What brought so many people to Québec City?
May 2, 2001 - Through all the reports of tear gas, fences, protests and trade deals coming from Québec City a couple of weeks ago, an important message was ignored by much of the media. The real question that should have been addressed was: What brought more than 70,000 people to the streets of Québec City in late April to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)?
This is not to say that reports of tear gas and fences are unimportant. In fact, the largest deployment of the RCMP in Canadian history, the excessive use of tear gas and rubber bullets, and a heavily policed fence--all elements of the government's effort to quiet FTAA protestors in Québec City--should set off many questions in our heads. In particular, we should be questioning Chrétien's claim to democracy and the so-called democracy clause in the FTAA.
But as for those of us who disagree with the neoliberal agenda of trade deals like the FTAA, we have been questioning Chrétien and company for a while. Ultimately, we ask: What does democracy look like? And how do we achieve it?
Democracy is more than just voting in the odd referendum and periodic elections. Voting is a minimalist means to express our political voices. Democracy involves political debate and decisions to which we should all have equal access. Currently, we live in a social system that denies equal access to the decision-making process. As individuals, we should all have the same access to the decision-making process, either directly, through advocacy groups, or through accountable representatives. As members of various political identities, we should see our groups' interests voiced, heard and included in the important process of building and fostering democracy. However, this is not the reality. People are denied access to the political-decision-making process and debate based on their gender, race, class, culture, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, and ideology.
Formal and systemic equality in the sense of access to political and social participation are integral aspects of building democracy. Currently, the policies these trade deals implement add to the systemic exacerbation of social inequalities. These inequalities deny many people access to the political debate and processes of deciding what benefits the community.
The primary way in which these deals do so is by allowing corporations to sue the public's government for potential loss of profits. Such lawsuits result when governments attempt to implement regulations for environmental protection, social equality and access to publicly funded social programs. Neoliberal free trade deals such as the FTAA disallow governments from fostering a democratic society based on equal access to political decision-making. These deals are not about democracy because they systematically make it more difficult to build. These deals are about capital profits, high GDPs and GNPs--all inadequate and questionable measurements of human development.
Nevertheless, our governments are the very institutions buying into deals that tie their hands from building democracy. Many of these deals are discussed in secret and demand little to no public input while demanding a policed, militarized fence. This being the case, our governments are failing democracy by ignoring public input and public concern. At the same time our governments ignore us, they are implementing policies and trade deals conducive to the corporate agenda of capital gain and monetary profit.
No longer in the institutions (if it ever was), democracy is taking to the streets. This is what brought so many people to Québec City. We want to prioritize people instead of profit, we want to see fair trade rather than free trade, we want to see public control over public needs and interests. The power to achieve democracy is within the people, and we will continue to take democracy to the streets when we march through the State's tear gas, police force and fences.
Michelle Mungall is an honours political science graduate of the University of Alberta, class of 2001. She was the New Democratic Party candidate in a St. Albert riding in the recent provincial election.
