Ever since the magnificent show of anti-capitalist sentiment in Seattle last year, left-wing activists and labor organizations have been planning for the "next big event". The chosen target was the meeting of representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) beginning on April 16, 2000 in Washington DC. One of the goals of the protest movement is to bring attention to the harmful effects the policies of these capitalist organizations have on the environment and on workers around the world.
Even before the meetings began, the media was flooded with images and information about the IMF, the World Bank, and the planned mobilization. It is evident that the Seattle protests pushed the issue of "globalization" (as the capitalists call it) into the mainstream .
The protesters are here for a variety of reasons. From forgiving third-world debt to genetic engineering; environmental degradation to sweatshop labor, and everything in between. Many are also protesting the fact that many jobs are being exported from the US to poorer countries that have fewer labor and environmental laws and restrictions, resulting in worsening conditions both at home and abroad. Just as the coalitions of global capitalism have become international in nature, so too the opposition to these institutions is developing on an international scale.
The fireworks in Washington began when environmental activists dumped four tons of manure in front of IMF headquarters. This symbolic demonstration of discontent marked the beginning of the second round of protests pitting the proponents of global capitalism against the increasingly militant youth and labor activists. As the week goes on, more and more young people and trade unionists will descend on the nation's capital in order to try and disrupt meetings between the world's top financial ministers and bankers. So far it is estimated that between 6,000 (according to police) and 30,000 (according to organizers) are participating in the mobilization. Waving placards like "Smash Capitalism," and chanting anti-corporate slogans, protesters have already been involved in several skirmishes with the police. So far, some 637 protesters have been locked up, most of them for "parading without a permit." This already exceeds the 550 taken in by authorities over the entire week of mobilizations in Seattle.
The Police
Of course, the trade ministers do not do the dirty work of beating and pepper-spraying protesters themselves. They have the hired guard dogs of the capitalist state to do this for them - the "armed body of men" known as the police. The police department of Washington DC prepared extensively for the onslaught of protesters, hoping to avoid a repeat of Seattle. They wanted things to proceed in a nice, orderly fashion, and were allegedly committed to peaceful supervision of the rallies. According to police Captain Mario Patrizio:
"Tear gas is not going to be used unless they go absolutely ballistic and set the place on fire."
Not surprisingly, as soon as this promise was made, it was broken. The protesters have been largely peaceful, with no incidents of vandalism yet reported, and already the cops are using the most appalling violence. Like the Seattle police, they have made liberal use of their batons, tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber/foam bullets in order to prevent disruption. They also made effective use of preventative measures - they expanded the barricade area around the IMF and World Bank buildings, and were more proactive breaking up groups of protesters before they could organize a coordinated assault on police lines. They even charged the crowds on their motorcycles - a trick they must have learned from the cavalry charges of the Cossacks in Tsarist Russia! The extent to which the police are fans of "peaceful demonstration" is evident in the following quotes from the AFP and Reuters news agencies:
"They kicked and clubbed the demonstrators, then fired these foam bullets," said one student.
At one point, protesters surrounded a minibus which was driving several delegates to the meetings. "After about 20 minutes, a squad of riot police, backed up by a dozen mounted police, dragged the protesters away from the minibus, throwing them to the ground and beating those who had sat on the ground in front of the minibus. 'Peaceful protest!' the demonstrators shouted as they were beaten."
Chief of Police Charles Ramsey described the protest so far as relatively peaceful. According to him, "Peaceful in this context is not burning, looting and doing any destruction of property."
This quote makes it more than clear that the only violence they object to is violence against private property! In another incident which occurred on Saturday the 15th, police tried to hit the activist movement at its base. Without a warrant, they entered a warehouse which served as a meeting point for the protesters. Using the pretext of fire code safety violations, the police shut the facility down. They claimed to have found Molotov cocktails, but shortly thereafter admitted that they had found only an empty bottle and some rags.
