March 22, 2001
Countdown to the Summit of the Americas: Protest the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) + Anti-summit activists will pay minister a visit + Weaving a Web of Solidarity - A feminist action against globalisation + FTAA Environment Ministers Protest in Montreal + Re-percussions of the FTAA + A great way to get around the mainstream media ban on truth + Quebec Solidarity - Wear a scarf April 2 + #1 most censored story: corporatizing water worldwide + International Day for Forests and Against Free Trade + Anarchists Claim Responsibility for Seattle Earthquake
Hello everyone
Make no mistake: the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) to be rubberstamped in Quebec City by 34 "heads" of states is in fact a repeat of the failed attempt to impose on the entire world the infamous Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI) that was derailed in Seattle. Over 60,000 demonstrators are expected to come in Quebec City where they will face a small army of 5,000 policemen in full riot gears and a formidable, almost impregnable barrier erected around the posh hotels and Congress center to "protect" the leaders and their bureaucratic cohort from being inconvenienced by those protesting the corporate globalization and wholesale destruction of the planet. Total cost of this police operation: $70 millions for the Canadian taxpayers.
There is much to be said about all this and I intend to revisit this issue before, during and after the summit as this is a major challenge and important round in the battle to prevent the world from further slipping into what could be called "extremist capitalism" and the domination of the world by corporate interests.
Thanks for passing this on to others
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
P.S. To review the Special Media Compilation about the LFAS and the toxic contamination of the world which I also emailed tonight to my media list, please go at http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/MediaCompilation1.htm
From: "Nadia Alexan" <nadialex@total.net>
Subject: Protest the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001
Dear fellow activists,
The following info is a good idea worth pursuing. It is very time-consuming but really worthwhile. You would be surprised at how little our elected representatives know! Good luck.
Nadia
From: owner-coc-chaps-l@list.web.net
Sent: Monday, March 12,
Subject: MP Office Action
PROTEST THE FTAA
World leaders will gather in Quebec City in April to rubberstamp a new trade agreement. This NAFTA like agreement was cooked up by corporations and the puppet politicians they dangle on the end of strings. It will adversely affect the lives of millions of people in the Western Hemisphere. The agreement disregards human rights. It is undemocratic and will reduce governments' ability to act on behalf of the people and the environment. A strong message must be sent to Canadian MPs from Canadians that the FTAA is unacceptable.
The Canadian government is working hard to shut out protest. Protesters in Quebec City will be met by the Canadian army and a concrete and barbed wire fence. Anyone who was in Windsor last June saw this disgusting display of force. This is what a police state looks like. The media will do its best to distort the proceedings by focusing on violence and not the issues.
WHAT TO DO?
For people not going to Quebec City, WAG (WINDSORites AGAINST corporate GLOBALIZATION) is organizing a nationwide protest against the FTAA. We want your help to send a message to every politician in their home riding. We are looking for individuals or groups to organize an action in coordination with others across the country to make sure every member of Parliament understands that Canadians are opposed to the FTAA.
This invitation to join is being distributed through civil societies, grassroots organizations and student and labour groups. To initiate or join an action happening in your riding contact WAG at FTACTION@mnsi.net WAG's intention is to send a clear message to Canadian MPs that FTAA is unacceptable and must be rejected.
JOIN US IN SENDING THE MESSAGE
Douglas Hayes
Windsor area Council of Canadians
From: http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Montreal Gazette - Monday 19 March 2001
Anti-summit activists will pay minister a visit
Anti-free-trade activists say they have lost patience after a year of trying to meet Pierre Pettigrew, federal minister of international trade. So they're going calling on him at his Ottawa office. His visitors will be from Peaceful Convergence Q-2001, an umbrella group of about 30 religious, environmental and women's groups, student associations and unions. 'Citizens' Search' The group announced yesterday it plans a peaceful blockade of Pettigrew's office and intends to make a non-violent "citizens' search" for documents about the forthcoming Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.
The group gave Pettigrew an ultimatum last March to publish all documents on the summit. They also wanted to meet him. Pettigrew, citing the planned involvement of Convergence Q-2001 activists in civil-disobedience actions, refused. Tomorrow the deadline of the ultimatum expires and the government hasn't published any documents.
Philippe Duhamel, president of SalAMI, an anti-free-trade group, said they will try to hand in a petition calling for publication of the documents and a group "of people specially trained in non-violent methods of civil disobedience" will try to get into the building for the symbolic search. "Only a handful of people have seen these documents, not even the MPs who are supposed vote on them," said Regine Laurent, a representative of the Quebec Federation of Nurses. However, the documents have been sent to several powerful business groups in the United States, she said.
