Jaggi Singh is a Montreal-based writer and activist who helped organize protests against the 1997 APEC meeting in Vancouver, and against the MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investments) in Montreal with Operation SalAMI. The following text is edited excerpts from his "Activist's Diary" of the A16 protest.

Through the haze of pepper spray and smoke grenades, there's one incident that, for me, encapsulates what the International Monetary Fund/World Bank shutdown was all about.

During a downpour early Monday morning, after a weekend of blockades and mass arrests, one of the activist parades marched towards the intersection of 18th and I streets, a few blocks from the IMF/WB complex. We sighted a vanload of conference delegates with requisite police escort, so quickly, in a tactic refined over the previous day, dozens of protesters rushed forward and sat in front of the vehicles, while those of us in support surrounded them and began the A16 thematic chant, "Whose streets? Our streets!"

Usually when we did this the van would turn around, but this time two commandos dressed in fatigues, body armour and goggles rushed out from the back of the van and shot smoke grenades at practically point-blank range. Then in came the riot cops, swinging batons and pepper-spraying anyone they thought was part of the protest, including some curious bystanders.

The commandos re-entered the van, and sped toward the police barricades, escorting the VIPs to the conference, while pointing their rifles at the crowd as a warning. A police helicopter surveilled the whole scene from above.

We moved back, while activist medics aided bloodied and sprayed victims. During the retreat, individuals were suddenly tackled, sprayed and hit by jean-wearing and often masked gangsters. It became clear that they were undercover cops, most of whom couldn't be bothered to pull out their badges. Many more held their batons menacingly and attacked anyone who looked at them the wrong way.

April 17 was clean-up time, pure and simple. After a successful protest and blockade the day before, when over 10,000 demonstrators shutdown most of downtown D.C. and derailed the IMF/WB meetings, the cops were taking back the city for their masters.

Belly of the beast

Opponents of the World Bank and IMF have long argued that the polices of these institutions--the structural adjustment programs, privatization schemes, ecologically disastrous megaprojects, interminable loan-and-debt cycle etc.--are maintained and imposed by coercion, force, secrecy and corruption.

The effects of that repression are well understood by victims in the so-called "Third World" who are on the frontlines in the struggle against capitalist globalization.

And sparked by our mobilization for global justice and direct action, a glimpse of the repressive reality behind the IMF/WB was plainly seen in the police-sanitized business and tourist areas of Washington, D.C., the belly of the beast itself. There were scenes that D.C. locals and commentators compared to the urban riots and anti-war protests of the late 1960s and early '70s.

The Montreal force

The Montreal contingent in Washington was between 120-150 strong, the majority coming down thanks to the efforts of an ad-hoc coalition called Mobilisation Montréal. At least three Montrealers were arrested as part of the more than 1,300 that were picked up by the D.C. cops over the three days.

Late on Monday night in D.C., Montrealers had a wrap-up meeting with some debate about tactics and an evaluation of what we could have done better. But most promisingly, we were all looking ahead.

This coming April 2001, Quebec City will be hosting the Summit of the Americas, which will bring together all the leaders of North, Central and South America--except Cuba. Their goal is to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the entire hemisphere. The proposed treaty is called the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

The APEC Summit brought 18 leaders to Vancouver in 1997, and with the Summit of the Americas, Quebec has the dubious honour of hosting almost twice as many, with corresponding police and security presence. Like the IMF, WB, WTO and the rest of the alphabet soup, the FTAA is yet another engine of global capital.

Test run

For the Montreal activist crew, Washington was a test-run: a place to observe, try out different tactics and network. More crucially, it was a time, one year in advance, to jump-start the organizing process against a tangible example of corporate-style globalization in the Summit of the Americas.

In the chaos of the street battles, pepper spray, street parades, meetings and networking in Washington, I think at one point or another we were all thinking the same thing: "If you thought Seattle and Washington were interesting, wait until Quebec 2001." :