They seemed ready for the Seattle world trade protests, or something gnarly out of Eastern Europe.
The fact that many of them joined the Tea Party after losing their jobs raises questions of whether the movement can survive an improvement in the economy, with people trading protest signs for paychecks.
I was sent to cover an anti-free-trade protest that was scheduled to take place on Ottawa's frozen canal.
European trade unions #protest against austerity.
Charities, trade unions, protest groups and other anti-corporate organisations create stunts and "facts" as powerful, and sometimes as dubious, as those staged by Bernays's minions.
Scores of Argentine teachers and students blocked the border bridge between La Quiaca, Argentina and Villazón, Bolivia, and interrupted trade in protest against the arrest of seven members of local teachers union over the weekend.
The group, called the Infrastructure Forum, which includes GlaxoSmithKline, Prudential and Cadbury Schweppes, as well as the BBC and Inland Revenue, wrote last week to Patricia Hewitt, the secretary of trade, to protest the new structure.
This follows updated advice from the Australian department of foreign affairs and trade that protest is planned outside their embassy in Jakarta, telling Australian tourists to reconsider their travel plans.
Early afternoon drinking decaffeinated espresso at a cafe just off Lille's Place du Général de Gaulle, the placarded stragglers from a trade union protest against austerity measures adding to the hustle and bustle on the cobbled street, and the Englishman abroad seems at ease.
The seven judges' unofficial runner-up was Naomi Klein's critique of post-modern consumer capitalism and designer label culture, No Logo, a book that has become influential for the world trade talks protest generation and was also a favourite with some readers' groups.
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