News Advisory For immediate release [Please post and forward widely]
UBC students to risk arrest three times this week as opposition to APEC grows
APEC-FREE ZONE expansion, road hockey on President's driveway and a Halloween tour of campus are among the direct actions planned
VANCOUVER, Monday, October 27, 1997 -- The campaign to oppose the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Summit at UBC continues this week with three non-violent direct actions that might again result in the arrest of students.
Today, at 12:45pm, students will gather at the Goddess of Democracy statue at UBC (just outside the Student Union Building at the bus loop) and then march to the Koerner Library. There, members of the campus group APEC ALERT will expand in paint their "APEC-FREE ZONE" which they intend to have reach the site of the APEC Summit by late November. On September 22, two students were arrested and charged on the orders of the UBC administration for just such an action. Their trial is pending.
"Students have a responsibility to challenge the inhumane policies of APEC," said Aiyanas Ormond, 22, an economics student. Ormond is one of the people who will be risking arrest today.
"In order to galvanize the student population, we need to put something on the line. We're risking arrest as a display of anger and to motivate students to take a serious stand on APEC," added Ormond.
On Wednesday, October 29 at 2:30pm, students will gather at the residence of university president Martha Piper (6565 Northwest Marine Drive, Norman Mackenzie House). For the last three weeks, members of APEC ALERT have been playing "Road Hockey Against APEC" on the driveway of the residence which will play host to a luncheon of 18 politicians and dictators on November 25. Last week's road hockey game was ended by 7 RCMP and campus security officers. Students vow to play again this week, even under the threat of arrest.
"I think we need to reclaim the space that Martha Piper has given to people who have murdered students," said Adam Fraser, 25, an environmental science student. "It's important to maintain UBC as a space for students and not for dictators and politicians whose policies are clearly reprehensible."
On Friday, October 31 -- Halloween Day -- students will gather at the Goddess of Democracy Statue at 12:30pm. There they will begin a two-hour "Trick or Treat Tour Against APEC" which will include costumes, music and an exorcism of the campus' "corporate demons."
"I think it's important to draw people's attention to corporations that are causing human rights abuses all over the world and are increasingly controlling our campus and the quality of our education," said Kendra Ward, 23, an English student and an organizer of the tour. The tour will end at a "mystery location" and will also involve non-violent civil disobedience.
This week's activities are part of a larger campaign called "REFUSE APEC" which will continue until late November when students plan a outdoor tent-city dubbed "Democracy Village," a walkout of classes, a campus-wide teach-in called "Free University" and a major mobilization against the APEC Leaders' Summit on November 25.
-- APEC ALERT -- ... grassroots action to oppose APEC at UBC ... (604) 251-9914 * alert@netinfo.ubc.ca www.cs.ubc.ca/spider/fuller/apec_alert
-30-
****** A-Infos News Service ***** News about and of interest to anarchists
Subscribe -> email MAJORDOMO@TAO.CA with the message SUBSCRIBE A-INFOS Info -> http://www.tao.ca/ainfos/ Reproduce -> please include this section