First paragraph (Teaser):

On April 21, the National Post published Andrew Mills' report of tagging along with an affinity group -- whimsically named the "Groucho Marxists" -- protesting the Summit in Québec City. In the spirit of dialogue, as two of your friendly neighbourhood Groucho Marxists, we submit a response. Get the real story about the April 20 blockade of the autoroute Dufferin-Montmorency.

by Jessica Squires and Mylène DiPenta

Rest of the text:

A LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE QUÉBEC PROTESTS
or, Reverse interview: Dialog with a reporter on the morning after

On April 21, the National Post published Andrew Mills' report of tagging along with an affinity group -- whimsically named the "Groucho Marxists" -- protesting the Summit in Québec City. In the spirit of dialogue, as two of your friendly neighbourhood Groucho Marxists, we submit a response. This does not necessarily represent the views of all of our members. Some points will clear up glaring inaccuracies; others are reflections from a largely absent perspective. Jessica and Mylène have met Andrew many times; we can't help liking him, despite our occasional clashes. We trust that, with a little more time and information, he would have liked to write a more accurate and exciting article. So, we've decided to create one. This one's for you, Andrew.

[National Post]: "[T]he Groucho Marxists have just sat down to discuss strategy when three canisters of tear gas are unleashed in their direction. The discussion breaks up fast."

[Mylène]: By the time Andrew arrived on the scene, we had already been gassed repeatedly and were fairly indifferent to it. During this particular attack, we stood up to survey the situation and decide whether
the gas was too close. When we saw it blow right back over the fence into the faces of the riot cops, we laughed and sat back down.

[National Post]:"Some begin to run. Others keep their cool and shout: 'Everybody walk slowly. Please don't riot.' "

[Jessica]: Some did begin to run the very first time we were gassed. Once folks realized the gas was not as bad as some had expected, and that it was being blown away from us, that ceased to be a problem. One thing we've improved on this past week is communicating complex information, quickly, to enormous groups of tense and energized people. Short chants with a catchy rhythm are best. They are easy to repeat and understand even if not in your native language, and can quickly spread through a crowd. The one we used when necessary was "walk fast, don't run."

Andrew, when you arrived you asked me what had happened before you got there. I said: "...the green demo preceded us up the road, so we decided to press forward to the front. The cops threw some tear gas, and some people retreated about 75 feet. Some people left the scene for green zones." I certainly would never have referred to the possibility of a riot. That's a word used by mainstram media to paint all protestors as dangerous, predictable and incapable of self-control - grossly inaccurate. At the time you asked me that question 45 minutes had passed since we had arrived at the interesection.

[National Post]: "The group retreats 75 metres from the fence."

[Mylène]: After moving into the intersection targeted to be blocked, we chose a spot as far away from the gas as possible while still restricting traffic. Some affinity groups pressed towards the fence, but since the Groucho Marxists intended to blockade, not to breach the fence, there was no approach and hence no retreat. Crowding too close to the fence would have left the streets wide open.

[Jessica]: Then we stayed put for a while, until we realized there were "green block" groups between us and the gas. Although nowhere in Québec City were dissidents completely safe, green blocks were supposed to be at the lowest risk of arrest and police violence. A green block was with us on this day to hold a festive demonstration in support of the blockade. Recognizing this, we moved closer to the fence to consolidate with other confirmed "yellow" groups -- those willing to risk arrest by taking part in the actual blockade -- and maintain a clear escape route for people who might want to leave.

[National Post]: "Frightened, with watery eyes, runny noses, red skin and gag reflexes going haywire, nobody is about to go back to the fence."

[Mylène]: Having never made it to the fence, there was nowhere to "go back" to. At this point we were fairly calm and not at all badly affected by the gas. The wind was co-operatively blowing it straight toward the hotels in the perimeter. However, the above description is fairly accurate of Andrew, since he was just coming from another site where he was gassed pretty badly. As one of two affinity group medical monitors, I offered to wash tear gas off his face, but he declined. Perhaps he should have joined his own affinity group, with a medic, since it seems his eyes were too swollen to see properly.

[Jessica]: Andrew, overall your article gives the impression that we went to the fence, and retreated when gas was thrown, and that was the end of it. This ahistorical and narrow perspective is typical of Natoinal Post reporting, and we hoped you would be above it.

