The origins
The Summit of the Americas and the CLAC groups
The first Convergence des luttes anticapitalistes in socalled Québec was created to oppose the holding of the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001. It was a group proposing a more radical vision of alterglobalism. After the summit, CLAC remained active as a convergence of groups from across the province. This first version of CLAC was dissolved in 2006.
The CLAC reborn
G20 Summit & the CLAC-2010
The La Convergence des luttes anticapitalistes (CLAC) as it exists today was born in January 2011, from certain committees of CLAC-2010.The latter had been created following a gathering of anti-capitalist individuals and groups in January 2010 to coordinate a mobilization against the G8-G20 summits in Ontario. In some respects, but without formal affiliation, CLAC-2010 was a continuation of various efforts over the past decade to facilitate collaboration and cooperation between different anti-capitalist initiatives in Montreal, including the Peoples' Global Action Bloc (PGA).The latter had spearheaded a number of mobilizations: against the Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting in Montebello in 2007, against the parade of the Royal 22nd Regiment in Quebec City in 2007, against Quebec City's 400th anniversary celebrations in 2008, and against the Olympic Torch Relay in 2010. The CLAC born in 2011 is not a direct sequel, but is inspired by the Convergence des luttes anticapitalistes of 2000-2006, originally created to mobilize against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Quebec Summit of the Americas in April 2001.
Convergence
Following the G8-G20 summit, CLAC devoted a great deal of resources to accompanying the hundreds of people arrested in Toronto in June 2010, whether on a legal, logistical, political or financial level. During the summer of 2010, several demonstrations and events took place in Montreal to denounce the brutal repression by police forces in Toronto.Subsequently, CLAC continued to organize anti-capitalist May Day campaigns and call for rallies against various G20 summits (Korea 2010, France 2011), then against the G7 in Quebec City in 2018.We've organized protests against the Grand Prix de Montréal, the Conférence de Montréal, the Conservative Party, the P-6 bylaw, the construction of extractivist projects on aboriginal territory, and more.We regularly organize anti-capitalist contingents at various demonstrations: in solidarity with the struggles of migrants, environmentalists, students, etc. We regularly organize anti-capitalist contingents at various demonstrations: in solidarity with the struggles of migrants, environmentalists, students, etc.We have initiated collective declarations against political repression, such as the one against the GAMMA squad or the one against the P-6 bylaw in Montreal.CLAC has been organizing regular public anti-capitalist general assemblies since 2011.An important part of our work is popular education and political agitation.Since 2011, we've published some fifteen newspapers with thousands of copies in circulation.After the strike in 2012, CLAC is working hard to denounce the Ostis de crosseurs, and is publishing an anthology of a dozen brochures.This anthology was launched in December 2013 at our humorous Gala "Hommage aux crosseurs". CLAC is back again in 2014 and 2015 with the Crosse capitaliste du mois published in Le Couac newspaper. We've also given a number of workshops, including "Anticapitalism 101", "Safety in Protest" and "Legal Self-Defense".
Anticapitalists Struggles
Starting in 2014, CLAC focused its main campaign against austerity in Quebec, Canada and elsewhere. During the 2015 student strike, we campaigned for the social strike by organizing a teach-in, participating in mobilizations with our ostirité committee and launching a brochure on "Repression and Resistance". We were also present at demonstrations. We also took part in a number of actions to unfurl banners and decorate public spaces, and disseminated our analyses in various alternative media.In 2016, CLAC launched its campaign against precariousness and poverty: "They're rich because we're poor, and we're right to revolt". (See Campaigns page) In 2018, CLAC-Montreal participates in the Réseau de Résistance Anti-G7, which organizes anti-capitalist mobilization in Quebec City during the G7 summit. In 2019, we produced the documentary film "Les patrons ont toujours tort" after several years in production.This film tackles the gradual transformation of central labor unions into corporatist organizations, their acceptance of market logic and job creation at all costs, with all the contradictions this implies.
Since 2021, two seasons of our podcast "The Whole Orchard" on the abolition of prisons and the police have been broadcast.We also regularly produce posters and stickers for distribution in radical Montreal circles.In 2021, calls for solidarity actions were issued by the Wet'suwet'en on the Yintah in British Columbia.To this day, the Wet'suwet'en are fighting against the construction of a pipeline on their territory, particularly under the Wedzin'kwa River. CLAC responded to the call by mobilizing our network, producing and distributing an information brochure on their struggles, and organizing a solidarity protest. In 2022, CLAC's environmental committee initiated the campaign against COP15 in Montreal. Eventually, the anti-capitalist and environmentalist coalition against COP15, created in the wake of the mobilization against this international summit, became a perennial and autonomous coalition, now called Rage Climatique.