Anti-Capitalists claim Victory over WEF

The World Economic Forum is the main global organisation for this planet?s thousand biggest multinationals, many of whom are involved in the exploitation of workers here in Ireland. They are meeting in Dublin this October 20th to discuss how they can make Europe more competitive- ie how they can lower wages, increase exploitation, and privatise more of our public services such as water, refuse, electricity, transport and education.  This attack on our living standards is commonly known as globalisation or neo liberalism, and Ireland, under the Fianna Fail / PD economic junta, leads the way.  That?s why the WEF has chosen to have it?s European summit in Dublin  this year  (see: From the horse's mouth on this web page).

However, all around the world, millions of people have been standing up to this attack.  Starting in Seattle in 1999, a huge global movement has taken to the streets against corporate power and their acryonymic fronts such as the WTO, IMF, G8 and the WEF.  This movement challenges the greed and corruption of these corporations, asserting that people should come before profits and our planet before their pollution. This movement is often referred to as the anti-globalisation or anti capitalist movement.

All around Ireland, thousands of trade unionists, environmentalists, community and human rights activists have stood up to this offensive.  In the communities, people successfully fought water charges and are now resisting the bin tax.  Nearly every county in Ireland has campaigns against incinerators, dumps and hospital closures.  Nurses, busdrivers and teachers have all taken strike action to defend our public  services.  And on February 15th of this year,  over 150,000 people North and South took to the streets against George Bush?s War on Iraq.  Many people saw this war as armed globalisation on behalf of American Oil companies and were disgusted at our government?s complete surrender of Shannon Airport.  Feb 15th showed that Ireland was part of a mass global movement that in just one day mobilised 20 million people in all the major cities of the world.

This October 20th , we want to bring the spirit of Seattle, Genoa. Melbourne and Feb 15th to Dublin.  The rich and powerful of the World Economic Forum should not be allowed to have their conference of greed and plunder in our capital unchallenged.   Everybody resisting the corporate offensive should unite and blockade the summit to close it down, like 15,000 Australians did in Melbourne, September 2000.  The richest man in the world, Bill Gates, was forced to helicopter in, and the racist Prime Minister, John Howard, had to enter by speedboat.  Let?s do the same to Bertie and Peter Sutherland!

Thousands of people will protest on October 20th-
if you want to join them then get in touch.
O2o-Planet before pollution, and people before profits!

Boots Company	McSpotlight
British American Tobacco Plc	McSpotlight
BP Amoco	McSpotlight
Exxon Mobil Corporation	McSpotlight
Monsanto	McSpotlight
McDonald's Corporation	McSpotlight
Nabisco	McSpotlight
Nestle	McSpotlight
Nike Inc	NikeWatch
Pepsico Inc	McSpotlight
Pfizer Inc	McSpotlight
Philip Morris Companies Inc	McSpotlight
Procter & Gamble Co	McSpotlight
Roche Holding Ltd	McSpotlight
Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies	McSpotlight
SmithKline Beecham Plc	McSpotlight
Texaco Inc	McSpotlight
Unilever	McSpotlight

FROM THE WEF Website-

http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/European+Competitiveness+Summit+2003