[National Post]: "Halifax's Groucho Marxists had come to Quebec City with a very carefully worked out plan to join hundreds of other groups at Laval University. They would march along a top-secret route to a place called Jardin St-Roch. There, they would use their bodies to create a blockade, strategically cutting off one of the major routes officials use to pass through Quebec's infamous security perimeter."

[Jessica]: We had originally planned to block one of the biggest perimeter gates. The Dufferin-Montmorency highway is a major access route from the airport into the upper city, ending at a huge intersection with two side streets and several off-ramps. However, the perimeter was built much closer to our action site than we had anticipated. Threats of police assault and arrest for anyone even approaching the fence created a de facto "no protest zone" with unmarked boundaries, making it unlikely that the original intersection would be possible to reach. At a last-minute spokescouncil, we decided to back off from a plan that now seemed "suicidal." The fallback position, Plan B, was to block only Côte d'Abraham, one of the streets leading to the Dufferin- Montmorency gate. This would leave several other wide open access routes, including the highway.

[National Post]: "But the plan didn't quite work. When the thousands of protesters got to the Jardin, they didn't stop at the intersection as planned. Before they knew it, the Groucho Marxists were swept right on up the hill to the gates of the perimeter and the waiting riot police."

[Mylène]: The word "swept" here is ironic, since it was four of our members who scouted ahead and indicated (from quite a distance, thanks to our carefully worked out hand signals) that the route was safe. The rest of us Groucho Marxists locked arms to help form the front line, pushing up Dorchester street towards Côte d'Abraham and Rue de la Couronne. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest with fierce love and pride for us all as we swallowed our fear and took the "Plan B" intersection, without a single police attempt at intervention. The march was bigger than in our wildest dreams, and the desperately outnumbered cops had made a tactical retreat.

[Jessica]: Realizing this, we were not content to concede any ground unnecessarily. We pushed forward up Côte d'Abraham to the original "Plan A" intersection, and the people planning a simultaneous support demonstration were with us all the way.

At the top, we found a stunning indication of police defeat: the riot squads had replaced what should have been a major gate with a solid section of wall. They didn't even bother to attempt to fight us, retreating with their tails between their legs into their cage, and slamming the door - so to speak - behind them. The best they could do was to hide behind the fence in formations several lines deep, to prevent us from tearing it down and flooding thousands of people into the perimeter. We filled the entire intersection -- access ramps, side streets, highway and all -- with a wild "Reclaim the Streets"-style party.

[Mylène]: The drumming was spellbinding, the gas was at that point no more than an annoyance, the dancing was ecstatic. Someone wheeled past me with a shopping cart onto which was built a "trojan horse". Another affinity group somehow got a huge foam mattress to the top of the hill, displaying the message "How can you sleep at night?" in huge letters. They hoisted it up the fence where it flopped over and bounced off the helmets of the riot squad.

[Jessica]: We turned what was originally dismissed as a "suicidal" red zone (highest risk of arrest) action into a space many green zone protesters felt safe having a party. Upon periodic tactical reassessments, we made our deicsions accordingly. We were not willing to cede the interesection in case some of those present were unprepared for potential police brutality. We hoped to provide both an example and some protection if necessary. Some of us left in the evening not because of any police intervention but because we had held the intersection longer than was ever planned and had run out of food. Others stayed until heavy tear-gas or arrests finally forced them out in the wee hours of the morning.

[Mylène:] There were only a handful of arrests during the action, all of them late in the evening when number had dwindled. All the Groucho Marxists were safe and accounted for at the end of the night. The Dufferin-Montmorency highway gate was never reopened.

[National Post]: "Ardath Whynacht, 19, is in charge of legal matters: At Quebec, she will be watching for police brutality. She is also the one members will call if they are arrested."

[Mylène]: Oops Andrew! Everyone knows that, if the cops actually allow you your right to seek counsel, you call the co-ordinating legal team. This was one piece of information that was broadcast far and wide. Why do you think thousands of protesters had the exact same phone number written in indelible ink on our skin?