CLIP
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001
From: Carol Brouillet <cbrouillet@igc.org>
Subject: Question
Jean, Thank-you for your work and the long detailed message about the website. I just noticed that you live in Quebec, and as I am in the heart of organizing against the FTAA, and people are mobilizing to prevent this monstrous trade agreement which would give unprecedented powers to corporations, I just wondered, are you involved at all? Are you aware of Starhawk and her work in this area? And this?
Weaving a Web of Solidarity
A feminist action against globalisation
Summit of the Americas on the FTAA Quebec City, April 2001
On the weekend of April 20-22, leaders of thirty four countries will come to Quebec to tie a new strand in the web of corporate globalisation: the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), the regional accord that will expand NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) throughout the hemisphere.
If they ignore our voices and continue their deliberations, the cries of women will haunt them and undo all their plans. Though they erect a fence to stop us, we will twine our web through its mesh to be the visible symbol of the power of women, of the revolution we weave. When they try to wall us out of their meetings, they will only wall themselves in. We claim all of the world beyond their wall.
We ask our brothers to support us, to honor our women's space so that we who have so often been invisible can stand forth and be seen. We ask you to support us by looking honestly at the ways that, even within our own movements, women are ignored, suppressed, or discounted. And when you support us in this action, where we stand together as women, it will spark actions where we fight side by side. For we know that you too, are weavers of this web.
We ask the ancestors to stand with us. For the web of life links the living and the dead. We ask the generations of the future to stand with us, for we fight for the world you will inherit. We ask the spirits of the earth to support us and be our ground, for we fight for the continuance of life. We are invincible, for life itself weaves with us.
AN INVITATION TO THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD TO
Form an affinity group
An affinity group is a group of 10-20 people with whom you have "affinity", that is, a common bond (family, friends, common issue, work colleagues, etc.), that meets regularly to discuss common issues and to act. Choose one or two members to represent your group at the Council of representatives. The Council of representatives will "meet" in virtual space until the week before the Summit of the Americas, at which point meetings will take place in Quebec. The Council of representatives meetings will be the forum to decide on strategy for the action. Keep your eye on the CMAQ (Quebec Centre for Independent Media) website (www.cmaq.net) for a Women's web of solidarity action link. Initiate (or continue), in your affinity group, a dialogue on the impacts of globalisation on women in your home area.
Women around the world bear the brunt of globalisation - our voices together will allow us to add to the feminist analysis of globalisation, and to strengthen our cause. Weave your part of the web of solidarity- Take what comes out of your dialogue on women and globalisation, and, as a group, weave a section of the web of solidarity to represent your consensus. Use your imagination- use yarn, materials, photos, newspaper clippings. The sky is the limit.
Add your section of the web to the web of solidarity in Quebec City in April 2001
Here are some suggestions on the many ways to join your section of the web to the larger web of solidarity:
* Come as an affinity group to Quebec City in April 2001, to participate in the collective weaving of the web of solidarity.
A fence is being erected around the buildings where the Summit is being held in order to keep protesters out residents inside the perimeter are required to have identity cards in order to gain access to their own homes during the Summit. This fence symbolises, for us, the anti-democratic process of the FTAA we want to reclaim that fence, that space. Those wanting to weave (literally or symbolically and non-violently) their parts of the web into the fence are invited to do so on the 19th of April (the day preceding the opening of the meeting). Affinity groups not wanting to approach the fence are invited to plan other kinds of actions using the web parts (blocking an intersection to catch Summit negotiators in the web, or decorating a park with parts of the web, etc.). Creativity and imagination are key! The sky is the limit!
* Send your section of the web to the address below and the women present in Quebec will ensure that your section is woven into the larger web.
* Send a photograph of your section of the web to the address below, and the women present in Quebec will enlarge it and add it to the larger web.
* Get together with other affinity groups in your area and weave your sections together closer to your home.
Québec contact information:
E-mail address: toile_femme@moncourrier.com
Mailing address: Toile femme Québec 2001,
C.P. 70021, Québec,
Québec (Canada) G1R 6B1
Let me know if you are going to be involved!
Sincerely,
Carol Brouillet
http://www.communitycurrency.org
Subject: FTAA Environment Ministers Protest in Montreal
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001
From: "Leslie Dickout" <leslie-d@comnet.ca>
Re-percussions of the FTAA
On March 29th, the 34 Ministers of the Environment of the Americas will meet in Montreal. This is an official meeting scheduled within the Free Trade Area Of The Americas (FTAA) process.
