While our comrades were battling the cops in Prague on September 26 – attempting to disrupt the IMF/World Bank meeting – thousands of people in over 30 countries were participating in a Global Day of Action to denounce the horrendous policies of these world bodies, and the global; capitalist system they promote. It would be impossible to summarize all of the actions that took place that day. Actions tok place in Adelaide, Amherst, Ankara, Athens, Barcelona, Bath, Belfast, Belo Horizonte, Bergama, Berkeley, Bogota, Boise, Boulder, Brasilia, Bristol, Bruxelles, Buffalo, Buenos Aires, Burlington, Calcutta, Campinas, Canberra, Caracas, Chicago, Cordoba, Cork, Dallas, Dekalb, Delhi, Denver, Dhaka, Dijon, Duluth, Fortaleza, Frankfurt, Gainesville, Geneva, Guingamp, Hadley, Hartford, Istanbul, Izmir, Korneva de Llobregat, Kyiv, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Malmo, Melbourne, Montreal, Moscow, Mumbai, New South Wales, Oxford, Palm Beach, Perth, Portland, Providence, Reus, Salvador, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Stavanger, Stockholm, Sydney, Tarragona, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Trick Candles, Tucson, Uppsala, Utrecht, Washington, Wellington, Wroclaw, Zagreb. We don\’t even know where all of these places are!
What isn\’t impossible to summarize is that the corporate form of globalization, in which only the rich and corporations enjoy the benefits and the rest of us pay the price, is coming up against a truly global people\’s movement. Organized decentrally from the grass roots up (the way we would like to see the world organized), the global solidarity witnessed on September 26 is the kind of \”globalization\” the world needs!
Here are some reports, chosen at random. (If you\’re city isn\’t listed, that doesn\’t mean cool stuff didn\’t happen there . . .):
- Ankara, Turkey
- 200 students gathered around the Mc Donalds and shouted \”go home IMF\”. In the city center 400 people from the Ankara anti-globalization platform gathered for music and street theatre and \”Global Resistance Against Global Exploitation\” Another protest took place in front of the World Bank/IMF office.
- Barcelona, Spain
- on S23, 4000 people with a samba band blessed the vans taking people to Prague. A march from the top of Barcelona down to the sea passed banks and the stock exchange, all of which ended up more brightly decorated than usual
- Berkeley, California
- About 500 people successfully reclaimed the streets in solidarity with the protests in Prague against the IMF/World Bank. 400 people went on a torch-lit march accompanied by a mobile sound system past the brand new, expanded police station and jail to call attention to the connections between globalized capitalism and the expansion of the police state here at home. 100 other people on bikes, also with a bike towed mobile sound system, went on a diversionary Critical Mass Bike ride. Coordinated by radio, the two groups converged in downtown Berkeley at the place the police least expected: the place they had started. The street was blockaded for 3 hours with a tripod and trashcans while participants danced wildly to a huge sound system and ate food from Food Not Bombs. A puppet of a landlord was thrown into a huge bonfire and people played soccer in the usually busy streets. Eventually, police moved in with a fire truck to extinguish the bonfire. The group then marched through downtown Berkeley, breaking the windows of two banks (including Citicorp, target of a national protest campaign) and unsuccessfully attempting to arson McDonald\’s restaurant. The evening\’s impromptu slogan: in the East Bay, we don\’t have puppets, we have effigies! And we know what to do with them!
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 3000 people protested the IMF/World Bank for hours, conducting a carnival against capitalism. At one point, 150 people simultaneously mooned the IMF.
- Calcutta, India
- 500 people rallied for seven hours. Various speakers declared unequivocal support to the worldwide movement against capitalist globalization. A long stretch of the street was decorated with banners and placards. The speeches, songs and street dramas drew a large audience.
- Delhi, India
- 100 people blocked the entrance to the World Bank offices for two hours. They shouted slogans such as \”We want water, not Pepsi!\” \”World Bank Agents Down Down\”, \”World Bank Quit India\”, and \”Structural Adjustment Down Down\”. The slogans were pasted on the windows and the gates of the World Bank office.
- Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Two marches went to the World Bank offices.
- Johannesburg, South Africa
- 500 people held an anti-capitalist festival with music and speeches and then marched through downtown, accompanied by street puppets, demanding the shut down of the IMF/World Bank and cancellation of the apartheid debt. The march stopped at various government buildings where protesters did the famous toyi-toyi. The last stop was the headquarters of Anglo-American, South Africa\’s largest capitalist conglomerate, whose security guards attacked the march with tear gas & truncheons.
- Melbourne, Australia
- More than 600 rallied and heard speakers despite pouring rain.
- Montreal, Canada
- 150 people carrying banners reading \”Smash Capitalism before it smashes you!\” and \”La rebellion est un droit! À bas le capitalisme!\” [tr. Rebellion is a right! Down with capitalism!\”] paraded through the downtown streets, ending at the Stock Exchange Tower. They were blocked from going near a McDonald\’s vandalized at a recent protest.
- Portland, Oregon
- A Reclaim the Streets march with a sound system united with a Teamsters protest in downtown whereupon 500 people blocked streets for several hours, vandalizing police cars and throwing bottles at the police. 20 were arrested and 1 hospitalized.
- Tel Aviv, Israel
- 1000 people assembled in the city center for 3 hours for street theater and other protest art, and then marched through the banking street.
- Utrecht, Netherlands
- 500 people marched through the city, stopping at banks to protest the IMF/World Bank.
- Wellington, New Zeland
- 200 protesters gave out free veggie burgers (and cups of tea) in front of a McDonald\’s before briefly occupying the Westpac Trust bank, which was targeted because of its role in uranium mining in Australia. The police attacked, arresting 14 and injuring a number. After the melee, the crowd gave out 150 free cookies with \”capitalism is crumbling\” and \”anarchy is how the cookie crumbles\” stickers. Unfortunately, the police had earlier knocked over the cookie basket and crushed many of them