As the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) ministerial in Miami (scheduled for Nov. 20-21) approaches, groups across the hemisphere are responding to calls for mass protests. In Montreal, resistance to the FTAA will be marked by a mass mobilization on November 20th, with a large-scale student-led march and rally as a focal point for resistance initiatives.
The mobilization builds on the momentum created by huge anti-FTAA demonstrations in Quebec City in 2001, by the 10,000-plus student march held on Oct. 31 last year in Montreal, and it is buoyed by the recent success of the movement against the WTO in Cancun, Mexico. Efforts to resist the global elite's neoliberal megaprojects are steadily gaining the upper hand.
This mobilization is also mounted within the context of surging discontent with Jean Charest's talk of "reengineering" Quebec along the lines of Mike Harris-style neoliberalism. By creating a plethora of subcontracting loopholes, Charest proposes to erode collective-based social elements such as public health programs, public water management, labour unions, etc., and to let the private sector move in and grab control of areas that have profit potential. Parallels with the larger FTAA strategy are obvious -- and not surprising, given that this is all part and parcel of the same neoliberal scam to erode egalitarian (democratic) structures in favor of wealth-based hierarchies (which thrive in a deregulated market system).
Items on the agenda for the meeting on October 29 will be:
1. November 20th Demonstration
2. Information about other mobilisation strategies for the day
3. Distribution of materials
4. Meeting - Cultural Show after the meeting
The coordinates for the meeting are as follows:
October 29, 6pm -
3720 Ave. du Parc
Metro Place-des-arts, 80 bus North (corner Pine)
For more info, phone: (514) 931-2377 (CFS-Q)