<nettime> ultra red dispatch

[sn <snoble@mac.com>]

FOR IMMEDIATE DISPATCH:
Ultra-red members return from the anti-FTAA Solidarity Action in Tijuana,
Mexico. 

By Saturday morning, images of the Quebec City protests against the Free
Trade Area of the Americas negotiations were already filling the news. On
Friday, April 20, close to 25,000 activists had filled the streets of Quebec
to register their opposition to a plan for expanding the North American Free
Trade Agreement to the entire hemisphere. US President Select George Bush
appeared on CNN arguing that the success of NAFTA brought to all the
Americas would secure the hemisphere for freedom and democracy. It was the
height of hypocrisy. This from a many who wasn't even elected but appointed
to office. The contradiction only furthered the contempt of protesters
disgusted by the scale of the Summit of the Americas negotiating the FTAA
without any involvement from Civil society. In fact it is safe to say, given
Bush's status as an appointed President, NO elected official from the US has
seen the actual FTAA proposal.

For the many activists from California who wanted to demonstrate their
opposition to the FTAA, there was no better site to do so than the border
between the US and Mexico. Lined with maquiladora factories with their
documented history of labor and environmental abuses, the border at Tijuana
is a concrete example of just how badly NAFTA has failed in bringing
democracy and equality to the region. If this is the model Bush and his
allies hope to bring to all the Americas, then it's crucial for everyone to
know the truth about what NAFTA means to the people and environment of these
so-called Free Trade zones.

So it was that activists from both Californias, Mexican and US, came to the
border on Saturday, April 21 to protest NAFTA, protest the FTAA and protest
the military's Operation Gatekeeper. In stark contrast to the tear-gas
filled skies of Quebec City, the San Diego/Tijuana area woke up Saturday
morning to high winds and downpouring rain. However, by the time activistst
began assembling at Larsen Field Park, just blocks from the border, the rain
started clearing out and a nice breeze dried the field where the protest was
to convene. When the first speaker took the stage the sky was blue and the
rain had pretty much passed.

The rally attracted close to one-thousand activists from Tijuana, Mexicali,
Ensenada, Chula Vista, Imperial Valley, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa
Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. It was a diverse
mix of students, trade unionists, anarachists, chicano activists, Mexican
activists and the usual suspects among the leftie sectarian groups.

The speakers spoke passionately in opposition to the FTAA and how such Free
Trade Agreements have had a devastating effect on the border region in terms
of human rights, the environment and worker rights. Several speakers came
from labor struggles happening right now on both sides of the international
border. 

A high point of the rally was Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange on the
cell phone with her partner Kevin Dannaher who gave an on-the-scene report
from Quebec. 

At around 3:30 a large contingent of the rally formed a procession and
marched a mile southeast from the park to the San Ysidro border crossing.
This procession numbered anywhere from five to six hundred - one of the
largest assemblies to march on the border in recent history. US Police -
many in riot gear - on horseback and foot followed the march, keeping
especially close to the Blak Bloc (in usual symbiosis, the Blak Bloc
chanted, "Fuck the state, fuck the police" much of the route).

All these events were caught on DAT and video by yours truly in Ultra-red.

The original plan for the organizers was for the group to travel west
instead to Border Fields State Park on the US side directly up against the
border fence. But due to the rain, that park was blocked off and
unaccessible. So the organizers changed the program issuing an invitation
for activists to march through the San Ysidro gate peacefully. As the
procession reached the San Ysidro border crossing, the organization of the
event began to break down.

Marchers had been advised by the organizers to act responsibly since many in
the crowd had issues with immigration and could not risk being arrested by
INS or Border Patrol officers. Yet as we approached the gate itself, the
march came to a stop as there was no one there from Security to walk
protesters through the border crossing process. Immediately, Mexican Border
Patrol on the other side established a security check. As activists passed
through the gate, flyers, stickers, posters, signs, banners and all
literature were seized and destroyed. No one on the US side made any formal
announcements to the crowd what was happening on the Mexican side. And no
one from Security approached the Mexican Police to negotiate the passage.
The Mexican Police had no legal grounds for detaining people or for seizing
property. But without legal or security negotiators, individual activists
were on their own.

As Ultra-red passed through the gate, our audio-recordist was immediately
confronted by a Mexican Border Police Officer. The Officer grabbed the
activist's microphone and turned it off. The officer pulled all the flyers
and literature out of the activist's pockets and destroyed them. The officer
then the Ultra-red member's still camera and proceeded to take the DAT
recorder out of his bag. This is when things got tense. The officer demanded
that the activist surrender his DAT tape. When the activist objected, three
or four other Officers appeared. The first officer fumbled with the DAT
recorder attempting to retrieve the tape on his own. When it looked like
things might get worse, the Ultra-red member offered to remove the tape
himself. After doing so, the officer took the tape and destroyed it. When
asked what the function of the tape was, the audio-activist said it was just
to record sounds. It had no propaganda purpose (the reason border officers
confiscated protesters' literature). It didn't matter. While the film in his
camera and other people's video tape was ignored, the Ultra-red activist
lost his audio recording.

