Free trade, closed talks

Anarchists have endorsed the Carnival Against Capitalism, and in an anonymously posted call to action on the a20.org Web site, have asked fellow anarchists to unite into a "single anarchist contingent" at the CLAC/CASA sponsored events in order to "spoil the fun" of the leaders gathering at the summit. "Together, we will soften their hard-ons," the letter states.

The a20 site notes eight major groups planning actions in Quebec City, but dozens of others will also be represented, many of which can be found on a Web site maintained by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Estimates of the number of protesters converging on Quebec City range from 10,000 to 50,000.

In order for the protests against the FTAA to be effective, organizers must find new tactics in Quebec. Police have had time to learn from the strategies of protesters in Seattle and Washington, D.C., as well as at the 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia and its Democratic counterpart in Los Angeles. There are already reports of Canadian customs officials turning away protesters at the U.S.-Canada border checkpoints. As Canadian writer Naomi Klein observed in the Nation last week, "Seattle's direct-action tactics worked because they took the police by surprise ... That won't happen again. Police have now subscribed to all the e-mail lists."

The aggressive efforts of Quebec police to isolate protesters have enraged Canadian intellectuals, who under the nom du protest "Citizen Caged" have distributed a letter condemning the fencing. Among the signatories are such prominent Canadians as authors Klein and Margaret Atwood and film director Atom Egoyan. The letter implores the Canadian government to set a good example for future cities hosting similarly contested events.

"Designed to keep lawful protesters out of sight and earshot, the construction of a security barrier around Quebec City tramples on such fundamental freedoms ... the planned presence of 6,000 police officers around the summit site is not an incentive to peaceful protest. We condemn the practice of arbitrarily refusing entry to concerned citizens of other countries, thereby preventing them from expressing their views about the Free Trade Area of the Americas," the letter reads.

Those who make it to Quebec City will be met by the wall, which will be reinforced by police equipped with rubber bullet-dispensing guns and full riot gear. They've been consulting with Washington, D.C., police, who successfully contained similar protests last spring.

To a remarkable degree, the anti-globalization protesters have changed the international debate over trade since their emergence in Seattle in 1999. "Their public presentation is excellent," says Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics and author of a book praising the economic growth that resulted after the implementation of NAFTA. "They're not saying they're against these agreements, full stop. They're saying they will support the agreements, but that they want a lot of social values to be included -- like increased democracy, women's rights, Native American rights and also provisions for the environment and better labor conditions. These are all values that Americans embrace, so the question is what's negotiable."

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