Statement From the Organizers of the Anti-Capitalist March Outside the 20/20 Conference
by Action Now!
• Wednesday November 19, 2003 at 04:50 PM
This should clear up some confusion about where we stand, why we do what we do and why the pigs hate us.
We had planned on spreading our message more efficiently during the conference but the police obviously mannaged to temporarily destablize us. Their actions upon our very tame march only reconfirms our conviction that the table of dialogue should be used as a barracade if we are to ever effect any real change. We will post a downloadable pamphlit to Vic Indymedia A.S.A.P. (They think that just because were poor they can get away with stomping our heads, breaking our fingers, unloading cans of pepper spray into our eyes at point blank range arresting of us and letting us out without any charges with complete impunity. But our desire for freedom is more powerful than their brutality and they will not shut us up.)
....in the mean time our statement that was on the leaflet calling for action should clarify our position:
"No Room For Dialogue With The Master Class!"
-Some of the participants of this conference truely wish to see an end to poverty and members of the capitalist class are participating and sponsoring this event to try and convince ordinary Victorians that they really care weather we live or die, but are well aware that all they care about is there own profit.
-We believe that any community discussions that challenge yuppification of downtown, police brutality, lack of housing, etc... need to exclude the people that benefit from these things (CEO's, Landlords, Bosses, Pigs, etc...) and realize that we be goin' toe to toe with all these bastards when the shit hits the fan.
-The longer they distract us from realizing that there IS a conflict between capitalist profit and people living in poverty the longer they can secure their prfit flow (ie. the deepening of our suffering and death.)
-So we dont want to attack the well meaning participants of the conference but to use direct action to expose the conflict between rich and poor and counter the myth of ethical capitalism that the owning class and their lackeys will be trying to propagate during these two days."
After hearing some reports from the conference it seems we have been a little soft in our stance. The following quote suddenly comes to mind:
"...if your willing to continue licking the boot of the oppressor, be my guest, but stay out of my way."
-a revolutionary fighter in the Spanish Civil War
Feature story and related articles at Victoria Indymedia
November 17: A Step Forward for the Victoria Police Department
Victoria homeless need housing. Police pepper-spray street people.
Victoria Police make up excuses for attack on protest
“We Don’t Want Free Bread, We Want Freedom”
A report on the Nov.17 action at the Victoria 20/20 conference - prevented by a police attack on the march before it arrived at the conference centre.
an indepth analysis of the Nov 17 march against the Victoria 20/20 conference and the neccessity for aggressive anti-capitalist action in the fight against poverty.
by Victoria Storm
On November 17th, 2003.
Coincidentally the anniversary of the more famous Nov.17 1973. There was an uprising against the US fascist puppet government by the whole population of Greece. Students occupied almost every school in the country. Police invaded the schools and slaughtered many students. This cause a second wave of popular uprising against the police, and the formation of the Nov.17th urban guerrilla group. Now it is illegal for police to enter onto school grounds in Greece. Also, currently in Greece there are 7 anarchist and peasants who are held in prison for false and trumped up ‘terrorist’ charges at the anti-European Union Summit protests in Thesonilike in June of 2003. The five anarchists are surpassing their 45th day of hunger strike. The other two are peasant teenagers who were on hunger strike but are not anymore, yet are still in custody. Even if the hunger strikers stop now they will have permanent damage. But they are going to die or be released from prison. Their struggle has been ignored, as expected by corporate media, but more disgustingly by alternate and anti-globalization groups.
In Victoria, the struggle against capitalism carries on in a less extreme, yet significant, way. Nov. 17 is a year after the opening of the Memorial Arena Squat and police attack on Victoria residents at Alan Lowe’s electoral office.
Last year, on November 16th— Victoria civic elections day— a squat was opened at the Memorial Arena (now demolished). Police initially left the scene, but returned in full brutal force attacking squatters and bystanders, pepper spraying and assaulting people on the street who were supporting the squat but had not entered the building. And arresting five people who had been in the building. One arrestee was released in the day, but the others were held until the 17th. The evening of the 16th, a group of about 30 people, including squat supporters and supporters of Ben Issette’s mayoral campaign, went to visit newly re-elected mayor Alan Lowe at his election office party. While the group waited politely for Lowe to get off the phone to express their displeasure at the arrests and detainment of the squatters, the police entered the building and arbitrarily arrested one of the group members and then attacked and arrested another five people in the parking lot, one for the second time that day.
