-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 10, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Protest in Davos, Switzerland
No sanctuary for billionaires
By G. Dunkel
The biggest bourgeoisie of the world still remember Seattle and the defeat of the World Trade Organization. So do the workers.
Another skirmish against the worldwide attacks that go under the name of "globalization" was fought in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan 29. Davos is an unlikely spot for a protest. It is a small town deep in the mountains in the part of Switzerland close to Austria and Italy. A narrow, snow-filled road and a tourist railroad connect it to the lowlands.
But Davos has been the location since 1971 of a posh party, officially and pompously called the World Economic Forum, that invites the plutocrats of the world--individuals with a net worth of at least $1 billion--to meet elected leaders like U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The organizers charge participants $20,000 each, though for leaders like Clinton the fee is waived.
WEF1999 was where the deals that led to the kidnapping of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan were worked out between Turkey, the United States and the African countries where he sought refuge.
The World Trade Organization grew out of deals made at Davos in the 1980s. So WEF2000 was a good symbolic spot to begin the process of reversing Seattle. Demonstrations in past years had been trifling, drawing less than 100 protesters.
The WEF organizers took as their slogan "humanizing globalization." They even invited some of the groups who had been in the streets in Seattle, like the AFL-CIO, to attend.
According to reports in the French newspaper Libération and UPI, about 2,000 demonstrators showed up from France, Germany, Italy and England, as well as a large contingent of Kurds. The Associated Press and some U.S. papers reported the number as 500. The Swiss cops claimed less than 100 showed up. They wish.
The Swiss cops felt they had to let the protesters off the train, but tried to bottle them up about a mile away from the conference center. The demonstrators tried to break through the cordon, which was quickly reinforced by Swiss soldiers. Tear gas and rubber bullets were used and a McDonald's displaying the slogan "Think globally, eat locally" was trashed. A few demonstrators and some cops wound up in the hospital.
Jean Bové, a French farm leader accused of sacking a McDonald's in France last year during a protest against the globalization of French agriculture, wound up in the hospital. He had been in Seattle.
While many diverse groups participated in this action, the main political theme seemed to be ending the harsh effects of globalization on poor and working people and on poor countries.
The web site for one of the organizers of the demonstration, www.reitschule.ch/ reitschule/anti-wto/index2.shtml, provides an interesting list of supporters: a socialist deputy and trade union organizer, Chiapas support groups, Mumia Abu-Jamal support groups, various ecology and farmer movements, unemployed movements in France, and a smattering of groups in North America and Africa.
April 16 in Washington, D.C.,
is nextA coalition similar to the one that shut down Seattle over the WTO meeting is planning to go to Washington, D.C., on April 16 to protest a joint meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The WB and IMF were set up in 1944 to control and regulate the economic problems of the post-war period. They have been the prime instruments of a worldwide imperialist order that enriches the big bourgeoisie of the most developed countries and impoverishes most of the rest of the world.
The 60 groups that met in Washington early in January want to protest the IMF and WB, knowing that, after Seattle, they can draw more people than normal to Washington.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)HOME :: U.S. NEWS :: WORLD NEWS :: EDITORIALS :: SUBSCRIBE :: DONATE