sn on Thu, 26 Apr 2001 07:54:13 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> ultra red dispatch |
FOR IMMEDIATE DISPATCH: Ultra-red members return from the anti-FTAA Solidarity Action in Tijuana, Mexico. By Saturday morning, images of the Quebec City protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations were already filling the news. On Friday, April 20, close to 25,000 activists had filled the streets of Quebec to register their opposition to a plan for expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement to the entire hemisphere. US President Select George Bush appeared on CNN arguing that the success of NAFTA brought to all the Americas would secure the hemisphere for freedom and democracy. It was the height of hypocrisy. This from a many who wasn't even elected but appointed to office. The contradiction only furthered the contempt of protesters disgusted by the scale of the Summit of the Americas negotiating the FTAA without any involvement from Civil society. In fact it is safe to say, given Bush's status as an appointed President, NO elected official from the US has seen the actual FTAA proposal. For the many activists from California who wanted to demonstrate their opposition to the FTAA, there was no better site to do so than the border between the US and Mexico. Lined with maquiladora factories with their documented history of labor and environmental abuses, the border at Tijuana is a concrete example of just how badly NAFTA has failed in bringing democracy and equality to the region. If this is the model Bush and his allies hope to bring to all the Americas, then it's crucial for everyone to know the truth about what NAFTA means to the people and environment of these so-called Free Trade zones. So it was that activists from both Californias, Mexican and US, came to the border on Saturday, April 21 to protest NAFTA, protest the FTAA and protest the military's Operation Gatekeeper. In stark contrast to the tear-gas filled skies of Quebec City, the San Diego/Tijuana area woke up Saturday morning to high winds and downpouring rain. However, by the time activistst began assembling at Larsen Field Park, just blocks from the border, the rain started clearing out and a nice breeze dried the field where the protest was to convene. When the first speaker took the stage the sky was blue and the rain had pretty much passed. The rally attracted close to one-thousand activists from Tijuana, Mexicali, Ensenada, Chula Vista, Imperial Valley, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. It was a diverse mix of students, trade unionists, anarachists, chicano activists, Mexican activists and the usual suspects among the leftie sectarian groups. The speakers spoke passionately in opposition to the FTAA and how such Free Trade Agreements have had a devastating effect on the border region in terms of human rights, the environment and worker rights. Several speakers came from labor struggles happening right now on both sides of the international border. A high point of the rally was Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange on the cell phone with her partner Kevin Dannaher who gave an on-the-scene report from Quebec. At around 3:30 a large contingent of the rally formed a procession and marched a mile southeast from the park to the San Ysidro border crossing. This procession numbered anywhere from five to six hundred - one of the largest assemblies to march on the border in recent history. US Police - many in riot gear - on horseback and foot followed the march, keeping especially close to the Blak Bloc (in usual symbiosis, the Blak Bloc chanted, "Fuck the state, fuck the police" much of the route). All these events were caught on DAT and video by yours truly in Ultra-red. The original plan for the organizers was for the group to travel west instead to Border Fields State Park on the US side directly up against the border fence. But due to the rain, that park was blocked off and unaccessible. So the organizers changed the program issuing an invitation for activists to march through the San Ysidro gate peacefully. As the procession reached the San Ysidro border crossing, the organization of the event began to break down. Marchers had been advised by the organizers to act responsibly since many in the crowd had issues with immigration and could not risk being arrested by INS or Border Patrol officers. Yet as we approached the gate itself, the march came to a stop as there was no one there from Security to walk protesters through the border crossing process. Immediately, Mexican Border Patrol on the other side established a security check. As activists passed through the gate, flyers, stickers, posters, signs, banners and all literature were seized and destroyed. No one on the US side made any formal announcements to the crowd what was happening on the Mexican side. And no one from Security approached the Mexican Police to negotiate the passage. The Mexican Police had no legal grounds for detaining people or for seizing property. But without legal or security negotiators, individual activists were on their own. As Ultra-red passed through the gate, our audio-recordist was immediately confronted by a Mexican Border Police Officer. The Officer grabbed the activist's microphone and turned it off. The officer pulled all the flyers and literature out of the activist's pockets and destroyed them. The officer then the Ultra-red member's still camera and proceeded to take the DAT recorder out of his bag. This is when things got tense. The officer demanded that the activist surrender his DAT tape. When the activist objected, three or four other Officers appeared. The first officer fumbled with the DAT recorder attempting to retrieve the tape on his own. When it looked like things might get worse, the Ultra-red member offered to remove the tape himself. After doing so, the officer took the tape and destroyed it. When asked what the function of the tape was, the audio-activist said it was just to record sounds. It had no propaganda purpose (the reason border officers confiscated protesters' literature). It