For the first time since the radical left movements in the 1930's, North America may be seeing the appearance of a wide-spectrum, radical movement, inherently opposed the corporatization of society and the commodification of our remaining public goods and services - like our medicare. With the Seattle anti-WTO protests as the model, the Summit of the Americas in Quebec city, where the heads of all North and South American states, except Cuba, will gather from the 20th to the 22nd of this month, has triggered an extraordinary response all over this country and in American border states. At the heart of this widestpread and growing reaction is the secret drafting a Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement by an exclusive gathering of anonymous CEO's and Trade officials which, according to various leaks, threaten our "remaining barriers to trade" which include public services, medicare and water. But a three-metre-high, 6 km long concrete and wire fence built to keep protesters well away from the official conference site in the historic, old part of the city, has been a better, more potent rallying-call than any protest organizers could contrive. Already, days before a large protest scheduled on Saturday, a thousand delegages to an alternative conference are gathered at a site in the same city to discuss progressive alternatives to the FTAA version. Unofficial estimates suggest that as many as 20,000 could attend the protest march this weekend. Add up the symbolisms, 34 leaders, gathered in an old fortress site, surrounded by a concrete and chainlink barrier, protected by 9,000 police with riot gear - even conservative, laid-back Canadians are stirring. The major dailies in this country, after almost no discussion about the issues at stake, or mention of the critics, for months, finally are acknowledging that this is a big issue. The right-wing Globe and Mail and the more extreme National Post, founded three years ago by the notorious Conrad Black, have featured daily headlines as well as article submissions, mostly by spokespersons representing the corporatist position as well as editorials ridiculing the protestors and misrepresenting their cause. However, there have also been signs that some journalists normally given to conservative views are having some new thoughts on the matter. While the Quebec city protest this Saturday is central, gatherings around the slogan, NO WAY TO THE FTAA, and involving the sponsorship of dozens of both Canadian and American labour and civic organizations are scheduled at a number of border crossing, including Blaine, South of Vancouver, British Columbia. What is striking and promising from this reporter's perspective is the political as well as cultural diversity of the movement - baclava-clad zapatista sympathizers, black-clad anarchists, "raging grannies" to artists festooning the Quebec fence and creating puppets, musicians, actors, unionists, dot-com employees and small business people to the entire parliamentary caucus, to Canada's equivalent of the British or German labour parties, will be at the march.
So, check out the big-city websites over here.