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Not just a Seattle sequel
The protests surrounding this weekend's meetings of the IMF and World Bank are the next step in the backlash to globalization.
By Bruce Shapiro
[04/15/00]

World Bank and IMF: Good, evil or irrelevant?
On the eve of the A16 protests, experts discuss the roles of the international financial organizations and the Seattle protests in this weekend's battle over globalization.
By Daryl Lindsey
[04/15/00]

On the verge
Tensions escalate in Dupont Circle and cops put on riot gear. But savvy protesters wonder where the badges are.
By Jake Tapper
[04/14/00]

Decaffeinated protests
Would-be anti-corporate crusaders encounter the unexpected as they take on Starbucks, Gap and the Washington police.
By Alicia Montgomery
[04/14/00]

Celeste takes it to The Man
Meet one blond, bright-eyed, dreadlocked anarchist ready to take it to the streets.
By Jake Tapper
[04/14/00]

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At that moment D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams was about to speak at the Faith Based Conference on Economic Development and Neighborhood Revitalization in the basement of the Washington Hilton Hotel, known locally as the "Hinckley Hilton," the place where John Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan. Williams didn't find out about the pooping of the avenue for three hours -- after the conference, after a few meetings, after lunch.

But if Williams were not the mayor, he might have been driving the truck of manure, an appetizer leading up to the massive demonstrations planned this weekend and Monday to disrupt the meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

"The protests as they relate to debt are well placed," Williams says. "Our own economic interests are at stake. These debts are punishing on developing nations. I do have some sympathy for what the protesters are saying."

Williams is sitting on the tan leather seats of his black Lincoln Navigator, which is being driven uptown by his security detail to Catholic University for the second of two religious events of the day. Dressed in his mayoral uniform -- tailored suit and bow tie -- Williams is following the regular schedule he plans to maintain during the course of the coming demonstrations.

The capital city that will host the meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and those protesting them is far different from Seattle, which was torn up by the World Trade Organization demonstrations last year. For one thing, these meetings will take place in the heart of downtown, far from the city's main residential neighborhoods, so the country is unlikely to revisit scenes of protesters and police battling under clouds of tear gas that seep into the homes of residents. Local and federal police units have been preparing for the protests since January to avoid a repeat of Seattle.

"We're as ready as we're going to be," said Police Chief Charles Ramsey outside his brand-new command center.

Williams knows all about demonstrations -- from the inside. As a student in the Bay Area, he demonstrated against the Vietnam War. In 1974 he organized a 20-mile march from Santa Monica to Long Beach, Calif., on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. At Yale University he organized protests aimed at gaining access to the school's budget information. In 1992 he marched with Jesse Jackson in his demonstrations for economic justice.

Williams has done a lot of reading about global economics, and his rhetoric could be a manifesto for the protesters. "We should have free trade," he says, "but it should not be at the beggaring of nations. It shouldn't be just about globalization of business. It has to be the globalization of working conditions.

"Globalization without attention to working conditions doesn't work," he says, "but to pretend that we're not in a global business environment doesn't work either."

Williams would like to see "a global social democratic economy -- one that fosters entrepreneurship yet maintains basic working and safety conditions." The way the system works now, he says, is destructive to the world economy, "no questions about it."

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