didn't matter. While the film in his camera and other people's video tape was ignored, the Ultra-red activist lost his audio recording. Other members of Ultra-red had to surrender literature while one female member had to remove and give up a t-shirt from the Union de Vecinos (a grass roots organization of East Los Angeles public housing residents). Even though another male Ultra-red activist was wearing the same t-shirt and was waved through the check-point without confrontation. Meanwhile, back on the US side, frustrated with the lack of movement and feeling trapped between US police and the border gate, the Blak Bloc contingent began rattling the fence between the sidewalk and the freeway leading through the automobile border gate. When it appeared that the Blak Bloc might succeed in pulling down the fence (Where did they hope to go? To the freeway?), police moved in and ordered the group to disperse. Overwhelmed by hundreds of activists, the Mexican Border Police closed the entrance to any and all who appeared to be among the protests. In the end, it is reported that as many as 300 protesters were refused entrance into Mexico, dividing them from the over one hundred who succeeded to pass through. For those protesters who made it to the otherside, the scene was full of confusion. After passing through the check-point gauntlet, activists were forced by Mexican Border police to leave the area rather than wait to see that everyone passed through safely. Consequently, large numbers of US activists found themselves on the Mexico side with no directions or instructions on where to go or how to get there. The Mexican activists who had participated in the rally were either trapped on the other side or had come across by car and were nowhere near where the marchers ended up. Thanks to a few resourceful protesters, it was determined which bus we needed to take to get to the Tijuana beach (Las Playas) where the group was to converge with a rally organized by Tijuana-based activists. After negotiating with bus drivers, the one-hundred to one-hundred fifty marchers made their way to Las Playas right up against the border fence where a sound-truck was set up for speakers and entertainment. The crowd was a fairly even mix of local and US opponents of the border and the FTAA. Eventually members of Ultra-red were reunited (after having been separated when the group passed through the gate). The four audio-activists remained at Las Playas, video-taping the fence and audio-recording portions of the speaches. With Mexican police, helicopters and, from the other side, US Border Patrol officers looking on, the crowd attempted no overt political demonstration but rather assembled quietly for the speakers and musical groups. By 6:00 PM, the members of Ultra-red left the site and headed back to downtown Tijuana for dinner before heading back across the border. In stark contrast from the crossing into Mexico, passing through the US border check-point occured without incident. In the end, Ultra-red accumulated hours of video-tape and virtual no audio recordings. The group will attempt to salvage some of the audio from the video cameras. Also, we made arrangements with another audio activist from Oakland who promised to send us a copy of his mini-disc recording of the day's events (sadly, in mono). While the protest as a whole was extremely spirited and it was thrilling to see such a large turn-out for a cross-border action, many were dismayed by the poor organization - particularly around the actual border crossing. We can only hope that this experience will force organizers of future actions to agressively strategize and plan for what is central to our issue with globalization: the difference in treatment between the border crossing of people and ideas versus capital and commodities. Finally, we hope that the many activists who came to the border for the first time in the context of protest will return again. We hope that all those human rights and labor organizations that endorsed the weekend's action, will commit themselves to serious investment in long-term strategies around cross-border organizing. Everything that we oppose from the FTAA is real today along the border. Civil rights and human rights abuses, labor abuses, the exploitation and assassination of women, destruction of the environment and extreme stratification of the social classes, these are everyday realities thanks to NAFTA and Operation Gatekeeper (the INS militarized policy for regulating human traffic across the border). California activists searching for targets for their rage, need only to look to the border. While we may be inspired by images of protesters in Quebec City tearing down the "wall of shame" around the Summit of the Americas, a real wall to be dismantled is that shameful wall between the two Californias. For it is here, that we have the world's most militarized border crossing, where hundreds have lost their lives and tens of thousands more carry with in their nightmares. Here is the face of coporate/military globalization. Ultra-red [Note: the second part of this dispatch, from Ultra-red's Northeast Front, is forthcoming.] For more information on the FTAA and the movements organized to democratize the global economy, check out the following websites: http://www.actionla.org/border/ http://www.stopftaa.com/ http://www.tao.ca/%7Eclac/ http://www.vermontactionnetwork.org/ http://www.alternatives-action.org/salami/ http://quebec.indymedia.org/ http://www.indymedia.org/ftaa/ ***************************************** This dispatch is eighth in the Ultra-red series, "Value System." Founded in 1994, Ultra-red are audio activists producing radio broadcasts, street actions, performances and installations. The group's work radicalizes the conventions of electro-acoustic and ambient music to explore acoustic space as enunciative of social relations. Ultra-red have released CDs and albums on Comatonse Recordings (Oakland, California), Mille Plateaux (Frankfurt, Germany), True Classical (Los Angeles) and Beta Bodega (Miami). # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net