First paragraph (Teaser):

STRIKING THE EMPIRE BACK!

SNAKE MARCH AGAINST THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ AND DIRECT ACTION AGAINST ESSO

Anti-capitalist activists shut down an Esso station for almost two hours while others marched to the pillars of the military-industrial complex scattered throughout the streets of Montreal to denounce the occupation of Iraq...

Rest of the text:

STRIKING THE EMPIRE BACK!

SNAKE MARCH AGAINST THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ AND DIRECT ACTION AGAINST ESSO

Montréal, April 23 2003

Anti-capitalist activists shut down an Esso station for almost two hours while others marched to the pillars of the military-industrial complex scattered throughout the streets of Montreal to denounce the occupation of Iraq!

**Direct Action against Esso**

An anti-captilalist affinity group opposed to the war in Iraq launched an autonomous direct action and blocked gas pumps with bicycle locks at a large downtown Esso station Wednesday afternoon. The gas station, located at the corner of Sherbrooke and St-Laurent, was closed during the rush hour period of 3:30 pm to 4:50 pm and lost an estimated $2000 to $4000!

Esso is the Canadian arm of the oil mega-corporation Exxon Mobil, which has actively promoted the invasion of Iraq. Since the 1991 embargo, U.S. companies have not had access to the world’s second biggest oil reserves, located within the borders of Iraq. Iraq’s massive oil fields could fuel the U.S. – which already consumes 25% of the world’s petroleum production - for the next 20 years. To ensure lucrative contracts, Exxon was the Republican Party’s biggest funder during the 2000 Presidential campaign and filled Bush’s pockets with a wooping $1, 226, 331!

What we have witnessed is an imperialist invasion carried out by a colonizing government in the interest of ensuring a steady supply of oil to its market. Exxon stands out from its competitors in its insistance that the U.S. remain dependent on oil and has zealously campaigned against the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. The corporation finances lobby groups and right-wing think-tanks such as the infamous American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Front, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy.

**Snake March against the imperialist occupation of Iraq and the local outposts of the Empire**

In support of the anti-Esso action, and to clearly reveal the complicity of the Canadian military industrial complex in the war and invasion of Iraq, a snake march against the occupation winded through the business district of Montreal.

Block the Empire Montreal, the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) and the North-Eastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC) were joined by fifty demonstrators who took to the streets of Montreal on Wednesday. The protesters denounced the mlitary invasion of Iraq, its imperialist occupation, future wars in Syria and North Korea, the pillage of oil resources, the murder and rape of Iraqis, and the capitalist seizing of the Iraqi government and market.

** Snake march hits Bechtel and Bombardier**

The snake march left Carré St-Louis at 3:40 pm and walked towards Sherbrooke after a brief speech by Lisa Ndejuru, an Iraq Peace Team activist who returned recently from Bagdad. After being informed that an autonomous action had shut down the Esso station on Sherbrooke and St.Laurent, the march turned to make its way to the gas station and celebrate the victory. However, in order to avoid 6 vans filled with riot police, the snake march continued to Ontario street and quickly made its way to the CÉGEP du Vieux Montréal. The direct action against Esso was announced over a megaphone and the march took the streets of Montreal’s business sector, shutting down Maisonneuve, Ontario and McGill.

The snake marched stopped outside the office of the Bechtel Group, located at 1500 University, suite 910. Bechtel just secured a $680 million contract from USAID for to reconstruct – the American way! – electrical systems, adquiducs, and other infrastructure destroyed by the U.S. army and its allies over the past 12 years of sanctions and war. Bechtel’s first move to secure a stranglehold on the Iraq market, was in 2000, when it donated $770 million to the republican electoral campaign! Anti-capitalist and anti-bechtel slogans were heard across Montreal’s business sector, the rage hitting the hightest of sky-scrapers.

The demonstraters turned south towards the offices of Bombardier on René-Lévesque . Bombardier, Canada’s second military producer, specializes in the maintenance of war planes such as the infamous F-18s and Sherpas, adored by the U.S. army. Our neighbourhood corporate warrior also co-developed and produced pilot-less surveillance drones, used for gathering military information and patrolling theborders of Fortress North America, all while demolishing basic human rights such as the right to privacy.

While the snake march succeeded in avoiding police crack-downs at several turns, demonstrators were closely followed by riot cops and paddy wagons. The strong police presence and the constant threat of violent repression prevented the march from hitting all of its targets, including Esso and the local propaganda-producers who take pride in perpetrating the myth of a `liberated` Iraq, such as Québécor and Canwest. We were forced to end the march early in order to escape the riot police who were ready to
pounce on us with absolutely no motive!

All along the Snake March, flyers on Montreal’s military industrial complex, which houses 7 of the 10 biggest arms producers in Canada were distributed. Featured in the flyer (available by emailing bloquezlempiremontreal@resist.ca…and eventually on our website at resist.ca/~bloquezlempiremontreal) were Esso, Bechtel, Bombardier, the Fusiliers Mont Royal and other local warmongers.

We refuse to sacrifice more human lives for the expansion of the empire, the strengthening of its elites, the interests of the dominant classes and the global capitalist hegemony! We will fight until the occupation ends and the people of Iraq regain the right to economic and political self-determination!!

AGAINST THE WAR AND THE EMPIRE!
Against capitalism and patriarchy!!!

This action was organized by Block the Empire Montreal: bloq...@resist.ca

Endorsed by :

* The Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) c...@tao.ca -
tao.ca/~clac
* La Bête Noire, the North-Eastern Federation of
Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC) Montreal collective -
bete...@yahoo.fr

** Block the Empire Montreal **

Block the Empire Montreal is a campaign of radical resistance and direct action against the war, the invasion of Iraq and the military industrial complex. Our actions aim to affect and disrupt the interests of those pursuing the invasions, be they the corporations who fuel and profit from the war, the local outposts of the American empire or the complicit Canadian institutions. As war rages on in Iraq, claiming the lives of millions in order to secure a new phase of Western imperialist expansion, the need for a stronger resistance and coordinated disruptive actions grows increasingly critical. Our resistance must be linked to the underlying processes and structures of capitalism, patriarchy, imperialism, colonialism and racism, all of which create the conditions and impulsions for the current predations of the Bush regime and its allies. We recognise that a combined strategy of overseas war and imperialist expansion, a crackdown on dissidents, the criminalization of people of colour, unprecedented structural racism and tightening border controls have been used to secure Fortress North America and strengthen its enshrined elites. While organising with a diversity of tactics in solidarity with the anti-war movement, Block the Empire works to educate through creative resistances and direct actions while targeting and disrupting the war machine. The collective organises on a basis of decentralisation, non-hierarchical and anti-oppressive organising, autonomy (internally and as the basis for alliances), and creating alliances with existing initiatives. We are inviting activists and allied organizations to join us in shaping the campaign, participate in organizing upcoming actions and bring ideas for creative resistance.

In Solidarity & Struggle, Block the Empire Montreal

For more information bloc...@yahoo.ca /
bloq...@yahoo.ca (514) 848-7488.