RECLAIM THE STREETS
FROM MONTREAL TO MIAMI, NO FTAA!!!

= = = =November 20th 2003= = =
Meeting point:
3pm, at Square Berri
Metro Berri-UQAM, (corner of Ste-Catherine and Berri)

On November 20th 2003, the Anti-Capitalist Coalition Against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (CACZLEA) invites you to participate in a march that will converge at a "Reclaim the Streets" in downtown Montreal. The goal of the Reclaim the Streets is to reapropriate a corner or a part of a street and to create a space of popular education where people will be invited to come to get information about the FTAA. There will be food, music, circus presentations, live painting, street theatre, and more-- all to make this event festive while keeping in mind the gravity and seriousness of the FTAA.

In solidarity with the demonstrations in the streets of Miami where the meeting of the trade ministers of FTAA will take place, lets get out in OUR streets and reclaim them!

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MORE INFO.

November 19th to 21st in Miami, the trade ministers of FTAA will meet once again in behind closed doors to continue FTAA negotiations, which are supposed to be finished by 2004.

After many meetings and Summits, each one more theatrical than the last, the ministers don't seem to have understood the population's direct and clear refusal of this agreement. Pretending that they haven't heard the protests, the government and its partners are trying to make us believe the "good intentions" of this agreement.

Whether in Quebec or in Quito or at any other place where they meet to negociate this agreement, the population is in the streets, shouting its indignation towards these leaders who hide behind barb wires or are protected by a massive police presence. Inside their meetings, government
representatives pretend to represent the people while they are actually puppets manipulated by multiational corporations who put profit above people.

The FTAA agenda, which we can qualify as "neo-liberalism on steroids", will make thousands of people into martyrs. Be it through agriculture, patents, social services, or generic products, the FTAA will spare no sector. Unfortunately, such an agreement will only have a positive impact for a minority of people who already have economic power and who believe only in the colour of money. For the majority of others, the FTAA will result in a increase in the pillage of natural resources, in the destruction of traditional cultures, in the loss of alimentary autonomy,
and in misery.

Already, the effects of neo-liberalism are felt everywhere in the Americas. For many years, and especially since the signing of NAFTA 1994, it is clear that free trade and savage capitalism have had the effect of diminishing the autonomy of the people and enlarging the wallets of the
rich.

The pawns of the FTAA are already in place on the big chess board that is the Americas and the main players are waiting for the green light of the accord to make the final sprint of capitalism. Education, health care, dietary autonomy, human dignity and freedom will soon be only memories if this agreement is signed. The arms of FTAA extend everywhere and we can't ignore its presence.

Yet there have been some failures. Some countries are imposing some conditions to the agreement and and the negociations are not going the way some countries, like the USA, would like. This reluctance is being felt and the weight of the people’s dispute is vibrating the foundation of the negotiations.

In Montreal, the anti-capitalist coalition against the FTAA (CACZLEA) invites you to join the Reclaim the Streets organised in solidarity with the Miami demonstrations. We will go out into the streets downtown to denounce the government's hypocrisy, neo-liberal policies, and the
consequences of FTAA on the population of the Americas. The actors of the destruction of the planet will see once again that the people will never stop struggling.

RECLAIM THE STREETS!!

Contact: cacz...@riseup.net or by phone at (514) 409-2049

If you want to participate in the organisation, want more information, or for any other question, contact us!!