Let's show them and the world... The Re-PERCUSSIONS of the FTAA! Let us meet in Montreal on March 29th in front of Hotel Omni - corner of
Peel and Sherbrooke for a PEACEFUL PROTEST.
- We'll drum our discontent on the water jugs we have to buy because our fresh water lakes are so polluted! They will hear our voices on water privatization.
- Empty barrels decorated with words such as MMT, PCB's, toxic chemicals, etc.... will loudly illustrate the infamous problems associated in NAFTA.
- Bang empty pots and pans to show our concern for food issues like GMO's and world hunger.
- Tam-tams will thunder for aboriginal land rights and the destruction of cultures.
- Group circle of silence to lament habitat destruction, the degradation of biodiversity, the decimation of forests throughout the Americas, and the animal and plant species threatened with extinction
- Be creative! Music. Art. Theater. Lets captivate the attention of the media and the public. Be heard: bring music, song, and chants. Be seen: come costumed as plants and creatures of the forests, genetically modified corn and tomatoes, etc. Send your creative action ideas to bsarwe@po-box.mcgill.ca, to help evolve our demonstration and ensure that the public be made aware and concerned about the state of affairs with the environment.
As well, we intend to publicly request that the Ministers, on this occasion, attend a one hour information session on the FTAA and the environment, graciously offered by us.
Send your requests for issues to be highlighted, to bsarwe@po-box.mcgill.ca, and we will demand that these requests be entered on the Ministers' agendas. We will show them what the real issues are! THE PLANET IS DYING AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY IS THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION!!!
Let our music be a cymbal of our resistance to the FTAA -- And a declaration that we will not rest until this poisonous agreement is dead and gong!
This call for nonviolent action is being sent to you by Operation SalAMI, S.O.S. Ga=EFa, and the Table of Convergence in opposition to the Summit of the Americas. Numerous ecological groups as well as militant percussion groups have already answered the call.
This is a public assembly! 12:00 noon sharp! March 29th in front of Hotel Omni - corner of Peel and Sherbrooke.
For more info: (514) 524-8088 salami@colba.net; (514) 932-8715 bsarwe@po-box.mcgill.ca Leslie Dickout Sierra Club of Canada National Office 412-1 Nicholas St. Ottawa, Ontario K1R 5R3 voice: 613-241-4611 fax: 613-241-2292 email: leslie-d@comnet.ca
From: "Judith Iam" <judeiam@cwnet.com>
Subject: A great way to get around the mainstream media ban on truth
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001
jean ~
I recieved the items below and think you might find most, if not all, widely relevant.
In ceaseless connection with you and all our soul family,
judith iam
***
I just discovered this fantastic web site, and I wanted to let you all know about it.
It's called "A-Infos Radio Project," at http://www.radio4all.net, and contains radio programs from all around the world on many progressive topics. I don't know about you, but I often miss programs like TUC Radio, Alternative Radio, WINGS, This Way Out, etc. because of their program schedule on local stations. Well, you can find at least some of their programming on line, plus many others that we don't get locally, such as Renewing The Anarchist Tradition, ResistenzRadio from Germany (Switzerland?); Thin Air from community radio stations across the Rocky Mountains, Labor Express, Earth First! Radio, The Weekly Freak Show, Radio Active Productions, People's Tribune Radio, Unwelcome Guests, and numerous others.
You can listen online, or you can download the entire show for personal use or to re-broadcast it through local community radio channels. And you can upload programming to share on the website! What a great way to get around the mainstream media ban on truth talk! This is a tremendous resource for global liberty and social justice.
Hope you will check it out and enjoy it!
Lawrence
Check out also the Field Guide to the FTAA protest at
http://www.tao.ca/~cobp/guess-what.html
THIS ACTION BELOW COULD BE DONE WORLDWIDE, BECAUSE THE "PROBLEM" IS!
From: "Julian Ichim" <JICHIM@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: FTTA Quebec Solidarity - Wear a scarf April 2
Stand up to creeping police state tactics in Canada!
A Simple Plan for Solidarity and Action to:
* Support the Citizens of Ste-Foy and Quebec City and
* To signal to the Federal Government which is CO-ordination the "New Iron Curtain" and police state measures in Quebec City to protect the corporate driven Summit of the Americas Meeting on the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Greetings All!
