[R-G] In the face of adversity, we must be strong: A message of solidarity to Haligonian comrades

[aaron doncaster]

* In the face of adversity, we must be strong: A message of solidarity to
Haligonian comrades*

It was April 18th, 2001, I just flew in to either Montreal or Toronto,I
cannot fully remember,
but I do remember the excitement I felt.I was headed to Quebec City for my
first significant
political protest;I even quite my job in Banff, Alberta and flew from
Calgary. I suppose I
could of flown the whole way but my preferred mode of travel is hitchiking
and the 2 reason I
did not hitchik From Alberta is because of time constraints and because I do
not like hitckiking
through northern Ontario that early in the spring without the proper
clothing.


That night, like most nights that I find myself in a North American cities
with little money and no bed to
sleep in, I slept in a bank machine vestibule. If I had to make a Guess, I
would say I have probably slept
in 50 bank machine vestibules across North America. I have a vague
recollection of it being a CIBC
vestibule near the cross streets guy/sherbrook in Montreal that I slept in
that night. I found myself
some cardboard to sleep on and went to sleep, anxionsly awaiting my
hitchhiking trip to Quebec City the
next morning.


The reason I believe it was montreal that I flew into is because when
hitchiking from Toronto, once I get to
Montreal, I usually take the metro over to Longueui and then take a bus to
the 20.Thursday morning I got
up and did what no hitchiker should ever do when heading from montreal to
quebec city;I headed for the 40.
Any experienced hitchiker who has done the Montreal/Quebec City route will
tell you that getting to the 20,
hitchiking to Levi, grabbing a city bus to the ferry and taking it across to
Qubec City, is a much easier option.
Maybe if you are in Motreal-est or futher east it may be more convinient to
get on the 40 but unless you
enjoy sightseeing at industrial parks or you live in that area, there really
is no reason for a hitchiker to be in
that area of montreal.


I got a ride from a gentleman in his mid 40's who was driving a wine Jetta.
He was comming from Ottawa and
drove me the whole way. We got to quebec city around 6 ish in the evening
and neither of us really new what to
expect, we just knew that we had to be there. He found a cheap hotel room
that had 2 beds and offered the
second bed to me.Once I got my pack in the room, I went for a walk.One of
the things we noticed on our way in
that made us feel we were in a place prerpareing far war, was the huge
barrier separating the old part of town from
the new part. I wanted to futher explore this ominous barrier of apartied
porportions.


As I walked along this barrier, I was amazed by what I saw. Juxtaposed
within the forboding aspect of the wall
were signs of art, resisance and beauty. I saw anti- imperialist grafitti,
teddy bears and eve womens underwear
in and on the barrier. I eventually found myself at a gathering of people
underneath a series of overpasses, one of
which appeared to go straight into a rock cliff. Was this the entrance to
Batman's bat cave, I wondered. Does
Batman live under old Quebec?? Appearently their were pans for a tunnel that
never panned out. As we gathered
under the overpasses, I was amazed by what I saw and heard. As people danced
and spun fire around a large
bonfire, others started to use rocks, signs and guardrails to make music.
the percusion rhythms along with the
rhythm of the fire spinners and dancers synergized the atmosphere to create
a truely orgasmic experience


At that moment, I felt like I was part of something historic,somthing
tribal, something surreal. I felt part of a
tribal community that was one organism: one organism that encompassed the
whole experieance, not
just us humans gathered there.I knew that this experience would be etched in
my memory until the day
I died and I also new what I experienced that night was something more than
beautiful, it was liberatory!!


Police response to those first marches we had the next day were the
beginning of an escalation of
police violence and provacation that would see over 400, including myself,
arrested and see many union
leaders sell out their membership, kids and few unionists that went up the
hill on what I believe was
the sunday. I was aressted on the saturday and only heard stories of the
union leaders who told there mebers to
march straight as students were chanting democracy is to the left, in
reference to the left turn many youth and steel
workers along with some CUPW and a smalll spattering of other older unionist
took to get to the fence.
Rank and file unionists should never forget this shameful sell out by the
union leaders. It is an experience tha
should never again be repeated in the Canadian labor movement.


Sure, I along with 400 other were aressted and the thugish arm of the
Canadian state used rubber bullets
and chemical weapons in an attempt to silence our dessent, but I did not see
it as a defeat. Regardless of the
fact that the FTAA never did go through, at the time, I saw my arrest and
abuse at the hands of the quebec police, as
nothing more then an occupational hazard for someone on a quest to replicate
on a maco scale, the liberation
he felt on the thurday night


Many of you reading this, no doubt have had experiences similar to mine,
where you have had a qualitative break
with normality,the status quo and capitalist oppression, even it is was just
for a fleeting moment. Some of you
may even have been there amonst the tribal gathering on that beautiful
thursday evening.


Even though I felt a feeling of liberation that goaded me to action, let me
say that I am not goaded to action
by feeling alone. One must realise that the conditons of capitalism, where
many
experience being oppresed,exloited and abused are not conditions conducive
to sustainability and
liberation. It has been scietifically proven that human exchanges and
interactions occur in a
more harmonious and less confrontational way when one is not stressed and I
don't know about you,
but capitalism stresses the fuck out of me!!!!


I know for a fact that I did not have any stress at the tribal gathering
where I danced and clanged my
rock to the rhythms of the whole experience. I also know that it was on that
thursday that I decided
that come harrasment or intimitation, come abuse or even death, come hell or
high water, I was going
to fight with every ounce of my being for liberation from
capitalism,exploitation and oppression.


As you take to the streets of Halifax this weekend to confront the tyranny
of militarism,
imperialism and capitalism, don't forget what it is you are fighting for.
Just like those of us who recieved
messages of solidarity from fidel, from the people of the basque country and
the zapatistas, to name
but a few, while in orsanvile prison as a result of our protests on the
streets of Qeubec city, you too
have the solidarity of peoples around the world. You are not fighting
alone!!! From the greek anarchists
to the enviromentalists gearing up for Copenhagan, from the students
fighting tuition hikes in california to
the people of Hondorus fighting to overthrow the coup government. From the
indigionous across turtle
island fighting for mother earth to those resisting  Nato's occupation of
Afghanistan,the fact is, we
are everywhere and we are exposing and expanding the cracks in the hegomonic
iron fist of the elites
who try and keep us in a life of slavery and missery.


In ending, I want to leave you with a few lines of a song I wrote a few
years ago.
"in the face of adversity we must stay strong,
 If we work together, we can get along,
 It is time for us all to sing a new song,
 Onward to revolution!!!!!!
 Onwards to revolution!!!!!!!"
                     there in spirit, Aaron Doncaster