Re: Protesting

On Sun, Sep 16, 2001 at 10:38:23PM -0400, Bijan Parsia wrote:
> On #mf, we've been discussing the IMF/WB protests in DC in light of last
> week's events. As many of you know, Kendall and I were planning to go and
> provide deep, detailed coverage of the protest and the media/gov't
> reaction.
> 
> Needless to say, much of this is moot now. Or may be.
> 
> The protest won't dominate the news. At least not in a stand alone
> manner. If there are protests, they'll be subsumed by the war. Any
> coverage or analysis will have to be a small part of covering and
> analyzing the war.

I'm more likely to want to go if the protests morph, in an obvious
way, into explicitly anti-war protests. And I'm getting every indi-
cation that this is happening; I do, however, have a remaining con-
cern about tone. I don't think a very aggressive, strident anti-war
protest is particularly appropriate or smart at this point.

Given the this-is-gonna-be-a-long-stretch talk from the administration,
any systematic anti-war protest will be similarly a long-term campaign.
Thus it seems appropriate -- especially given the very fragile state
that both ordinary people and law enforcement are presently in -- to
be circumspect with these protests.

I have, alas, not much confidence that this idea is shared by the
mobilizing groups in DC. The MGJ group probably does, but in this
regard the anarchist mobilization has me a tiny bit nervous.

> Plus, even if the IMF and World Bank *don't* cancel, I don't think
> protesting them is a good idea. 

Agreed. War trumps global economic institutions and structures. Hence
protest of former trumps protest of latter.

I did read, though, that the meetings are going to be canceled, the
bank and fund are simply waiting for a better time to announce it.

> We have the more immediate and
> unanticipated problem of globalization (loosely speaking) by massive
> force...force on a scale unprecedented even in this noxious age (Bush
> adminstration is targeting operations in *60* countries!)

He's going to turn this into a real shooting war, I fear.

> Anyone got any ideas?

Well, I'm fluxing between two extremes: making "I am an Arab!"
t-shirt to wear in Dallas every time I go our *or* just keeping my
head low and returning to PHP hacking tomorrow... I'll prolly flip
a coin.

> On an interesting side note, I saw a report that Pakistan, aside from the
> military pressure, faced withdrawel of economic aid *including IMF
> loans*. If that doesn't underscore how the IMF is a mere tool of the US,
> I'm not sure what else would.

Yes, it's one example of many, but a very good one. We'll have to remember
it. Of course the IMF is just doing its bit to 'defend civilization'. :<

Kendall