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Leftist at large >>Protest pains
Heading toward Kananaskis, Alberta, for June’s G8 Summit and protest, the former editor of Concordia’s student paper the Link takes a look at the state of the country. The fourth in a series of dispatches … As of last Thursday, the original dream of Solidarity Village, where the thousands of protesters were to gather over the summit, is dead. The activists and unions backing what is locally known as “Solville” have announced that Calgary Mayor Dave “Bronco” Bronconnier’s belligerence has made it impossible to set up a single camp to house thousands of visiting protesters. When plans to find space at Kananaskis fell through, Solville was moved to Calgary. It was also supposed to be a venue for a huge politically themed concert (aging Montreal-based musician/activist Bruce Cockburn was reportedly booked, among others). But with the city refusing to grant any public space for protesters to crash in, and with the local police’s fear-mongering warnings of violence preventing private owners from renting land, it looks like it isn’t going to happen. According to Solville organizer Sarah Kerr, the best that can be hoped for is a bunch of much smaller venues around town. But talk of large, illegal squats by visiting protesters is already beginning, with parks, streets, riverbanks and even an abandoned hospital as potential targets. While wandering around town with fellow Montrealer Soo Koelbli, I run into a woman whose father is a local MLA in Premier (and eminent boozehound) Ralph Klein’s government. She seems to share the sentiments of most Calgarians—she’s apprehensive about the convergence of protesters, and a bit unsure about the issues. “So how come you guys are protesting?” she asks. And she adds that favourite saying of people who trust the electoral system in Canada, “I think that if you don’t vote, you lose your right to bitch.” We talk for a few minutes, but stop before things get too heated. She says she can’t even talk about these issues around her father, who is liable to blow up about it. He and his party’s government are equally touchy about the Kyoto Agreement on reducing pollution (by offering an “alternative plan,” Alberta is trying to weasel its way out of it). But taking a look at all of the alternative plans and “green solutions” in the province that oil built is a frustrating experience. A banner outside city hall announces in large green letters, “The Mayor’s Environment Expo.” But, below and smaller, are the sponsors’ logos: Shell, Husky and Exxon. Heck, they don’t try very hard to hide it here. Busking is pretty tough in this city too, Soo realizes as she plays some Phil Ochs and Melanie Safka tunes on 17th Ave. “This city is fucked up,” explains one older activist who has been working in Calgary for the past two years. Everyone I speak to at the planning meetings agrees that things are not going quite as well as hoped for the protest. “It’s a disaster,” says another activist bluntly. “I wish the G8 wasn’t coming to Calgary.” Plans are changing all the time, actions still need more organization, and there are less than two weeks left. There is a real danger now that better organized regional protests like the one in Ottawa will draw away too many activists from Calgary. That would leave protesters here weak and vulnerable to a police crackdown and mass arrests. Organizers here are planning to shut down Calgary’s downtown on June 26, the first day of the summit. With three marches, each based on one of the G8 summit’s themes—African development, the global economy and the War on Terrorism—they’re hoping to clog all the major arteries of the city. In a way, though, the G8 has been good for Calgary. It’s beginning to build an activist community in a city where previously there was none. People in Montreal may have been rioting on St-Jean Baptiste Day, burning down parliament buildings and gathering in Berri Square for centuries, but in Alberta there’s pretty much no history of protest since Louis Riel ran the plains. : Contact: biberstein@wildmail.com |