[National Post]: "Eric McIntyre and Mylenn DiPenta, both 23, are medical monitors trained in basic first aid... Don't even think of calling 911, Mylenn says: 'You think they're going to drive into a protest?' "

[Mylène]: Perhaps Andrew's ears were affected by the tear gas as well. My quote was, "I have no concerns at all about calling 911. I'm sure they'd come." I did worry about getting an ambulance into the middle of a blockade thousands of people strong, but that's why we have affinity group medical monitors: to get people out of situations like that so they can get help.

[National Post]: "Along with Jessica Squires, who has been with the group since the beginning, Ardath basically leads the Groucho Marxists, though the group, which is non-hierarchical, is technically leaderless. Nevertheless, Jessica and Ardath know everything about the Quebec action, and in meetings, they, along with a few others, often run the show. "

[Jessica]: I was the delegate we sent to a spokescouncil in Québec in March, because the rest of us had other commitments or were representing other groups. Hence the inside information, which I was responsible for reporting back to the group. Ardath, as the legal contact and designated "unarrestable", was responsible for many logistical questions which needed to be ironed out in preparatory meetings. She attended the spokescouncil as well. It never ceases to amaze me the mainstream media's conviction that someone has to be a "leader" in the traditional sense. We all provde leadership for each other in various ways. That's the real strength of people, which is muddied, intentionally or not, by the implication that there are leaders and followers. If you take no other lesson from Québec, take that.

[Mylène]: What you missed, Andrew, are the situations like travel to and within Québec City, on-location meetings once we arrived, and most of the direct action of marching and blockading. There, roles like food co-ordinator, driver, medic, translator, and communications (both within the affinity group and among affinity groups) came to the fore. Does a good journalist assume that the world stops turning when he stops looking?

[National Post]: "Like the Groucho Marxists, [Halifax Mobilization for Global Justice operates] on the same non-hierarchical premise, in what Ardath calls a 'direct democracy,' in which the goal is to get everyone to agree on the same thing."

[Mylène]: Wrong again Andrew... the goal is to find a thing with which everyone can agree. What i'm describing is consensus. What you're describing is thought-police. I think it's a fairly important distinction for the people who produce our media to understand, don't you?

[National Post]: "But as the crowd retreated from the clouds of tear gas, it must all have seemed a little disappointing for the Groucho Marxists. All those meetings, all that planning, all that civil- disobedience training, the long bus ride from Halifax, the uncomfortable accommodations -- only to end in retreat; an almost ignoble retreat, at that."

[Mylène]: Oh Andrew. Projecting again... you may have retreated, at 5pm, to file your story by 6. Perhaps running back to big daddy National Post was indeed ignoble, although if I were you I wouldn't be that harsh on myself. But the Groucho Marxists picked a spot in the intersection out of range of heavy tear gas, initiating and helping to facilitate a quick strategy meeting between affinity groups. The question was, what to do with our unexpectedly easy victory? Our long weeks of preparatory discussions about goals and personal limits made it possible to come to consensus almost immediately once in the heat of the moment. Our division of labour made communication easy and quick, as our two communications people worked together to represent us at on-the-fly tactical meetings while keeping the whole group informed and checking for continuing consent.

[Jessica]: At that meeting, we decided to hold the intersection until at least after the Summit opening ceremonies started at 6:00 pm, to prevent the gate from being conveniently reopened for the arrival of delegates. We refused to move off location even to plan and organize, except in the possibility of a full-on riot squad charge. Within a few minutes, the affinity groups had worked together to create a direction and time frame with broad support, enabling all those present to make informed choices about ways of participating consistent with their level of arrestability. Most chose to stay, while some left us for a nearby green zone with their solidarity and love.

[Mylène]: We grooved to the fabulous percussion, introduced ourselves to strangers whom we knew shared with us a passionate commitment, and witnessed several reunions of long-lost friends in the enormous crowd. A group called the "Living River" visited us and invited us to join in a huge spiral dance, singing "Rising, Rising, The earth is rising... Turning, Turning, The tide is turning." With my gas mask pulled up off my face, the heavy filter bobbing over my head, my satchel full of medical supplies swinging from my shoulder, I sang and stomped and held hands with strangers. I refilled their water bottles and offered them non-oil-based sunscreen, which wouldn't trap chemical weapons against their skin. They helped me with my heavy gear while I danced and invented harmonies to the simple tune. My slightly stinging eyes and runny nose couldn't touch my overwhelming joy. So often I have felt isolated in my commitment to social transformation and justice, and here I was sharing it with thousands of strangers, from uncounted places across the Americas, communicating across several languages.

