SAWRO STATEMENT: POLICE SUPPRESSION OF G20/G8 DEMONSTRATORS
The South Asian Women’s Rights Organization and the immigrant women of Teesdale/Crescent Town are proud to have joined with tens of thousands of other people of Toronto in opposing the agenda of the recent G20/G8 Summit.Women from our community investigated and found out about the agenda of the government leaders at this summit. We saw that their agenda was to use the current economic crisis to justify the discredited neo-liberal policy of handing over billions to the rich and reducing social spending. We saw that their agenda was to use the summit to facilitate continuing their wars against the peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine and to plan new wars against the people of Iran and Korea.
In meetings in our neighborhood before the summit, our women took a stand that in our community’s interest: governments should stop paying the rich and increase social spending. In particular, we saw the need during the summit to put forward our community’s demands for immediate full funding for the child care subsidy entitlements of low-income women. We also took a stand against war, especially the wars of imperialism against the Muslim peoples.Most importantly, our community women spoke out. We presented our community’s views in public education actions leading up to the summit, such as a rally against the abuse and murder of first nations women organized by the Toronto Elementary Teachers union and the University of Toronto teach-in session on the marginalization of immigrant women. We marched in the June 25 demonstration along with many other immigrant communities demanding justice for immigrants and refugees.
When the police attacked the demonstration organized by the trade unions on June 26, wounding and arresting hundreds of people, women of our community were outraged. We were even more outraged when we learned that community organizers were singled out for unjust and illegal arrest and brutalization by the police and security services.Women and girls from our community joined a spontaneous demonstration at the Eastern Ave detention centre on June 27 to support those arrested and to demand their release. Most of the people the people there that morning were women and children whose family members and friends had been arrested. One of those arrested was a No One Is Illegal organizer who had supported our work with youth in Teesdale/Crescent Town—my own children had become friends with him through this work and insisted on coming.
This peaceful Sunday morning demonstration was brutally attacked by the police, using batons, tear gas and rubber bullets. It was a totally unprovoked attack with no other purpose than to terrorize people from exercising their right to speak out—and it is very important that this terror was deliberately aimed against women. I saw young women who seconds before were singing songs smashed to the ground with police clubs. My own little girls had to run up the street to escape the violence, crying and screaming in terror.The use of police terror with impunity to stop our community and others from speaking out is totally unacceptable to the women of our community. We demand that the police be held accountable.
All those arrested must be released and all charges dropped, including the conspiracy charges against community organizers. It is the police and all levels of government who a guilty of conspiracy—a conspiracy to stop the people from speaking out against the agenda of the rich and powerful.for the South Asian Women’s Rights Organization
Sultana Jahangir, July 2010
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The G8/G20 meetings took place in Ontario from June 25-27, 2010. Toronto-based organizations of women, people of colour, indigenous peoples, the poor, the working class, queer and trans people and disabled people organized a peoples convergence with 40,000 people taking to the streets, standing up for justice in collaboration and solidarity!
Activists, community members, inspired and outraged individuals came together as a movement to demand justice for people and the planet. Over a week of mobilizations, events, workshops and direct actions took place in the face of state and police repression, violence and infringements on rights and freedoms.
We must continue to mobilize and build greater solidarity among our communities- an important part of this is supporting all those arrested during the G20 summit, including our allies still in detention, and those released on bail.