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CounterPunch
October
2, 2002
"Capitalism
now has the black eye they tried so hard to give it."
Converging Against Capitalism
by JENNIFER BERKSHIRE
No topic divides the globo protest movement like
the diversity of tactics question. Anarchist snake marches or
well-marshaled parades of opinion? A brick through a window or
a seat at the table?
And while the better-coifed protesters
nearly always prefer the second set of options, even they'll
concede that it's the first set--tactics intended to disrupt
and piss off the cops--that gets the headlines. The demonstrations
against the IMF and World Bank last month were no exception.
By the time DC rush hour was over on Friday, the first projectile
had been lobbed through the window of a Citibank office. By mid-afternoon,
some 650 protesters, most part of the loosely organized Anti-Capitalist
Convergence, would be in jail. The US anti-globalization movement
was back in the headlines.
Whose Streets?
"I'm so sick of these protests,"
a journalist friend complained to me as we walked through Adams
Morgan, a formerly diverse DC neighborhood that is now home to
interns from a diverse array of non-profits. "I feel like
I'm under siege," he said. To protect the neighborhood from
marauding globo-kids, city workers had removed all of the trashcans
for blocks; urban detritus was already piling up. Minutes later,
a caravan of police cars sped by, providing a shrill, high-speed
escort service to someone important. "That must be one of
delegates," my friend said, referring to the IMF/World Bank
meeting invitees who now merit as much security as Dick Cheney.
"They don't like to go outside without their taxpayer-financed
escorts."
Their Streets
While the globalization protesters did
succeed in getting back in the news--no small feat for a movement
that seemed all but washed up after September 11--they didn't
rack up many points with the locals this time. With posters wheat-pasted
all over downtown, the Anti-Capitalist Convergence called on
demonstrators to "shut down DC." The ACC even had an
image of what the ensuing chaos would look like: a fist choking
off the metro roadway system. A powerful symbol, certainly,
but perhaps not the best way to grow the movement, as they say.
"Peaceful demonstration is fine, but if people can't get
to their jobs, its disruptive," a DC construction superintendent
told the Washington Post. "They should lock them all up."
Elsewhere in the city, another group of demonstrators was handing
out leaflets to passing motorists, apologizing for any disruption.
The massive police force brought in from as far as Chicago wasn't
charmed by such niceties. The friendly kids ended up in jail
too.
Knowing they were outnumbered, the Friday
protesters had a strategy to bite back at the cops: fake 911
calls intended to divert the men and women in blue to mock emergencies
all over the city. A victory of sorts for those who lamented
the heavy-handed tactics of the police, but also a concession
to charges that the demonstrators are from elsewhere, "invaders,"
as my journalist friend might say. Who else would intentionally
divert emergency services away from Southeastern DC, one of the
most notoriously under-served communities in the country? When
Public Enemy rapped that "911 is a joke," and "Now
I dialed 911 along time ago. Don't you see how late they're reactin'?"
I don't think Chuck D. and Flava Flav were complaining about
fake calls from globo-kids.
By Saturday, cooler heads were prevailing.
There were few of what the press terms "black-clad protesters"
in the crowd; most were cooling their heels in the central DC
lock up. The afternoon march from the Ellipse felt more like
a parade or a pageant than a political protest. Somewhere near
17th and K streets, the procession stalled and the crowd began
chanting that perennial favorite: "Whose streets? Our streets!"
"I feel a little embarrassed chanting this," my marching
partner confided. "They're so clearly not our streets."
All Capitalists
Converge
Despite smaller than predicted crowds
-- organizers estimated 20,000 participated in Saturday's march
and rally; cops put the number at closer to 5,000 -- the protesters
no longer represent a fringe element within political discourse.
A majority of Americans would now seem to agree with the sentiment
espoused by one popular poster: "Capitalism Sux."
Ralph Nader, the rally's star speaker,
summed up the oddity of this particular American moment best.
"It doesn't matter whether you're listening to Rush Limbaugh
or Amy Goodman," Nader told the screaming crowd on the lawns
of the Ellipse. "Right now everyone is saying the same thing:
'send the corporate crooks to jail.'"
While Nader maybe right, this particular
crowd was all Goodman fans. The only likely Limbaugh listeners
were corralled into a tiny counter protest encircled by police
protectors. They stood stone-faced, holding up signs that read
"Daddy Wants His Credit Card Back," "Fry Mumia,"
and "All Capitalists Converge," and "Hold the
Tear Gas - I'm a Conservative."
"I'm more of a pro-capitalist myself,"
a well-dressed bystander told me. In town from Florida, he was
wearing an oxford cloth shirt in pink, a favorite color among
the moneyed. But when pressed, the gentleman, who makes his living
as an investment manager, launched into a tirade against capitalism
to rival that espoused by any of the marchers-by. "What's
happened in this country with corporate corruption is a disgrace,"
he told me. "These CEO's have stolen more money than they
could ever spend. It's really bad." When I broached the
subject of his personal money, he became glummer still. "I've
lost a fortune. Everyone I know has lost money."
What Next?
The months since September 11 have not
been kind to the US anti-globalization movement. Unlike Europe,
where protests against mondialisation neo-liberal, have
continued to attract hundreds of thousands, the ranks of the
US demonstrators have thinned considerably. The war is a big
reason: much of the activist crowd that once denounced genetically
modified food and structural adjustment has since moved onto
Bush's wars. And the labor movement, nervous about the easy camaraderie
between said war protesters and the globo forces, has pulled
much of its support too.
But despite the absence of density on
the streets, the US movement now exerts more influence on the
debate about globalization than ever. The famously leaderless
protests have spawned a generation of savvy movement leaders
who, if they don't yet have a seat at the table, are now standing
close to the door. To put it bluntly, we've won, something that
no-less a capitalist tool than the Wall Street Journal
now freely admits. "This weekend, the protesters returned,"
Alan Murray wrote in a recent column. "Their zeal is undiminished.
But to a degree many of them still don't recognize, they have
won the argument. Capitalism now has the black eye they tried
so hard to give it."
The procession through the streets of
DC did not have the feel of a victory march, though. And few
of the protesters seem to have any idea of the depth of the despair
felt by real capitalists right now. "People are shocked,"
the investment manager from Florida told me. "They're holding
on to stocks that are close to worthless with no end in site.
What can I tell them? Get into cash? The fact that greedy and
corrupt CEO's are to blame just makes it worse. They should have
a protest about that," he said, pointing to the demonstrators
winding slowly by.
Maybe next time they will.
Jennifer Bershire can be reached at: jenniferberkshire@attbi.com
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October 2,
2002
Uri Avnery
Manufacturing
Anti-Semites
October 1,
2002
Benjamin Shepard
On the
Road Again:
IMF/World Bank Protest
Reveal a Revived
Movement for Global Justice
Dr. Susan
Block
Cockfight
at the
Baghdad Corral
Krystal Kyer
Growing Union Opposition
to War
Ron Jacobs
Born Without a Spine
Scott Loughrey
Mysteries
of 9/11
Jeremy Brecher
Collective
Security is Working
Brenda Norrell
Troy
Black Feather on
the American Flag
Sam Bahour
Wake Up
and Smell
the Occupation
Richard Harth
Contrary
to Reason:
Adieu, Hitchens, Adieu
Carol Norris
Rumsfeld
the Surrealist:
Things Related and Not
Ben Tripp
Lists Upon
Lists
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30, 2002
Rep. Barbara
Lee
Alternatives
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Iraq: The
Vision
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Zeynep Toufe
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Dave Marsh
The Troubador's
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Tariq Ali
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