Strength without numbers

>> On Monday, 300 people will try to shut down an entire government

by PHILIP PREVILLE

Patrick Borden talks about the first time he got arrested as though it were some sort of spiritual awakening.

It's a good thing Borden feels the way he does, because next Monday, November 3, he's likely to find himself back behind bars. Borden is one of the organizers behind Plan G, a one-day blockade of Complexe G, the highrise neighbouring the National Assembly in Quebec City which houses the departments of Finance, Education, Employment and the provincial Treasury. "We picked an action that was daring," Borden says of Plan G, a protest against cuts to education, social security and health care, among other things. "We are going to go to the heart of the government's operations and shut them down."

Daring, yes, and very strategically planned to boot. Plan G aims to blockade the office tower with people--a total of 300 who will surround all entrances to the building and refuse to let employees go to work. In order for the government employees to report to work, the 300 protesters--all of whom have been trained in non-violent civil disobedience for their task--will have to be carted away by the cops. Protesters from Montreal will head to Quebec City by bus on Sunday evening and sleep in on the floor of a meeting hall.

Michel Roy of the Syndicat de la fonction publique du Québec, who represents all the government employees inside Complexe G is impressed with the Plan G strategy. Despite its diminutive size, he says Monday's demonstration will be the biggest thing to hit the National Assembly in over four years. "We shut down access to the downtown core in April of '93," says Roy, "but there's been nothing like it since."

You also have to get people on your side--no small task at a time of widespread political cynicism. Plan G has cast its net as wide as possible: in addition to protesting budget cuts of all kinds, Plan G is also a protest against discount labour, the privatization of natural resources and the globalization of the economy without human rights considerations. Such protests-against-everything often make the political left look as though it is stuck in the past. But according to Borden, "the important thing is to create a space where people can be political. People know the current system is in crisis, so it's perfectly rational to be fed up. But people repoliticize and mobilize quickly when they know there's ways to do it."

On Monday morning at the National Assembly, the only thing that's likely to be mobile are the paddywagons. Quebec City police told the Mirror that they are anticipating the protest and will be on hand to deal with the situation, though refused to disclose any further information. And, according to union leader Roy, "the government employees won't be the ones who break their blockade, that's for sure."

Plan G organizer Philippe Duhamel hopes that "Plan G will be the rebirth of something new." And Roy thinks he might be right. "Our collective agreement will be coming to an end next year," he says, "and I suspect that '98 will be a year with lots of activity."