Using the charge of “breach of the peace” which is not a charge at all but a legal way police can literally kidnap – or detain- anyone at anytime without a charge and hold you indefinitely without the right to talk to a lawyer, or make any kind of phone call or contact to the outside world…The police held the people arrested at Lowe’s office for a number of hours and released them without any charges, making it virtually impossible to contest the illegalities of the arrests, or ‘detainments.’
This year, the police carried on with this increasingly prevalent pattern of attacking dissidents, in particular poor people rising up against the innate injustices of a capitalist society. Not only is it amoral for police to stop or inhibit political dissent, it is malevolent of them to attack, beat and imprison dissenters in the grossly excessive manner they exhibited Nov. 17th, 2003.
“Every anti-poverty group, or ‘friend of the poor’ association at this conference should , in the very least, express its indignance at the police attack on this march to every government official, corporate head and police agent possible. If anti-poverty groups and assistance agencies want to make real change for poor people in this society, they will very seriously heed the message imbedded in the action of the marchers-- a grassroots organization and effort to improve the conditions of our lives. Anything less exemplifies the corporate cow-towing and cowardice that we wanted to disrupt in the first place.” one of the arrestees
This year, on Nov. 17th, a group of about 20 anti-capitalists, anarchists, youth, homeless people, older activists, parents living in poverty… gathered to take action at the Victoria 20/20 conference held at the conference centre in downtown Victoria. The conference was set to discuss the future economic and social problems of Victoria, from the perspective of yuppies and business owners… with a list of guest speakers and sponsors that included Victoria Police Chief Paul Battershill, George Heller, the CEO of Hudson’s Bay, Royal Bank, Scotia Bank, CFAX, Selkirk Waterfront Community, (yuppie development in Vic West near Galloping Goose Trail) and Hosted by City of Victoria, and Downtown Community Alliance.
Saturday, the 17th was the day social groups, agencies, neighbourhood associations and NGO’s were meeting for sessions of round table discussion with the corporate interests spearheading the conference.
The anti-poverty group felt strongly that the so called ‘community’ groups (or poverty pimp organizations as they are popularly called by the poor people who actually use their services), did not represent the interests of the poor and were constantly selling out and knuckling under to corporate pressure. Allowing corporations, and their government lackeys, to erode more and more of the hard won liberties and services poor people have fought for. Also, the representatives of these groups do not actually live in poverty, therefore, they have no real understanding of what its like to be poor in BC these days, even if they may have come from poor backgrounds. Any real poor person there was allowing him/herself to be tokenized by a process that is inherently exclusive of meaningful dialogue.
This situation -increasing hardship at the hands of corporate big business- is especially applicable to Victoria. A city that is becoming more gentrified everyday, with poor people being run out of town, brutalized by police, left homeless by skyrocketing rents, and alienated from the polished tourist image of Victoria. Victoria is becoming an increasingly difficult city to live in for poor people because certain elements of Victoria’s governance, and influential businesses, are actively making it difficult for poor people to live in here. Police harassment and brutality against poor and homeless people is notorious. And an anti-poor atmosphere is constantly cultivated by local media and businesses. Poor bashing is the norm, while polluting, annoying, culturally stifling, and rich tourists are encouraged without question.
For the poor people who actually live in Victoria, downtown is a dangerous and hostile area, where police harassment occurs on a daily basis. Downtown is dominated by stores that cater to tourists, useless to locals unless you want to buy plastic totem pole key chain, or a t-shirt with a beaver waving a Canadian flag. And also, by cars and over eager by-law enforcers that make any organic, spontaneous, and low cost or free cultural events in Victoria impossible.
This ‘Victoria 20/20’ Conference is just another venue for corporate interests to give lip service to the problems they cause in poor people’s lives. And come out smelling like roses as they tote out their charts of ‘local input’ and ‘community workshops.’ Meanwhile, as any real long-term grassroots community activist will tell you, the municipality and business interests will carry on with whatever plans they had in the first place (ask Fernwood residents what they thought of the Fernwood Facilities Neighbourhood Strategic Plan and the community input process the City called a ‘charrette’ but residents called a ‘charade’ right from the start). In the Victoria 20/20 conference ‘community groups’ participating in this process (regardless of the 150 ‘free’ tickets) are only enabling this exploitative process by participating in the charade. While making it more difficult for poor people to actually have our real issues heard, and dealt with.
