Rally Combines Anarchy and Love
by Alejandro Kirk and Gustavo Capdevila
Predictions of echoes of Seattle in Geneva evaporated Sunday as some 3,000 persons staged a march “against neoliberal and sexist globalisation” that was free of confrontation.
The spirit, yesterday in Geneva, was not one of battle. A group of Italian anarchists even demanded “anarchy and love now”, behind their black and red banner, while, behind them, marchers from the French CGT (General Confederation of Labour), sang old French revolutionary songs.
When the protesters crossed the bridge towards Geneva’s train station early in the afternoon everybody was wondering what would happen when demonstrators and riot police would meet later at rue de Lausanne, on the way to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
But the mood of apprehension changed quickly as “Les Legroup”, a band of five young musicians from Geneva broke through the march¹s black-and-white main banner calling for the “globalization of resistance,” followed by a young crowd dancing to the happy tones of drums, brasses and a banjo.
The music changed everybody’s mood, except, maybe, the organisers’, for the rest of the afternoon.
The marchers came from different parts of Europe and some guests from Latin America, Africa and Asia. The peaceful nature of the march proved that Geneva is not Seattle and that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) distinguish between the United Nations and the WTO.
The demonstration closed the three-day “alternative summit” organised by the NGOs to demand the cancellation of the foreign debt in developing countries and an end to the capitalist globalisation of the economy.
Jean Baton, a spokesman for the organising coalition, said earlier at a press conference that some 600 delegates from 65 countries took part in the meeting, representing more than 200 rganisations worldwide.
Baton said that building up on their success in disrupting the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle last year, the civil society groups are trying to establish a permanent movement to oppose current trends of economic globalisation, marked by increasing social inequalities and
poverty, exactly the opposite of the 1995 Social Summit targets set in Copenhagen.
He said the Geneva gathering was a “big success” for them in terms of consolidating an international organisation able to propose alternatives beyond street protests like Sunday’s.
The agreements at the meeting included a decision to hold an alternative gathering in January 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, to coincide with the World Economic Forum, which takes place every year in Davos, Switzerland. The Forum brings together the world’s most powerful businessmen and heads of state and government.
They also agreed to launch a huge protest against the International Monetary Fund the World Bank and WTO next September in New York on the occasion of the United Nations “Millennium Summit”.
But to those who were expecting a repeat in Geneva of the violence staged by demonstrators and police in Seattle ( against the WTO) and later in Washington (against the World Bank -IMF meeting), Sunday¹s march was a disappointment.
The Swiss authorities had previously actively engaged the NGO coalition to make sure that Swiss policemen would not be seen on TV screens around the world beating young demonstrators. The NGOs, on their part, made clear that they are not against a United Nations meeting, in spite of the failures of the past five years in the fight against poverty.
A lively green-painted tractor served as stage for activist Carlos Rosero, from Colombia, to shout in Spanish, near the WTO building, “se siente, se ve, la mierda OMC” (we feel, we see, the mess of WTO), while some 20 riot policemen stood with a seemingly determined attitude behind the line of barbed wire and barriers erected to protect WTO’s headquarters.
Somehow the afternoon sunlight played on the side of the demonstrators, there on rue de Lausanne, marking a sharp line between the march and the cops, between a street full of people and an empty one where only police and some frightened neighbours were to be seen. Everyone stood on their side of the dividing line and there were no troubles, except a few shouts against
the stone-faced policemen.
On the green tractor, a blonde girl wearing a red T-shirt and a black beret with a red star, was busy following the lyrics of Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer and the Buena Vista Social Club band, whose old romantic songs from the 50s somehow symbolised for them the spirit of the solidarity march: after all “ethnic” music, “ethnic” textiles and solidarity seem to belong together in the clean streets of Geneva.
The march ended peacefully at the Place des Nations, where today representatives from 173 countries will try to find out what happened since Copenhagen, when poverty was declared a curable disease. While in different languages the relieved organisers thanked everybody for being peaceful and happy, across the street, in the Geneva International Conference Centre, another gathering, this time formal and diplomatic, was about to begin.
Read TerraViva
The IPS renowned international newspaper will publish a special edition in Geneva, at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (Copenhagen+5). Follow the conference on line day by day from June 26 through July 1, with exclusive reports by a team of 13 IPS journalists from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, North America and Latin America.
A selection of the IPS Coverage from Geneva will also be carried by TerraViva Daily Journal (New York) and TerraViva Europe (Brussels),.
Has the world lived up to its 1996 commitments..?
Solidarity 2000 starting 17th of June!
MS's big summer event Solidarity 2000 will start very soon now, with a week-long variety of debates and arrangements. The activities range from encounters between young people from Balkan, Africa and Central America to big conferences on the planet's social development and environment.
Judge by yourself:
The 1996 Copenhagen Social Summit final report in English, French and Spanish.