For immediate release – August 23, 2010
TORONTO/MONTREAL – This Monday, August 23, close to 300 individuals, including approximately 100 from Quebec, will be making their first court appearances since the mass arrests and detention of more than 1000 protesters (and bystanders) during the G20 in Toronto in June.
The Anti-Capitalist Convergence of Montreal (CLAC) joins with allies in Toronto and beyond in mobilizing to support all arrested protesters. We continue to demand that all criminal charges related to the G20 be dropped. We also call for the immediate release of those G20 prisoners who remain in custody, including some who have been detained for close to two months. We offer our tangible support and solidarity to all who were arrested and face charges, as well as their friends and family.
The real crime scene in Toronto was the Convention Center, where the G20 leaders, ministers, and bureaucrats -- in complicity with major corporations – gathered to continue their transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, while agreeing to deepen violent “austerity” measures. The decisions of the G20 leaders have had, and will continue to have, devastating consequences in our communities and for the planet.
We look ahead to the inspiring mobilizations being organized against the G20 to take place in Seoul, South Korea this November to continue the resistance against capitalism.
We came to Toronto in June to oppose the G8/G20’s agenda of unabashed military and economic aggression. We came from diverse local struggles that mutually support each other. We are allies of indigenous sovereignty and migrant justice struggles; we are queers, feminists, youth, students, workers, environmentalists, immigrants, anti-racists and anti-sexists; we organize against police brutality, poverty, cutbacks, privatization and precarity, and for housing rights and environmental justice. We are active in international solidarity, from Colombia to Palestine to Mexico and beyond, and against all borders. We are united in our opposition to a fundamentally unjust capitalist economic system. It is our day-to-day organizing in our communities that motivates our opposition to the G20 and related institutions and gatherings.
The G20 hid behind a $1 billion dollar-plus security operation in the streets of Toronto. That unprecedented expense is also reflected in the charges now faced by hundreds of protesters in courtrooms. Those charges, including serious “conspiracy” charges against many protesters (including dozens from Montreal), are nothing more than an escalated attempt to criminalize dissent and organizing. In response, we know that it is not about who is guilty or innocent, but rather how we struggle and fight together for justice.
[NOTE to all media: CLAC spokespersons will be available for comment and interviews, in both Toronto and Montreal.]
courriel: blocampmontreal @ gmail.com