S26 Reports From Around the World
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"What we have put in motion is a revolution from which there is no turning back. If we succeed, all humanity has a chance." - Annie Jiagge, former Chief Justice of Ghana
Materials for this page are gleaned from the Prague Independent Media Center's (PIMC) Website and from a number of listserves and e-mails to 1world. You can visit the PIMC website by clicking on their logo below.
Critical Information Regarding Police Torture in Prague! Initiative Against Economic Globalisation ~ Oct. 1
Protesters Hold IMF Under Seige ~ Sept. 29
U.S. Rallies Echo Prague Protests ~ Sept. 28
Capitalism And Communism Look Equally Bad In Prague, by Naomi Klein ~ Sept. 27
Tucson S26 Event, By Chris Ford and Heather Brown ~ Sept. 27
Report from Portland, By Mary Beth Maxwell ~ Sept. 27
Anti WB-IMF rally in Dhaka, By Anu Muhammad A. Rahman ~ Sept. 25
Updates from the Prague Independent Media Center ~ Sept. 26
Action on the Streets from Mumbai India, by Nikhil Anand ~ Sept. 26
Moscow Anarchists March on World Bank Offices, by Mikhail Tsovma ~ Sept. 26
Kiev/Prague Solidarity - Kiev Demonstration in Support of Prague, by Sergei ~ Sept. 26
S26 in Lisbon Portugal, by Coletivo S-26 ~ Sept. 26
Demo Against the IMF in Stockholm, by kurt svensson ~ Sept. 26
Anti Worldbank Action in Utrecht, The Netherland, by Gerbrand Oudenaarden ~ Sept. 26
Protesters March In IMF Meeting Siege Bid, Reuters ~ Sept. 26
Simultaneous Protest at Chennai, Tamil Nadu (India), TSS Mani ~ Sept. 26
Hundreds Rally in Seattle to CANCEL THE DEBT NOW! Rev. Peter Strimer ~ Sept. 26
Protesters Disrupt Morning Rush, The Washington Post ~ Sept. 26
400 Turn Out in Washington, DC for S26 Solidarity Action, by Chuck0 ~ Sept. 26
Hundreds Of Connecticut Activists Flood The Streets Of Downtown Hartford, Crystal Haviland ~ Sept. 26
The IMF, World Bank and Providence Wages, The Providence Journal ~ Sept. 26
Prague Protests Heating Up, Tamara Straus ~ September 25
Czech Cops Stop Train, Bar World Bank, IMF Protesters At Border, Tribune News Services ~ September 25
Campaign to Boycott World Bank Bonds to be Launched in Europe, INPEG Press Center ~ Sept. 25
Movement Growing Up And Getting Practical Since Seattle, By Roger Cohen ~ The New York Times ~ Sept. 24
Read Articles on Globalization From Around the World
Critical Information Regarding Police Torture in Prague!
Initiative Against Economic Globalisation ~ October 1
Matters have gotten worse. Hundreds of people remain in jail with horrendous confirmed accounts of beatings, broken bones, lack of medical care, most have been denied food and water, people have been hog tied and beaten with serious injury resulting, as well as being denied other basic human rights, and women have stripped naked and forced to exercise to entertain the guards, and at least 10 people are missing with no information given from the government or police as to their whereabouts. For those of you who are American, urgent calls are needed to the embassy because the ambassy refuses to do ANYTHING concerning the missing and beaten americans.
For all others- please call your local embassies and demand that they take action. Solidarity actions are also needed. Also PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO GIVES A DAMN! We must act before there are any fatalies at the hands of the Czech police! Phone #s for the Czech republic follow this message. Phone #'s for the US embassy and others can be found by calling your local embassy or checking the web... .
- in solidarity from those who care... .
Hi, everyone
We need help. A lot of people have been arrested and the brutality is horrifying. A lot of my friends are in there, and we're really scared for them. Please take a minute to send a fax or call the numbers listed below, and circulate this info as much as possible.
Did you hear? They ended their meetings early yesterday and cancelled them entirely today! We did it again! Same with S11 in melbourne!
On September 26, 2000, about twelve thousand people gathered in Prague to protest the policies of the IMF and the World Bank, demanding that the two institutions be shut down. It was a success - their meeting was seriously disrupted and their blatently exploitative policies were further brought to public attention.
On the morning of Sept. 26, people from all over the world attempted to approach the conference to bring their views directly to the delegates, but were blocked by an army of police. Clashes ensued, and many were arrested. Throughout the following night police retaliation took place. Anyone suspected of being a protester was stopped, arrested, and often beaten. By morning 422 people had been arrested, often for nothing more than walking down the street. Police were assisted in their persecution by Czech nazis, who chased and attacked anyone who looked like a protester, and helped to beat demonstrators while they were held in jail.
Today, Thursday Sept. 28, massive arrests are continuing. A non-violent demonstration took place in front of the Ministry of Interior against the police brutality and in solidarity with those arrested. Another 70 people were dragged away. Official police sources report 892 arrests so far. Many have been released, and their reports are horrifying. They activists are systematically beaten, denied access to phone, food, water, and bedding, and in at least at one police station nazis have been allowed into the cells to brutalize those being held. Often those released have been so traumatized that they try to get out of the country as soon as possible, preventing the recording of their evidence. The mainstream media, as always, are focusing on the property destruction, creating support for the police, shrouding the real issues, and increasing repression. They report "angry youth" attacking police instead of a more accurate picture of concerned citizens of the world standing up for an end to the IMF and World Bank's deliberate undermining of social and environmental justice.
And so we need your help. The situation here is critical. The arrested need international solidarity. We beg you to send faxes and E-mails protesting the treatment of those arrested. Keep in mind that the vast majority of those arrested were incarcerated only because of their political conviction. The police must stop their brutality and release them immediately.
If possible, organize a protest in front of the Embassies of the Czech Republic, the sooner the better. If there's no Embassy in your town, there may be a Czech cultural center.We thank you very much on behalf of the arrested activists, and on behalf of all of us here who are fighting for truth and justice.
Yours,
Initiative Against Economic Globalisation
The Presidential office fax number: 00 420 2 24310851
The Minister of Interior: 00 420 2 61433560
additional contact info:
Please send faxes and/or emails to Office of the President of the Czech Republic: 00420/2/24371111
Ministry of the Interior / 0042/2/61433560 or 0042/2/61433555 Press + PR Dept.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs / fax 0042/2/24182041
Please send (e-)copies to Coordinator also contact for inquiries, or fax 0042/2/6970395
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Protesters Hold IMF Under Seige
New Zealand Herald ~ Sept. 29
Black-clad demonstrators hurled cobblestones torn from Prague's historic streets and torched police with Molotov cocktails on Tuesday as they made good on vows to besiege the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF. The protesters, many armoured with padding and wielding sticks, closed in on delegates within dozens of metres from the congress centre where they met, pelting police and stray delegates with a hail of bottles, rocks and petrol bombs.
The scene was reminiscent of Seattle, where violent demonstrators halted a meeting by the World Trade Organisation, the first in a spate of disruption at meetings of international financial organisations. Police tried to force the rioters back with water cannon, tear gas, dogs, thunderflashes and even threw cobblestones themselves as they were at times overwhelmed by hundreds of masked youths shouting anti-globalist slogans. Early on, several police were set alight when a petrol bomb exploded. Their colleagues extinguished the flames. Officials said one Russian and one Japanese delegates were hurt.
The worst threat to the guests so far occurred when protesters stormed a hotel just across the road from the congress centre and pelted financiers and journalists there with stones until police pushed them back with dogs and truncheons. Security officials said the activists, who had pledged not to use violence and to blockade the delegates inside the building until they abolished the World Bank and the IMF, had managed to put the congress centre under siege.
"The centre has been cut off. All roads (accessible by cars) are blocked by protesters," said the congress centre's traffic and security officer Lubomir Brychta, adding that he hoped police would open a corridor out later. A delegate inside the conference centre said those inside were not allowed to leave the building at all.
Hosting Czech President Vaclav Havel, who led the bloodless revolution that toppled Communist rule in 1989, condemned the clashes and called on protesters to end the violence, his spokesman said in a statement.
