Hi all,

Today we are writing from the shores of the St-Laurence river, in front of us one the first farmlands in Northern America the Island of Orleans. Boats are passing by exactly at the same place where multinational corporations want to build a Natural gaz terminal port. We are observing the beauty of nature where others see money and power. Here's the lowdown for our ongoing struggle of the last days against the building of a port that import more fossil fuels for the anemic consumption of our fat-ass societies.
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The Campement autogéré of Québec (CA), autonomous Camp of Québec has been going on for the last 6 years. The first 4 years, the CA was more of a laboratory of practical solidarity, self-management, ecology, social justice and all that other stuff that makes sense. Last year we were in Montebello near Ottawa to demonstate against the Security and Prosperity Partnership. Bush, Calderon and Harper were meeting there to increase prosperity for corporations and close down the borders for everything except capital. The Camp was there for 2 weeks, it was the nevralgic point of the mobilisation and a lot of us understood that the Camp can be a major way of uniting people from different places and different walks of life under a same struggle.

In that perspective, the CA has taken a new path in linking itself with local struggles against corporations and the governements backing them. This year we are joining a struggle to stop the building of a Liquefied Natural gas terminal in front of Quebec city. We left Quebec city in the pouring rain at noon on friday, on our bikes, to reach the location of our Camp near the site of the projected gas terminal. On our way to the site: Big surprise, the county has intimadated the owner of the land for our Camp. He backsdown. But we had a plan B. We decide to squat a municipal park. Confident and organized we took over the place and made a quick and
wicked little camp. Kitchen, tents, fire place, it felt like home. We were in contact with local supporters and made contact with the local officials. This municipality had voted against the project a couple of years ago. Big surprise... they offered no support. We must leave or the cops will beat the shit out of us. In this context of intimidation and political friction, we stayed united and horizontal, all decision making being made in a democratic and consensual way. Since our objective is talking about the Natural gaz terminal and not putting the hand in this political game, we created 2 committes. One for searching for a new land for the camp. And one dealing with media, legal stuff, and a large mobilisation to join us for a possible confrontation with authorities. If we did not find a place, we were determined to stand our ground and not move.

Fortunately, Our local friends found us a new place.We are there since saturday night, even closer to the projected terminal site. We are also much more visible there. We are now preparing direct actions, workshops, public meetings with the coalitions and a brunch with the local folks.

We must also say that we are in a rural conservative region, where activism is almost unheard of. So a lot of work and informal discussions must go on for an understanding of the positive impact of more radical action to arise.

We are conscious of the other camps and actions taking place in the world, we feel united even though we don't know you personnaly.

Local revolutions, global solidarity

Campement autogéré 2008
Lévis, Québec