WINDSOR, Ontario â On June 4, 3000 people demonstrated against a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Windsor, Ontario.
The OAS, which is based in Washington, involves the heads of state of all countries in the Americas except Cuba which has no voting rights. The immediate agenda of the OAS is to establish the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
An extension of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), the FTAA aims to consolidate the western hemisphere into one free trade zone through a process it calls economic unification. Any extension of free trade in the Americas will inevitably result in even greater exploitation of workers (particularly those in the Third World Americas), infringements on human rights and destruction of the environment.
The June 4 protesters demanded that human rights, workers' rights and the preservation of the environment take priority over the profits of transnational corporations and capitalist governments. A wide range of organisations participated, including the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, the Canadian Auto Workers, Students Against Sweatshops, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and environmental groups.
Activists from the United States also joined the demonstration, although dozens were detained or turned back at the US-Canada border.
The demonstration was organised by the OAS/FTAA Shutdown Coalition, which is made up of labour, human rights and environmental activists.
When demonstrators tried to hang a banner on one of the barricades that police had set up throughout Windsor, the police reacted violently. According to a reporter from one Canadian television network, the police gave no warning before pepper-spraying and arresting activists. Dozens of protesters were arrested and nine remain in police custody.
The demonstration in Windsor was followed, on June 13, by another protest action at a meeting of the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary, Alberta. A particular target was BP Amoco's group chief executive, John Browne, whose keynote address was disrupted by two activists who unfurled a banner stating: BP Amoco and PetroChina: Get out of Tibet.
BP Amoco, along with Enron and Agip, is involved in the construction of the Sebei-Lanzhou gas pipeline through Tibet, which activists say will severely adversely affect the Tibetan people and environment.
BY BECKY ELLIS