Officials said at least 65 people had been injured, mostly police. Many were hurt by cobblestone wounds, and emergency services also treated burns from the petrol bombs. A British journalist was also hurt. There were no reliable estimates of the number of demonstrators arrested, but Reuters correspondents in the city saw dozens detained.
Police called reserves from all over the country to add to the 11,000 officers already guarding the city, and the umbrella protest group INPEG, which organised marches that began Tuesday morning, said it disagreed with the violence. "We're really disappointed... We were really hoping for a non violent protest on the basic issues of the IMF and the World Bank... but instead now the focus has shifted to the streets of Prague," said INPEG organiser Chelsea Mosen. It was not clear which group of protesters started the attack to which police responded.
In the back of the congress centre, a water cannon truck smashed ranks of activists who wielded sticks, rocks, and bottles as the thunder of stun grenades split the haze above the crowd. Police helicopters clattered menacingly overhead.
One protestor smashed the back window of a limousine with a cobblestone as the car raced into the venue's perimeter, and elsewhere others rained down rocks on waiting ambulances, which eventually fled the crowd. Other groups roamed the streets randomly smashing windows of stores and hotels and torched at least one car. But many more marchers, most of them foreign, kept their cool, waving banners that demanded the cancellation of debt to poor countries and the shutdown of the IMF.
Police said there were up to 9,000 activists, less than half the 20,000 organisers had hoped to attract to Prague in a follow-up rally to protests which crippled world trade talks in Seattle last year and prompted violence in London in May.
The rest of Prague was unusually quiet, and policemen stood every twenty metres on main streets, where boarded up shops presented an eerie scene. But to one local the disturbances represented a business opportunity. He has set up a makeshift stall next to the closed Vysehrad metro station and is selling cold beer and snacks to police and delegates - at a 100 percent mark-up.
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U.S. Rallies Echo Prague Protests
(AP) ~ Sept. 28
Demonstrators marched through downtown Tuesday, one of several U.S. rallies held in sympathy with protests in the Czech Republic against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In many places, demonstrators targeted companies for allegedly ignoring workers' rights. In Hartford, 300 people demonstrated to accuse United Technologies Corp. of allowing subcontractors to pay low wages to janitors."Everyone deserves dignity and a living wage,'' said Jeff Klein, a student at Wesleyan University. About 20 people were arrested.
In Washington D.C., 35 people were arrested after blocking a downtown street. In Prague, thousands of people demonstrated outside the IMF and World Bank summit, throwing firebombs as police responded with clubs and tear gas. Dozens were injured.
The protesters say economic globalization helps the rich get richer at the expense of the poor and the environment. Top officials with IMF and World Bank insist they are major providers of economic assistance and development loans. Rallies in the Boston area were aimed at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Activists accuse Pfizer of profiting on its AIDS drugs even as infection rates rise in Africa and other developing countries. "My country is being destroyed by AIDS, my country is sinking under the weight of debt,'' said the Rev. Tsitsi Moyo of Zimbabwe. "If the debt is not canceled, if AIDS is not curtailed there is no hope for my country.''
In Portland, Ore., about 80 people marched through downtown. Fifteen protesters were arrested after a police officer was assaulted and an anarchist symbol was painted on a billboard, according to Lt. Mike Hefley, a police spokesman. Most were charged with interfering with a police officer. At one point, about a dozen protesters sat in a line in front of police in riot gear. Officers removed them. "We just want peace against the brutality, the harassment, the animal cruelty, we have a right to be here. We didn't bring any weapons or anything,'' said Brandy Carroll, 16.
In San Francisco, roughly 100 protesters gathered downtown, chanting rhymes and carrying signs and banners including one that read, "Citi Bank: Rainforest Destroyer.''Protests also were held in Denver and Indianapolis, where about 20 people gathered outside a Citigroup bank to protest Salomon Smith Barney's underwriting of World Bank bonds.
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Capitalism And Communism Look Equally Bad In Prague
by Naomi Klein, Toronto Globe & Mail ~ September 27
What seems to most enrage the delegates to the meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Prague this week is the idea that they even have to discuss the basic benefits of free-market globalization. That discussion was supposed to have stopped in 1989, when the Wall fell and history ended. Only here they all are -- old people, young people, thousands of them -- literally storming the barricades of their extremely important summit.
And as the delegates peer over the side of their ill-protected fortress at the crowds below, scanning signs that say "Capitalism Kills," they look terribly confused. Didn't these strange people get the memo? Don't they understand that we all already decided that free-market capitalism was the last, best system? Sure, it's not perfect, and everyone inside the meeting is awfully concerned about all those poor people and the environmental mess, but it's not like there's a choice -- is there?
For the longest time, it seemed as if there were only two political models: Western capitalism and Soviet communism. When the USSR collapsed, that left only one alternative, or so it seemed. Institutions like the World Bank and IMF have been busily "adjusting" economies in Eastern Europe and Asia to help them get with the program: privatizing services, relaxing regulation of foreign corporations, building huge export industries.
All this is why it is so significant that yesterday's head-on attack against the ideology ruling the World Bank and the IMF happened here, in the Czech Republic. This is a country that has lived through both economic orthodoxies, where the Lenin busts have been replaced by Pepsi logos and McDonald's arches.
Many of the young Czechs I met this week say that their direct experience with communism and capitalism has taught them that the two systems have something in common: They both treat people as if they are less than fully human. Where communism saw them only as potential producers, capitalism sees them only as potential consumers; where communism starved their beautiful capital, capitalism has overfed it, turning Prague into a Velvet Revolution theme park. The experience of growing up disillusioned with both systems helps explain why so many of the activists behind this week's protests call themselves "anarchists." Anarchism is an ideology that defines itself by being fiercely non-ideological. It rejects externally imposed rules and argues that we are impoverished, as individuals and as communities, by overwork and overconsumption. Most of us carry a mess of negative biases about anarchists. But the truth is that most are less interested in hurling projectiles than in finding ways to lead simple, autonomous lives. They call it "freedom."
So what do the lifestyle choices of a small (but growing) radical subculture have to do with the allegations being made against the World Bank and the IMF? Everything. Far from simply demanding debt relief, the mass protests against the Bank and Fund are now driven by more fundamental demands: the elimination of both institutions, and of the economic beliefs that drive their every decision.
Over the past decade, a critical mass of communities in poor countries have questioned the Bank's belief that large-scale "development" always equals "improvement." The people coming forward have been displaced by World-Bank-funded mega-dams and had their water systems polluted by World-Bank-funded mines.
Are these people Communists? A few. But most aren't capitalists either. They are tapping into something different, and much older. The young anarchists in Prague, also gathered here from around the world, have tapped into it too. The Indian writer Arundhati Roy put it best, writing about her crusade against a World-Bank-funded dam: "Perhaps what the 21st century has in store for us is the dismantling of the Big. Big bombs, big dams, big heroes, big mistakes. Perhaps it will be the Century of the Small."
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By Chris Ford and Heather Brown ~ Sept. 27
The Tucson event was another great outcome of the coalition building we have been doing here in Southern Arizona. It was organized by members of several diverse groups including the Southern Arizona Alliance for Economic Justice (SAAEJ), Students Against Sweatshops, Earth First!, Pueblo por la Paz, and others. It was held in front of the National Law Center (NLC), a powerful corporate "free trade" advocate based in Tucson. The NLC is one of the main proponents of the "NAFTA-like" trade agreement for the entire western hemispher that is currently being discussed. In fact, the NLC represents the United States in those trade negotiations.
The protest started out well with over 100 people in attendance. Some of the people who were there included the President of the Southern Arizona Central Labor Council, and members of CWA, the Teamsters, and Machinists unions. We were chanting and holding signs and banners and handing out information to passers by. A gaint shoe arrived at the protest to gleefull cheer and applause. The shoe is a representation of the sweatshops that are operating in Central America as a result of the work of the National Law Center.
