By Malcolm Foster,Associated Press Writer
June 2001
The images seem to depict a rag-tag bunch of rabble-rousers: Masked protesters
toss rocks and bottles through clouds of tear gas, smash store fronts and
wrestle with riot police. Globalization is their enemy. But peel away the
street images, and a more textured view emerges. The protesters are largely
peaceful, organized and _ beneath all the
noise _ confident they are changing the way the global economy is run. Anti-globalizers
range from Drop the Debt, a London-based group that pushes rich nations to
forgive Third World debt, to mainstream environmentalists like the Sierra
Club. Some sound extremist but aren't: Attac, in Europe, favors a tax on speculative
cross-border investments to help fight poverty. They vie for attention at
summits of the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund and World
Bank, institutions they claim widen the gap between rich and poor. Yet much
of the coverage is grabbed by fringe groups, threatening to blur a central
theme: reining in global corporations from exploiting workers, the poor and
the environment. The disparity of messages and methods will be on vivid display
during President Bush's visit to Europe, starting Tuesday. Demonstrations
are planned in Madrid, Spain, and expected to grow to 25,000 activists by
Thursday in Goteborg, Sweden, ahead of a European Union summit.
Critics claim the message is muddled, a cacophony of angry voices. "It's
easy to know what they're against, but it's hard to know what they stand for,"
says Caroline Anstey, spokeswoman for the Washington-based World Bank, which
lends money to poor nations for development projects. The groups disagree
_ and try to distance themselves from less orderly players. "Of course
we want the violence to stop," says Maude Barlow of the Council on Canadians,
which protested talks in Quebec City in April to establish a trade zone stretching
across the Western Hemisphere. "We tell people, 'It may be only two dozen
of you out of thousands, but that is what is shown over and over on TV.'"
After all, they feel they have an urgent message: Globalization is moving
in a troubling direction. Huge corporations, driven by greed, have gained
tremendous control over our lives. They need to be held
accountable.
Activists view the IMF, WTO and World Bank as enforcing this system through
their loans and trade rules, and argue they need to be dramatically reformed
_ or abolished altogether. Anger over this reached a boiling point in December
1999 in Seattle, where protesters swarmed into the streets and shut down a
key WTO meeting. "Black Bloc" anarchists broke store windows and
sprayed graffiti on buildings, actions condemned by most other activists.
"We want to get rid of capitalism, and we're showing that," says
Chuck Munson, with Anti-Capitalists Convergence, a Washington-based anarchist
group that plans to protest IMF and World Bank meetings this
fall. But nonviolent methods are more common. Members of Direct Action Network,
a loose network of smaller groups across North America, use chains to lock
themselves to each other or link arms to block access to meetings. Others
roam the streets hoisting 15-foot puppets, like a WTO "octopus"
with tentacles holding signs that
read "deforestation" or "farmers' rights." The Ruckus
Society of Oakland, Calif., runs camps to train young
protesters in body blockades and "urban climbing" _ scaling buildings
and bridges to hang banners or block ports.
More moderate is Attac, which pushes for a 0.05 percent tax on financial speculation
to slow the boom-and-bust monetary flows that can hurt small economies and
to raise $100 billion to redistribute to impoverished nations. Attac members
in Sweden were meeting daily with police in Goteborg to try to keep Bush's
visit peaceful.
Mainstream organizations often work behind the scenes, and claim the biggest
successes. Through lobbying and petitions, Drop the Debt's predecessor, Jubilee
2000, secured a promise from major nations to cancel $100 billion in
debt to developing countries. So far, $40 billion has been forgiven, and Drop
the Debt is making sure the rest is delivered. A top Sierra Club goal is to
defeat legislation that would cede trade authority to the White House, a move
that could overrule existing environmental laws. Congress has killed the bill
twice. Oxfam, an international relief and development group, and others pressured
pharmaceutical companies to cut AIDS drugs prices in Africa.
Then there are the think tanks, including the International Forum on Globalization
in San Francisco and Focus on the Global South in Bangkok, Thailand, which
provide economic research and the intellectual backbone
of the movement. Despite differences, groups on both sides of the Atlantic
are remarkably coordinated _ almost entirely through the Internet. E-mail
and Web postings are vital to networking and sharing information. Most
groups operate on shoestrings, so can't "summit-hop" outside their
region. Skeptics say the movement will peter out, overwhelmed by the power
of global capitalism. "It's like trying to stop a steamroller with a
pebble," says Peter Waddington, a professor at Britain's Reading University
who specializes in protest politics.
At the very least, activists have created public debate, and world bodies
are taking notice. The World Bank canceled its meeting later this month in
Barcelona, Spain, for fear of protests, and the WTO meets next November in
remote Qatar. More importantly, they're talking about reform. The IMF, for
one, created an office last year to assess the impact of its loan programs
on local communities. But whether change comes from within or from outside
pressure
depends on who's talking. "We have to make sure globalization works for
the poor," says Anstey of the World Bank, which meets regularly with
the more mainstream protest groups. "Our intention is to have dialogue,
but it's impossible to do that with those who want to abolish you."
___
On the Web:
Ruckus Society: http://www.ruckus.org
Attac: http://www.attac.org
Focus on the Global South: http://focusweb.org
World Trade Organization: http://www.wto.org
World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org
International Monetary Fund: http://www.imf.org
___
DROP THE DEBT: Focuses on persuading rich nations to cancel Third
World debt. London-based successor to Jubilee 2000, which pressured
Group of 8 nations to forgive $40 billion in loans; G-8 has pledged to
cancel $60 billion more.
___
WOMBLES: White Overall Movement Building Liberation through
Effective Struggle. Anti-capitalist; members in white overalls and hoods
block streets and use fake money in stores to create scenes.
British-based; claims members throughout Europe.
___
DIRECT ACTION NETWORK: Loose network of groups across North America.
Members chain themselves to each other, link arms to form human walls,
perform street theater, hoist huge puppets to mock world trade bodies.
Major player in Seattle protests. Many members have anarchistic
leanings.
___
FOCUS ON THE GLOBAL SOUTH: Think tank based in Thailand provides
research on global issues, with emphasis on Asia and disparity of wealth
between industrial nations and developing world.
___
ATTAC: Association for Taxation of Financial Transactions for the
Aid of Citizens. Paris-based group campaigns for 0.05 percent tax on
speculative investment to slow rush of money in and out of developing
economies and to raise billions for poor countries. Stresses
nonviolence.
___
GLOBAL TRADE WATCH: Ralph Nader group promotes accountability in
trade agreements and examines how globalization affects jobs, health,
environment, democracy.
___
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INTERNATIONAL: Dutch-based federation of
environmental groups in 68 countries. Lobbies International Monetary
Fund, World Bank and trade officials to pay more attention to local
needs and assess how their programs affect environment.