Other members of Ultra-red had to surrender literature while one female
member had to remove and give up a t-shirt from the Union de Vecinos (a
grass roots organization of East Los Angeles public housing residents). Even
though another male Ultra-red activist was wearing the same t-shirt and was
waved through the check-point without confrontation.

Meanwhile, back on the US side, frustrated with the lack of movement and
feeling trapped between US police and the border gate, the Blak Bloc
contingent began rattling the fence between the sidewalk and the freeway
leading through the automobile border gate. When it appeared that the Blak
Bloc might succeed in pulling down the fence (Where did they hope to go? To
the freeway?), police moved in and ordered the group to disperse.

Overwhelmed by hundreds of activists, the Mexican Border Police closed the
entrance to any and all who appeared to be among the protests. In the end,
it is reported that as many as 300 protesters were refused entrance into
Mexico, dividing them from the over one hundred who succeeded to pass
through. 

For those protesters who made it to the otherside, the scene was full of
confusion. After passing through the check-point gauntlet, activists were
forced by Mexican Border police to leave the area rather than wait to see
that everyone passed through safely. Consequently, large numbers of US
activists found themselves on the Mexico side with no directions or
instructions on where to go or how to get there. The Mexican activists who
had participated in the rally were either trapped on the other side or had
come across by car and were nowhere near where the marchers ended up.

Thanks to a few resourceful protesters, it was determined which bus we
needed to take to get to the Tijuana beach (Las Playas) where the group was
to converge with a rally organized by Tijuana-based activists. After
negotiating with bus drivers, the one-hundred to one-hundred fifty marchers
made their way to Las Playas right up against the border fence where a
sound-truck was set up for speakers and entertainment. The crowd was a
fairly even mix of local and US opponents of the border and the FTAA.

Eventually members of Ultra-red were reunited (after having been separated
when the group passed through the gate). The four audio-activists remained
at Las Playas, video-taping the fence and audio-recording portions of the
speaches. With Mexican police, helicopters and, from the other side, US
Border Patrol officers looking on, the crowd attempted no overt political
demonstration but rather assembled quietly for the speakers and musical
groups. 

By 6:00 PM, the members of Ultra-red left the site and headed back to
downtown Tijuana for dinner before heading back across the border. In stark
contrast from the crossing into Mexico, passing through the US border
check-point occured without incident.

In the end, Ultra-red accumulated hours of video-tape and virtual no audio
recordings. The group will attempt to salvage some of the audio from the
video cameras. Also, we made arrangements with another audio activist from
Oakland who promised to send us a copy of his mini-disc recording of the
day's events (sadly, in mono).

While the protest as a whole was extremely spirited and it was thrilling to
see such a large turn-out for a cross-border action, many were dismayed by
the poor organization - particularly around the actual border crossing. We
can only hope that this experience will force organizers of future actions
to agressively strategize and plan for what is central to our issue with
globalization: the difference in treatment between the border crossing of
people and ideas versus capital and commodities.

Finally, we hope that the many activists who came to the border for the
first time in the context of protest will return again. We hope that all
those human rights and labor organizations that endorsed the weekend's
action, will commit themselves to serious investment in long-term strategies
around cross-border organizing. Everything that we oppose from the FTAA is
real today along the border. Civil rights and human rights abuses, labor
abuses, the exploitation and assassination of women, destruction of the
environment and extreme stratification of the social classes, these are
everyday realities thanks to NAFTA and Operation Gatekeeper (the INS
militarized policy for regulating human traffic across the border).
California activists searching for targets for their rage, need only to look
to the border. While we may be inspired by images of protesters in Quebec
City tearing down the "wall of shame" around the Summit of the Americas, a
real wall to be dismantled is that shameful wall between the two
Californias. For it is here, that we have the world's most militarized
border crossing, where hundreds have lost their lives and tens of thousands
more carry with in their nightmares.

Here is the face of coporate/military globalization.

Ultra-red

[Note: the second part of this dispatch, from Ultra-red's Northeast Front,
is forthcoming.]

For more information on the FTAA and the movements organized to democratize
the global economy, check out the following websites:

http://www.actionla.org/border/
http://www.stopftaa.com/
http://www.tao.ca/%7Eclac/
http://www.vermontactionnetwork.org/
http://www.alternatives-action.org/salami/
http://quebec.indymedia.org/
http://www.indymedia.org/ftaa/

*****************************************

This dispatch is eighth in the Ultra-red series, "Value System." Founded in
1994, Ultra-red are audio activists producing radio broadcasts, street
actions, performances and installations. The group's work radicalizes the
conventions of electro-acoustic and ambient music to explore acoustic space
as enunciative of social relations. Ultra-red have released CDs and albums
on Comatonse Recordings (Oakland, California), Mille Plateaux (Frankfurt,
Germany), True Classical (Los Angeles) and Beta Bodega (Miami).

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