Detroit/Windsor Protest

[Blaine]

FYI: Possible Detroit/Windsor border crossing issues.

The same group of protestors that created riot conditions in Seattle, WA have planned a massive, organized action to shutdown the Organization of American States (OAS) meetings. On June 4th, thousands of people will gathering in Detroit/Windsor to reclaim the streets and creatively block access to the meeting.

On June 4-6 the Foreign Ministers of the Organization of American States (OAS) will be meeting in Windsor, Canada. A major topic on their agenda is the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which is a proposal to establish a "free trade" zone in the western hemisphere that would extent NAFTA (North American Free Trade Area) to the tip of South America. The main purpose of these trade areas is to allow corporations to reap greater profits by getting rid of what they perceive to be barriers to trade: environmental regulations, unionized workplaces, etc. The FTAA essentially opens the borders for corporations to exploit workers and consumers in many nations
while at the same time refusing to grant access to workers who cross borders seeking better working and living conditions.

The location of these meetings are just east of Ouellette Ave on Riverside Dr W. (East of Chrysler)

[link:www.tao.ca/~stopftaa|Click here to read more]

 

[Jim]

RE: A few dangerous young rioters amongst the rest of the protesters.

Having read the above message, which by the way was a "canned" press release, not written by Blaine, I will say this. The majority of the protestors will be from the labour movement, read "unionist", and they will be peaceful, but loud. Most union members are family people, with mortgages, kids, and spouses. They are not usually found in street battles, throwing rocks, or gasoline bombs, and trying to burn down banks, stores, and cars.


The ones who will be there with the intention of acts of violence, are a very different type of person. They are young, average age 21, unemployed by their own choice, or a somtimes university or college student, with either a anarchist, or communist, or even nihlist, political view. They will be travelling, in small groups, all summer to events around the continent, ranging from music concerts, to GreenPeace training camps in the Pacific NorthWest, to large city protests, such as Seattle last year, and to Windsor, this weekend, June 3 to 6, 2000.


Remember that the Canadian Customs staff are being augmented by many hundreds of police from all over Ontario. There is an area of about six square blocks in downtown Windsor that has been closed off for the protection of the over 700 delegates to the conference.

The Windsor bridge will not be closed! I heard this silly idea, over and over, on the CB on Friday as I was coming back from the Detroit airport. That is not going to happen, for two reasons, first it would be a severe blow to commerce, and more importantly, the protestors would call it a victory, and so it will stay open.

What will happen is this. All passenger vehicles attempting to enter Canada at all the southern Ontario bridges will be subjected to more careful examination. Any persons who have been convicted of a felony in the USA will be denied entry, as usual, but more importantly. All passengers will have to ID themselves with photo cards, or drivers permits. This will obviously slow down the process, but there will more staff on hand to accommidate the flow.

The authorities will be looking for weapons, and especially gasoline containers, or bombs. Gas masks, sling shots, and home made flares will also result in denied entry. All of the above have been used in previous riots by the beserkers, and all of these items will be confiscated and the vehicle sent back to the US. If a vehicle is denied entry to Canada, I am sure that it will get a real good look over when it gets back to the other end of the bridge, at US Customs, and any person who has outstanding warrants will be arressted by Us officials, and sent to the police agency that wants them. For this reason, I say that a lot of the clowns will not attempt to enter Canada, but will be content with being in Detroit, and being their destructive little selves, perhaps around the Ren centre, or the court house, which by the way will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, by order of the chief Judge of Detroit.

All in all, the next few days should be interesting in the Windsor area, but should not cause too much delay to commercial truck traffic at the bridges. Jim Bunting...