Soon after the shoe arrived a delagation went into the building to try and talk with represntatives of the NLC. After finding the NLC offices empty, the delgation began to head back to join the protest. While they were inside, the police arrived at the scene. They began acting hostilly towards our peaceful demonstration. As the delegation was walking out of the building, the police chased after and tackled to the ground a well known activist from our community. While they had him on the ground they became very physical with him, to the disbelief of the peaceful crowd. When people began to speak out against the police abuse of this individual, the officers took out their pepperspray and began to indiscrminantly spray the crowd. At least 20 people were hit with the pepperspray, with several people having severe reactions. Shortly thereafter more officers arrived and intimidated the crowd with loaded shotguns. After the police took the activist away they asked us to leave the scene. We regrouped and discussed the situation. We decided not to leave a broke into a defiant rendition of "We Shall Not Be Moved". As we sang song after song we began to hold our signs higher and we were overcome with a greater sense of empowerment and purpose.
It seems the police violence had the opposit effect of what they had intended. Instead of dividing us or causing us to leave, it worked as a unifying event bringing us closer together in the struggle for global justice. We ended up staying in front of the NLC for another hour after the incident happened and recieved very positive local media coverage. This event ended up becoming the first step in what will be a long-term campaign against the National Law Center.
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By Mary Beth Maxwell, Communications Workers of America ~ Sept. 27
While clashes between police and young protesters took place in the streets around them, 200 Jobs with Justice activists shuttled back and forth between the streets and a rally in Pioneer Courthouse Square. The rally was to celebrate recent union victories, to organize to defeat anti-worker ballot measures and to hear speakers link local struggles against privatization and corporate greed to the struggles taking place in El Salvador, in Prague and around the world.
Ten local union activists described recent organizing victories, and continuing victories in the making. The union victory speakers were introduced by Brad Witt, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO. The victories included the the Painter's (IUPAT) union victory in getting back wages for immigrant workers (even though the workers were not in the union), the successful ILWU Local 5 contract campaign at Powell's Books, the successful unionization of a new hotel by HERE Local 9, and an organizing victory for contracted out bus drivers representede by ATU Local 757. On-going struggles included a Teamster contract campaign against Bi-Mart (a local hardware/department store chain) and the ongoing struggle of 1100 locked out steel workers against Oregon Steel.
In addition to the police activities going on in the streets, the rally was disrupted several times by a group calling itself Billionaires for the IMF/World Bank who tried to take over the rally, including an attempt to buy Pioneer Courthouse Square! The Billionaires were eventually driven off by a group of activists lead by stilt walkers and giant puppets. The rally was sponsored by Jobs with Justice, the Cross Border Labor Organizing Coalition, Carpenters' NW Regional Council, and Teamsters Local 206.
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By Anu Muhammad A. Rahman ~ September 25
Everything is set in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, for two separate demonstrations and protest rally in solidarity with protest programmes worldwide against World Bank and IMF. On 26 September morning Left Front comprising different left parties of the country will hold a protest meeting and they will try to take procession to the World Bank Dhaka office.
On the same day different organizations including Democratic Revolutionary Alliance, Revolutionary Unity Front, Platform against sexual harassment, movement against oil-gas plunder by the MNCs, environment movement, students, workers, writers and intellectuals will hold another rally in the afternoon. That will also proceed towards World Bank office.
In Bangladesh, although a myth is always being nurtured by the media- state- education system that the WB and IMF are working for development of the country but this is increasingly getting clear that from poverty, pollution, destruction of industry, sex crime and sex trade, destruction of bio-diversity, plunder of gas resources, militarism, rise of Mafia, to arsenic etc everything has a 'golden' touch of WB-IMF-WTO.
A country of free flow of water has become a country of water-logged country just for the projects funded and supported by the World Bank. 30 million people are under the risk of arsenic poisoning just because WB supported 'green' revolution. Education, health all are in a mess. Poverty alleviation Progarmmes and Structural Adjustment Programmes together producing and reproducing poverty for many and affluence for the few.
These are few examples. So, for Bangladesh people protest against these institutions, resisting Imperialism and their allies is not a matter of only solidarity but a matter of life and death. This is true for people of every country. So, this is local as well as global resistance. This needs no mention that, globalized capitalist-imperialist hegemony and crime is creating path for globalized resistance.
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Updates from the Prague Independent Media Center
Prague Independent Media Center ~ Sept. 26
UPDATE 22:55Despite arrests, thousands of people are still in the streets of Praha. Confrontations with police are still continuing.
UPDATE 22:14 Reports of more than 500 arrested in the last hour.
UPDATE 21:35 At least four metro stops are now closed in Praha: Staromestska, Mustek, Muzeum, Namesti Miru. I.P. Pavlova and Vysehrad may also be closed.
UPDATE 21:15 After dispersing massive amounts of tear gas in the Muzeum metro area more than 1000 police are moving in. Three arrests have been reported.
UPDATE 20:55 Appeal for gathering at Soukalova Police station to document people arrested today. We have unconfirmed reports of arresties with broken limbs.
UPDATE 20:55 Police are using tear gas on aproximately 300 demonstrators in the Muzeum metro stop.
UPDATE 20:07 The Mc Donalds at the Muzeum metro station has apparently had its windows destroyed. Police are moving in.
UPDATE 19:50 The Opera has been canceled due to "unforeseen circumstances." We've had unconfirmed reports about the Ya Basta group still holding the bridge to the convention center. The lates report indicates they are no longer there.
UPDATE 19:42 Demonstrators have apparently left the convention center along with delegates.
UPDATE 19:39 Delegates are going to the Opera Square where a big party is waiting for them but three thousands protesters are already in the square and many more are joining and road blocks have been set up to stop the police entering the square. Thousands have gathered in the square.
UPDATE from Tel-Aviv Reports of a completely successful shutdown of down-town Tel-Aviv are coming in. Demonstrators totally took over a square and held a moment of silence in solidarity with actions in Praha.
UPDATE 18:43 Reports of mass arrests have begun.
UPDATE 18:43 The "blue" section is growing in number. They tried to block the underground railtrack - used by delegates to leave the Center - but police managed to stop them. Meanwhile the white overalls are back in the square where the demo started this morning.
UPDATE 18:17 Police heavily charged sections pink and blue that managed to enter the Congress Center area making nearly contact with the IMF delegates. Police stood idly for a while when only a stairway separated protesters from delegates on a balcony. Then riot police, previously deployed on the bridge, charged the protesters. We don't know of any injured but people were beaten badly. Our reporter had to interrupt the phone call because attacked by police.
UPDATE 18:01 Confirmed reports over cell phone to IMC Radio that the police line has been breached and that part of the conference center has been occupied.
UPDATE 17:52: News from the "pink" section (mainly Germans, Spanish, French and Americans). They reached the Congress Centre from behind. It seems the Centre is surrounded. Meanwhile at one of the bridge entrance hundreds of Greek activists joined the Turkish bloc to confront the police. A miracle in Prague: Greeks and Turkish together.
UPDATE 17:30: People are being brutally clubed outside the convention center by police. Unconfirmed reports suggest protesters may have gotten inside both the convention center and a nearby hotel.
UPDATE 17:19: Reports continue to indicate that demonstrators are within meters of the convention center.
UPDATE 17:14: Cars are being overturned and used as barricades. Cops retreating. Dogs have been released. The demonstrators are moving on the East side of the convention center.
UPDATE 17:10: Demonstrators have broken through police lines around the convention center. More than 500 are directly outside the convention center.
UPDATE 16:30: All metros have been closed in Praha.
UPDATE 16:06: The valley on the North side is still very tense. Police a trying to force demonstrators back out of the valley.
UPDATE 15:27: News from South blockade: water cannons and tear gas have attempted to break the barricade. A tank also tried to breach the blockade. The blockade is still holding though has retreated 100m. Police have tried to force the blockade apart, but the situation seems to be cooling off. No injuries reported.
UPDATE 15:27: Reports that the North bridge blockade is spliting up are coming across the wire. One group is going North to the city, the other maybe trying to join the other marches.
UPDATE 14:41: Reports of large clashes with police continue from around the city.
UPDATE 14:00: BBC is reporting that some police were set on fire due to molotov cocktails.
UPDATE 13:45: Ya Basta is pusing hard against police lines on the bridge to the convention center.
UPDATE 13:20: Reports of massive police violence from under the bridge to the convention center. Gas, spray, water cannons and other weapons are being used against the people marching toward the convention center from the valley. Many people have recived head injuries. One witness reports hundreds of tear gas rounds being fired.
(c) Independent Media Center. All content is free for reprint and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere, for non-commercial use, unless otherwise noted by author.
