Protesting for Global Justice in NYC
an article by Alix Strunk

In order to peacefully demonstrate against the World Economic Forum (WEF), some 20,000 people, including myself, from all around the world gathered in Manhattan in February to support global justice and condemn WEF-style inequitable, elitist globalization. Many of us do not wish to condemn development, but instead promote a change in development policies that would place basic human needs and equitable resource distribution at the center of its focus. My goals of this weekend-long protest were to bring an increase in media coverage and public awareness to the exploitative and monopolizing policies of the WEF, and to demonstrate to the WEF that the people of the world do not support its policies and are willing to take action against these unfair policies.

The WEF was in New York for its annual meeting. The WEF is an organization comprised of CEO's from top worldwide corporations; they meet annually to plan and enact their goals for increased economic and financial development in "developing" countries through the giving of economic aid and assistance from such organizations as the IMF and World Bank. Some of their strategies include privatization, deregulation, and pushing the "developing" countries to increase exports while decreasing imports and restructuring their economies. These strategies have been proven to increase debt and poverty in many countries; one study shows "the sample of countries receiving such lending [from the World Bank] did not show significant impact from such loans on gross domestic product; indeed such loans appeared to have adversely affected investment" (Harriagan and Mosley, 1989). In my opinion, these programs really mean development that profits only a few elite-themselves-at the cost and exploitation of the majority of the world's population and the environment.

The main event was a legal march (permit to march on streets granted by NYC government) on Saturday morning, which snaked around the city with the intent of finishing in front of the WEF meeting at the Waldorf Hotel. There was a tremendous outpouring of people and energy for this march. Although there was not much mainstream media coverage, independent media sources carried incredible, detailed coverage of the entire weekend. To find out more about the protest, you can look at www.indymedia.org .

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Protesting against the World Economic Forum
Do you agree with the objectives?

Does globalization promote war?


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MARCHES AND PROTESTS

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On the eve of a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Cancun, Mexico, which will be protested by activists including those from Chiapas in Mexico, there is a good new leaflet which explains the relation between globalization and war.  To read or download the leaflet go to the United For Peace website.

This report was posted on May 2, 2002. The moderator is Rutherford.

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