European Competitiveness Summit 2003

"From Rhetoric  to Action" Dublin, Ireland, 20-21 October Under the patronage of Erkki Liikanen, EU Commissioner, Enterprise and Information Society, European Commission, Brussels In 2000, the EU adopted the Lisbon Strategy, a series of policies aimed at making Europe the "most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010." While policy-makers continue to pledge their unconditional support of this goal, Europe seems to have gone off track. The European Competitiveness Summit will serve as a timely update on the Lisbon goals. It will identify strategies and policies that will help Europe regain its economic momentum. Held under the auspices of the Irish government, the Summit will attract: 400 business leaders; select heads of goverment; ministers of finance, economy, industry, innovation and labour; key media leaders; academia and civil society representatives. The conclusions and recommendations of the Summit will be fed into the Irish EU Presidency in the first half of 2004, in particular the March EU Summit of Heads of State and Government and the EU Competitiveness Council Meetings. The Lisbon Review, in its second edition, will again serve as the intellectual backbone of the Summit. The review is an analytical ranking of the progress EU member states, as well as accession countries, have made with respect to the Lisbon strategy. The first edition can be downloaded at www.weforum.org/lisbonreview. In addition, we will convene, under the umbrella of our Bridging Europe Initiative, a group of outstanding entrepreneurs from over 20 European countries. The European Commission has highlighted entrepreneurship as a key engine for economic growth and innovation. It will therefore feature prominently throughout the Summit programme. As Ireland has grown at three times the EU average over the last seven years and is widely considered a role model for economic dynamism in Europe, Dublin is an ideal venue for the Summit. Programme Highlights Europe's Regulatory Environment: Manoeuvring through the Maze Financial Services Action Plan: Key to Europe's Competitiveness? Enlargement: What's Ahead for the World's Biggest Market? Europe's Competitive Edge: Where will Future Growth Come From? Transatlantic Business Relations: Withstanding the Storm? Education: Upgrading Skills and Harnessing Talent Facing Global Competition: How to Retain Investment in Europe Fostering Entrepreneurship: Sharing Best Practices in Enterprise Policy Creating Sustainable Employment Models Centres of Excellence? Clustering Knowledge and Innovation Universities and Venture Capital: An Alliance for Success? An Action Plan for the Creation of a European Research Area On Track? Industrial Policy for the 21st Century Delivering the Goods: Completion of the Single Market Co-Chairs Richard S. Bobrow, Global Chief Executive Officer, Ernst & Young, United Kingdom Peter D. Sutherland, Chairman, Goldman Sachs International, United Kingdom; Chairman, BP, United Kingdom

Remembering S11 2000- Australia goes anti-capitalist

'We've had our battle of Seattle'

MELBOURNE exploded in mass anti-capitalist protest on Monday. Ten thousand protesters, the equivalent of 50,000 in Britain, successfully laid siege to the World Economic Forum (WEF) being held in Melbourne. They blocked off all the streets to the bosses' and politicians' powerful gathering on how to push globalisation and the free market.

"We blockaded the forum! It was like Seattle without the teargas," said David Glanz of Socialist Worker's sister organisation in Australia. Dave was picked out by the world's press as the "S11" spokesperson.

"There is an enormous anti-capitalist mood here. The protest had a real sense of unity against the world system," said Dave. Trade unionist delegations made up part of the crowd. College students, socialists and environmentalists locked arms and refused to bow before the violence of mounted police.

Thousands of Melbourne school students defied the authorities and struck for the day to march behind their banner against corporate capitalism. The WEF was rocked to the core. The pictures on this page tell the story of S11 and show that the mood against global capitalism is an international phenomenon.

Part of a global fight

"HUMAN NEED, not corporate greed" was the popular slogan. The protesters, by early morning on Monday, had blocked off all the roads to the WEF meeting, held in Melbourne's Crown Casino complex.

Australia's Tory prime minister was humiliated in front of the world's business and political elite. John Howard could only get INTO the meeting by river, reportedly transported on a police dinghy.

Australia's finance minister could only get OUT of the meeting by boat. The racist state premier of Western Australia, Richard Court, reportedly had to sit in his car for 30 minutes surrounded by hundreds of protesters, while an Aboriginal activist danced up and down on the roof. Court never got to the forum.

Another leading Tory was blocked in his car for over an hour. He too was forced to turn away, but not before protesters had sprayed anti-capitalist slogans on his vehicle. Denis Napthine complained to the world's press, "The protesters have unfortunately won the first round."

S11 was followed on Tuesday by a mass protest against globalisation called by Australia's organised trade unions. David Glanz said that the protesters feel themselves to be part of a global movement. "When we mentioned that a similar protest is happening in Prague this month everyone cheered."