From the above it is clear whose interests the police are defending. Certainly not the interests of those people wishing to voice concern over the plight of billions of workers worldwide. It is clear that they defend only the interests of the minority of exploiters who run and fund the IMF and the World Bank. They will use any and all means, including intimidation, violence, distortion of the law, etc. to "serve and protect" the propertied classes.
Background to the present mobilization
The events in Seattle marked a definite change in the outlook, level of activity, and militancy of the long-dormant American working class and youth. Accustomed to going about their business in secret, the representatives of international finance capital were shocked by the violent opposition to their organizations which seemed to arise out of nowhere. But the fact is that the conditions which gave rise to the protests were created by the capitalists themselves. After decades of running things on their own terms, without regard to the effects of their policies on humanity or the environment, they came face to face with the pent-up anger and animosity of the workers and youth.
With the extension of global trade, as foreseen by Marx and Engels in the pages of the Communist Manifesto, the nation state (the artificial borders of each country) has become a huge barrier to human progress. While they still like to whip up nationalism and patriotism in order to confuse the masses so that they may more easily divide and conquer, in practice, the bourgeois themselves realize that national distinctions are outdated. This is why financial institutions and corporations can no longer be contained within the borders of a single country. Thus we have multi-national corporations and organizations like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization which administer the business of the ruling class at the expense of the billions of working and unemployed, the environment, etc. From a broader historical perspective, the further linking up of all of humanity's resources and technology through globalization is a progressive thing. Under socialism, we would democratically plan the use of the earth's resources on the basis of need, in order to constantly increase the quality of life of all humans, while also preserving the environment. But under capitalism, decisions affecting the lives of the majority of humanity and the environment are made by a handful of bankers and capitalists who have only one goal in mind - to increase profit at any cost.
The IMF and World Bank, which are controlled and financed by the richest countries in the world, hand out loans to poorer countries in order to "bail them out" of financial difficulty. Of course these loans do not come for free. In addition to the extortionary rates of interest, they force conditions on the debtor countries such as the lowering of protective tariffs for emerging native industries, mass lay-offs, privatization of nationalized companies at bargain basement prices, deregulation of price controls on staple food items, etc. Instead of growing food for the local population, and at the expense of developing their local economies, they are forced to focus on exportable cash crops like coffee in order to raise quick cash to repay the loans. Under the guise of "reform" and "democracy", they dismantle the economic structures of the borrowing country, impose their political will on the local government, encourage the building of sweatshops, and the smashing labor organizations. This is imperialism in its classic form; the export of capital in order to exercise economic and political control over the weaker nations of the world, as explained by Lenin in his book Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism.
The debt burden on the colonial world is crushing. Just a few years ago their combined debt stood at $800 billion - today it is at $1.2 trillion! The payments on the interest alone is enough to take up most or in some cases all of the GDP of the world's poorest countries - let alone paying back any of the initial loan. These countries are virtually enslaved to the most wealthy nations. A graphic example of this process can be seen when we look at one of the poorest countries in Latin America, Ecuador (see REVOLUTION IN ECUADOR). Every child born in Ecuador automatically owes $4,000 to the IMF and World Bank - yet often does not even have enough money to eat. In a country where the majority of the population lives under the poverty line, only 5% of the national wealth goes towards health and education, while 50% goes to repay the debt. This is not to mention the fact that the ruling class of the borrowing country regularly pockets a large portion of the money intended to revive the local economy, and sends it abroad to private Swiss bank accounts.
And yet, with a completely straight face, French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius can say, "The paradox is that the IMF and World Bank are institutions that fight against poverty."
The participants and organization of the protests
Although the level of politicization has not yet approached the level attained during the 1960s, it is notable in a very significant way. While the radicalization 30 years ago was focused largely around the anti-Vietnam War peace movement, the present target of discontent is much broader - world capitalism. It has yet to mature into the conscious effort of the working class and youth to change society along socialist lines, but the early potential of the movement is very promising. Over time, as more and more young people and workers learn about the issues involved, it is inevitable that they will begin to make some broader conclusions regarding capitalist system.
