The Union Farmer Quarterly/Spring 2001

One farmer's experience in Quebec City
- by Allan Slater

I have just returned from the People's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. Here in southern Ontario we are getting on the land. As I make the rounds with tractor and cultivator, my mind is still processing my experiences there. Here are some of my thoughts. The people of that beautiful and historic old City of Quebec treated us with warmth and gracious hospitality, even as they endured considerable disruption to their daily lives.

On Tuesday and Wednesday over 100 people, many from Via Campesina, met to discuss the problems created for small farmers by trade agreements like the FTAA. In French, English, Spanish and Portuguese, we learned that the same transnational corporations who are promoting these trade deals are oppressing small farmers all over North and South America. We agreed that we need trade, but it has to be trade that actually strengthens communities, meets people's needs and protects the environment.

During the next couple of days we listened as people from the other forums presented their findings. Governments from all of the countries of the Americas should have heard and heeded. But none of them were listening. The rich and powerful who were meeting behind the wall have lost their freedom. They are so locked into a materialist world view that they could never imagine better ways of organizing societies.

Each night I went to the wall which divided us from our leaders and their rich friends who had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to join them.The helicopters churned overhead and increasingly the sounds of war filled my ears. I would block out the din as best I could to reflect calmly upon the state of our country.

By Saturday afternoon it was clear to many of us that the only significant protest was being waged by the young people against 6000 heavily armed police. So our group of five went up to the wall to support their protest. As we got near, cannisters spewing tear gas rolled at our feet and we backed off. A group of young protestors came to our aid. The cool drops of water they applied to our eyes gave relief. They thanked us for our support, then they moved back up towards the wall again to suffer more painful gas. It was in that moment that my eyes filled with my own tears. I realized that a new generation had taken responsibility for our country and that I was very proud of them.

Later we visited the camp of the young protestors, a space under some overpasses, down the hill from the wall. I can only describe it as the "new peoples' army" - a cooperative of men and women, playing their music, resting, feeding themselves, treating their wounds, and going back to face more gas and rubber bullets. Of course the police eventually gassed the camp too. The protest was less violent than the day-by-day violence people face at the hands of our governments, as we heard again and again from farmers and others from many countries.

The young protestors have put our political leaders on notice. I am willing to follow them because they give me hope.