We’ve been talking about this a bit in the Canada thread but it looks like this tactic is starting to spread to other countries now (France, Belgium, New Zealand, possibly US?) so maybe it’s time to give it its own thread.
It seems to be very effective in Canada at shutting down the economy. Who would have thought that a few people with a few large vehicles could shut things down so thoroughly? These people call themselves protesters but to me they’re economic terrorists. The local governments have really been handling things with kid gloves here but I don’t know how effective it’s been. Part of the problem to me is how few people with large vehicles it takes to completely shut down a vital route. Are our current laws capable of dealing with these tactics? I’m fully in support of the government coming down with an iron fist but I’m concerned about the precedent that that could set for future genuine protests.
The governments of Canada and the US already use an iron fist on demonstrations they don’t like. See the pipeline protests in both countries for only one example.
Yep, got it in one. The police in both countries support right wing thuggery and so are not doing anything that might inconvenience these nut-job truckers.
The problem seems to be that you can block the bridge that carries 30 percent of US-Canada trade with like 50 or so truck (I mean you could certainly do it with less)
Economic pain seems to be their strategy. Let’s hope it blows up in their face.
All the political parties now have called for them to disband and go home (the Conservative of course want to champion them but they also said, go home, we will fight for your concerns in parliament… which at least is the right way to do it even if their concerns are utterly daft).
It is. The vast majority of truckers are vaccinated and doing what they need to do. But these idiots are still able to block vital roads and bridges with their vehicles. There’s enough of them for that. Well, then and their allies. I’m seeing plenty of reports describing other non-truck heavy equipment (like tractors) being used, too.
When people talk about stopping the economy, they meant for material class solidarity, not for welcoming the horseman. Fucking morons ruining it for their future selves.
At least they could avoid stopping their fully loaded trucks on top of a single bridge, but, well, morons.
The whole thing started with mandatory proof of vaccination checks for trucks crossing the border. Probably 90% of Canadian truckers are vaccinated, so it wasn’t really a problem for them. So this is the 10% who aren’t, plus Americans, plus other non-trucker unvaccinated Canadians.
Note this:
It’s probably not true that there are no semis in the blockade, but from the pictures it is clear that a lot of the blockade vehicles are pickup trucks and cars.
Can’t see it happening at that level in Spain. Here you fuck around with transportation at that strategical/vital level and you aren’t dealing with the cops. The air traffic controllers tried once and were back to work at gunpoint the next day. I quote from Wikipedia:
The Spanish air traffic controllers strike began on December 3, 2010 when most [air traffic controllers in Spanish airports walked out in a coordinated wildcat strike. Following the walkout, the Spanish Government authorized the Spanish military to take over air traffic control operations in a total of eight airports, including the country’s two main airports,. On the morning of December 4, the government declared a ‘State of Alert’, conscripting the controllers back to work. Shortly after the measure was implemented, controllers started returning to work and the strike was called off.
Do you guys need EU police to come and fix things? We have our own issues, but for the most part European police are cool with beating down white people.
Offer not valid in the US, your common gun nut acquaintance is probably packing more heat than most EU police officers, but should be valid for Canada.
