From Sabotage Media
Today, April 20th, was the start of the Salon de l’emploi du Plan Nord at the Palais des congrès [the main conference center in Montreal] as two demos were called to disrupt the unfolding of this government propaganda operation where notably the prime minister Charest was to put on his little show promoting his industrial megaproject of destruction (forestry, mining, dams, infrastructure, etc.) of northern so called Quebec, one of few places on Earth where there still remains wild untouched areas.
A demo called by the CLASSE (the main student coalition in the ongoing Quebec student strike) gathering over 1000 people headed toward the Palais des congrès. With the repressive apparatus already deployed, around noon a group was able to enter the first floor through an inside parking lot and tried to get to the second floor where the Fair was taking place. The cops pushed some people down the stairs. A scuffle with the cops and some vandalism followed as the prime gangster Charest was to do his clown thing. The cops finally pushed people back out. Later, after being set back by the events, Charest gave his speech with an introduction now making its rounds in the media; “To all those who were knocking on our door this morning, we have jobs to offer the furthest north possible.” The veil of political hypocrisy is thinning, not because of the already obvious joke that is democracy, but because we can now see clearly what the “North” represents in the mind of the spokesperson of the rapacious; a place far away, which they feel disconnected from, that they don’t give a shit about who live there or whatever goes on there as long as their bank accounts keep growing. Why not construct gulags while were at it.
Meanwhile another demo called by many groups on anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, environmentalist and eco-anarchist basis gathered a few hundred people and left square Phillips stopping at various places implicated in the pillage of the north, like the Hydro-Québec offices where Innu women were also gathered to recall the colonialist assault by the State and its institutions against their communities. Many texts were distributed like this one (in french).
When news came that shit had started at the Palais des congrès, part of the the demo broke off to bring reinforcements. Over there, as people were gathered in front of one of the entries, a youth who was close to the doors got shot with gas at point-blank and shortly after this people attacked the doors throwing paint bombs and busting its windows. A riot squad came to disperse the crowd and the street battles started. For the rest of the day mobile groups attacked in waves and stirred shit around the Palais des congrès and financial district of Montreal, raising barricades with anything around, pelting the cops with rocks, making them back up many times, the cops shooting rubber bullets and constantly throwing their new flashbang grenades. The official assessment from the cops is 17 arrests and six injured, four of those being cops, but we strongly suspect the number of people injured to be much higher being the level of armament and brutal force used by the pigs from the beginning of the day. The Fair was finally canceled in the afternoon but no one was allowed to enter already from noon on. The disruption was a success.
There was graffiti, attacks on CCTV cameras, a dozen cop cars and media, and many places had their windows busted, notably the Montreal World Trade Center which was attacked on three sides, banks and some luxury hotels. As windows were shattered the crowd applauded and sometimes cheered “C’est pas des pacifistes qui vont changer l’histoire! On pitche des pavés pis on brûle des chars!” [Its not pacifists who will change history! We throw pavement and we burn cars! – transl. Lyrics from a song by local band Mise en Demeure]. The fighting spirit was clear.
The experience of crowds unleashing uncontrollably in the streets in front of such a brutal enemy as the State, Capital and their mercenaries, that moment where we take back our lives, where we free ourselves from morality, fear and the identities imposed on us, cant be stopped around a table of negotiations, isn’t the start of nor will die with a movement: It is to be alive, free and wild!
It has been almost 40 years since the slogan No Future became the standard bearer of a generation, now its of the whole planet. The world they impose on us is decaying, it wasn’t made to last, and while they are accumulating whats left, during this last big liquidation sale, their last big pillage, while they are pushing and fucking us up against the wall, as they want us paralyzed in the trauma of this ongoing generalized rape, even after centuries of denaturation imposed through force around the globe: We still know how to bite back!
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