As long as business and corporate interests actually have more power, both economically and legally, there can never be a fair ‘negotiation’ with poor people. As long as this power imbalance exists, the poor will always be at the mercy of rich business owners’ charity. This dynamic allows the wealthy to control and subjugate the poor, with the constant threat of revoking whatever consolations have been doled out, and if starving people into submission doesn’t work, the application of brutal force by the police will be utilized.
By participating in this process, ‘community groups’ (or groups who claim to represent ‘communities’ but are actually arms of the government bureaucracy) assist in the continuation of this power imbalance, and thus are party to the suffering, misery and death of poor people. Community groups, and individuals will only have real empowerment when the power imbalance between rich and poor is eradicated. When it is no longer acceptable for people to horde riches beyond what they could possibly use in their entire lifetime, and when it is no longer acceptable for people to be harassed and beaten and imprisoned for simply having less money than someone else.
A glaring and precise example of the outright charade of the conference was the police attack on the anti-poverty group on Nov. 17. The group had organized a meal and coffee, in the anarchist spirit of mutual aid, and planned on attending the conference, and presenting their case against poverty pimping, gentrification and oppression of the poor. The group met at the Whale Wall, one of the only places poor people can hang out in downtown Victoria, ate, and planned on going to the conference centre with their banners and leaflets.
A number of people in the group were prepared to be disruptive to the conference: including some who have been community organizers for years, working with neighbourhood organizations, community associations, and other grassroots activities…and others who have lived in poverty their whole lives and have struggled in their own individual and family lives outside of ‘organized groups.’ This conference was nothing but a glossy coat painting over deep seated and endemic problems in a capitalist society. And growing worse by the day with the evolution of capitalism into corporate globalization. This conference is much like a coat of paint a slum lord glops over rotting walls that are permeated through with black mould. If, at least, you could see the mould, you would know why your kids are getting asthma and allergies. The coat of paint only makes the mould grow worse, and you can’t even see it to fix the problem.
The group left the park at around noon. And had only planned to march to the conference centre and unfurl their banner and hand out leaflets. The group of about 20 marched up Yates street, some on the road, others on the sidewalk. Where they encountered a police van jacking up some homeless kids, at the corner of Yates and Douglas: a familiar site in Victoria’s plans to harass all poor and homeless people out of town using the police as their weapon of choice. The police van must have radioed to other police in the area, because within moments Douglas street was swarming with police cars and vans. The barrage of police vehicles attempted to push the march onto the side walk in a particularly aggressive manner. In response to the unprovoked police aggression, marchers swore and made curseing gestures at the police, who were making their own obscene and aggressive comments. One police van penned the march in in-front of the Eaton/Bay Centre and a group of people went inside as the police brutally arrested some marchers outside.
One man was tackled to ground by four police, and jumped on by cops while he was on the ground. His ‘crime’ that merited this intensive assault was giving the cops ‘the finger.’ And otherwise standing on the side walk quietly. The marchers tried not to jostle or get in the way of the crowded bus stop, but it was difficult considering to police were swarming all over pushing, pulling and knocking people to the ground.
The group that had gone into the Eaton centre came out on Fort Street and the remaining marchers tried to re-group, but the police had already attacked and brutalized the people exiting the Eaton centre. They pepper sprayed ten people, four of whom were not arrested, and tackled to the ground and punched, wrestled and stomped on the people they arrested, about ten in total. Even arresting a passer-by who approached a police car to enquire about what was going on. The arrestees were thrown into paddy wagons and left to sit in confined airless chamber, their faces and clothes dripping with pepper spray –unable to breathe, choking on their own mucous pouring out of their sinuses from the burning and the pain…
One man was arrested, the police told him, for taking pictures he would then use to try and make the police look bad. He was arrested even though he was twenty feet away from the scrum. The police destroyed his film while he was in custody.
Another was arrested standing on the side walk across the street from the police, tackled to the ground, and cuffed behind his back as bystanders protested, “He didn’t do anything.”
The police were belligerent and rude and threatening in the police station: trying to interrogate arrestees while they were being processed, making threats that if they didn’t talk now, the police would ‘get the information out of them later’; forcing one person to ‘apologize’ to the police and threatening him that they would pepper spray him if he didn’t; refusing to allow the French arrestees to access an interpreter. And in fact saying that in Victoria there isn’t even a French cop or interpreter, and if arrestees had a problem they could file a complaint once released.