The IMF and World Bank assure us that the global economy is recovering after the economic crisis in Asia, Russia, and Latin America, and that the outlook for the US economy remains cheery. Yet as I write this article, the US stock market has just suffered its biggest-ever point loss. Millions of people were shocked by this seemingly impossible "correction". Events like this can rapidly shake the consciousness of millions of people, and more and more will realize that the system they live under is neither stable nor humanitarian.
Another extremely interesting feature of the rising wave of activism is the role played by the Internet both in the organization and reporting of events like Seattle and the April 16 mobilizations. The democratic potential of the Internet is being put to use in some very creative ways. Various websites provide up to the minute chats, news, images, and even videos of the events. The mainstream media, controlled by the ruling class, is slowly losing its stranglehold as a source for news and information. Even the tiniest organizations can make their presence and influence felt. One activist website,www.indymedia.org, registered over 1.5 million visits during the first days of the Seattle protests. In a way not possible just five years ago, roughly 450 different organizations have coordinated their anti-IMF/WB activities. Environmentalists, trade unionists, anti-sweatshop-labor campaigners, religious groups, consumer advocates, representatives of organizations from the colonial world, and activists of almost every shade are represented.
"We are not traditional allies, but when I saw those kids in Seattle who knew that something was wrong in the world, I knew we should stand together in the trenches," said George Becker, president of the United Steelworkers of America.
John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO put it like this: "We're really in it for the long haul on the trade issue we've been working on building this coalition for a few years now, and we'll now put our heads together to see how we build on this."
Since their failure to block the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA - a trade agreement responsible for worsening labor conditions across North America), the labor movement has been relatively isolated in its anti-free trade efforts. They were painted by the media as "unprogressive protectionists and isolationists". However, their new found allies are in a way legitimizing their position on globalization. This "blue-green" alliance is changing the way the mainstream media and public view the issue of world trade, and it will be interesting to see how it develops over the coming years.
In spite of what the labor leaders say, there are protectionist interests behind their actions. They know that if they fail to defend jobs in the US, the rank and file workers will get even more restless and demand a change in leadership - a change which would almost certainly be towards the left. The labor leadership's true allegiance is revealed by the fact that Sweeney, who backs Democrat Al Gore for president, approved of Bill Clinton's crocodile tears of sympathy for the Seattle protesters. According to The New York Times he feels that "the administration fought the good fight in seeking to inject labor and environmental rights into trade rules." (The New York Times - December 6, 1999)
This is ridiculous - the US government, which to paraphrase Marx is merely an organizing committee to manage the affairs of the ruling class, has absolutely no real concern for the conditions of the working class either here or abroad. Its main concern is to create an environment in which the capitalists can make the most profit while ensuring that outbreaks of the class struggle into open conflict are kept to a minimum. In an election year, the attitude of the labor movement and environmentalists towards the liberalization of the world economy is of great concern to Democrats who have traditionally been backed by these groups. In an era of chronically low voter turnout, small differences in the number of voters can mean the difference between victory and defeat. This explains the "sympathy" expressed by Clinton for the protesters and the poor of the world.
The next big anti-global capitalism rally is planned for May Day 2000 - just two weeks away. These events represent merely the beginning of the waking up of the American working class, as expressed through that most sensitive of social barometers, the youth. With the US economy teetering on the brink of disaster, it is only a matter of time before the broader masses begin to focus their anger not just against the WTO and IMF, but against the capitalist system itself.
As I finish this article, the anti-IMF/World Bank protests in Washington continue. Already the protesters have achieved their goal of focusing the media spotlight on the secretive IMF and World Bank. The latest news is that authorities have decided to shut down certain offices of the federal government due to "security concerns" on Monday the 17th. As this event continues, we will be sure to keep you updated on the latest developments.