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Action on the Streets from Mumbai India
by Nikhil Anand ~ 12:59pm Tue Sep 26 '00
phone: 22-375 9657
Activists from Mumbai India gathered in front a new shopping mall (also the home of a very new McDonalds) to demand the government to reverse the destructive and polarizing trend of economic globalisation
(pictures to be posted soon!)
Global Day of Action September 26, 2000, 4.30 pm at Crossroads Shopping Mall, Tardeo
We want water, not Pepsi! We refuse to accept the World Bank's dadagiri!
Approximately fifty protestors, armed with a riot of colorful banners, posters, art and food demanded the withdrawal of the government's 'New' Economic Program of economic globalisation. Demonstrating instances in which the government has ceased to be accountable to people and their issues, the activists claimed that the government was increasingly pursuing foreign capital at a tremendous social and environmental cost to the country. The protest was held in conjunction with tens of thousands of people around the world that are demanding that the IMF and World Bank are having a disastrous impact on the people they are ostensibly instituted to benefit.
The event took place outside a controversial shopping mall, Crossroads in South Mumbai, that is only the latest manifestation of the gentrification taking place in a city in which the cloth mills, employing tens of thousands are being closed down to make room for lavish entertainment/ shopping complexes. The demonstrators also focussed on the McDonalds restaurant housed in the premises, shouting "Dirty Mac, Go Back" and "We want food, not burgers, first give us water before you feed us CocaCola!" The protests come at a particularly relevant time as politicians, in collusion with the World Bank refuse to let excess food stocks into the Public Distribution System (for fear of price 'distortions'). Instead the grains rot in granaries and the poor starve. Asking whether development was only a means to oppress the poor, Sanjay MG, of the National Alliance of Peoples Movements pointed to the proposed marine expressway being planned for the city. "The government does not hesitate to sanction Rs. 3000 crores (US$ 700 million) for a bridge to benefit less than ten percent of the population (motorists). Nevermind the tremendous harm it will cause Mumbai's fishing community, or the ten million users of public transit that will be even more ignored than before". The government's ostentatious plan comes at a time when, on account for a shortage of state finances, the poor now have to pay for not only medicines but also essential health services.
The day of action was endorsed and supported by over ten different city organisations, including the environmental groups, exploited people's movements, national youth groups, labor groups and human rights groups. The activists had a dynamic interaction with the curious public who not only supported but also joined in the protest. There were even (unofficial) words of support from the local police who were taken unawares by the spontaneity of the event. School children were quite excited by the pouha being served in front of the McDonald's and agreed to take the messages back to their schools.
"It was an exhilirating, rewarding experience", said Urmila Salunkhe of the demonstration, "the public was already well aware of the issues that were being talked about, they know that globalisation is having an adverse affect on their lives, today that became that much clearer", said NBA activist Yogini Khanolkar,
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Moscow Anarchists March on World Bank Offices
by Mikhail Tsovma ~ 8:56am Tue Sep 26 '00
About 40 anarchists and anti-capitalists marched through one of Moscow main streets on to the offices for the World bank in a demonstration of protest against capitalist globalization and a show of solidarity with comrades marching in Prague
About 40 anarchists and anti-capitalists marched through one of Moscow main streets on to the offices for the World bank in a demonstration of protest against capitalist globalization and a show of solidarity with comrades marching in Prague, who are reported to have blocked Russian vice-premier Alexey Kudrin from entering the congress hall where the IMF/WB summit convenes. Protesters chanted anti-capitalist slogans, blew whistles and leafleted the pedestrians. Some cut and paste art action was made at the WB offices (slogans "Down with IMF/WB" were pasted onto the walls). Police that arrived in about 10 minutes arrested 6 protesters and after a while the demo moved to the police station where arrested comrades were held.
However small, the march itself was a relative success because it was rather well-spirited and organized. On the eve of demonstration city authorities banned the demos in other parts of the city, but anarchists decided to march to the World bank offices nevertheless. This was the first action which was held in Moscow as part of the Global day of Action, and hopefully it will not be the last.
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Kiev/Prague Solidarity - Kiev Demonstration in Support of Prague
by Sergei ~ 11:21am Tue Sep 26 '00
We took part in large anti IMF/WTO action in Kiev 26 September. Also a lot of other organizations, including some Trotskyist tendencies, anarchists and left wing of Komsomol (youth organization of CP) took part. It was picket of IMF building and after that demo. Generally about 700 people took part in these actions. The main banners were “No – to globalization” and “IMF – out of East Europe”. All comrades, who took part in the actions, in the resolution unanimously expressed their support to comrades, who are now fighting in Prague. Mass media, with exception of left press, ignored our action.
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by Coletivo S-26 ~ 12:24pm Tue Sep 26 '00
phone: 351+919436029
More than 200 people gathered and are demonstrating in Lisbon in solidarity with the actions on Praha.
More than 200 people (including anarchists, left wingers, animal rigths, environmental and anti-racism activists among others) joined in a colective entitled "Colectivo S-26" to organize a demonstration against the IMF and WB.
They gathered at 18h (17h Lisbon time) in one of the downtown streets near major banks and multinationals, bringing some banners with anti-capitalist globalization sentences and joy to the streets with some performers and jogglers.
Leaflets where distribuited to the passing crowd.
Some reporters are on the site as well as police (some undercover). About 150 riot police wait nearby.
Demonstrators have been kept updated with the situation in Praha and expressed their solidarity with the victims of arrests and police brutality.
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Demo Against the IMF in Stockholm
by kurt svensson 2:21pm Tue Sep 26 '00
address: c/o Brand, Box 150 15, SE-104 65 Stockholm, Sweden
youth demonstrated in Stockholm on the evening of September 26th.
Demo against the IMF in Stockholm
Approximately 200 anti-globalisation activists and leftist youth demonstrated in Stockholm on the evening of September 26th. Beginning with speeches and reports from the situation in Prague, the calm but loud demonstration then began to move from the traditional workers quarter of Södermalm to the Old Town where Stockholm’s Bourse is located. Police presence around the demonstration was minimal.
Upon arriving on the Old Town island, the demo moved into the narrow alleyways where shouts and chants against the IMF echoed throughout the quarter, turning the heads of evening shoppers and tourists.
Just as the demo was to enter the large square in front of the Bourse, K9 police stopped the demo and riot police began to immediately seal off all the entries into the square with portable riot fences. The demo stood their ground in the alley in which they standing and a police van drove into the alley from the rear. Nearby, on the grounds of the Royal Palace, approximately fifteen police vehicles waited for orders. After circa ten minutes the entire area was sealed of and the demo began to dissolve as the police van in the rear pulled away. The planned speeches and street theatre in front of the Bourse never occurred.
The police action was unprovoked and seemed to be without any real goal, other than, in true “fire alarm style”, practice crowd control and the quick closing-off of an entire city area. And of course, letting the people know who’s in control.
And we know that that’s not always the case!
Today Prague, Next stop Gothenburg 2001!
Stop the EU Top meeting 14-16 June 2001!
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Anti Worldbank Action in Utrecht, The Netherland
by Gerbrand Oudenaarden ~ 10:50am Tue Sep 26 '00
500 young people were protesting in the town center of medieval Utrecht, The Netherlands.
They walked and protested against the World Bank, IMF and the expansion of Global Capitalism in general. The protestors stopped at banks, demanding employees tot take responsibility and think of social and ecological consequences of the banks' investments.
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Protesters March In IMF Meeting Siege Bid
Reuters ~ Sept. 26
PRAGUE, Sep 26, 2000 -- (Reuters) Some 5,000 demonstrators marched towards Prague's Congress Center on Tuesday in a bid to besiege the annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings.
Police said the activists' ranks had risen from low levels on Monday but there were far fewer than the 20,000 organizers had vowed to bring in with the aim of shutting down the meetings at a conference center south of Prague's downtown area.
The activists had reached the towering Nuselsky bridge spanning the valley which separates the Congress Center venue from downtown but were being prevented from crossing it.
The city's main thoroughfare leading up to the bridge was blocked by police to regular traffic.
The protesters, mostly foreign youths waved banners demanded cancellation of debt to poor countries as well as a shutdown of the IMF as they marched from central Prague's Namesti Miru (Peace Square) to attempt to surround the glass-plated conference building.