[National Post]: "Any Groucho Marxist would say it was a success, that they took back the street outside of the perimeter, that they made the uncertain riot police react 'oppressively.' "

[Jessica]: "Oppress" means "to govern harshly, treat with continual cruelty or injustice." Andrew, I know you realize that tear gas is harsh, because you were complaining about it to us. Beyond that, I think we can safely claim that secret international agreements voiding our constitutional rights and overturning our laws are unjust. Certainly it seems cruel to me to have spent millions of dollars on
security measures designed to exclude anyone less than filthy rich... when the obviously-available money could have been used to alleviate the conditions of poverty, inaccessibility of health care and education, and environmental destructions that we were protesting. There is no need to put the word "oppressively" in quotation marks.

[National Post]: "But what did a mini-battle between a bunch of nice students and some overarmed cops really have to do with the FTAA?"

[Mylène]: If you missed the answer to this question, Andrew, then you missed the whole point of the uncounted meetings you worked so hard to insinuate yourself into. Anti-democratic situations like the FTAA, which transfer power and resources from the many to the very few, necessitate anti-democratic actions like police repression and brutality. That's the big problem with elitism: the people on top are by defintion badly outnumbered by the people they've robbed. Conversely, a truly democratic society is one whose members encourage each other to think critically instead of outlawing dissent; empower themselves to affect the world around them instead of twiddling their thumbs waiting for the next election to roll around; and work together for mutual benefit instead of working against each other for maximum control. In such a society, the leaders would not be this terrified of the citizens they claim to represent.

[Mylène and Jessica]: More concretely, in terms of whether our specific action affected the Summit itself, we submit the following points:

1. The closing of the Dufferin-Montmorency gate.

Perhaps most obviously, we accomplished our primary goal of completely shutting down the gate... a goal for which we had all but given up hope. We were prepared to use our bodies to shut down whatever streets we could, but the police most co-operatively did our work for us, leaving us free to dance the night away. If there was a defeat on that day, it was the riot squad's abandonment of what might otherwise have been the main access point into the security perimeter, without so much as a whimper of a fight. Humiliating, really.

This resulted in inconvenience and detours, restricted traffic flow, and additional congestion at the remaining open gates, not to mention a strong and visible statement of our power as ordinary individuals. The effect was that on that day, our lives effectively got in the way of the FTAA negotiating process.

2. The distraction of a major riot-equipped police contingent away from other parts of the perimeter.

Our action kept several hundred riot cops busy for many hours. There were at last count only 800 riot squad officers available for the entire summit, and some had to be sleeping or otherwise off-duty. Amassing a crowd not only large enough to be a potential threat to the security fence but too overwhelming for the police to even disperse (forget about arrest), was a critical tactical success. Their own fear of us kept them trapped, despite their obvious ineffectuality. We have no doubt that this contributed to the success of fence-breaching actions, a clear example of the solidarity and support which can exist between people with different tactics and levels of arrestability. Notably, a friend in another affinity group told of a single unfortunate riot officer who played monkey-in-the-middle between two protesters with wire-cutters, running back and forth as they alternately took nips out of the fence.

3. The delaying and early closing of the opening ceremonies

The repeated approaches to the fence made by some protesters at the Dufferin-Montmorency gate kept the riot squads frantically throwing tear gas at us. Much to our amusement, a pleasant breeze that cooled us from the unusually hot April sun also sent all the tear gas directly back into the perimeter. Besides depleting their stocks, we learned later that this contributed to the early closure of the evening's official events... as tear gas had been sucked into ventilation intakes at the hotels. Perhaps it was Mother Nature's joke at the expense of the heads of state -- who have refused, since they abandonned the Sustainable Development Summit in Bolivia, 1996, to acknowledge the interconnectedness of trade and the environment.

The destruction that they create may hit them last... but no power, money, or riot squads can ultimately keep them safe from their own poison. Ironically, our fight for inclusive democracy, fairness, equality, and clean air is a fight for them too.

