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AFP. 28 September 2002. Anti-globalization marchers gather for mass protest. WASHINGTON -- Thousands gathered to march against the policies of the World Bank and the IMF, one day after riot police swiftly crushed smaller protests and arrested nearly 650 people. A crowd of at least 5,000 grouped on the Washington Mall to listen to speakers and prepare to march to a downtown square close to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings. Several hundred people protesting the effect of IMF and World Bank policies on HIV-AIDS victims around the world held a noisy and colourful march as they joined the main rally. "Pills cost pennies, greed costs lives!" cried Danae Mcelroy, an HIV-AIDS activist who marched with the group. The activists, many of them beating drums and blowing whistles, stopped outside the US Treasury Department to vent their rage en route to join the main protest group. Authorities had braced for 20,000 protesters to converge on the capital -- the estimated number of people who showed up for similar protests in April 2000. Only one-tenth of that number actually materialized at various rallies on Friday, according to local media estimates, although police refused to speculate on numbers. The protest march was sponsored by the Mobilization for Global Justice, an umbrella group that includes environmentalists, human rights advocates, debt relief advocates and anti-war activists. At the end of the march, some protesters were to participate in a symbolic cordon around the meeting sites. The World Bank and IMF are, said a protest statement, "two institutions infecting the world with policies and practices that create more poverty, more environmental and social destruction, less democracy and more human misery." The list of protester demands included opening all World Bank and IMF meetings to the news media and the public; canceling the debt of the world's poorest countries by using World Bank and IMF resources; and halting all support for projects such as oil, gas and mining activities that pollute and often force people to relocate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ProletarianNews http://www.utopia2000.org with photo --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
