Anti-capitalist demo targets Conservative campaign headquarters in Montreal

<p>MONTREAL – About 800 anti-capitalist demonstrators weaved their way through downtown Montreal on Sunday in a May Day rally that ended without the major standoff with police seen in previous years.</p> <p>Protesters planned to end the march at a Conservative riding office in affluent Westmount-Ville-Marie to draw attention to the contrast between the country’s wealthiest and poorest.</p> <p>But the march never made it to the campaign headquarters after police blocked off the route and led them onto another street.</p> <p>One of the organizers, Lucien Chiasson, said the Harper government hasn’t done enough to help low-income earners, though he added that none of the major federal parties offer solutions to a systemic problem.</p> <p>”I think as anti-capitalists we realize that elections are not really where we’re going to find solutions to the deep structural problems that we have in our society, where the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting excluded,” he said.</p> <p>There were no major incidents in the May Day rally, though Montreal police said six people were arrested during the protest.</p> <p>Seven police officers also suffered minor injuries and a few weapons were seized, including metal bars and Molotov cocktails, said Const. Raphael Bergeron.</p> <p>In past years, protests on May 1 to mark International Workers’ Day have resulted in serious clashes with police but this year organizers tried to make the event more family friendly.</p> <p>Isabelle Renauld, who came to the rally with her two daughters, aged 8 and 7 months, said she wanted to show her children there is life beyond consumerism.</p> <p>”We can have values like love, friendship, family, so it’s important for me to be here with my daughters to show them that there is another way to live than with capitalism,” she said. </p> <p>The group that organized the rally, Montreal’s Anti-Capitalist Convergence, played a part in the headline-making protests during the G-20 summit last summer in Toronto that saw hundreds arrested.</p> <p>A separate May Day rally involving union groups was held earlier Sunday.</p>