A-Infos (en) SALAMI IS READY ...

["Jaggi Singh" <benno@hotmail.com>]

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SALAMI IS READY ...

MONTREAL, Sunday, May 24th, 11:51pm -- Operation SalAMI, a non-violent 
direct action to resist the MAI and the agenda of big capital, is 
finalizing its preparations. [AMI is the French acronym for the MAI -- 
the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. So, "salAMI" means "bad MAI" 
or, alternatively, "bad friend."]

Just a couple of hours from now, up to three-hundred activists will be 
blockading the "Conference de Montreal on Globalized Economies" at the 
posh downtown Sheraton Center Hotel. In addition, hundreds (perhaps over 
a thousand) will be demonstrating in a festive support demo. As this 
report is being written, blockade participants are getting ready for a 
few hours sleep after a day of meetings, workshops, affinity group 
get-togethers and a communal dinner courtesy of Food Not Bombs.

Participants in tomorrow's blockade will be coming from all over Quebec 
-- Jonquiere, Chicoutimi, Quebec City, Joliette, Sherbrooke, Asbestos, 
Hull, Ste.-Hyacinthe, Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue, Longueuil and Montreal -- 
as well as from Ottawa, Toronto, Peterborough, Guelph and even a few 
anti-APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) activists from Vancouver. 
They have broken down into more than 12 affinity groups to faciliate 
quick decisions during the blockade. Support will also be provided by 
many more groups, including the Raging Grannies, the Work in Progress 
Circus, Food Not Bombs, Citizens Opposed to Police Brutality and other 
solidarity, anti-poverty and student groups.

"DONALD, ALEXA AND FLAVOURS OF CAPITALISM"

The Conference de Montreal (May 25-27) is an annual gathering of the 
political and corporate elite. This year's guest list includes the 
far-right Governor of New York, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, 
representatives of the US Deparment of State and the Deutche Bank Group 
as well as senior executives of Bombardier, the Royal Bank and other 
multinationals. Conference "sponsors and collaborators" include Bell 
Canada Enterprises, the Power Corporation, Hydro Quebec and the La 
Presse and Globe and Mail newspapers. 

Of particular interest is featured speaker Donald Johnston, 
Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and 
Development (OECD) at which the MAI has been negotiated in secret since 
1996. He will certainly try to use the Conference as an opportunity to 
"rally the troops" in anticipation of the resumption of negotiations 
later this fall.

Also interesting is the attendance of Alexa McDonough, leader of the
social-democratic New Democratic Party of Canada (or what some activists 
call the No Difference Party). In previous years, the organizers of the 
Conference de Montreal have chosen a token leftist to demonstrate some 
pretence of debate, but this year it has decided to go with a token 
centrist instead. Despite being asked not to attend by organizers of 
Operation SalAMI, McDonough will be a participant on a panel entitled 
"Capitalism -- European or American?" along with a former Thatcher 
cabinet minister and executives from the Power Corporation and 
Bombardier.

McDonough's audience will have paid over $1000 to attend the Conference. 
It remains to be seen whether she will honour the non-violent blockade 
of activists who might pay themselves with police brutality and jail 
time for their opposition to the MAI.

"GENEVE, MONTREAL, ENSEMBLE CONTRE LE CAPITAL!"

The activities of Operation SalAMI are in solidarity with recent 
protests against the agenda of corporate globalization, notably the 
recent worldwide activities of People's Global Action Against "Free 
Trade" in Geneva and elsewhere. The courageous actions of the students 
and pro-democracy activists in Indonesia are also very much in the minds 
of the participants of tomorrow's blockade. Activists in Montreal have 
chosen the Conference de Montreal as their tangible local symbol of big 
capital and are aiming no less than to shut it down by use of 
non-violent direct action.

Operation SalAMI was launched officially at midnite, May 1st, with a 
street party outside the Montreal Stock Exchange (in conjunction with a 
similar party in Paris). Unofficially, the origins of SalAMI go back to 
the "G Plan" when, in a similar action, hundreds of demonstrators shut 
down the government of Quebec for a day by blockading the huge G Complex 
in Quebec City, the hub of the Quebec bureaucracy. The G Plan was in 
opposition to the neo-liberal policies of the national government of 
Quebec. The "G Plan Movement" in opposition to corporate globalization, 
is sure to continue after Operation SalAMI this week.

For the last month or so, the organizers of Operation SalAMI have 
conducted an awareness-raising campaign in Montreal and beyond about the 
MAI and its agenda. A benefit concert attracting over 300 people was 
held on May 10th, an 8-page newspaper on the Operation and MAI was 
published and distributed throughout Quebec, and just this past Friday 
and Saturday, an alternative conference entitled "The Globalization of 
Injustice: Resistance and Alternatives" took place at the Universite de 
Quebec a Montreal (UQAM).

"RESISTANCE AND ALTERNATIVES"

On Friday evening at the conference, a crowd of over 200 saw the 
premiere screening of the film "The Beat of a Thousand Drums: Opposing 
APEC" about the recent resistance to APEC by Vancouver activists. The 
inspiring film was followed by presentations by Dorval Brunelle and 
Christian Deblock of the Groupe de recherche sur l'integration 
continentale (GRIC) as well as Tony Clarke, co-author of "MAI."

The next day began with a panel on popular struggles, with panelists 
talking about the recent popular summit at the Summit of the Americas in 
Santiago, the inspiring activism of the Friends of the Lubicon, and, 
again, the resistance to APEC in Vancouver by APEC ALERT and the NO! To 
APEC Coalition. The afternoon was devoted to workshops about how to 
combat corporate globalization with a focus on media, culture, 
environment, women, labour and alternative economics. The conference was 
engagingly "synthesized" by George Lebel of GRIC-UQAM, who said he would 
leave the final word from the alternative conference to the 
demonstrators and blockaders this Monday at dawn.

"FURTHER COVERAGE"

Members of the Direct Action Media Network and Operation SalAMI will be 
endeavouring to provide up-to-date info about the blockade of the 
Conference de Montreal. Right now, hundreds of demonstrators are getting 
a bit of rest before confronting just the most recent manifestation of 
capitalism -- the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. Regards from 
Montreal. In solidarity and resistance.

by Jaggi Singh
Direct Action Media Network (DAMN)
and Operation Salami

[end]

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