What is the situation?
By now you have heard that the City Councils of Sainte-Foy and Quebec City have passed by-laws prohibiting the wearing of scarves to cover a part or a whole of the face, not only during the demonstrations planned in Quebec City for the Summit of the Americas to promote the Free Trade Area of the Americas, BUT ALSO IN THE WEEKS LEADING UP TO THE EVENT!
People are subject to fines and/or a jail sentence.
The intent is to:
* Make it easy for the security forces to spray tear gas directly into the face, mouth and nose.
* Make it easy for the security forces to photograph people who attend in Quebec City so that they can be entered into the security files of the rapidly expanding security system supposedly focused on "terrorism."
* Build a climate of fear and inhibition in citizens to stop people from expressing their constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and petition the government.
Several weeks ago, several students were arrested and taken to jail, temporarily, in Quebec City for distributing pamphlets on a public sidewalk without a permit!
We all also know that during the Summit of the Americas, the 'authorities' are closing off a 3 square kilometer area of the inner old city of Quebec with 2 to 3 meter high chain link fences set in concrete highway dividers. This is to keep the heads of state and the 'corporate' contingent safe from the assembly and petition of citizens. All those living inside the "New Iron Curtain" must have police passes to come and go to their own homes or businesses!
The erosion of civil liberties piling up in Quebec City is driven by the Federal Government, the same Federal Government which signaled to the RCMP to pepper spray students in British Columbia several years ago to prevent 'embarrassment to the criminal and genocidal leader of Indonesia, President Sukharno, now 'retired.'
Do we stand for democracy and constitutional rights or for the creep-in of corporate driven, neo-liberal authoritarianism which now has too many governments in a puppet posture?
* What is the action?
The Ottawa Chapter of the Council of Canadians formed an action group Wednesday night to develop a democratic, non-violent and overwhelming response to this erosion of democracy. The concept of the action is based on one of the most successful civil, non-violent direct actions in modern history. In Denmark, during the NAZI occupation, the order was sent to round up Jews on a given date for 'transport.' They were ordered to wear a yellow star of David.
The whole Danish people in Copenhagen and elswhere, including the King, donned yellow stars and appeared in public thus stopping the NAZI action. The NAZIS dared not deport a whole nation!
We can do something similar.
The Action is "A Scarf Wearing Call-out on April 2
The call is for those who can to hold vigils and marches before Federal Government buildings ACROSS CANADA starting early in the morning on April 2 and continue all day. WEAR A SCARF AROUND THE FACE! Mount placards and pamphlets of your own making! Call the media! Call your municipal, provincial and federal representatives and protest the erosion of democracy. Stand in solidarity with the citizens of Quebec City and Ste-Foy who will be otherwise left to the decisions of the security forces!
Hold similar vigils and marches before your municipal and provincial houses!
Go to work wearing a scarf around the face. Tell your colleagues to come with a scarf on the bus, in the car, and going home also. Tell the story of how democracy is being hollowed out by our corporate serving government.
Students, bring out your scarves on April 2! Wear them at every opportunity!
All people, everywhere, wear scarves on April 2!
Members of Municipal Councils, Provincial Legislators and Members of Parliament, those of you who stand for the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution and the spirit of democracy, hold noon-hour vigils in front of your legislative chambers, join the forces of Democracy!
* Why April 2?
Because a cross country effort will amplify, immensely, a big action in Ottawa which opposes secrecy and the creep-in of anti-democratic government practices, like scarf bans, in support of the corporate agenda.
There will be a demonstration in front of the Lester B Pearson Building in Ottawa starting the morning of April 2 to demand the release of the secret government position on the FTAA. This building houses the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) which is currently in charge of hosting the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. DFAIT'S policy is to negotiate, in secret, the issues of the Free Trade of the Americas which will effect every man, woman and child in Canada and the Hemisphere.
For months, the forces for democracy and social justice have been calling upon the corporate serving Federal Government to reveal their secret position in the Free Trade of the Americas negotiations in Quebec City.
This is the same Government which lied for several years about being in negotiations on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, denying the existence of such a scheme which was to be extended to over 25 countries. This was an agreement which would have given corporations supremacy over the people by allowing corporations to sue foreign governments in a secret private tribunal and force the countries' citizens to pay the damages. The Government was forced to confess when a 'whistle blower' sent the text of the MAI to democratic forces who then mounted a successful offensive against this step into corporate tyranny.
