About 900 Montrealers in two demonstrations took to the streets today to protest the non-democratically imposed neoliberalization programmes of the WTO and to promote equitable and environmentally sound alternatives.

Montrealers Take To The Streets in Protest against the WTO

About 900 Montrealers in two demonstrations took to the streets today to protest the non-democratically imposed neoliberalization programmes of the WTO and to promote equitable and environmentally sound alternatives.

Today's demonstrations were a combination of two initiatives: an economic disturbance demo which began from Phillip's Square at noon; followed by another march which began around 4:45 pm near Atwater metro and descended St. Catherine Street back towards Phillip's Square.

The noon demo, supported primarily by members of the Convergence de la Lutte anti-Capitaliste (CLAC), followed a westward route, snaking around some of the main downtown arteries. Reportedly, some 250 protesters took part, and in addition to spreading the anti-WTO / anti-capitalist message via chants, signs, and fliers, a smaller group also succeeded in occupying the Domtar headquarters (see: http://montreal.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2127 for more details).

The later demo began assembling at Cabot Square (at the Atwater metro exit) at 4:00. This demo was organized by the N9 Coalition, a group which was formed via a general public assembly a number of months ago.

By 4:30, the square was filling quickly. Some of the people who had not brought along ready made picket signs were busy creating them with the materials onhand, some were going through last minute rehearsals of anti-WTO songs, and others were handing out packets of fliers which had been printed up to be distributed by 'pamphleteer' protesters. One of the main objectives of this protest was ground-level awareness-raising, and a couple of thousand pamphlets were handed out during the march to onlookers. By all reports, the response to this activity was almost unanimously encouraging. By 5:00, the march had begun to proceed down St. Catherine Street. It was punctuated by stops in front of various global exploiters - McDonald's, The Gap, etc. - where the usual corporate-sponsored apathy was broken by doses of reality delivered via chants and megaphone.

Arriving at Phillips Square towards 6:00, the protesters numbered between 500 and 700 according to most estimates. A group of artists had set up a large canvas on which an anti-WTO mural was created, and a few tam-tams set the beat. Flame acrobatics and mime kept things interesting, but the highlight of the protest (in this writer's opinion anyhow) was an anti-WTO chorus which sang some hilarious, anti-corporate numbers, and had a dozens of people up and dancing to their tunes. The 'foire d'information' which was planned in the square was largely a bust, as a promised supply of tables fell through; but info on upcoming actions and activist groups was distributed all the same.

The police used their pop-out-and-escort-the-demo thing which they've been doing quite often lately. They basically lurk around corners or at a distance until the demo gets going, and then they move out to provide an escort. At some demos, this has resulted in some humurous scenes in which the police escort continues to move in one direction while the demo turns a corner, but this time, since the trajectory was straight down St. Catherine, the police didn't suffer any embarrassing moments.

One incident which caused a bit of a stir occured around 6:30pm when a couple of protesters were passing out fliers in Phillip's Square. One of the protesters was carrying a video camera, filming, while another was handing out fliers. They approached a man dressed in black, but as they offered him a flier, he demanded that the cameraman hand over his camera. The videotaker popped out the cassette and passed it to his friend, upon which the man seized his arm. The agressor finally relented when it became clear that he was not getting either cassette or camera. It was also observed that the man had a 'secret-service' style earphone in his ear, and other witnesses state that he had been circulating among the protesters during most of the march.

Although it wasn't large, in terms of its awareness-raising objectives, this demo was a success. The message, of how the WTO is trampling upon democratic rights and imposing an unsustainable and unjust economic model on the planet, got out, and in a variety of ways which people were receptive to (i.e. NOT via corporate media). Clearly this sort of demo can be effective... all we need now is to have more of them.