Twenty Five years ago this week people from Grand Rapids participated in the anti-Free Trade Area of the Americas protest in Canada

Just days after the anti-IMF/World Bank protest in downtown Grand Rapids, some 15 local activists traveled to Quebec City, Canada, to participate in the hemispheric resistance to further economic austerity measures being made into policy at the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Summit.

The FTAA summit was an attempt to create a trade policy, similar to NAFTA for the entire Western hemisphere. Labor groups, indigenous communities, environmentalists, anarchists and other members of civil society converged on Quebec in April of 2001 to say no to the heads of state that were meeting in the old part of Quebec City, in an area that was completed walled off to the public.

During those few days in Quebec City, those in power did everything they could to prevent a shutdown of their meetings.  They put up a 10-foot fence around the summit venue; several thousand cops beat back protestors; and the cops used tear gas and water cannons on the unarmed crowd. In fact there was so much tear gas used that the heads of state that were meeting had to evacuate the building they were in, since tear gas was coming in through the ventilation system.

We later found out that the tear gas guns they were using were a new prototype, which allowed them to launch tear gas canisters further than expected, which caught those protesting off guard. I remember filming hear the fencing and witness the Medieval Black Block that had constructed it’s own catapult to launch stuff animals at the cops. I distinctly remember this since while I was filming I got knocked on my ass by a water cannon.

The thousands of FTAA protestors who traveled to Canada hosted their own summit, with workshops and sessions to craft their own economic plan for the Americas. Erica Freshour, one of the activists from Grand Rapids, said, “The corporate media hasn’t been reporting on the real issues of the anti-globalization protests. They are too focused on violence that may or may not have occurred, instead of talk about labor, environmental and human rights issues that people are fighting for. This is why we need an independent media.” Here is a video created by some of those from Grand Rapids who participated in the anti-FTAA protests in Canada in 2001.

It took another 4 years of resistance against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), but it was eventually defeated in 2005. This defeat came at the hands of the organized resistance, not because of politicians.

Unfortunately, the anti-globalization movement came to an abrupt halt on September 11, 2001, when planes were flown into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Many of the same people who had built connections and strategies in this movement redirected their energies to resisting the US military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.