"if the World Economic Forum has the support of the world's business leaders, protesters today showed how widely social groups dislike the organisation. Aboriginal activists joined with mountain cattlemen, gay and lesbian groups, and Christians, among others, to voice their disapproval of the WEF"-the Age, Melbourne newspaper

Photos and eye witness reports

http://www.greenleft.org.au/globalaction/s11/issue_wef.shtml#

"Demonstrate if you Dare" was the message sent out to our movement when the WEF relocated to New York City in November. The latest attempt to crush anti-capitalism has happily failed.

The build up to the protests was all too familiar - media hysteria about violence and a promised police crack down. Some activists were despondent and pessimistic. How many people would turn up and defy the NYPD and a tide of jingoism and nationalism in the aftermath of 11 September and the war against Afghanistan?

We had a good start. Students at Columbia University had organised a two day counter conference on campus. Around 1400 came through the door to debate everything from the Bhopal Campaign to the future of Anti-Capitalism. It was young, mostly fresh and informed.

Thursday evening saw the first significant action - a union-sponsored picket of GAP on 54th Street and 5th Avenue. Heavily policed, it had about 4000 people there, many wearing union caps and a good deal of Latino textile workers.

After the plenary session of the student conference on Friday, a Vigil called by the umbrella group Another World is Possible, designed to 'test the water' was called - again 4000 people attended, this time mostly anti-capitalist activists. A long Spokescouncil (350 strong) in the evening agreed that there would be no direct action on the main demonstration on Saturday. At the same time Indymedia hosted a film night with a further 350 people there. The screening of GR's Genova Libera was a real hit. (Orders were taken for 30 copies to be sent to activists across the US.)

The GR delegation were staying in an apartment on the Upper West Side with 30+ activists from Syracuse University. The students brought puppets, numerous placards and were well organised into affinity groups. Discussions with these students and many activists over the previous two days had led us to expect 5,000 or 6,000 on the march. "Ten thousand and we'll be dancing," one organiser had said. It was difficult to predict, word was obviously out about the protests, but few mobilising meetings and stalls seemed to had taken place.

We went along with the students to a Reclaim the Streets action immediately preceding the main protest. We reckoned on 3-4000 were there - a brilliant sign. Marching through Central Park in the clear and cold weather was pretty surreal, and when we arrived at the main assembly point it was certain all expectations had been outstripped. The protest was young, a swathe of homemade banners and puppets, inventive slogans and many many pretzel jokes. The police presence was extraordinary. A few young people wearing masks were arrested near the beginning of the march, but it soon became clear that the police were not going to charge into the demo risking a full blown riot. Shops along the route remained open, and passers by appeared to have seen through the press hysteria and showed sympathy and solidarity with the protesters.

One coffee shop full of shoppers had a line of customers sitting in the window holding up "Bad Capitalist - No Martini. Shut Down the WEF" leaflets. Discussions had on the demo reflected constantly people's delight with such a big turnout. Estimates ranged from 20 to 30,000. I think it's safe to say there were 25,000 there.

With numbers that large it was obvious. The anti capitalist movement is back on track. The war on Afghanistan has made us stronger. We will not be silenced by jingoism and moralism. The WEF took a gamble and lost. We can assume they will run back to the snow covered mountains of Switzerland next year.

Guy Taylor
Globalise Resistance

Guy sent an earlier report:

9am, 2 Feb 2002, New York City

Two days into our stay in NYC. The student counter conference was a big success, over 1000 people through the door (it ran concurrently with other convergences). So far two significant actions have happened - Thursday night's union-sponsored GAP picket, and Friday night's pagan vigil (all invited!) both attracted 4000 people.

Last night was the spokescouncil. Three GR people went there and it was broadly agreed that no direct action actually on the march would happen, although it looks likely that off the route things will be happening. After the demo there will be a blockade of a planned WEF party on Wall Street.

We also showed the Genova Libera video at the IMC last night. Over 300 people watched it, the atmosphere was amazing and we had queues of people wanting copies. GR has had an impact so far, very positive and loads of people talking to us.

But here goes for the key protest, there's a likelihood of thousands. People are saying we'll have at least 5000, anything over 8000 will be brilliant and 10,000 will be barricade building time!