Army of dissidents united only in what they all abhor
Protesters, to Clare Short they are just Luddites Special report: the IMF and World Bank in Prague
John Vidal and Kate Connolly in Prague Tuesday September 26, 2000
Clare Short will today cast the protesters besieging the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Prague as "Luddites" with no constructive alternatives to the institutions they criticise. "Those who want to stop globalisation are today's Luddites," the international development secretary will tell Labour delegates at Brighton. "We understand their worries, but their call to halt historical change and tear down our international institutions offers no solution. The challenge of globalisation is to share the fruits of the new wealth across the world and usher in an era that eliminates abject poverty."
In Prague yesterday, the protesters were preparing for today's showdown. Crammed elbow to elbow 200 "carnivalistas" splashed paint and glue around, putting finishing touches to papier mché globes and effigies of fat bankers, dribbling banknotes. In the centre of anti-globalisation activists - a disused shipyard - 50 or 60 groups, each of about 50 people, huddled in circles debating how to subvert capitalism.
One startling thing is the diversity of the groups intending to surround the conference centre until the financiers agree to dismantle both institutions. There are groups from Italy connected to the zapatistas in Mexico, others calling for the rebirth of communism.
What happens today is the first attempt at a European-wide coordinated protests against global institutions,with more than 20 nationalities taking part. "Make protest as global as capitalism," read one of the banners being prepared yesterday.
Prague may be the biggest but it is just one of 37 protests around the world against the World Bank/IMF today. Almost all the protesters in the Czech capital see themselves as part of a growing phenomenon which has so far not fully expressed itself or worked out what it wants or where it is going.
Looked at closely, however, Prague is many protests by groups who would not normally even talk to each other, and many of whom are bitterly opposed. British anti-capitalists, as represented by the umbrella group Reclaim the Streets which directed the City riots in London, have a deep disrespect for the many socialist groups, whom they accuse of jumping aboard the bandwagon after Seattle. No one will talk to Oxfam, Christian Aid and War on Want who are widely dismissed as "establishment".
"The European experience is very confused," says Stefan Bienenfeld, a German who works with the Czech coordinating committee and has been observing the arrival of groups from across the continent. "It is so far incoherent. That's why there are no demands or consensus".
One British activist admitted: "The British are very isolated. The Germans are starting to work with the Poles and the French with the Spanish and Italians, but there is little debate or understanding."