WEF can't hide in era of Enron
Billionaire forum focus of protests
Thousands decry war, racism, capitalist globalizers
By Deirdre Griswold
New York
The tens of thousands of protesters who rallied and marched
in midtown Manhattan Feb. 2 against the billionaires at the
World Economic Forum let the world know that, even in the
repressive post-9/11 climate, the movement against war and
racism is back and growing in the U.S.
Anyone who still has doubts about the way the left defines
the state--that in essence it's an armed force to protect the
property and privileges of the rich ruling class--couldn't have
been in New York during the WEF's annual bash.
The police were everywhere. Some 10,000 were mobilized over
the several days of events.
Protecting Starbucks and Gap
Three-person squads stood in front of every Starbucks, every
Gap, every Old Navy, every United Colors of Benetton, every
Banana Republic in mid and lower Manhattan. Police helicopters
hovered overhead. Police motorcycles, vans, marked and unmarked
cars, even buses careened through the streets.
The area for blocks around the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was a
blue "frozen zone." The police broke up a permitted
demonstration area into little pens surrounded by metal
barricades.
Inside the hotel nearly 1,000 of the world's richest and
most powerful people--plus a hefty dose of heads of state and a
sprinkling of others thrown in to bask in their
magnificence--were celebrating the capitalist system with
forced exuberance. Occasionally a PR person would emerge to
announce that they were attending workshops on such caring
issues as poverty and the environment.
Did they feel more secure in this huge metropolis than in
Davos, Switzerland? That's where they had met for many years,
squeezing a few après-ski hot toddies into their
agenda--before demonstrators began climbing the Alps to
confront them. They had incurred the wrath of so many because
their annual gatherings were the place of conception of many
corporate schemes that have led to a world polarized between
extreme poverty and obscene wealth.
There were indications that the glitterati did not feel very
secure in New York. On Feb. 2, the day of the main protests, a
"war room" was established at NYPD Headquarters, where agents
from 16 city, state and federal agencies monitored live cameras
on street corners and in helicopters, looking for lurking
protesters.
Billionaires can't escape chants
of "WEF, shut it down"
Even with this thick buffer, it was reported that the forum
attendees could still hear the chants of the thousands lining
Park Avenue to the north. "WEF, shut it down," "Money for jobs,
not for war," and "People before profits" were especially
popular. The super-rich must also have heard that thousands
more were assembling at Central Park and then marching down to
rally south of the hotel.
It's not so much fun being filthy rich when you know that
you're surrounded by tens of thousands of people who hate what
you stand for.
But they had more than that to be glum about. The sewage
from the messy Enron collapse was lapping at their ankles. Who
would be the next to slip into the cesspool? The smiles were
even falser than usual as they slapped backs and wondered if
their friends were planting financial bombs in their
portfolios.
They had hoped that the NYPD's massive display of force
would scare demonstrators away. Hadn't they made their decision
to come to New York after 9/11 because it was now such a
traumatized place that the authorities could demonize whomever
they wanted? Bush was telling the world that you were either
with his policies or you were the enemy. Who would dare raise a
voice of dissent at a time like this?
When it became clear that the demonstrators would come
anyway, the police devised tactics to try and kill the spirit
of protest. They declared their total jurisdiction over the
streets of New York--YOU'VE GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?--and
threatened to arrest anyone who so much as put their foot over
the curb into a restricted area. They set up barricades,
checkpoints and sealed off large areas around the
Waldorf-Astoria.
The International Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
(ANSWER) coalition had applied four months earlier for permits
for a "meet 'em and greet 'em" rally across Park Avenue from
the Waldorf-Astoria. It had repeatedly had to answer
violence-baiting in the media that was designed to scare people
away. The police sat on the application until just 12 days
before the opening of the forum. They finally granted a sound
permit, but refused to allow the group to march after its rally
under threat of mass arrests.
People coming to the ANSWER demonstration had to navigate a
gauntlet of police checkpoints that sent them many blocks out
of their way. A report from the Mid-Hudson National People's
Campaign said it took some of their people "an hour or more to
be admitted to the area." Buses arriving from other cities were
forced to drop their passengers off at 59th Street--nine blocks
from the ANSWER rally site.
Militant rally on Park Avenue
But by mid-morning, the protest stretched from 50th to 56th
streets. Speakers from a broad variety of organizations opposed
to corporate globalization and demanding justice and equality
laid out the thousand and one reasons for being there. There
were Florida farm workers seeking a living wage and better
conditions, Muslims against racial profiling, African American
ministers against the war, Palestinians struggling for their
homeland, civil liberties lawyers, doctors who know personal
health is a social issue, high school students combating
militarism and police repression, activists from Mexico,
Central America and the Caribbean, environmentalists, Koreans
for peace and reunification, AIDS organizers fighting the
greedy pharmaceuticals, and many more.
Many speakers summed up the problem confronting all these
diverse groups with one word: capitalism. That seemed to really
annoy the police lining Park Avenue, indicating they know their
job is to protect the super-rich.
At the end of the rally, the ANSWER coalition announced it
would try to lead a march to join up with another large protest
led by Another World Is Possible (AWIP), which had assembled at
59th Street and Fifth Avenue and was marching through the east
side to a rally site at 48th Street south of the hotel. Even
though AWIP had a march permit, it also experienced a heavy
police presence and harassment. There were dozens of arrests
even before the march started.
Police prevent marchers from uniting
Since the police had blocked the way south on Park, the
ANSWER group of several thousand people first walked west to
Madison Avenue, then south to 48th St. Here there was a
15-minute standoff while the cops on the street, who had said
earlier that the people would be allowed to join the other
protest, got contrary instructions from their commanders.
When police continued to block the east and south exits from
the intersection, the group headed west, eventually reaching
42nd Street and a theater showing the racist film "Black Hawk
Down," which is preparing public opinion for another U.S.
invasion of Somalia.
After a loud picket of the film, as police were closing in
to make arrests, the marchers decided to disperse, many making
their way in small groups to the AWIP protest, which by this
time was rallying at 48th Street.
While police prevented most of the people organized by the
two groups from coming together and showing their combined
strength, many estimated that at least 25,000 protesters
marched in New York that day.
The night before, International ANSWER had organized a
packed rally at the main auditorium of the Fashion Institute of
Technology that became a celebration of the diversity and
militancy of this new coalition. (See coverage, page 5.)
Earlier in the week, the UNITE union and the New York Labor
Council had picketed the Gap as a symbol of the
sweatshop-loving corporate globalization that is pulling down
workers' wages and conditions everywhere. (See article, page
4.)
The response of the state to all these
activities--surrounding the protesters with an army of
blue--was supposed to be a show of strength. In fact, it showed
that the billionaire class, despite their enormous control over
the media and the political system, must resort to violence
against the people because they are becoming more hated and
isolated every day.
Reprinted from the Feb. 14, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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
Email
this article
Printable
page