A-Infos (en) US, International Border Shut Down at Detroit-Windsor Tunnel

[Chuck0 <chuck@tao.ca>]

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      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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INTERNATIONAL BORDER SHUT DOWN AT DETROIT-WINDSOR TUNNEL.

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Contact Dawn Roberts, 773-334-9142, ahoyden@earthlink.net; Christine
Karatnytsky, 212-662-4030, christinekaratnytsky@juno.com
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Joint statement released by New York City and Chicago Direct Action
Network activists in attendance at the Labor Notes Conference in
Detroit,
Michigan, April 21, 2001.  Read by Jane Slaughter as an announcement at
the conference.  


Today, after the anti-FTAA solidarity rally sponsored by the Labor Notes
Conference, about two hundred protesters spontaneously decided to
continue marching.  We returned to the international border linked by
the
Detroit-Windsor Tunnel with the intention of shutting it down, which we
did.

Over the course of an hour, activists from the New York City Direct
Action Network, the Chicago Direct Action Network, Anarcho-Greens,
Campus
Greens, the Miami Worker's Center, the IWW, SEIU, UNITE!, the UAW,
AFSCME, Carpenters, Teamsters, local protesters and other groups took
over the streets, blocked traffic and staged an action that temporarily
closed the international border.  We were accompanied by observers from
the National Lawyers Guild.  There was no violence on the part of the
protesters and no serious injuries or arrests.  The police were on
mounts
and motorcycles, in squad cars and wore riot gear.  

As we approached the tunnel, the police attempted to block our way and
to
close us in, presumably for arrest, so we decided to move into the
street, where we sat down, blocking traffic.  One of the protesters
received a bloodied lip when the police attempted to pick him out of the
group for arrest, but he was quickly pulled away by his comrades. 
Despite continued attempts by the police to intimidate, harass, separate
and shove us, the protest continued through the streets and back to the
steps of the conference hall, where it ended with the burning of the
American flag.

We did this action in solidarity with our sisters and brothers from all
over the world who are risking their lives in Quebec City and in honor
of
Detroit's history of militant worker struggles.  

Resistance is everywhere.



[This statement has been slightly modified from the one read.  Images of
the shut down will appear at www.chicago.indymedia.org]
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