Two activists smashed a window of a McDonalds restaurant in the city center’s main square, but the other marchers remained peaceful.
Some were padded with cardboard and rubber foam and wore helmets. Others were dressed in white overalls and carried water pistols.
The demonstrators shouted slogans such as "Drop the Debt", "IMF, Make Them Pay, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?" as they split into several directions.
But demonstrators were optimistic about their aims. "We have done this many times before in Italy," said one.
Police made a perimeter around the Congress Center with armored personnel carriers and water cannon trucks and parked dozens of police vehicles on the bridge.
The rest of Prague was unusually quiet, and policemen - 11,000 are ready to defend the congress center - stood every twenty meters on main streets, where boarded up shops presented an eerie morning scene.
Protesters intend to block delegates from leaving the building until they decide to abolish the two institutions, which they say do more harm than good in their lending practices to the world's poorest nations.
"We don't want a violent protest. But I think there's a chance of violence because of the way the media have portrayed it and the way the police have prepared for the event," said Martin Empson from east London, an organizer for the Socialist Worker movement.
PADDED ANARCHISTS WIELD SHIELDS
About two dozens of black-clad anarchists with scarves and hoods padded themselves with cardboard in an apparent preparation for potential battles with police. Others wielded garbage-can lids as shields.
Others rolled along a huge blue balloon about eight-meters in diameter painted "Balls to the IMF".
The interior ministry said police had denied entry to the country to over 300 people who were on a black-list of activists considered dangerous for their roles in previous demonstrations in the past days.
The city of Prague had also taken other precautions, shutting down the metro station at the conference center and whisking IMF/WB delegates from their hotels to the venue early in the morning on shuttles.
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Simultaneous Protest at Chennai, Tamil Nadu (India)
TSS Mani ~ Sept. 26
Human Rights-Tamil Nadu Initiative,Jubilee-2000,Tamilnadu womens collective,Citizens for freedom of expression jointly organised a protest in front of Tamil Nadu government guest house at chepauk in Chennai the capital city of Tamil Nadu state in India for 3 hours starting from 10am to 1pm on Sep 26,2000 shouting slogans against IMF World Bank conference at Prague.450 persons including 402 women folk joined the protest.Banners with "Stop IMF and World Bank" were raised by the protesters.
TSS Mani,Co-Convenor of Human Rights-Tamil Nadu Initiative presided over the protest.Sheelu,Convenor of Jubilee-2000(Indian Chapter)gave the main speech.Kousalya,Chandra,Josephin of Tamil Nadu Womens collective gave speeches against world bank dealings against poor countries.
The role of World Bank and IMF against the people of developing countries on debt,unbalanced trade,patent laws,environmental degradation,brain drain,intellectual property right were exposed in the speeches and slogans given by the participants.
Co-Convenor, Human Rights-Tamil Nadu Initiative.
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Hundreds Rally in Seattle to CANCEL THE DEBT NOW!
Rev. Peter Strimer & Bronwyn Mauldin ~ September 26, 2000
206-323-0300 ext 217
SEATTLE - Nearly 600 people turned out for a series of events on Sunday, September 24 in Seattle in support of the Prague demonstrations against the IMF and World Bank. The afternoon culminated with a human chain around the Federal Building calling for cancellation of debts of the world's poorest countries.
Protesters carried chains made of paper and balloons, symbolizing the chains of debt burdening the poorest countries of the world. Signs ranged from "Break the Chains of Debt in Haiti" to the more succinct "Bite the Bank."
One large banner reading "Debt is Slavery" showed Africa and Latin America linked to the IMF and World Bank with golden chains. However, the two lending agencies were depicted as facades for large multinational corporations, including Citibank and Chevron.
The afternoon began with a rally at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral on Capitol Hill. Participants wrote letters to their representatives in Congress demanding debt cancellation. From there they marched via Broadway, a residential and commercial district where police rioted during the WTO protests, to the Federal Building.
Prior to the demonstrators' arrival, police had marked off the Federal Building with crime scene tape. The irony was not lost on demonstrators, several of whom remarked on the crimes being committed by the U.S. government by forcing poor country governments to cut health and education spending in order to service their foreign debts.
The human chain was closed when Rabbi David Seidenberg completed a circuit around the Federal Building, blowing a shofar on each corner.
Sunday's events were organized by the Jubilee 2000 Northwest Coalition and Washington State Jobs With Justice. They were endorsed by a wide range of local and regional organizations, including the King County Labor Council, Washington Association of Churches, Ustawi, the Northwest Labor and Employment Law Office (LELO) and Seattle Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). Other events in support of the Prague demonstrations are being held in more than 60 cities across the U.S. this week.
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Protesters Disrupt Morning Rush
The Washington Post ~ Sept. 26
D.C. police arrested 32 protesters who sat down and linked arms to obstruct the 1900 block of L Street NW during rush hour this morning. The demonstrators were part of a group of 200 who marched and chanted for "global justice" and for the rights of local parking attendants to join a union.
The protest was timed to coincide with demonstrations in Prague today against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which are holding their annual meetings in that city. Similar protests were scheduled for more than 50 American cities today.
The protesters were charged with failure to obey a lawful order of a police officer and face fines of $100, said Sgt. Joe Gentile, a police spokesman.
"There's a divide between rich and poor that is becoming more and more global every day," said Nancy Harvin, 37, of the District, as officers placed plastic cuffs around her wrists.
L Street was blocked about 8:30 a.m., and all the protesters were loaded onto police vans and the street was reopened by 9 a.m. Traffic on one-way eastbound L Street was blocked at 21st Street NW during the incident.
Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey arrived on the scene before the arrests began. The first two protesters arrested were holding a banner that stretched across the street, saying "Justice For All." As the men were handcuffed, Ramsey took the banner and balled it up.
The demonstrators were part of the coalition of groups that took part in mass protests of the bank and the fund in the District in April. They said the action this morning was meant to highlight the local effects of the global economy.
The protest took place outside two garages operated by InterParking. Local 27 of the Parking and Service Workers Union has been trying to organize employees of InterParking, which is affiliated with an international investment company. Union leaders say InterParking has refused to promise to remain neutral during the period when employees can decide to join the union. They say many of InterParking's employees are immigrants from developing countries left behind by the global economy, and in America they are stuck in low-wage jobs.
"It's a good example of how the global market affects working families," said Roxie Herbekian, president of the union local.
Jeffrey Kovach, market officer for InterParking, responded that the union has refused the company's offer to initiate a vote on the union, following federal guidelines.
A 38-year-old employee of InterParking, who declined to give his name, said he came from Eritrea, where he said the World Bank and the IMF are attempting to dictate economic policies instead of providing the kind of aid the country wants. He said he has signed a petition asking the company to meet the union's demands, but he was not taking part in the demonstration.
As he watched the noisy spectacle on L Street, he said, "I think this is democracy, I guess. Democracy working."
To view the entire article
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400 Turn Out in Washington, DC for S26 Solidarity Action
by Chuck0 ~ Sept. 26
Around 400 people, most of them union members and activists who were involved in last Spring's protests of the World Bank/IMF, braved the early morning drizzle to rally in support of local parking lot attendents who are trying to unionize. The boisterous picket stretched an entire city block in downtown D.C., on L St. NW, between 19th and 20th.
At one point, around 35 activists ran into the street and sat down to form a line of bodies that blocked the street. The police shut down L St. during the height of rush hour traffic. The 35 were eventually arrested and transported away. The action ended in a brief rally a short time later.
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Hundreds Of Connecticut Activists Flood The Streets Of Downtown Hartford
Crystal Haviland, Connecticut Global Action Network ~ Sept. 26
(860-514-0284)
Hundreds of Connecticut activists joined forces today for a mass march and rally in Hartford to demonstrate U.S. support for the Global Day of Action in Prague, Czech Republic, against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. "S26" will also mark support for the Connecticut Justice for Janitors campaign.
Citizens converged at Bushnell Park, at 2 p.m. and marched through the streets of downtown Hartford tying up traffic for hours.
This un-permitted mass march was one of hundreds to be held in major cities all over the world, focusing unprecedented attention on the disastrous effects of IMF and World Bank policies. Activists will show their solidarity with the tens of thousands of demonstrators who gathered in Prague and throughout the world to demonstrate and engage in civil disobedience against the IMF and World Bank meetings on that day.