4. The reclaiming of the streets in the upper city

Finally, and most amazingly, the Dufferin-Montmorency gate remained closed not only during our action -- which was aimed at perturbing the opening ceremonies -- but for the duration of the Summit. This enabled tens of thousands of people to claim the streets of large parts of the upper city. It was a beautiful example of the legitimacy of our rights to assemble and speak freely, as authorities attempted to restrict these rights and found themselves unable to enforce their orders.

Of course, there are smaller inaccuracies in the article, and subtler differences of interpretation. There are also larger victories. For example, this single action is only one of uncounted tactics that make future anti-democratic trade talks unpalatable to host cities. Together we have contributed to the ongoing global consciousness-raising about democracy, wealth, and power, especially in the communities each protester calls home.

Popular debates, until recently polarized between isolated protectionism and total deregulation, have started to broaden to include issues of democracy, sustainability, fair trade. We believe there has also begun a shift in the media. There is still, of course, overwhelming sensationalism and superficiality in reports focussing on protester (and occasionally police) property damage and violence -- like a sort of WWF where one side has full body armour and chemical weapons, and the other side has bandannas. But we are also noticing more investigation of the real issues, the lived and proven effects of exploitation and anti-democracy in our country and elsewhere.

Even the Canadian government, in their disagreement with protests, have been forced to address us on (some of) our terms. They have begun to engage publicly with the issues of voter representation and authoritarian brutality. While this lip-service in itself is not of enormous help, it serves as an interesting barometer of the pressure of public opinion. We were even asked by a police officer last night, on arriving at the Orsainville jail for a demonstration, whether we were there with the "solidarity movement".

"Solidarity"? "Movement"?? What happened to "agitators", "anarchists", and the rest of the pigeon-holing? Whether it was covert sympathy or a regretted slip of the tongue, we are having an effect on people's minds, a (sadly unfree) trade in ideas.

[Mylène]: For myself, my perspective has been transformed. No other experience could ever have prepared me, at the all-night candlelight vigil on the prison grounds, to greet a just-released protester. He had trauma on his face and bloody wounds on his legs. He told of fully-armoured riot cops entering the cell blocks to beat people. As punishment for making noise to rally together the prisonners locked alone in their cells, prison guards dragged him by his ankles across a concrete floor and slammed cell doors on his legs.

[Jessica]: Many things that I knew intellectually, and experienced in Washington last April, are now confirmed Particulary, I saw first hand once again that the role of the police is not to protect anyone, even, primarily, the heads of state, but to protect the inner workings of a profoundly irrational economic system. I am more conscious than ever that no authority is able to enforce their rules absolutely without the use of both hegemonic propaganda - "consent" and power - "coercion", to paraphrase Gramsci, and that enforcement is ever imperfect at best. Whatever the extent to which they do have power, they will need to use fear and uncertainty to double or triple their range. If the people who took part in the Dufferin- Montmorency action had believed police scare tactics, we would have thought it impossible to even approach the fence without getting physically moved back, to wear gas masks without being instantly arrrested, to protect ourselves from chemical weapons with so much as a flimsy bandanna across our faces. Instead we questioned that authority, and found, along with many others, that the emperor had no clothes.

We need to see the police repression and brutality towards protestors and imprisoned activists for what it is: not just a few individual cops getting revenge or getting their rocks off (although I'm sure there was some of that) but the knee-jerk response of a fundamentally threatened system to a show of strength by both a section of its sworn enemy and a section of its achilles heel, some of whom may not yet realize their role to play - the workers who led the charge on the fence on the Côte d'Abraham.

We have a long way to go, particularly in raising consciousness, but the ruling class is scared to death. You can see it in their headlines.

[Mylène]: Although I'm hoarse today from chanting and inhaling toxic fumes, no amount of presidential power or corporate cash could touch the exhilaration and sense of peace I feel from having participated directly in an enormous movement toward inclusive democracy and real justice. To those who find money and control over others exciting and heady, I dare you to try it my way. Check the library or the internet for information. Ask someone who was in Québec or Seattle why they went, and how they feel. For those who won't, please ask yourself, what are you afraid of?