WE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
Page Not FoundWE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together. |
||
Page Not FoundWE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together. |
||
Page Not FoundWE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together. |
||
Page Not FoundWE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
You cannot have a viable political movement if it doesn't have its own press.
Twenty-five Years of In These Times
1976-2001: From Jimmy Carter to Osama Bin Laden, highlights from the most important stories and most intriguing voices to have appeared in our pages.
Anniversary Greetings
Thanks to our friends and supporters.
Appealing to Reason
Back Talk
The real toy story.
Back on the air at Pacifica.
India and Pakistan inch closer to war over Kashmir.
No Relief
Behind Argentina's economic meltdown.
The World Economic Forum is coming to New York.
Under the Radar
Bush quietly thwarts environmental regulations.
Private Schooling
Edison Inc. bids to take over Philadelphia education.
Kathleen Zellner: Freedom Fighter.
Follow the Money
BOOKS: It makes the world go 'round.
Not So Innocent
BOOKS: Arthur Schnitzler, sexual neurosis and the bourgoisie.
FILM: Ali and Black Hawk Down
|
January 18, 2002
Hob-nobbing at Ground Zero
The World Economic Forum is coming to New York.
It’s no surprise that after two years of escalating confrontations, the
roaming road show of trade summits and global justice protesters would eventually
land in New York City. But nobody thought it would look like this. The World Economic Forum—a 30-year-old organization supported by more
than 1,000 major corporations—usually holds annual meetings in the luxury
resort of Davos, Switzerland. This year, however, as a show of solidarity, the
WEF is making a post-September 11 pilgrimage to New York for meetings from January
31 to February 4. This is the first time the WEF has held a full meeting outside
Davos; about 1,000 corporate executives, 250 politicians, 20 heads of state,
and 1,000 or so other notables will converge on the Waldorf Astoria. And, undoubtedly
kept at a distance, so will the protest movement that has helped turned Davos
into a war zone for the WEF’s last several annual gatherings. The New York protests will be the first major test of the strength of North
America’s global justice movement since last September’s massive anti-World
Bank/IMF protests in Washington were cancelled in the wake of September 11.
It’s hard to imagine worse circumstances. Rhetoric about causing capitalism
to collapse somehow seems creepier when the remnants of the World Trade Center
are just blocks away. Even more so than in past protests, the local public and
media mood is likely to be hostile. Organizers seem undeterred. Eric Laursen of the protest umbrella group Another
World Is Possible (and an occasional In These Times contributor) predicts “tens
of thousands” will assemble from across North America to protest the WEF
and its series of workshops and networking meetings and parties. Student activists
plan a two-day conference from January 31 to February 1, after which they will
join the direct action crowd for a legally permitted rally (10 a.m., February
2) and, throughout the weekend, the seemingly inevitable “diversity of
tactics” called for as part of an “Anti-Capitalist Convergence.” Notably missing from the list of endorsing groups for the protests are almost
all mainstream global justice, environmental and labor groups—even though,
four months ago, support of such groups for the planned protests in D.C. was
extensive and New York, as home of the United Nations, is crawling with NGOs. Most of those groups will instead be in Porto Alegre, Brazil during the WEF
meetings. For the second year, the World Social Forum (WSF) will convene talks
there intended to parallel the WEF. As a meeting hosted by, in, and for the
Third World, the WSF focuses on developing alternative visions for more positive
economic and social policies throughout the world. It’s undeniable that those efforts would not be nearly so visible in the
North without the succession of summit street protests that have circled the
world since Seattle’s 1999 WTO meetings. But 2002 is very different from
1999, and New York, in particular, is not the same place. Even some sympathetic
long-time activists have doubts about the wisdom of radical street protest in
these conditions. Says one such skeptic, who lives in New York, “I don’t see any possible
positive outcome to it. ... I just don’t see the wisdom. This action is
a continuation of a political logic that is now outdated and inappropriate”—not,
she says, because the issues have changed or become less urgent, but because
the political and cultural climate has changed. “If the anarchists wear
balaclavas, the cops won’t beat them up. The public will.” Conversely, it’s hard to imagine that the WEF could hold a meeting in
New York at any time and not have protests—let alone now, when the city’s
finances as well as the Twin Towers are in ruins. Organizers are attempting
to rally public support by calling on the city to spend money on disaster relief
and economic assistance, not on the WEF meetings. And at least one group, Reclaim
the Streets, is hoping to finesse the awkwardness through humor: an invitation
to activists to dress up in “rich person” drag and attend a “Dance
Upon the Ruins of the World.” (The dance, specifically, will be the Argentine
Tango.) Regardless of their size, larger or smaller than expected, the New York protests
may not be a fair measure of the ongoing strength of North America’s global
justice movement post-9/11. Meanwhile, in Brazil—away from the cameras
and newscasts—the task of designing a better world will continue. |
|
WE NEED TO BE UNITED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM AND REPRESSION
In These Times is committed to remaining fiercely independent, but we need your help. Donate now to make sure we can continue providing the original reporting, deep investigation, and strategic analysis needed in this moment. We're proud to be in this together.