"These institutions have devastated the environment and destroyed communities around the world and driven poor Americans deeper into poverty, noted "Kristin Perreault, a member of CGAN's S26 Working Group, at the SEIU rally in front of the Federal Building on Main Street. At the same time, she noted, "people are awakening to the possibility and necessity of global solidarity against the ravaging effects of unbridled corporate power. At home as abroad, a burgeoning movement is giving new meaning to the slogan, 'Think globally, act locally.'"
The Hartford event, coordinated by the Connecticut Global Action Network, included direct action, civil disobedience, and dramatic street theater.
Richard Beobel, a long time union janitor. "On the 26th, we, the janitors of SEIU Local 531, in solidarity with the Connecticut Global Action Network, as well as thousands of protestors around the world, are marching against all forms of corporate greed, from United Technologies here in Hartford to the policies of the World Bank and IMF."
For background information see: http://www.cgan.netfirms.com
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The IMF, World Bank and Providence Wages
The Providence Journal ~ Sept. 26
TODAY, TENS OF THOUSANDS of activists will protest the semi-annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Prague. Meanwhile, workers, students, faith-based activists and community members will protest in solidarity in more than 50 U.S. cities, including Providence.
We stand in Providence with a simple message: When international institutions or U.S. corporations receive our tax dollars, they should invest in good jobs and a living wage.
The Providence renaissance is well under way: the new mall, new hotels, the skating rink, the TV show. But too many families have experienced the underbelly of this renaissance. Recent reports show an increase in the numbers of working poor, growth in nonunion jobs, and families struggling to stay afloat. Many have begun to wonder why our tax dollars continue to subsidize a rising tide that has lifted mostly yachts.
The contrasts are startling. Providence has given hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars in the form of significant subsidies and tax breaks to minimum-wage employers while good jobs and essential services have been slashed. Nearly half (44 percent) of Providence families make less than $25,000 a year, according to U.S. Census figures and, in the last two decades, U.S. working people's real, inflation-adjusted wages have dropped by $1.75 an hour. Further, the average CEO of a U.S. corporation earns 419 times the wage of the average blue- collar worker and the richest 1 percent of Americans own nearly 40 percent of the wealth.
Today in Providence, we stand and say no to a corporate globalization, in the form of the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organization. This globalization promotes the increasing control of corporations over the lives of working families, both in the Third World and in the United States. As family-supporting jobs in manufacturing disappear, wages stagnate, the right to organize is eroded in the United States, and workers in Third World countries face high unemployment and increasingly abusive working conditions, it has become obvious that corporate globalization isn't working for all -- or even most of us.
We say no to these practices built on corporate greed and yes to policies that make the global economy work for working families. We say yes to the Providence Jobs and Living Wage Ordinance recently introduced at the City Council. This ordinance builds on the successes of the 52 other cities that have passed living-wage legislation, including Boston, Hartford, San Francisco and Minneapolis. Covering jobs working for the city itself, employers with city contracts over $25,000, and companies that have city subsidies of over $100,000, the ordinance would improve the lives of thousands of Providence working families, through living wages and benefits, fair working conditions, and community access to jobs.
In the streets today, we say yes to jobs with justice. We defend the right to organize as a basic human right and oppose the attempts by the IMF, the World Bank and powerful U.S. corporations to erode workers' power by union-busting, lowering the minimum wage, and weakening labor laws. We defend the right to a living wage as a basic human right. A living wage means earning enough to take care of ourselves. It means being able to take our children to the doctor, buy winter clothes, and pay utility bills. A living wage means not having to choose between school supplies and groceries for the week.
Working families should not have to live in poverty.
Alisa Gallo is co-chairwoman of Rhode Island Jobs with Justice and senior organizer for Local 217 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders Union, in Providence. Sara Mersha is co-chairwoman of Rhode Island Jobs with Justice and lead organizer for DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality).
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Tamara Straus, AlterNet ~ September 25, 2000
Prague -- These are trying times for the Czech Republic. Not just because the Czech government has been besieged by corruption scandals and attempts at rapid privatization have largely failed. But because the country's crown jewel, Prague, home to Kafka and the Velvet Revolution, has been inundated by two radically different -- though symbiotic -- delegations of foreigners.
The first group comprises 15,000 bankers, executives of multinational companies and finance ministers who have come to Prague to attend the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Bank and Board International Monetary Fund. Their suits are crisp. They tend to speak the language of neoliberal economics. And, as the Czech government had hoped, they are giving the city a financial boost by filling its four-star hotels and restaurants -- as well as glossing its reputation as the most cosmopolitan of Central European capitals.
The second group is, to put it mildly, a more motley crew. They are young. They are sleeping on the cheap -- in hostels, living rooms or in tents in the Sakhova Stadium. And besides sharing a romantically bedraggled dress code, they tend to view the world as being under a ruthless capitalist siege, in need of revolutionary antidotes that they intend to bring to fruition. These are the antiglobalization protesters, who Czech authorities are praying will not make their city better known as Seattle II.
But given the first few days of antiglobalization demonstrations and meetings this is unlikely to happen. The seven demonstrations that took place on Saturday and the half dozen that occurred on Sunday have been small in number (ranging from 50-500), peaceful and remarkably free of violent clashes with Prague's specially formed 11,000-member police force. Although there are now anywhere from 2-7,000 antiglobalization protesters in the city, their number is a far cry from the 20-50,000 that had been predicted.
This may well be because the Czech border police have been doing their utmost to bar protesters from the country. All last week and this weekend caravans of protesters from Germany, England and other European countries were detained at the borders, often for ten hours at a time, while police searched their vehicles and checked their passports against a master list of "radical insurgents" culled by the FBI and Canadian and European security agencies.
On Sunday, a 24-hour standoff took place at the Czech-Austrian border when 1,000 Italian activists coming by train from Venice decided to block the tracks rather then leave without three of their comrades who had been labeled "personas non grata," evidently because their names appeared on the list. Thanks to the cell phone, the activists managed to get in touch with the Italian Embassy in Prague, which sent a deputy to negotiate on their behalf with the Czech police. The train only got rolling again after the activists decided by mutual consent to leave the three "personas non grata" with the embassy deputy who promised to help them join their group in Prague.
"I am not at all surprised by this," said Czech legal observer Marek Vesely. "According to our laws, the police do have to explain why you are being detained or what it means that you are a persona non grata." He added: "It now looks like if you attend a demonstration anywhere in the world, your name will be entered on a list and your photograph will be taken."
Although protesters who rallied at the train station and in front of the Ministry of Interior on Sunday, were angered by the Czech border police they did not appear to be in the least defeated.
"This is a unique event," said Miranda, a dreadlocked 22-year-old from Bristol, England. "Never before has the movement been this international. Never before have Americans been able to get together with Europeans, face-to-face, to trade ideas and tales of action."
Indeed the meeting on Saturday at the protesters' "convergence center" -- an abandoned ship hanger on a scruffy island in the middle of Prague -- was truly international. Close to one thousand protesters from Spain, France, Canada, England, Sweden, Finland and the U.S. milled the grounds while the most vigilant gathered around a large map of central Prague to decide their course of action.
Like Seattle, the Prague antiglobalists are organizing themselves in "affinity groups" and making decisions by consensus. They have decided to march without a permit to the Prague Congress Center on Tuesday, September 26, the day that the IMF and World Bank meeting formally begins, with the goal of encircling the massive congress center and preventing the delegates form leaving until they "agree to radical reform or abolish their institutions."
Such a plan is near impossible, logistically let alone politically, as the congress center, a kind of Stalinist era Getty Museum, is ringed by police and difficult to access. The only direct route to the hall is a four-lane road that links the main part of the city to the congress center by an overpass, known locally as "suicide bridge" for the large number of people who leapt to their death during the communist era.
But such details do not seem to bother the youthful protesters. "We are on a fight to be known," said one of them. "We don't care about what's possible and what's not. We want justice and equality for everyone in the world."
Not everyone protesting in Prague this week is as buoyantly idealistic as this group loosely organized by INPEG, the Initiative Against Economic Globalization, a Prague-based coalition of mainly foreign activists. Also in town are representatives from 350 nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations who have been holding lectures on the negative repercussions of globalization and meeting with representatives from the IMF and World Bank.
