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The Anti-FTAA Border Caravan / Akwesasne (Cornwall) Border Crossing

vieuxcmaq, Friday, April 13, 2001 - 11:00

The PCU (msilburn@kingston.net)

**April 19, Kingston to Cornwall in Canada, and over the International Bridge**

A strong international coalition between the Mohawk Nation, poverty, labour, immigrant rights, environmental and anti-racist activists has been built to oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the Summit of the Americas conference in Quebec City this April, and to broaden direct action organizing against the provincial government in Ontario, the Mike Harris Tories.

The Anti-FTAA Border Caravan / Akwesasne (Cornwall) Border Crossing Logistics
**April 19, Kingston to Cornwall in Canada, and over the International Bridge**

A strong international coalition between the Mohawk Nation, poverty, labour, immigrant rights, environmental and anti-racist activists has been built to oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the Summit of the Americas conference in Quebec City this April, and to broaden direct action organizing against the provincial government in Ontario, the Mike Harris Tories.
Working with traditionalist Mohawks on the Akwesasne reserve we will ensure a safe border crossing for everyone, making the border as porous to people as it is to capital. People headed to Quebec City to demonstrate against the FTAA from west of Cornwall should join the Anti-FTAA Border Caravan and support the Akwesasne border crossing. It is a regionally organized direct action, diversifying the anti-globalization struggle to more than anti-conference demos, and is being organized by a community of people who feel the results of new trade deals, cuts to welfare, and environmental destruction, more than many others, an indigenous Nation of the Americas.

Logistics.

The Anti-FTAA Border Caravan, Kingston to Cornwall (Canadian side of the border)

FROM POINTS WEST
Please join us either the evening of Wednesday April 18, or early Thursday the 19th.

If arriving Wednesday April 18, take the Division St. exit, and follow Division St south. Turn right on Concession St. At 206 Concession St. is Steelworkers Hall. Housing will all be here, or arranged here. Call ahead to book housing with Paul Quick at (613) 531-8252.
At 6pm a dinner,
At 8pm a brief meeting about the action. Bring a sleeping bag and bed roll.

If arriving Thursday April 19, take the Division St. exit and gather in the Kingslake Mall parking lot, immediately south and on the left hand side of the 401 exit. Please check-in. Bring something (a sign, flag, etc) to have in a rear passenger window to identify yourself as participating in the Caravan - nothing that could be construed as obstructing your vision.
Be in the parking lot at 10 am sharp.

From different gathering points about town we will converge and merge onto the 401, gradually reducing our speed to the legal minimum (60km/h) which is about half the speed of commercial goods. Slow and steady wins the race.

FROM POINTS BETWEEN KINGSTON AND CORNWALL

If you're up to it, we'd love to see you back-track and start with us in Kingston. Otherwise, join us en route. Wait at your favourite 401 exit that has a good view west, wait for the long break in traffic and join up with the big bunch that follows. It'll be the best traffic jam you ever joined. Once you've joined think "I'm a goose in formation." We'll leave Kingston shortly after 10 and be in Cornwall before 2.

CORNWALL (from the Canadian side)
If you're not coming from Kingston, get your own map of Cornwall, in case another exit is necessary.
To get to Akwesasne and the International Bridge from the 401 take exit 789 marked "Highway 38", Downtown Cornwall, and Bridge to USA. Follow Hwy. 138 (also known as Brookdale Ave) south, go straight through the traffic circle and up on to the Toll Bridge. Cross this first bridge. It costs $2.25. There is a short strip that includes a mini-mall between the end of the toll bridge and Canada Customs. Wait there. You will be directed to additional parking from there.
Meeting time: 2 pm
Pack a brown bag lunch.
NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL

The Akwesasne Border Crossing Action (from the United States)

FROM THE BURLINGTON CONVERGENCE.
Discussion about travelling in Caravan to Akwesasne will happen Wednesday, April 18 at a spokescouncil at 8 pm. Be there.

FROM ANYWHERE ELSE
Get a map. Head to Massena, NY. Continue North-east towards Hogansburg. People are meeting along Hwy 37, through Hogansburg. Watch for all the people and the giant fish fry. Meeting time in Hogansburg, noon.
NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL.

Legal Support
Names and phone numbers of criminal and immigration lawyers will be available in Kingston and on both sides of Akwesasne.

Medical Support
The North East Medical Collective will be providing in the field treatment and a roving treatment centre.

The Actions Themselves.

ANTI-FTAA BORDER CARAVAN
A straight-forward roving barricade. Closing the highway down for us, stopping us on the way, or keeping us from entering Cornwall as a recent Cornwall radio station has reported are all victories. The trade routes are closed. The global economy, little by little, can be choked to death.
Let's all drive safe.

AKWESASNE (from the US side)
The fish fry will be an opportunity for socializing, meeting our hosts and learning how the FTAA continues the colonization of, and affects the Mohawk Nation.
The action on the reserve will be co-ordinated by the Mohawks, and while standing firm along side them, we will take our cues from them, until off the reserve. The demonstration will be organized, disciplined and peaceful. People of all ages are welcome, and will be represented.
The state has placed the Mohawk Tribal Police Force on the front lines, and we are told, has brought tribal police from other reserves. The Mohawks themselves will deal with this situation in a dignified and peaceful manner. There will be no confrontations between non-native demonstrators and tribal police.
More information will be available at the fish fry in Hogansburg.

From the Canadian Side.
We will gather between the toll bridge and Canada Customs at 2pm.

All of us
Much of the action will depend on the reaction we encounter. Organizing from the start has been to minimize state reaction and disruption to the Akwesasne community. There are many possibilities and we must be flexible enough to adapt along the way. We will quite certainly eventually face the full force of a frightened Canadian government. This may not be until we are off the reserve and entering Cornwall. It may be before any of us reach the reserve. The second bridge for the Americans, and the same toll bridge in the other direction for the Canadians is the only way off the island.

The organizers and states of the FTAA are afraid of the possibility that long lasting ties will be made between community organizers across the continent and the continent's First Nations. 500 years of resistance is joining with another wave of radical mobilizing. Our diversity, decentralized organizing, and creativity are strengths that can't be contained.

The People's Community Union
Kingston, ON.
(613) 531-3428
www.tao.ca/~kdawg/smashftaa

Anti-FTAA Border Action page
www.tao.ca/~kdawg/smashftaa


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