By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

In April, 20-year old Mitch Lewis of Cambridge decided to join the protests against the World Bank and global trading policies in Quebec. This decision stemmed from his identification with the Judaic predisposition toward social justice.

"Being doubly oppressed in 19th and 20th Century Europe, Jews played a disproportionately large role in progressive movements which fought injustice. Regarding World War II, Jews seem to always be viewed as the object of the war, but never the subject. For example, we rarely hear about the Jewish Resistance Organization's valiant fight against the Nazis in Warsaw in 1941, which truly smashed the idea that the Nazis were all-powerful."

"During the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., Jews again played a significant role in fighting racism," he continues. "We should continue in this marvelous tradition of struggle from below in solidarity with all oppressed."

Lewis turned down a Brandeis scholarship to attend UMass Boston, as he desired more of a working-class environment: "I feel a closer identification with my struggles as someone who has been an outcast, on the margins."

Why Quebec?

"I went to Québec City," Lewis states, "as one of thousands who is horrified at the prospective "Free Trade" craze sweeping the world, leaving ordinary people powerless over the economic operations of their community."

Lewis is well-prepared to defend his thesis.  "The 34 heads of state in all of North and South America (except Cuba) met in Québec City to discuss implementation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). They met in a former fortress, surrounded by four meter high walls. The text of the FTAA agreement has never been released to the public, and you could not get into the conference unless you had $500,000 to burn. This is clearly a plan for the domination of multinational corporations, not freedom and democracy."

What happened there?

"Once in Québec City, we lined up for the start of a demonstration of various trade unions. The working class was, for the first time since the Seattle protests, dominant. Québec represented not only a wonderful show of solidarity with oppressed people, but also a step forward in broadening the arena of debate to include people who may not be activists."

"The coverage that I saw in the media was hugely biased," he continues.  "Every day, multinational corporations bulldoze forests in Brazil, displace people in Mexico, exploit and pollute the rivers and lands of Colombia, and attack the work, environmental and safety standards set up to protect people in all of the Americas - all of this in the name of profits. Focusing upon minor violence of a few protesters in Québec City overshadows the real violence taking place - that of imperial global capital and its defenders."

It is clear that Lewis will carry his Quebec experiences forward as he attempts to right the wrongs of injustice that he sees and feels.

"We hear every day about human rights violations all over the world, and third world countries in which people starve and war rages. But this is the logical outcome of a system that puts profit over human well-being. They want even more, so they're going forward with exploitation under the disguise of "free trade". We need to get involved in putting a stop to this onslaught, and Québec City was an excellent start."

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