On Saturday morning, Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright turned Czech president, held a forum at the Palace for leaders from environmental, human rights and interfaith groups with world financial leaders. World Bank President James Wolfensohn was there, as was IMF Managing Director Horst Kohler and the billionaire financier George Soros, to discuss "the responsibility of humankind for the development of the poorest areas of the world," as the forum flyer put it. The meeting went smoothly and inconclusively. And although Havel did not make any critical comments on the Bank or the global economic system that many had hoped for, his gesture was not perceived as a failure.
What angered activists were comments made by James Wolfensohn at another NGO-Bank session on Friday. "Understand we are not the world government," said Wolfensohn. "Very often people blame us for the politics in a country when they should really blame themselves. It is not me who has the vote. It is you."
Such reasoning is unacceptable to veteran anti-IMF and -World Bank activists, who have spent years painstakingly researching the impact of the lending institutions' policies -- particularly the IMF's structural economic policies (SAPs) -- on poor nations. Activists argue that World Bank loans for such large scale projects as dams and oil pipelines enrich the Bank and line the coffers of corporations, while causing havoc on poor economies' social infrastructure and environment. They point out that the World Bank has $30 billion in reserves, but refuses to use this money to cancel the debt.
In the case of the IMF, there is now close to uniform agreement among critics that macroeconomic remedies, such as currency devaluations, high interest rates and budget cuts, may bring poor countries into global markets but at the expense of instability and further debt. Even insiders like Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank, and Jeffrey Sachs, the Harvard economist who has advised the governments of Russia and Poland on privatization, argue that the IMF helped cause the Asian financial crisis of 1997 which spread to Russia a year later.
The World Bank and the IMF are thus finding themselves in a tight spot. Their recently released World Development Report is a much-publicized effort to recast themselves as fighters of poverty. To prove this, they are putting an emphasis on the projects that give people the basic tools to benefit from a global economy: education, access to technology and encouragement of stock ownership. But the very statistics they use -- that half the world's population lives on $2 a day, that one fifth of the world's people living in the highest income countries have 86 percent of the world GDP -- seem to call into question their development economics.
Although the leaders of the IMF and World Bank are making dialogue with their critics a priority -- inviting representatives from such organizations as the Environmental Rights Action Group of Nigeria and the Public Interest Center of India -- activist groups so far are not overly impressed.
"Globalized economics is nothing but global apartheid," said Sam Koba, a Kenyan from the World Council of Churches.
Perhaps the most successful group campaigning against the IMF and the World Bank in Prague is Jubilee 2000, an interfaith group that is calling for the cancellation of third world debt. Unlike the jumble of issues that many antiglobalization groups are airing, Jubilee's goal is clear -- correct global economic imbalances through debt forgiveness -- which is probably why it is one of the few organizations in the movement that has members in the countries it is fighting for. Jubilee has 20 million members in 150 countries.
"We get our message not necessarily through NGOs but through the power of faith and religion," said Liana Cisneros, Jubilee's 2000's coordinator for the Caribbean and Latin America. "In the places I work people understand debt even if they don't have access to the Internet."
Cisneros' comment raises one of the thorniest problems for the antiglobalization movement: How to become truly global? At INPEG's convergence center there were almost no African or Asian faces and few activists from Prague. This small number of Czechs, especially among young activists, worries some who realize that the Czech Republic has had its share of economic instability due in part to the IMF's economic recommendations.
"You must realize that the Czech people have a tradition of being obedient," said Arnost Novak, a 22-year-old organizer for INPEG and resident of Prague. "It is true that they are less idealistic about capitalism since the 1997 financial crisis. But not enough to be political. Young people here have lots of new entertainment: clubs, cafes, restaurants."
Novak adds that the police have been very efficient in disseminating "anti-protester propaganda." For three months alarmist announcements have been made in Czech newspapers and on television to stay clear of protesters, obey cops, and, if possible, leave the city. The city's 1,000 public schools are closed. McDonalds in boarded up. And residents of Prague, no matter how much they admire the nonviolent protests that toppled the communists in 1989, seem to be unmoved by the demands of the antiglobalists.
Tuesday is the big day for the antiglobalization demonstrators. INPEG's march to the conference center will be joined by almost all groups in attendance. What this will mean for the success of S26, as the day of the march is called, is unknown. But what is certain is that most Czechs, especially in the government, are hoping the day passes without incident.
"Vaclav Klaus wanted the meetings here," said Tereza Brdeckova, a novelist and newspaper critic referring to the former prime minister who was ousted after the 1997 corruption scandal. "Everyone else would have preferred the meetings be canceled."
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Czech Cops Stop Train, Bar World Bank, IMF Protesters At Border
From Tribune News Services ~ September 25, 2000
PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Activists took to the streets Sunday to protest the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, but reinforcements that could have swelled their ranks were stalled at the Austrian border.
Police halted an Italian protest train carrying more than 500 passengers to the demonstrations, refusing to let it cross the frontier until four blacklisted activists were removed.
Fourteen activists returned to Austria after being denied entry for lack of papers or for being unwelcome ahead of the annual meetings, which open on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, rich nations claimed a breakthrough Sunday in their battle against high oil prices after persuading several oil-producing countries to join them in calling for cheaper crude. But their intensive campaign to stabilize commodity and currency markets awaited the verdict of traders on Monday.
Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Russia and the United Arab Emirates joined the Group of 7 industrialized nations and other members of the committee that governs the International Monetary Fund in condemning current oil prices as harmful. Their agreement did not constitute a binding commitment, but financial officials presented it as tangible progress before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries holds a meeting in Caracas, Venezuela, this week.
"The committee is concerned that current oil prices, if sustained, could hamper global growth, add to inflationary pressures and adversely affect prospects for many countries," its communique said.
Finance ministers gathered here for the annual IMF and World Bank meetings hope their sustained oratorical campaign against a $30-plus barrel price for oil will have a marked impact on a volatile commodity market that is sometimes moved by psychology and speculation.
But they have so far been unable to announce concrete steps that would lead to a greater supply of oil by winter. Sunday's communique, like one released Saturday, praised the United States' decision last week to tap its substantial strategic oil reserves to help dampen prices. But though the statement noted that other nations would also consider using emergency reserves to increase supply, none had made such a commitment by Sunday.
The U.S. is leaving open the possibility it would tap its strategic oil reserve again before the November presidential election as a cushion against feared heating-oil shortages and to keep downward pressure on prices.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Sunday that President Clinton would gauge the impact within 30 days of his decision Friday to release temporarily 30 million of the 571 million stockpiled barrels.
"After 30 days, after 30 million barrels, the president will make an assessment and see where we are," he said on the CBS program "Face the Nation."
Richardson said the administration had moved to prevent a "potential national emergency," notably projected heating-oil shortages in the Northeast as autumn temperatures begin to drop.
Richardson, without elaborating, said the administration had "worked this very carefully" with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. "If you look at OPEC's reaction, it's an understanding reaction of what we've done," he said.
Time Magazine reported Sunday that Clinton started laying the groundwork for the move during a meeting with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia during the Millennium Summit at the United Nations in New York earlier this month.
Back in Prague, only a few peaceful marches straggled through the historic streets. About 1,000 people marched in a demonstration organized by the campaign group Jubilee 2000, which has tried to force the issue of debt relief onto the international agenda.
They staged a mock funeral march for the 19,000 children they say die every day in the world's poorest countries because those nations spend far more servicing debts to richer states than they do on basic health care.
The protest drew 1,000 people, lower than organizers had hoped.
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Campaign to Boycott World Bank Bonds to be Launched in Europe
INPEG Press Center ~ Sept. 25
PRAGUE, Sep 25, 2000 -- (INPEG Press Center) As thousands descend upon Prague to protest at the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, numerous new institutions in the United States have joined the World Bank bonds boycott, and a new European campaign network is forming.
On Monday, September 25, ASEED, a European network of youth organizations will announce its launch of a European campaign to match one that has taken hold in the United States in central Prague.
