The trip was organized under the Five-College Western Massachusetts Global Action Coalition (WMGAC). Abbott-Klafter said that WMGAC was formed by a group of activists who participated in last spring's World Trade Organization (WTO) protest in Washington, D.C. "A large number of people from Western Mass. were in Washington and the coalition formed from contacts resulting from our involvement," said Kate Levin '02, who helped organize the trip.
The thrust of WMGAC's protest was aimed at the secrecy under which the conference had been taking place, as well as the new trade policies which will accompany the FTAA agreement. "The rules are being made by a handful of men in corporate boardrooms," said Levin. Many protesters fear that the new international laws that are being created will shift the balance of power even more toward corporate interests, decreasing workers' rights and causing potential environmental concerns, according to Levin.
The protesters gained a small victory in persuading the framers of the FTAA agreement to release its official text; however, most opponents argue that the public remains misinformed about the implications of the treaty.
"The major problem was with how the text was drafted," said Julie Ajinkya '03, who has been working with WMGAC since last September's local protests of the trade meetings in Prague. "They're commodifying education, healthcare, and water; they're a commercial sector in really dangerous ways."
Levin also pointed to an "absence of democracy" in the discussions, evident in the six miles of fencing surrounding the conference area.
The protest consisted of two major factions-the legal demonstration and a more radical group, which split off from the march. The legal march was organized by the Canadian Labor Union and ended in a parking lot, where protesters listened to music and speakers. The participants from Amherst joined the radical group, which directly confronted the police and committed various acts of civil disobedience.
When the Amherst group was within two blocks of the barrier surrounding the conference, they were forced to turn around because the teargas became unbearable. "We just had bandanas to protect ourselves from the tear gas," said Ajinkya.
Amy Cheung '04 was one of the students with the group when it split from the legal marchers. "The group consisted of Latin Americans, French Canadians, American students, and various environmentalists and workers' rights advocates," said Cheung. "The major chant in the crowd was 'Solidarité!' the French word for solidarity."
As the van carrying the Amherst students left the city around 7:00 p.m., a radio program covering the event announced an increase in activity near the FTAA complex; the group turned around to observe the developments. "We heard stories that the barricade had been broken, and a group of protesters had made its way inside the complex," said Ross O'Connell '02. "However, these rumors were largely incorrect." The van drove down a main boulevard and eventually stopped near a bridge where containers of tear gas were volleying between protesters and police.
"It was a very frightening moment, to see radical protesters throwing cans of tear gas back out of the crowd," said Cheung. "It made me even angrier at the police."
Abbott-Klafter and Mandy Fretts '03 were in Quebec from Thursday night until Saturday and were able to observe many of the altercations firsthand. "The police used tear gas indiscriminately and frequently (700 canisters on Friday, the number was far higher on Saturday), including on peaceful areas of the protest," said Abbott-Klafter. "This would be akin to gassing people playing on the freshman quad because of what was happening in the social quad."
Fretts added, "Although there was a lot of tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and water cannons, it is really important that everyone sticks together to make not only the delegates, but also the surrounding community aware of the evils of the FTAA." Abbott-Klafter and Fretts witnessed one protester catch on fire because of a tear gas canister, and another person was killed by a rubber bullet.
Many of the participants were disappointed in the mainstream media's coverage of the riots. "I have seen a fascinating dichotomy between coverage in American and Canadian media," said O'Connell. "The Canadian media has been much more two-sided, while the coverage here has been particularly atrocious."
Cathleen Sullivan '01, who became interested in protesting the FTAA since she wrote a booklet about it for the Alliance for Global Justice in January, recognized the tendency of the American media to report the situation with a corporate bias. "There is still a frustrating and dominant perspective in favor of the Bush/corporate side of the situation."