jbs, 19.08.2007

Today, with politicians and corporate leaders hiding behind police and 10-foot steel fences, and the rest of us excluded on the outside or forced into useless protest pens -- Montebello is Fortress North America.

WHY WE ARE PROTESTING!
Montebello, Quebec (August 19-21, 2007) -- George Bush, Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are meeting behind steel fences and thousands of police at the Chateau Montebello, as part of the so-called "Security and Prosperity Partnership".

They talk about "security" and "prosperity", but their agenda really means insecurity and misery for working and oppressed peoples in the Americas.

In brief, the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP) combines the destructive neo-liberal policies of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the fear and paranoia of post 9-11 "Homeland Security" policies. The SPP is firmly rooted within a colonial and capitalist framework.

There is no mystery to the SPP agenda: murderous wars and occupations abroad; border militarization; increased detentions and deportations; attacks on indigenous peoples, the poor, migrants, and working people; ecological destruction; mega-projects in the service of corporate greed; and much more and worse.

The SPP is described by its proponents as a "NAFTA 2.0", and is promoted and supported by corporations and their lobby groups, like the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. These corporate executives will actually be meeting privately with the summit leaders at the Chateau.

The SPP reinforces the idea of "Fortress North America", whereby the rich and privileged live in gated communities and gentrified cities, protected by police and security, with easy movement for corporations; for the rest, there's border walls, reservations, detention centers, prisons, surveillance, and increased precarity.

Today, with politicians and corporate leaders hiding behind police and 10-foot steel fences, and the rest of us excluded on the outside or forced into useless protest pens -- Montebello is Fortress North America.

WE WILL NOT BE CAGED!
When the Bush/Harper/Calderon meeting begins, a network of direct action, anti-capitalist, social justice activists from Ontario and Quebec, within the framework of the People's Global Action (PGA) Network, will try to disrupt the summit.

We are not going to lobby the SPP leaders or governments to be nicer. We are not interested in negotiating the terms of our own misery, or to be bought off by crumbs. Justice and dignity is achieved through grassroots mobilizing, struggle and direct action, not the charity of corporations, rock-stars, politicians and NGOs complicit in a destructive system. Bush, Harper and Calderon deserve to be confronted directly.

Our protests are rooted in our ongoing mobilizing efforts and day-to-day organizing: for indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, for immigrant justice and free movement, against deportations and detentions, against war and imperialism, for workers justice, against poverty, for ecological and environmental justice, for the liberation of all political prisoners, in solidarity with social justice movements worldwide.

On January 1, 1994, the day that NAFTA took effect, the Zapatistas began an uprising in southern Mexico, declaring NAFTA a "death sentence" on indigenous peoples. With the SPP, the politicians, bureaucrats and corporations of North America have renewed their death sentence on all of us. The inspiration of the Zapatistas still resonates, 13 years later, as we make links between our struggles and issues, and unify to confront the SPP at Montebello, and beyond. This is just another beginning ...

e-mail:: info [at] psp-spp.com
Homepage:: http://www.psp-spp.com