[stop-imf] IMF/Bank protests
Robert Weissman
rob@essential.org
Sun, 21 Apr 2002 17:21:20 -0700
Following a Saturday, April 20 demonstration outside the IMF and World
Bank that went extremely well, with about 1,500 on hand, there was a
short, spirited gathering outside the World Bank this morning. AP and
Washington Post stories follow.
Although there was some television coverage of the April 20 demo, most
print coverage focused on the staggering turnout, especially of Arab
Americans, for the Palestinian demonstration.
--
Robert Weissman
World Bank Protesters in D.C.
By Jennifer Loven
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, April 21, 2002; 11:02 AM
WASHINGTON ?? About 1,000 shouting protesters gathered Sunday outside
the downtown headquarters of the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund, demonstrating against the policies of
finance ministers meeting inside.
At one point, about 100 of the protesters moved down a nearby street to
block a police car slowly driving by. But they were stopped by police on
motorcycles and horseback.
About 400 police at the scene had riot gear at the ready, including
helmets and long batons, but did not need to use it. There were no
arrests.
The protesters, who originally did not have a permit, were granted one
Sunday for a march to the Washington Monument.
Assistant Police Chief Terrence Gainer estimated the crowd as high as
1,500, although other witnesses put the number at between 500 and 1,000.
Gainer said the protesters were mostly well-behaved. "The key is not to
stereotype each other and just to keep cool," he said of the interaction
between police and protesters.
Bill Wetzel, 22, a student at New York University, wore a skull mask and
a sign. On one side, it said: "Hello my name is capitalism" and on the
other: "Hello my name is war."
"I see our culture spreading itself across the planet from America
outward," Wetzel said. "What scares me is that this is a culture that
puts money before everything else."
Some struck cymbals and bells. Others held aloft a 15-foot-tall puppet
of a woman, with a sign saying "People over Profit" hung around her
neck. Protesters said she symbolized indigenous people
affected by World Bank policies.
Inside the building, world finance officials spent the final day of
their meetings focusing on how to more aggressively battle global
poverty, including an education initiative intended to get more children
worldwide, especially girls, into primary schools.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters marched in the city against
causes ranging from globalization to the Bush administration's Mideast
policy.
The spring meeting of world financial powers at the World Bank and IMF
brought the protesters to Washington, but anti-globalization forces did
not seem to mind sharing the stage with other causes.
Especially eager to be heard Saturday were Arab and Muslim marchers who
chanted for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.
Protesters carried banners saying "Drop debt, not bombs" and wore
T-shirts proclaiming "We are all Palestinians."
Police said the turnout Saturday was larger than expected. Rallying at
the Capitol after walking along Pennsylvania Avenue, the eclectic crowd
mixed young communists, Black Panthers and "Raging
Grannies."
Authorities do not provide official crowd figures for demonstrations in
Washington, but Police Chief Charles Ramsey gave a rough estimate of
35,000 to 50,000 on Saturday.
While no demonstrators were arrested during Saturday's events, 25 people
were arrested later for unlawfully entering an underground parking
garage and using it as a sleeping area for the weekend
demonstrations, said police spokesman Quintin Peterson.
With protests planned to continue into the start of the work week,
Ramsey said police were "going to have our hands full" on Monday when
several unauthorized rallies were expected during morning rush
hour.
The White House had a front-row seat for a number of the protests but
President Bush was spending the weekend at the Camp David presidential
retreat in Maryland and missed the scene.
-------------
Ramsey on Protests: 'So Far So Good'
By Carol Morello and Susan Levine
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 21, 2002; 1:38 PM
A march at turns boisterous and whimsical
brought out roughly as many
police and security officers as demonstrators
in downtown Washington today
in the second day of a weekend of protests for
an array of causes.
As about 1,000 demonstrators made their way
from Edward R. Murrow Park
in front of the World Bank at 18th and H
streets NW to a rally at the Mall,
they were surrounded by police from more than a
half dozen departments.
Officers in squad cars drove in front of the
crowd, and District Chief Charles
H. Ramsey, baton in hand, walked directly in
front of the lead banner. Police
pedaling bicycles rode behind the protestors.
Police on motorcycles formed a
solid line on either side of the marchers. At
various points, double lines of
police officers, some in riot gear, flanked
them. Nearby, police reinforcements
waited on foot, on horseback and in police
vehicles.
The police presence was so omnipresent that one
protest organizer cautioned
marchers, "Don't let it freak you out," as they
started marching east on H
Street.
The march was sponsored by Mobilization for
Global Justice. Two years ago,
protests here called by the same group resulted
in numerous altercations and
arrests.
"This group, we have potential problems with,"
said Ramsey. But by late
morning, there had been no confrontations or
problems.
"So far so good," Ramsey said.
In contrast to Saturday's demonstrations, which
were dominated by
pro-Palestinian protests against Israel
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza
Strip, Sunday's marchers focused on global
economic issues. Many railed
against policies of the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund, who
are conducting their spring meetings this
weekend. Protesters say their
policies hurt developing countries and benefit
multinational corporations. On
placards and in chants, they called for the
cancellation of Third World debt
and a change in U.S. foreign policy that they
charged is motivated by
corporate greed.
Near the Sylvan Theater on the Washington
Monument grounds their march
ended by joining a rally against various U.S.
policies, including military aid to
Colombia. Speakers at the rally said
U.S.-funded fumigation intended to
eradicate coca plants from which cocaine is
made has led to the loss of food
crops and rainforest land.
The protestors were overwhelmingly young, most
in their late teens or 20s. Some anarchists clad entirely in black hid
their faces with
black bandannas. Draped around some protestors'
shoulders were a form of American flag, with red and white stripes but
with
corporate logos or a peace symbol instead of a
field of 50 stars. Some marchers beat makeshift drums fashioned from
plastic tubs
and struck gongs as they walked, prompting some
of the protestors to literally dance their way down the street.
Despite concerns there might be raucous
confrontations outside the World Bank, there were no altercations along
the metal
barricades erected in front of the building.
Instead, protesters wrote in chalk on the asphalt, tossed Frisbees, held
signs urging
"people over profits" and engaged in street
theater using giant puppets and staging a skit ridiculing American
foreign policy in
Colombia.
A member of the U'wa people, an indigenous
tribe of northeast Colombia, spoke against the Bush administration's
proposed military
aid to that country and U.S. oil operations
there.
"It will increase violence, death and
destruction," Roberto Perez said through a translator.
But speeches and chanting was not what Katie
Renier and several compatriots had travelled from Wisconsin for. The
college student
took the microphone as the crowd was being
urged to start its march and tried to incite a different kind of
protest.
"They're pressing their riot cops on us, and
we're just here dancing?" she shouted. "This is not what I came here
for."
Organizers let Renier continue only briefly,
then took back the microphone.
Elsewhere in the crowd, Connie Hall of Illinois
walked with the Chicago Religious Leadership Network. The group had sent
more
than 30 people to Washington for a weekend of
lobbying federal officials and demonstrating on the street. In contrast
to the
ubiquitous backpacks and jeans, Hall wore a
workday raincoat and held an umbrella and woven shopping bag. She
conceded that
most of the protesters were "young enough to be
my grandchildren." She was no less passionate than they, however.
The World Bank and IMF policies, she said,
"undermine democracy in the most nefarious way."
© 2002 The
Washington Post Company