WTO: Splinter Groups Breed as Activists Fracture 2300 GMT, 011108
Summary
Activists worldwide are hosting solidarity protests this weekend against the World Trade Organization meeting in Qatar. The demonstrations are occurring under the shadow of a zero-tolerance policy taken by European and American security officials since the Sept. 11 attacks. But activist groups are under greater threat from internal rifts, which may lead to the formation of a more violent anarchist faction.
Analysis
Anti-globalization activists worldwide will be protesting this weekend against the World Trade Organization summit in Doha, Qatar. The meeting is the first for the WTO since its 1999 Seattle summit degenerated into widespread destruction and violence.
One of the largest weekend protests is expected in New York City Nov. 10, but unprecedented vigilance by police and disorganization among activists will likely keep the violence low. In the longer term a split between anti-globalization forces due to the Sept. 11 attacks could open the door for a more violent radical activist faction.
The protests in New York are going to set a benchmark for the strategic thinking of both U.S. activists and security officials alike. America's federal police agencies are now armed with legislation allowing them to conduct unprecedented surveillance on fringe groups and intercept protesters before they hit the streets. But even more troubling for activists are the emerging internal divisions over how to present their message in the new political climate.
U.S. President George W. Bush recently signed the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which allows federal authorities to detain permanent U.S. residents without any formal charges, randomly monitor voice and e-mail traffic and refuse re-entry to the country for suspected terrorist supporters. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., has suggested the legislation is a sacrifice of Fourth Amendment rights and could be used as a license by the government to target groups like Greenpeace.
Paranoia in the anti-globalization camp is now setting in. The recent detention of an alleged Green Party member by American Airlines officials in Portland, Maine, is similar to the detentions of activist leaders before the G-8 Summit in Italy last summer. A group of activists was also stopped and detained on the U.S.-Canada border in October when one of them appeared on an FBI database.
The biggest impact of the new anti-terror legislation will likely be an increase in such pre-emptive detentions of activists as they travel to the United States. Protesters already in the country, however, are at higher risk of harassment than interception.
While the new legislation may be worrying, if there is a threat for anti-globalization activists, it is more from inside their camp than from outside. The movement's momentum, beginning with the highly publicized Seattle demonstrations, hit a wall after the recent attacks on the United States. Many activist groups are now trying to figure out how to recover their message while not looking like political agitators or anti-U.S. dissidents.
Some political figures are already trying to link anti-globalism to terrorism. Clare Short, Britain's international development minister, recently said the demands of protesters are similar to those of al Qaeda, London's Evening Standard newspaper reported. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick also recently said during a speech in Washington that there are "intellectual connections" between terrorists and anti-globalization groups, The Village Voice reported.
While such defamatory comments are unfounded, they spotlight the key problem for anti-globalization activists in the United States: How do they show force without being labeled as unpatriotic?
Recent comments from the Bordentown Anti-War Group highlights the severe dislocation within the U.S. activist community over this question. An anonymous writer from the group indicated a high degree of disorganization, low turnout and a strain of apathy for anti-war protests that were conducted in New York on Oct. 27.
The disconnect within the movement is setting activists on two courses: absolute violence and absolute nonviolence. Now a recent fusion of the anti-globalization message with protests against the war in Afghanistan is giving life to a radical anarchist strain called anti-authoritarianism.
Members of this movement would likely engage in violence worse than what was seen in Seattle, including vandalism, assaults on police and use of incendiary devices. How such actions would be seen by the public post-Sept. 11 is not a concern for them, and neither is the backlash they would receive from mainstream activists who fear the anti-globalization message would be tarnished.
Anti-authoritarianism is developing most fiercely in Los Angeles and New York. Organizers of anti-WTO demonstrations in New York are debating a more aggressive style of protest, but there is no consensus yet. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom for one will instead focus on a "teach-in" aspect of solidarity action.
This weekend's actions are coming too quickly for activists to regroup following Sept. 11. There is no general agreement for the type of protest activists should undertake in defense of global ecosystems and Third World debt. Anarchists at present are renewing calls to violence while mainstream activists are standing down and insisting on taking stock of the public mood. Anti-authoritarianism has a strong potential as an aggressive backlash against mainstream activism, but it is still a developing idea.
New York City is ripe for being a trigger if protesters or police get too aggressive with one another. However, the protesters' relative lack of organization, sympathy with the trauma suffered by many New Yorkers and awareness of the police's no-nonsense posture is going to result in a contained march. Flashpoints will be close but few.
Radicals, though, will regroup after the event and declare it a failure. A vocal, extremely aggressive faction of activists will soon emerge in the United States and pursue a different form of more direct action.