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OTTAWA — When terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (WB/IMF) cancelled their meetings in Washington, D.C.
Anarchists and social libertarians likewise cancelled a counter-summit, only to be surprised when the WB/IMF announced a technical meeting for Nov. 16-18 in Ottawa, in the province of Ontario. Protesters hastily placed a call to action.
Compared to Washington, Ottawa is an isolated city. Instead of gleaming white marble halls, monuments and vestibules, there are gray stone buildings that appear to be transplanted from middle France.
A large canal divides the city. The meetings took place in Chateau Laurier, a high-society hotel, and in the nearby Government Conference Center. During the three days of official meetings, protesters sent the message that the world is not comfortable with the WB/IMF meeting in secrecy.
Dancing at the cops
Many Canadian activists spoke Nov. 16 of their concern about free speech under new security laws. The previous night, four plainclothes police officers had visited the Independent Media Centre (www.ontario.indymedia.org), according to Derek, the host of the IMC meeting. (Some anarchists use only one name.)
"They asked me what the protesters where planning, who was involved with the IMC," Derek said.
In the tradition of anti-globalization protests, the first day was for marching. As finance ministers from the world's 20 most developed economies met, anarchists, socialists and social libertarians staged a militant snake march through the streets of Ottawa.
Anarchists in black, with baclavas, helmets, gas masks and "Smash the State" banners, took to the streets in a game of cat-and-mouse, trying to outmaneuver the police in an un-permitted march through the city. Police in full riot gear — armed with CS gas rifles, guard dogs, MP-5 semi-automatic rifles, beanbag shotguns and chemical irritants — manned roadblocks to channel the march along a controlled path.
The march began outside the University of Ottawa in a section of town not unlike the area around the University of Cincinnati, a typical collegiate shopping and cafe district. About 500 "black bloc" activists and self-proclaimed anarchists snaked down the streets.
Looking at these kids, their small frames listing under the weight of shielding and masks that look oversized for their youthful faces, one is half-amused and half-scared. Counter-poised policemen towered over them, their muscular bodies conditioned by years of military training and weight lifting.
Yet the police dropped behind barriers two lines deep. The protesters rushed the first line, dismantling the barriers. As they began moved to the next line, police hastily put on gas masks and prepared for a physical confrontation.
Just as soft youthful bodies were about to meet the police, a group of pagans began a drum circle. The kids backed off and began dancing to the beating African rhythms that filled the air. Police received the order to "stand down."
Snake marches can take unpredictable turns. After several minutes of dancing, the protesters were on the move again. As they spotted a McDonald's restaurant, a barrage of rocks and steel pipes crashed into the glass. Anarchists claimed another Mickey D's storefront in their war on corporate rule.
Shortly afterward dogs and police entered the crowd and dragged an IMC videographer to the ground, arresting him. The IMC is often the object of police harassment (see Viva Cincinnatistas issue of June 7-13).
The march dissipated into a slow walk past the Parliament building, ending at the Supreme Court. As the WB/IMF made plans for ending "terrorist" financing, protesters contended the WB/IMF are terrorists, their decisions leaving many in hunger and poverty throughout the world.
Corn-fed corporate media
Thousands marched again Nov. 17 to a rally at the Supreme Court. Speakers called for the abolition of the IMF's Structural Adjustment Programs, which open the door to privatization of resources, such as water distribution in Bolivia.
Police blocked protesters from crossing the canal unless everyone agreed to a search. But protesters marched around them, finding a lightly guarded bridge en route to the court. After a spirited rally, a two-pronged march headed to the Conference Center to disrupt the meetings.
Protesters pushed through the first line of barricades at the Conference Center, reaching a standoff with the guards. On a light pole overlooking police lines someone erected socialist, anarchist and pagan flags declaring, "Freedom!"
When a group of baclava-clad protesters hoisted a barricade at the police line, tear gas was fired. The protesters backed off, regrouped and pushed toward the barricades again. Another group of protesters tied a rope to the barricades, pulling them apart. Ten yards away, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer shot round after round of plastic bullets at the legs of the barricade busters until they gave up.
The day's events seemed even more surreal inside the official press center at the WB/IMF conference. There reporters from The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and MSNBC feasted on food provided by the WB/IMF and snickered at film of the protesters on television.
Protests follow the WB/IMF, as James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, acknowledged at a press conference.
"I would expect that there will always be pressure from civil society to increase debt relief at whatever level we take, until it is completely exposed," said James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank. "I just remind that the debt relief programs were invented by the bank before there were protests. I don't mind the tension or the debate, but I prefer to have it as debate rather than as street protests, because I think it is pointless and has no effect."
Wolfensohn might call the protests "pointless," but even the WB/IMF can't ignore their impact. Protests, after all, were partly responsible for the cancellation of the meetings in Washington, D.C. But the effect goes deeper, says David Levy of the Washington-based Mobilization for Global Justice.
"We have had an impact — the fact that they have changed their rhetoric: how free trade will reduce poverty," Levy said. "They're concentrating again on the issue of poverty. The WB/IMF knew what they were doing. They called the meeting on very short notice. They didn't want to see the level of protest that they would have seen in D.C."
For video of the IMF/World Bank press conference, visit wwwcan.activate.net/g20/ 011117/imf_index.htm. For a more detailed account of the protests, see Michael McCarron's story at http://sf.indymedia.org/2001/11/109818.php.
