|
August 19, 2001 |
"Surround the White House" |
Subscribe to our free e-newsletter! |
|
|
On September &endash; of this year activists from all over the world will descend on DC to "Surround the White House" in protest of globalization. Here are two views on the continuing drama of the people vs. the global economy. What Protestors Face this Fall In an article in the July 19th issue of the Workers World newspaper, Gery Armsby reported on the reaction by Washington D.C. police to the planned protest to the annual World Bank and IMF meeting there from September 28th to October 4th. "According to reports in the July 10 and July 11 Washington Post, city authorities have requested 3,600 police reinforcements from other metropolitan areas, bringing the total available police force to 20,000 during the protest convergence. This huge police presence is being orchestrated in response to estimates that the upcoming actions will be the largest since Vietnam-era anti-war protests. "In addition, the World Bank and IMF have broken their 20-year tradition of holding these meetings in the quaint, residential Woodley Park area of Washington. Now, due to fears about the size of protests, they plan to meet at their better-fortified downtown headquarters," Armsby reported.
Are Protests Effective? In related news, on July 28th The Economist, a mainstream economics and news publication from the UK, commented on the WTO's current viability: "...the most recent attempt to launch a new trade round, in Seattle in December 1999, ended in disaster. Gridlock between rich and poor countries about the agenda was set against a background of massive, at times violent, street protest. For anti-globalisation demonstrators, Seattle marked the beginning of a crusade that has now been carried to the streets of Genoa. It has cast a long shadow over the WTO. Indeed, few believe the organisation could easily survive another failure in Doha (the location of the next planned round of trade talks). It would "go into hibernation", says one Geneva official, and the multilateral trading system might wither..."
|