Global Policy Forum

When the World Bank and the IMF announced on August 10 that they would "consolidate" their scheduled week-long annual meetings in Washington by cutting it down to two days, and moving it to a weekend, they said the reason was to "ensure the conduct of all essential business with the least possible disruption" to the US capital, the Irish Times notes. A senior IMF official put it rather differently. It was because the DC police could not afford the cost of policing the city during a longer meeting, during which anti-globalization protesters would descend on the city, he said.

There would now be insufficient time for the world's finance ministers to make individual contributions to the important debate on World Bank and IMF policies, the official said. Indeed, when finance ministers arrive in Washington for the September 29-30 meetings, they will find themselves besieged behind a two-mile fence erected at a cost of $2.5 million around a 220-acre zone enclosing the White House, the US State Department, and the World Bank and IMF buildings.

Following the riotous scenes in Genoa at the G8 summit in July, Washington is planning its biggest-ever security operation with police brought in from all over the US, the story notes. Some 1,000 will come from New York alone, to augment the 3,600-strong local force. DC police chief Charles Ramsey predicts that 100,000 demonstrators will assemble in the DC streets, compared to 20,000 last year when police arrested more than 1,000 people.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the protest groups have asked the US District Court to stop plans for the nine-foot-high fence as a denial of constitutional liberties, and some protest organizers argue that the number of demonstrators and the potential for violence have been exaggerated by the police to justify the $29 million security plan, which involves buying new equipment. "It is inappropriate for police forces to be used as private security for unpopular financial institutions," said Matthew Smucker of Mobilization for Social Justice, one of the main groups seeking to stage a peaceful protest.

However, many protesters want also to voice opposition to the US administration as well as the World Bank and the IMF. Teresa Gutierrez, co-director of International Action Center, has called on supporters in Washington to protest against the policies of President George W. Bush, which she said were designed "to maximize profit for oil companies, mining companies and defense contractors," while destroying environmental protections and trade union rights and promoting the policies of the ultra-right.

Reginald Dale of the International Herald Tribune (p.9) comments meanwhile that heights of illogic were reached by an American activist who recently praised the demonstrators for forcing the IMF and the World Bank to shorten their annual meetings and simultaneously attacked the two institutions for curtailing discussion of essential reforms.

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