20,000 tell world forum: people before profits

by Libero Della Piana

Over 20,000 peaceful protestors converged on the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in 
New York to protest the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting being held 
there. The WEF, which traditionally meets in Davos, Switzerland, is a 
gathering of CEOs from the world's largest corporations, multimillionaires, 
kings and heads of state. In addition, the forum is attended by cultural, 
religious and labour leaders.

Outside students, environmentalists, trade unionists and people of faith 
gathered. Protestors came to oppose various policies and practices of 
global capitalism, but many signs, chants and sentiments took aim at 
capitalism itself.

Instead of the poverty, environmental degradation and war of corporate 
globalisation, protestors declared that "another world is possible", a 
world of justice, equality and peace.

Another World Is Possible (AWIP) is also the name of the largest of the 
anti-WEF coalitions in the United States including such groups as Jubilee 
International, School of the Americas Watch and the Mobilisation for Global 
Justice. At one point, the AWIP march stretched four blocks down 46th 
Street.

AWIP gathered thousands of marchers in Central Park early February 2 where 
they were met by thousands of police in full riot gear. All along the 
winding march route, peaceful but lively protestors were met with police on 
horseback, prisoner transports and row after row of police. Many police 
wore disposable handcuffs on their belts.

Despite the hype, there were only 33 arrests during the massive protests on 
Saturday, of which 27 occurred before the march started in a "preemptive 
strike by police against demonstrators police claim were planning to become 
violent. On Sunday, over 150 were arrested in small acts of civil 
disobedience and police clashes around the city.

The increased police presence in New York City began early in the week 
before the WEF meeting. Police were doubled up in subway stations and at 
the Gap clothing stores and Starbuck's coffee shops.

New mayor Mike Bloomberg appointed Ray Kelly to be city police 
commissioner. Kelly has just finished a stint in the Treasury Department 
where he was in charge of security forces such as the US Customs Service, 
the US Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Conferences challenging the WEF, neoliberalism and global capitalism were 
held around New York during the week leading up to the counter-WEF 
protests. Public Eye on Davos was sponsored by an international list of 
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and met at the United Nations 
Building.

The New York Social Forum was held at the Brecht Forum on Sunday, January 
27, and the WEF Counter Summit and National Student Mobilisation was 
convened at Columbia University. The "Nation" and "American Prospect" 
magazines, along with the international forum on globalisation sponsored a 
forum on February 4, the final day of the WEF meetings.

Starting with last year's WEF meeting, thousands of people representing 
hundreds of organisations from around the world began meeting concurrently 
in Porto Alegre, Brazil for the World Social Forum.

This year's World Social Forum was attended by 60,000 participants or more, 
including thousands of youth and students who camped out in tents near the 
convention site.

While the WEF is not a governmental body and doesn't make decisions as 
such, its previous meetings are credited with leading to the creation of 
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Uruguay talks, 
which created the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

At the WEF meeting two years ago, 1400 protestors were met with police 
violence in the little skiing village of Davos, where the WEF has met every 
year since 1971. Last year protests were banned, but the hundred or so 
protestors who made it into Davos led to street clashes with the police.

This year, the WEF moved to New York City, site of the September 11 
terrorist attacks. Police tensions in the city in the past months have been 
high. Some protestors wore stickers proclaiming that "protesting is not 
terrorism".

The anti-WEF demonstrations mark the largest demonstrations in the city, 
and perhaps the country, since September 11, showing a shift in the public 
mood. "We can mourn the victims of September 11 and still demand justice, 
demand a better world, said Young Communist League member Abdul Hassan.

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People's Weekly World paper Communist Party, USA

http://pww.org