I've been organizing for the G20 protests for a while now. I am by no means a central organizer. But I was involved with planning logistics, feeding protesters, and opening/running the convergence space. This gave me some semblance of institutional memory.
The week started off like a week of protests/actions in which people marched 'non-violently', expressing their discontent with the G20's mandates. I was only able to attend the Indigenous Sovereignty march on Thursday and I have to say, it was lovely. I was otherwise often at the convergence center or dealing with a (maybe) sick cat, knowing that the weekend would demand my full attention.
I was slated to feed breakfast to the tent city in Allen Gardens on Saturday morning. Therefore, Friday I was at the convergence center making hummus and doing general logistics stuff. I was to meet a friend coming up from the US Social Forum ("G") at the tent city on Friday night so just decided to wait, meet another friend to join me at tent city, and head over to Allen Gardens. In the meantime, I hosted the bike squad from Montreal as they prepared for their amazing bike bloc. They arrived earlier in the day on Friday, so my day was full of organizing organizers.
Friday night, after the tent city, G and I headed back to my house where I hung out with my visitors and figured out a way to get everyone access to a comfy place to sleep. They were meeting for a bit at my place so they didn't get to bed until a bit after 1 am, so I was up for a while which was no fun given that I had to wake at 5:30 am to prepare and serve the tent city breakfast. My wonderful friends volunteered to help serve and coordinate. G was amazing with all his support, given we had a coffee debacle and we were driving around the city amidst the first reports of my friends and co-organizers having warrants out for their detention.
The tent city event was great and No One Is Illegal prepared for a press conference. Given the intimidation that many organizers had faced, the mood was tense and there was visible fear on the faces of those who were eventually rounded up (http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/community-organizers-thrown-unmarked-police-vans-en-route-press-conference-targeted-arrests/38).
Strangely, when I woke up that morning, I said to G that I had a weird feeling about the day. I had no idea how right my gut was. The very nice man who drove us to the tent city was passing a kidney stone and after we fed folks, we rushed him back to the convergence center as he was in unbelievable pain. After that, we had to make our way back to my house in order to meet up with my house guests. One, from Toronto, asked if I was able to take charge of the TCMN van as the transportation person had been arrested in the preemptive raids. I agreed, saw my guests off, and was picked up by one of the other drivers in order to hand out placards to the Saturday march against the G20 entitled 'People First. We Deserve Better!'. I was admittedly disappointed that I could not participate in the march as it was quite large and very joyous.
In possession of the TCMN van, I then headed back to my place, picked up G, and headed over to the convergence space to see how I could be of assistance. Knowing that I had to co-facilitate the information session that evening, I was trying my best to stay abreast of the goings-on on the street. I watched the news and about an hour into the march, that's when things turned 'ugly'. The first thing I saw was someone break a Scotiabank window, then Starbucks, then Nike. I was a bit irritated as I thought this was pure theater and such a cliche. This, of course, will invite criticism by some, but I had no idea what was to come.
Many know what came next - police cars burned, businesses trashed. At the end of it all - by about 9 pm or so - there were 15 arrests (!). People gathered at the convergence center for the information session. We were trying to make sense of what happened. Why were the police so 'tight' during the week but absent during the 'rioting'? Why was the fence virtually unguarded? Why were those police cars just sitting there, empty in the middle of the street? During the whole thing, my friend H, who was a street medic, was reporting what was going on and he continuously remarked that the police were not arresting folks though they had every chance to. What the fuck was going on?
The information session was alright. We were still trying to make sense of what was happening. The reclaim the streets party was cancelled and we were trying to figure out how to act next. H was worried about the next day. Given his experiences in Seattle, he was pretty sure a crackdown was in the works. He was so right.
Saturday night was a bit scary as there were police at my house for a bit (I was not there). I advised the bike squad to clear out not knowing what risks there were. Civil liberties were clearly out the window and any and all repression and detention seemed entirely possible. We had meetings and organized throughout the night. Having had no sleep, I finally arrived back at my place around 1 am, fully prepared to be raided at any time.
I luckily got about 6 hours of sleep and returned to the convergence space early in the morning to prepare for a day of responses. I awoke to the news that the jail solidarity street party had been repressed and 30 were arrested. There was another jail solidarity rally in the works for Sunday and a lot of organizing around getting the accessibility van to its designated space and getting food to the jail solidarity rally.
Again, I was disappointed that I could not participate in any street actions as I was needed logistically. I waited for possible accessibility needs and then headed back to the center where G and helped R (amazing, amazing R) with food. R took her delicious wraps to the jail solidarity when I got word that the rally was met with tear gas and rubber bullets. The food was abandoned and G and I headed to the rally to possibly pick people up who were trying to get out of dodge. We coordinated with some folks and were headed back to the convergence space when we got word that it, along with the media co-op, were being raided. This turned out to be untrue and we got back to the center once again trying to understand what the fuck was going on.
There were reports from the streets that people were randomly searched if they 'fit' the profile of activist, particularly if they were wearing black. There was a press conference nearby the convergence space and when it ended and folks were headed back to the space, there was an increasing police presence and the searches grew more random. A graffiti artist was stopped near the convergence center and was found to have a 'gas mask' in her bag. At that point, the police could fully justify searching everyone around the space. They surrounded it, took everyone's name including several people who just happened to be passing by, had the place on lockdown for a couple of hours (footage available here http://vimeo.com/12928760), and began arresting folks.
Hearing of the lockdown and possible raid of the convergence center, a group of marchers were headed over to center for solidarity and were surrounded by police, creating yet another 'stand-off' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heb9BXjYcII). Tear gas and rubber bullets flew once again and more random arrests were made. After the police left the convergence space and the standoff was still happening in the streets with soaking wet protesters facing off with the police, we scrambled to figure out our response. G had to catch his bus back to Detroit and I eventually made my way down to the detention center where the responses of solidarity were strong and inspiring.
Knowing that I would need some rest, I went home, slept for a few hours, and on Monday morning, made my way down to the detention center where I franticly organized folks as they were getting out who exhausted, hungry, and increasingly traumatized. I was at the center for 13 hours and H and P provided amazing support. I was sad to hear that I missed a 5000 person strong jail solidarity rally with Naomi Klein among them (http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DrkQK9uP8ok0%26feature%3Drelated&h=66b2euXYPY5nOSrerzpuOHP23Uw). I then helped a gal find her friends at the courthouse, drove some food back to the convergence center, and met my friend Reana for a quick meal and home to get some much needed sleep.
Yesterday was a bit more of the same, though without the same complete overriding sense of urgency. The reports of police abuses and lies continue to trickle out and I am now trying make sense of this week. It's too bad I can't be around for the debrief as I believe it's really important.
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