world. But instead of satisfying international capital's greed, it has only whetted its appetite for more.
On April 18-22, 2001 representatives from all 34 countries in North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean-excluding Cuba-will meet in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada to begin formally establishing new free trade policies among their nations, devising the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Their current plan is to use NAFTA as a template in rewriting trade rules for the Western Hemisphere. In so doing they will be extending those disastrous economic policies to Central and South America, and exacerbating them in North America.
Like NAFTA the FTAA will go beyond legitimate trade issues. It will regulate and override the democratically decided environmental, public health and food safety laws of sovereign nations. The process itself is so undemocratic that just months before the Quebec meeting the draft agreement the trade representatives will be ratifying is still secret.
Six years of NAFTA has shown it to be an unmitigated disaster. Nearly 400,000 U.S. jobs have been lost since NAFTA as companies relocated to Mexico. While Mexico has enjoyed dramatic industrial growth, average workers have seen a decline in their standard of living. While the border areas have seen intensified industrial activity, Mexican workers there often make less than the minimum wage of $3.40 per day. Under the FTAA exploited workers in Mexico could be leveraged against even more desperate workers in Haiti, Guatemala or Brazil by companies seeking tariff-free access back into U.S. markets.
NAFTA's labor and environmental side agreements have proven unenforceable. Because of NAFTA's failure and the widespread public opposition to the WTO, the ILWU calls on the trade officials in Quebec City to abandon these so-called free trade policies and instead turn to implementing fair trade policies that promote local economic development with livable wages and fair conditions for workers, environmentally sustainable production and intercultural understanding and peace among trade partners. The ILWU also supports the efforts to organize protests against the FTAA in Quebec next April and encourages its members who can attend to do so.
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
International Executive Board
San Francisco, California
December 12-13, 2000
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Summit police to get plastic bullets
none none 2001-04-15
Summit police to get plastic bullets
Martin Patriquin
STAFF REPORTER
www.thestar.com
``Less lethal'' guns that fire plastic bullets have been added to the RCMP arsenal to deal with protesters at the upcoming Summit of the
Americas in Quebec city. But those weapons are powerful enough to crack ribs and cause extreme pain, according to those who have used them.
The Anti Riot Weapon Enfield, or Arwen 37, is described as ``the first multi-purpose, multi-shot weapon system to combine
lightweight, high accuracy and the ability to fire up to five shots before reloading'' by its Canadian distributor, Police Ordnance
Company.
The weapon was approved for use by the force last summer, and the RCMP has placed ``a very substantial order'' for the guns several
months ago according to Police Ordnance president Brian Kirkey. The force would not divulge exactly how many of the guns were ordered. The RCMP tactical force and its SWAT team will be equipped with the
Arwen 37 at the Quebec City Summit in April, said a spokesperson for the Mounties. Although several Canadian police emergency task forces already use the Arwen, it is believed this is the first time the
RCMP will be equipped with the weapon.
``The Arwen 37 was approved for our emergency response teams in our
continuing effort to resolve confrontational situations with a minimal amount of force,'' RCMP Sergeant Paul Marsh said.
``It is a tool at the disposal of our tactical team and I would imagine they will have them (in Quebec city),'' he added. RCMP tactical squads from across the country, along with other police forces, will converge on Quebec City. The Quebec provincial police force also has bought new Arwens and 2,000 rounds of ammunition in preparation for the summit.
The Arwen 37 relies on severe pain to subdue a target. It is classified as a ``less lethal'' weapon that ``has less potential for
causing death than conventional police weapons,'' said Marsh. And it gets the job done. ``If it hits someone in a rib, it is meant to crack a rib and put them in a lot of pain,'' said Toronto police Constable Bob Leighton,
who helps train the force's Emergency Task Force.
Tactical squads are usually required to test such less-lethal weapons - such as Tasers, which deliver electric shocks - on themselves. But Leighton said it would be ``too dangerous'' to do so with the Arwen. `It is meant to cracka rib and put them in a lot of pain'. The Arwen 37 fires a round 15 centimetres (six inches) in length and 3.7 cm (1* inches) wide. The plastic slug emerges from the muzzle at
74 metres per second, or about 160 miles per hour. ``It is equivalent to getting hit by a fastball,'' Kirkey said. The Arwen 37 can also fire tear gas and smoke rounds, and has the
ability to five rounds in four seconds with what's considered 100 per cent accuracy from 20 metres. The gun can also fire special penetrating ammunition that will go
through car windshields, double-pane windows and doors. "It will hit an adult-size torso at 100 metres with an accuracy
appropriate for its size and use,'' Kirkey said.
Designed by Royal Ordnance, a division of British Aerospace, in the late 1960s, the weapon was meant to subdue rioters in Northern Ireland without killing them. Officers using them are trained to aim for the torso, though the hit can be disastrous if they miss their mark. A 19-year-old man was critically injured during the 1994 Stanley Cup
hockey riots in Vancouver when he was hit in the head by a plastic bullet fired from an Arwen 37. Police Ordnance Company, based in Markham, will be North America's sole producer and manufacturer of the Arwen 37 by the fall.
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