This power to sue in secret already exists over Canadians because of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Canada has already been successfully sued and we citizens are paying the award to Ethyl Corporation in the USA.
The Free Trade Agreement seeks to extend NAFTA and the MAI concept to the entire Western Hemisphere!
The Federal Govt. told parliament about one week ago that neither the parliament nor the people had the right to know the Government position on health care, education and a host of other services. Superseding the rights of Parliament and the Citizens was the 'Governments loyalty to 33 other Western Hemisphere governments to negotiate in secret.'
If you support this democratic, non-violent 'Scarf wearing call-out,' please pass this message on to everyone who might be interested.
Express solidarity with the citizens of Quebec City and Ste-Foy!
Express rejection of secret negotiations which will further subordinate Canada to authoritarian corporate rule!
Thanks for reading and thinking about this message.
Armand Cote
Ottawa Chapter The Council of Canadians
MORE ON THIS!
From: Michel Lambert [mailto:mlambert@alternatives.ca]
Sent: Thursday, March 08,
Subject: SCARF BY-LAW STE-FOY QUEBEC: A VICTORY! SCARF CALL-OUT STILL ON!
NEWS FLASH!
THE STE-FOY CITY COUNCIL HAS BACKED DOWN BEFORE A CANADA WIDE STORM OF PROTEST AND THE REPRESENTATION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES REPRESENTATIONS! The 'wearing the scarf is now a symbol of victory! Those who are developing 'scarf call-out' actions for April 2 can now adopt the
scarf as a victory symbol over unconstitutional police state actions. The corporate compliant Federal Government and other governments intent upon imposing an undemocratic corporate agenda in Canada has met with another check by democratic forces and voices. Let us make the scarf the symbol of victory over these authoritarian forces both on April 2 and in Quebec City during the Summit of the Americas meeting which is planning the ultimate corporate regime for the Western Hemisphere!
Ottawa Chapter
The Council of Canadians
HERE IS POSSIBLY ONE OF THE SECRET ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED DURING THIS SUMMIT
From: Mayr Hans <jeannot.mayr@saia-burgess.com>
Subject: FW: Our Sacred water is leaving, the blood of Mother Earth
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001
From paula h [paha8@hotmail.com]
I recieved this today and once again realized the work we are doing on a Global level is so very important with World Peace and Prayer Day and how everything is possible to make a last effort of change, miracle style, as this is now our only avenue. My Grandmother said to me 40 years ago in her Native tongue, "Everything is for sale, water will be too some day!", I laughed yet pondering on the thought, as we pumped it in abundance for years at that point. Paula:
IMPORTANT:
#1 most censored story: corporatizing water worldwide
3/5/01, via Zorba 2wo
Our New Resource Crisis
By Peter Phillips
Imagine, that we are beyond the energy crisis - in that we are used to paying double or triple prices for what in the previous century was a small part of the family budget. But now we are faced with a new shortage that taps another precious resource. Water only comes through the tap fours hours a day and we are forced to pay ten to hundred times what we paid in the 90s. Welcome to the world of privatized water, where fresh water is treated like a commodity, traded and sold in the international market to the highest bidder.
No longer can you assume a God-given right to drink from a mountain spring, but instead you will have to pay a toll to drink from Enron Springs, Monsanto Wells or receive tap water from Bechtel Water Works. Global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people already lack access to fresh drinking water. If current trends persist, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to rise by 56 percent more than the amount of water that is currently available.
Multinational corporations recognize these trends and are trying to monopolize water supplies around the world. Monsanto, Bechtel, Enron and other global multinationals are seeking control of world water systems and supplies.
The World Bank recently adopted a policy of water privatization and full-cost water pricing. This policy is causing great distress in many Third World countries, which fear that their citizens will not be able to afford for-profit water.
Last year in a little known case of high scale international water marketing, a supertanker was reported to have filled up with water from Lake Erie and after paying the Canadian Government they shipped the water to Southeast Asia.
--
More details:
Special Report 6/99, The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of the World's Water Supply by Maude Barlow
In These Times, Water Fallout: Bolivians Battle Globalization 5/15/00 by Jim Shultz
http://www.inthesetimes.com
Canadian Dimension, 2/2000, Monsanto's Billion-Dollar Water Monopoly Plans
http://www.purefood.org/Monsanto/waterfish.cfm
San Francisco Bay Guardian, 5/31/00, Trouble on Tap, by Daniel Zoll http://www.sfbg.com/News/34/35/bech2.html
Taken from the World Rainforest Movement Bulletin #44 published by Teresa Perez <teresap@wrm.org.uy> last Mon, 19 Mar 2001. More articles at http://www.wrm.org.uy
- International Day for Forests and Against Free Trade
The so called "free trade" is in reality but the granting of unlimited power to transnational companies to govern the world to the detriment of the vast majority of humanity and nature. Forests worldwide are menaced by the process of liberalization of the economy which tends to weaken yet more the already feeble public controls on logging.
