HUNDREDS PROTEST AGAINST ALTANTICA:
According to the organizers of the recent protest in Halifax up to 400 people took part in protests against the institution of the Atlantica free trade zone. This differs from the mass medias estimate of a tiny 200 people. Molly is agnostic about the numbers. Being as this is Halifax any numbers are important. As usual the mass media concentrated upon so-called riots initiated by the travelling "anarchist circus". As usual this followed the theatric play acting of anarchists with black masks throwing innocuous things at the police followed by massive retaliation on the part of the police, from tear gas to tasers. Estimates of those who were willing to engage in this play act converge at about 50 people. The demonstrations in Halifax included far more people who didn't want to be part of this theatre. One report from the Maritimes Indy media puts the number of marchers on June 15th as between 300 and 500. The little fracas with the cops resulted in 21 people being arrested and more than 70 charges being laid including such oldies and goodies as "unlawful assembly" (was the riot act read or not?), assaulting police, mischief and various "weapon-related offenses" (watch out for those deadly paintballs. According to protester Pierre Blais, part of the larger non-violent component of the march, much of the violence was provoked by police using stun guns on certain members of the breakaway march early in the game.
Nineteen of those arrested were released yesterday. Two others had been released earlier. The court process was delayed after some of the accused refused to identify themselves. Many of those arrested were from outside Nova Scotia and two were from the USA. The accused were remanded to court dates in early September, ordered to not associate with each other or to take part in further protests.
There's an interesting report on the protests from a participant over at the Autonomy and Solidarity site with a bit more of a report on the demo that the usual cops versus the BB comedy. There are numerous other reports on the Maritimes Indymedia site about such matters as the critical mass bike ride that was part of the actions against Atlantica and the Halifax Coalition Against Poverty demonstration. There's another interesting article over at the Maritimes Indymedia site titled 'Concept to Fall Under Its Own Weight' about why Atlantica may not be successful because, all protests aside, it is flawed in other ways.
For those interested in photos of the events like those Molly has reproduced above go to one of the following:
Then there is the looming question. Are protests such as those held around the meeting of Altanitica of any great value ? The whole Black Bloc versus the police comedy has become nothing more than an endless series of sitcom reruns over the years. The whole concept of "direct action" has been lost in the shuffle, and now it means nothing more than militant posturing. There have been other casualties as well. These little set piece battles long since ditched any creativity or sense of humour and with it the ability to expand beyond a tiny set of those willing to lose street fights for no good reason. The rest of the protest indeed had both creativity and humour, but it was-and other examples will continue to be- overshadowed by the great "sensation of the day" of "anarchists losing game number 257 once more to the police team". About time to reevaluate. Actually long past time.
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