April 20, 2001
Stay tuned for more coverage.
A compilation of breaking stories, photos, video, and audio from the Independent Media Center Network on Friday, April 20, 2001 covering the Summit of the Americas, or FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas).
http://www.indymedia.org/ftaa
Summary of Today's Breaking News: Estimates of at least 20,000 people were in the streets of Quebec today, 1/3 of what is expected this weekend. As of this afternoon, EST, the security wall put up to deter protesters from interfering with the Summit discussions had been torn down. 30 arrests have been confirmed in Quebec, more at the border and police brutality in the streets of Sao Paolo with 62 arrests and several activists hospitalized.
WHAT IS THE IMC NEWS BLAST?
Once again, the Independent Media Centers (IMCs) are reporting live from the streets -- capturing and distributing some of the most exciting and historical media ever produced. Follow along as grassroots media-makers document and distribute across the Web live and near-live coverage of the FTAA protests in Quebec City and solidarity protests across the Americas.
At least 12 out of 60 Independent Media Centers worldwide (listed at www.indymedia.org/ftaa) are posting raw and up-to-the-minute coverage of FTAA-related events throughout the April 20-22 weekend. We will be synthesizing the best of this content for you in a series of regular news blasts.
FOCUS ON FTAA
Thousands of demonstrators have already filled the streets of Quebec, and even more are expected this weekend in what has become an outpouring of opposition to international trade negotiations in which only the interests and privileges of capital are represented or seriously considered, while the most basic rights and interests of citizens, consumers, workers and the environment are relentlessly recast as "trade barriers."
As anti-globalization protests continue to grow around the world, the use of police state enforcement tactics has also stepped up, increasingly denying the basic democratic rights of those who speak out.
Rather than thwarting the grassroots movement against corporate globalization, militant police repression has resulted in more widespread and defiant demonstrations.
With hundreds of media activists in Quebec City and hundreds more around the world, the IMC coverage is immediate and authentic. There is sophisticated background information to bring you up to speed along with live coverage that is otherwise lost or ignored. This is media democracy in its most vibrant and truest form, with a refreshing and captivating range of perspectives you won1t find anywhere else.
But the power and success of the IMC Network is not just about the individual expression of our grassroots perspectives. The IMC Network is also on the forefront of the media convergence that others merely write about. The uploading and downloading of photos, audio and video content by thousands of media activists is creating a new form of revolution. From Chiapas to Brasil to Israel to Quebec City, the IMC's put you in the middle of the dialogue.
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Quote of the Day:
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."
Howard Zinn, "Failure to Quit", p. 45:
