Author
Andrew
Tentative, short radio script describing union and NGO protest in Quebec City on April 21st.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated peacefully in Quebec City against the FTAA and the Summit of the Americas. Only the beginning of the protest passed near the Summit’s security perimeter. Marchers witnessed clouds of tear gas wafting down the hill from the old city; literally, you could smell the tension in the air. The demo then turned and headed for a rallying point far away from the downtown core.
Unions and NGOs were the main organizers of the march. They claimed that 68,000 attended; police set the figure at 30,000.
At the end of the long walk, protesters listened to several dozen very short speeches by union leaders and representatives of civil society from throughout the Americas. The addresses were in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
A representative of the AFL-CIO told the rally that his union’s 13 million members were there in spirit. Hector de la Cueva, from Mexico’s Free Trade Action Network and the Continental Social Alliance, called for a continent-wide referendum on the FTAA. Some speakers outright rejected the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, while others suggested that it should be reformed to take into account human and environmental rights.
In a press conference following the event, organizers distanced themselves from tactics employed by demonstrators near the security perimeter. They complained that the media tend to focus on confrontations and unfairly ignore groups that aren’t involved in actions that they qualified as “violent”.