After shouting for a long period through the food hatch in her door, that she wanted to call her lawyer, one arrestee was informed that with the breach of the peace charge, a person is not ‘arrested’ or charged with anything, and thus is not legally entitled to see a lawyer, but can be detained indefinitely by the police.
One cop made a special visit to one of the prisoners and made a threatening speech. When he returned to the desk area, another arrestee witnessed him kicking furniture and swearing about ‘the damn cameras.’
The police also took everyone’s picture, when questioned why this was the procedure, considering there was no charge. The police said that they take pictures of all ‘protesters’ in Victoria, and if, say, at a protest in the future, some ‘illegal’ action took place, the police would scan their video of the event, and see if any faces matched those in their photo album, and then they could arrest, or detain, or question that person, who “may not have been apart of the ‘violent’ action, but might know something about it.” One arrestee, trying to find out her rights in the situation was harassed by one cop, one of his snarling comments was, “Nobody else has a problem with it, all of the professional protesters just went along with it.” One cop spoke frankly. When she asked to see her lawyer about the legalities of the pictures, and it being stored by police in their files, was told that if she refused to let them take her picture she could stay in jail for ‘all eternity’ without seeing a lawyer, or contacting anyone outside the prison. Or they would charge her with obstruction of a peace officer and finger print her, take her ‘mug’ shot, and hold her on a criminal charge, for which she would have to go to court. But this criminal charge would be the only way she could call a lawyer.
Three of the arrestees were injured, one has a back injury and sprained arm, one a bloody nose, and another a broken finger.
Later the marchers heard of a bank robbery earlier that day and suspected that that was the reason there were so many cops downtown at time. Reports from CBC radio confirm the bank robbery at noon on the 17th. And that the police said the reason there were so many cops was the bank robbery. The report says police claim they were so aggressive because protesters were interfering with their investigation of the robbery. Not coincidently the incidents of bank robberies has increased dramatically since the Liberals have been in government.
The Proof Is In The Pudding:
This police attack is yet another confirmation that when poor people take matters of eradicating poverty and hardship in our own lives, police quickly swoop in to snuff out the ‘rabble rousers.’ And it is an indictment of community groups and poverty agencies in perpetuating poverty by participating in these ‘negotiation’ charades with rich elites and corporate interests. While they are sitting in comfy hundred dollar a ticket seats, people living in poverty, and organizing against it outside government bureaucratic forums, are being brutalized on the streets three blocks away from the conference centre.
Why do the Victoria police have so many excess resources, that in the middle of a downtown bank robbery, they feel at liberty to attack a small group of people marching, taking up one lane of traffic, and mostly marching on the side walk? Why does Victoria tolerate a police force that fills up its prison, and uses up precious tax dollars to brutalize and imprison 15 people for ‘swearing’ at the police and ‘jay walking.’ And why does Victoria tolerate this constant and routine harassment of people living in poverty resisting the mechanisms that perpetuate poverty? I don’t think these questions would have been entertained at the Victoria 20/20 conference.
The participants in the conference need to wake up pretty quick, because the dominating powers of Victoria do not want poor people in this city. And once all the poor people have been run out of town, all the poverty agencies will be out of jobs too. And community groups need to wake up, because Victoria does not want a vibrant and healthy city, it wants a dead zone where shoppers can drive unhindered through the streets of musak buskers and souvenir ‘trading posts’.
Sitting at the table of our oppressor is no solution. Begging for table scraps will only bring a continuing alienation and disempowerment for poor people. We need to have the capacity to control our lives, to meet our own needs as individuals and communities. We need land to grow our food, to house ourselves, to build up our resources and strengthen our communities. If the ‘community’ groups at the 20/20 conference are really interested in empowering poor people and communities, they will not only walk away from the table, they will overturn it on their way our the door.
** The author recognizes that there are many more extreme cases of police brutality, including beatings and murder by police, she recognizes that all forms of police brutality are unacceptable and should be challenged. The examples stated here are not intended to diminish more serious cases, but to exemplify that the police, as an organization, are inherently violent, abusive, and without any accountability to the public.
Feature story and related articles at Victoria Indymedia