THE SUMMIT OF AMERICAS' PRELUDE...

Understanding full well what was at stake with the FTAA discussions that were to be held in Quebec City, and understanding as well that protest are only a symbollic battle, 60 000 protesters from all over the world converged in Quebec City to scream out their disagreement of such an anti-democratic sanction and dealing such as the FTAA...

The governors of Canada, having understood the dynamics of the confrontations in Prague, Washington and Seattle, took it upon themselves to upgrade security measures during the Summit. 35 000 000 dollars were spent in security measures to shut the people up, to keep away protesters from the perimeter where the delegated governors would have their discussions. 35 million canadian taxpayers dollars to shut the people up...7000 law enforcement officers from all over the country, including elite members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Quebec Security forces, and the top cops of the country,1200 soldiers on standby, the sniper division within the security peremeters just in case as well.

Not to mention a fence 3.8 kilometers long that surrounded the Parlament and a quite large area around it , keeping citizens of the city from going in and out of the area...

Considering the fact that The Parlament was placed in the high city of Quebec, protesters had no choice but to head up from the low city... It is a well known fact that the higher your position in a battle, the more advantage you have...

In short, Quebec city was ready for a full out siege, and in the process, the measures taken were once more repressive of the people's right for speech...

Among all the protest groups, organization started to take place as well... The powers that be had prepared themselves, well so would the people.

SalAMI, among the head figures of the MAI protests, said litterally to the medias that they would train their people to take down "violent" protesters, such as members of the by now infamous Black Bloc movement. In short, the Black Bloc and other groups with similar tactics had to beware themselves of other protesters as well as the anti-riot squad, taking down the fence and piercing through the lines to get the protesters where they should be, in front of the parlament, not in front of the police lines and in front of the fences. In short, it also meant that there was now an innerstruggle between various protest groups (as if the FTAA and the cops weren't enough to struggle against... )...

Out of seemingly nowhere emerged a group known as the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (ACC) who took upon itself to organize the protest as much as it could to avoid chaos within the ranks of the protesters. With very little ressources ( nowhere near as much as the more high profile group known as SalAMI), they organized an agreement for all protesters to divide into three areas of protests after a common march. The Green Area of protest, where peaceful protesters( such as the ACC itself and various other groups) in costumes and musical instruments would protest without any licenses, but also with very little cance of being arrested, a Yellow Area of protest, where SalAMi and like-minded groups would sit down in front of the fence and cop lines to Gandhi their way through the protest, and finally a Red Area of protest where protesters labelled by SalAMI and the mainstream medias as "terrorists" ( such as the Black Bloc and other groups) would go ahead and confront the cops, attempt to tear down the fence and go right through the lines and into the peremeter.

The agreement was done among the protest groups and the plan was sent to RCMP and the medias, to make sure they understood the plan of action.

The ACC also made a pact with the city of Quebec to have an area that would be out of the cops' delegation for these three days. This area would be a place for protesters to go and rest for a bit, enjoy food provided by the organization known as "Food Not Bombs", get medical care from volunteer medics should they need it, enjoy live music... The place was baptized "L'ilot Fleurie" (translated roughly as the the island with flowers), and would belitterally our home for 3 days...

L'ilot fleurie was placed right on the borders of the low city and the high city, under a bridge where it would not disturb too many of Quebec's citizens...

A little while before the big day was to come, before the Summit, SalAMI called all the high profile protest groups (excluding the secretive Black Bloc of course... ) to the convergence table of protesters, and initiated a vote to kick out the ACC off the Table because the ACC was ready to march with the Black Bloc and other radical protesters...

Unity among protesters was even scarcer after such an event, when unity was most needed...

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