By Bob Dart
Atlanta Journal and ConstitutionAugust 21, 2001
Anti-globalism activists went to court Monday seeking to stop Washington police from erecting a 9-foot-high fence to keep protesters away from next month's meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Law enforcement agencies are preparing for more than 100,000 demonstrators to jam the nation's capital in an effort to disrupt the meetings. In the past two years, clashes between police and protesters at similar meetings have resulted in extensive property damage, hundreds of arrests and one death, in riots from Seattle to Genoa, Italy.
"Whatever takes place, we are going to keep control of these streets, and Washington, D.C., is not going to burn," Police Chief Charles Ramsey has vowed. But at a news conference Monday, leaders of the planned protests said police have gone too far in their efforts to control the protesters and seal off the financial meetings Sept. 29 and 30. They filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that the security precautions violate their constitutional rights to freedom of speech, assembly and petition.
"We will assert our rights in the courts, and we will assert our rights in the streets," vowed Brian Becker, co-director of the International Action Center. The protest leaders complained that their movement has been "demonized" by police and the mainstream news media. They charged that violence at previous mass demonstrations was instigated by police. However, they refused to denounce such tactics as throwing Molotov cocktails. Their philosophy is that individual protesters must act according to their consciences and are individually responsible for their own actions, said Mara Verheyden Hillard of the Partnership of Civil Justice.
"We are a movement of many voices," Hillard said. "There is no sign-up sheet" of agreement on views or actions. The movement is "united only by a demand for social change," she said. In April 2000, tens of thousands of protesters at the World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington ranged from blue-collar workers in union jackets to vegetarians dressed as cows to anarchists with their faces hidden by bandannas or ski masks.
Becker, the International Action Center organizer, is a veteran of leftist causes who led protests against the Reagan administration nearly two decades ago and has denounced U.S. policies from Havana to Baghdad. Bob Brown of the Kwame Ture Work-Study Institute, a liberal Africa-oriented group named for the late activist formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, said he has been marching since the movement against the Vietnam War.
The anti-globalist movement also includes groups that do not hold news conferences. For example, a mysterious, loosely organized cadre of anarchists known as the "Black Bloc" has been at all the anti-globalism protests in their black garb and masks. Black Bloc member Mary Black --- a pseudonym --- sent letters to Seattle.Indymedia.org and other alternative news services on the Internet in recent weeks to explain the group.
"Our clothes are uniform issue and intentionally menacing: black bandannas, ragged black army surplus pants, black hooded sweatshirts (with optional red and black flag or slogan-covered patches) and shiny black boots (or for the vegans in the crowd, battered black Converse)," she wrote. "We don't have a party platform, and you don't have to sign anything or go to any meetings to join us." The group believes that destroying the property "of oppressive and exploitative corporations" is "an acceptable and useful protest tactic," she wrote. And members believe they have a right to defend themselves against tear gas, batons and "other law enforcement technology."
She said many Black Bloc members have day jobs or are students, and "the stereotype is correct that we are mostly young and mostly white." Destroying property is a useful tactic because "it brings the media to the scene," she said. Wearing masks is necessary because laws are being broken. "I will continue to participate in protest in this way, and anyone who cares to is welcome to join me," she wrote. "Bricks are easy to find, and targets are as close as your local McDonald's."
The threat of such actions led the IMF and World Bank to scale back their meeting in Washington from a week to two days. Even so, Washington Mayor Anthony Williams has written the Bush administration asking for $30 million to help pay for the extra security. Ramsey said security plans could include a fenced-in no-protest zone that would include much of downtown Washington, including the White House, the IMF and the World Bank. The police chief said he will reinforce his police force with federal law enforcement agents and police officers from other cities.
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