Within such context, Native Forest Network (NFN) International --a global network of forest protection organizations and representatives committed to protecting the world's remaining forest ecosystems, as well as indigenous forest communities-- is calling for an International Day for Forests and Against Free Trade, to take place on April 19th in the Northern Hemisphere and April 20th in the Southern Hemisphere. The event will coincide with the activities that will be undertaken in Quebec City, Canada, against the Summit of the Americas on those same days. This Summit will gather to work for the implementation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, an expansion of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment), strongly resisted by social and environmental organizations. Those interesting in learning more about the organization of this global protest are invited to contact the organizers at the following addresses:
Northern Hemisphere
e-mail: nfnena@sover.net
http:// www.nativeforest.org
Southern Hemisphere
e.mail: aburling@nfn.org.au
http:// www.nativeforest.org
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001
From: Mark Graffis <an403@detroit.freenet.org>
Subject: Anarchists Claim Responsibility for Seattle Earthquake
March 2, 2001
Contact: Green Fire <greenfire@xmail.com>
After three nights of continuous violence by the Seattle police department during Seattle's Mardi Gras celebrations, something had to be done. A black and green clad circle of anarchist Witches calling themselves "Green Fire" decided to strike back. "It's been like this ever since the WTO. Any time people get together, the police break out the riot gear.", said an anonymous Green Fire member.
An earthquake was suggested and quickly agreed upon and then the impromptu consensus debate began. First it was the ethics of magic and non-violence. The view that "we are just the manifestation of the 3-fold law" prevailed over those predicting dire returns on the magic. The 3-fold law states that anyone who performs a negative action gets it back 3-fold.
Then the question became what and how big. Suggestions that "we blow Mt. Rainier while we're at it" were rejected as too violent, as were calls to level Paul Allen's new $500,000,000 stadium. In the end, the anarchists decided to stick with tradition and break all the windows in Seattle.
"To help raise energy", our anonymous source continued, "we centered the earthquake in the Nisqually area where the Weyerhaeuser Corporation is building a golf course on ancient burial ground sacred to the Nisqually tribe. Those First Nations spirits are powerful."
"The quake had to be big enough to look good, but deep enough so that people didn't get hurt", our source added. "And, of course, the `message' people had to have their fun. Indeed, fearful that the anti-corporate message would be lost in all the window breaking, the `message' witches directed parts of the quake specifically at corporate targets. T.V. viewers around the world have seen the damage done to the Starbuck's world headquarters.
Boeing, leader of the military-industrial complex, was shaken and was denied all electricity. In what is hoped to be divinatory karma, Boeing, without any power left to it, was forced to cease all operations and go home.
Finally, Microsoft's Bill Gates was also a target. The earthquake was timed to go off just as Mr. Gates approached a podium to give a speech. When the quake started, he was reportedly jumped and knocked over by his own security people "trying to protect him". The symbolism here is mixed.
The institutions of government were not spared by the anarchists. Washington Governor Gary Locke, whose budget proposal cuts funding for low income services, is now experiencing life as a homeless person himself. The governor's mansion has been closed for safety reasons in the wake of the quake.
In what was perhaps its most symbolic act, the earthquake cracked open the Capital Dome in Olympia, allowing light to shine into that den of backroom deals and late night "negotiating sessions".
Seattle Mayor Paul Schell reacted swiftly to the earthquake. In consultation with governor Locke, he has declared a state of emergency. A 50 square block area of downtown Seattle has been declared a "No Earthquake Zone" and police have orders to use tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets on any earthquaketrying to enter the area. The earthquake's closure of the King County Courthouse, however, promises to hinder any attempts at enforcement.
"Seattle has always been a open city, but we will no longer tolerate rogue natural elements coming to our town just to cause trouble", the mayor was quoted as saying.
"Gaia can really kick major corporate butt when She puts her mind to it" was the response from one Green Fire organizer who is hoping for another "shaker" action at the upcoming FTAA meeting this April in Quebec.
"If I can not dance, I want no part in your revolution." - Emma Goldman