The campaign, which demands that the World Bank stop its structural adjustment lending and cancel debt claims it has on countries in the Global South, hinges on the fact that the World Bank gets 80% of its financing through bond sales on private financial markets to institutional investors and others. The U.S. World Bank Bonds Boycott was launched in April at the time of the Spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington. Human rights, environmental, labor and development groups in over 35 countries support the campaign.
Vanja Bucan, Multilateral Development Bank Campaign Coordinator for ASEED, notes that "Western Europe is the region most heavily invested in World Bank bonds. Here in Prague we are launching the campaign to make European investors accept responsibility for their role in World Bank-sponsored structural adjustment."
In the United States, the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, California, and the trade unions Communications Workers of America and the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) have all committed - through resolution or statement of policy - to not purchase bonds issued by the World Bank. Coalitions of human rights and social justice groups in San Francisco and Boulder, Colorado are poised to introduce resolutions before city councils in those cities in October. Two members of the U.S. campaign will be at Monday's event.
Dennis Brutus, the renowned South African poet and anti-apartheid campaigner, notes "The World Bank has devastated countries and communities in the Global South for over 50 years. It's newest promises on debt relief still include devastating structural adjustment conditions. Now the people, North and South, are saying the game is up: either stop structural adjustment programs or lose your lifeline." Both Dr. Brutus and Trevor Ngwane, a Soweto city council member active in the campaign, are slated to appear at Monday's event.
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Movement Growing Up And Getting Practical Since Seattle
By Roger Cohen ~ The New York Times ~ Sept. 24
PRAGUE -- With her Danish mother, her Syrian father, her French passport and her Oxford education, Annie-Christine Habbard, 31, seems every inch the global citizen equipped to succeed in a shrinking world. Yet here she is, chic in black, articulate in several tongues, at the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, protesting the state of the globe. What she wants is more social justice, respect for human rights, a "counterpower" to high finance and, for good measure, a more equitable distribution of the spoils from a new Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline.
Say "anti-globalization" and stormy images come to mind: ransackers of McDonald's restaurants in France, smashers of Seattle storefront windows. The police on every corner here, and the shuttered shops, confirm the power of such specters, and indeed some protesters say they want a repeat of Seattle. But the specter of violence can deceive. The deeper reality is more significant: that of an increasingly sophisticated, intellectually robust protest movement, mixing idealism with pragmatism, that is fast playing catch-up with the forces of multinational capital.
It is time to change icons: replace the angry visage of Jose Bove, the French farmer recently imprisoned for storming a McDonald's, with the cool features and articulate aplomb of Ms. Habbard.
"Ours is a new planetary citizenship, reflecting the fact that decisions have migrated from state level," Ms. Habbard, the deputy secretary general of the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, said. "Voting for national representatives, an old expression of citizenship, achieves nothing, because they have scant power. We have to be here to fight the political battles that will ensure globalization does not continue to accentuate inequities."
She is not alone. More than 350 citizens' organizations are here -- debt-reliefers, save-the-Earthers, human-dignity-firsters, and everything in between, representing lands from Mauritius to Mexico. Forget right and left and the stale duels of national politics: the battle of universal principles against universal capital now unfurls.
It might be argued that the lines are being drawn in the wrong place. The $1.2 trillion traded daily on world money markets equals the entire lending of the World Bank over its 55 years of existence. But all that fast-moving money has no identifiable face. By contrast, the altar of market liberalization, privatization and public spending cuts is identifiable, and the protesters are sure such orthodoxy has run its course.
Ms. Habbard is determined to change the world through international human-rights law where her predecessors deployed Marxist revolution or flower power. She is intensely pragmatic. She has lawyers behind her, ready to use the body of international law to compel the World Bank to avoid loans to any projects that might compromise human rights. Multinational corporations are more difficult to control, she concedes, but they are the next target. The Internet links her to other groups like Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, with their own batteries of lawyers. Nothing dreamy here: this fight to shape globalization has all the romance of a corporate takeover battle.
Organizations like Attac in France, whose membership has increased in two years to 26,000, including more than 20 members of Parliament, argue for taxes on international capital flows, codes of conduct obliging multinationals to respect human rights and restraints on the activities of United States pension funds that pursue returns in Europe in ways that cut back jobs. For Bruno Jetin, a French economist, such measures are essential to "put equality and human beings back at the center of economic debate."
Such ideas have a particular resonance in France, where equality is a founding principle of the republic and rapid Americanization in recent years has stirred uneasiness. But everywhere in Europe, where the state's heavy role in balancing the excesses of the market had been widely accepted, the triumph of the private sector causes some unease. One challenge before these Europeans -- and all the anti-globalists -- is to make the case that their concern for equity will not hobble growth in the developing world, as it sometimes has done on this continent. On the other hand, the intellectual ammunition of the anti-globalists has also been reinforced by the spread of poverty in places that include Eastern Europe -- a trend that has led James D. Wolfensohn, the World Bank president, to use some very strong language here.
"Today you have 20 percent of the world controlling 80 percent of the gross domestic product," he said. "You've got a $30 trillion economy and $24 trillion of it in developed countries. The income of the top 20 is 37 times the income of the bottom 20, and it has doubled in the last decade. These inequities cannot exist. So if you are looking for systemic breakdown, I believe you have to think today in terms of social breakdown."
Dramatic words. But another side to the story clearly exists. Open markets and free trade have slashed poverty in East Asia, and a few countries in Africa have also begun to respond to this recipe of economic opening. As Daniel Bachman, chief economist at The Globalist.com, an online magazine, pointed out: "Globalization can also improve conditions by forcing a race to the top."
In states like Argentina, the dismantling of local oligarchies caused by open markets has had a tremendous liberating effect. In a place like Haiti, subsistence wages may be undignified, but they are better than starvation.
Globalization can also be a very fertile process. Much has been made of the Americanization of the world, but cultural currents are more mixed than that, and the United States has also been Europeanized, from its coffee to its eating habits. In some areas, such as data privacy, stricter European standards seem likely to prevail, to Americans' benefit.
Yet the president of the World Bank warns of a social breakdown because of the very global economic system he is deemed to personify. So there is clearly a problem, and a growing one. Its nature is economic and political. Some basic statistics are not encouraging -- about 1.2 billion people still living on less than $1 a day, another 1.3 billion people on $2 -- and the diverse protests stirred by such numbers are now so vigorous that dialogue and compromise have become essential. "If we do not succeed in making clear to citizens that globalization is to their benefit, we run a big political risk," said Caio Koch-Weser, a senior German economic official. "There's a feeling in the population that nobody's in charge. People are afraid of losing jobs to the whims of multinationals. We need to bring Wall Street to Main Street."
This sharpening of official concern reflects the fact that a decade of globalization has allowed a keener dissection of its characteristics. The wild denunciations of the inhuman scourge of rampaging global capital in the French author Viviane Forrestier's immensely popular "The Economic Horror" (one million copies sold worldwide, but unpublished in the United States), have given way to subtler analysis. Often this has concentrated on the way a global economy can prompt a "race to the bottom," as the cheapest labor and lowest taxes are relentlessly sought out. The net effect has been described by the German sociologist Ernest Beck as "the Brazilianization of the West" -- the progressive recourse to uninsured, temporary workers -- and the slow dismantlement of the welfare state.
John D. Clark, a development specialist on leave from the World Bank, has argued that globalization was always a highly selective thing. Advocates of free trade really wanted only an unrestrained market for capital. The result has been to maximize returns on capital, while minimizing returns to labor. "The world over, gaps between rich and poor have widened as richer populations and countries raced ahead of poorer," Mr. Clark wrote recently.
Many economists dispute that view. But officials seem convinced that beyond debt relief, an enormous effort must now be made to give more people the basic tools to benefit from a global economy: education, lifetime training, access to technology, encouragement for the stock ownership that alone will spread America's brand of popular capitalism, in which even blue-collar workers benefit from investing. Without such measures, the distorting effects of the wild premium placed by modern markets on talent and technology seem likely to grow, miring a third of humanity in abject poverty.
The other new priority seems to be dialogue. Mr. Wolfensohn spent time Friday with non-governmental organizations including the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society of the Kyrgyz Republic, and a representative of something called World Vision from Uganda. Questions ranged from corruption to control of multinationals to that Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline. The meeting, in such a setting, amounted to a first. But the evolution is natural enough: world politics, however cumbersome, for a global economy.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
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