-Caveat Lector- 1/11/01 I didn't vote for any of these people to run the worlds economy. Did you? People are beginning to understand the very simple dictum of survival. *** Control your Elites, or lose control of you life.*** This activist generation is fighting for their future. Nurev ============================================= Police reinforcements sought for Davos forum Updated 8:53 AM ET January 7, 2001 By Robert Evans GENEVA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - More police are needed to face a mounting threat from protesters to this month's Davos World Economic Forum, already the focus of a big security operation to protect world leaders, a top official said on Sunday. Peter Aliesh, who is in charge of police where the conference is being held, said militant opponents of globalisation -- of which they argue the annual Forum is a coordinating body -- were much better organised than last year when they briefly disrupted the gathering. "We cannot totally prevent demonstrations in Davos, despite the ban imposed and the stringent security measures we have planned," Aliesh told the Zurich Sunday newspaper Sonntags Blick. Aliesh, a minister in the government of the canton of Grisons where Davos is located, recalled that anti-globalisation protests at meetings around the world over the past two years of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and a regional gathering of the Forum in Australia, had all degenerated into violence. "We also have to take into account groups of wreckers who are ready for anything," said Aliesh. His interview was published after a Geneva-based radical group, "Anti-WTO Coordination," warned they did not exclude violence at Davos, a normally peaceful ski resort in eastern Switzerland. The Forum, the name of the gathering which has become a major event on the global political and business calendar over the past 30 years as well as the organisation which directs it, is due to meet from January 25-31. PROTESTERS SAY VIOLENCE POSSIBLE On Saturday, four youthful spokesmen for the "Coordination" told an impromptu news conference in heavy rain near the Forum's modernistic headquarters overlooking Lake Geneva in the city s suburb of Cologny that violence was possible in Davos. "We do not rule out the possibility of excesses because police will be there in force and could take extremely repressive measures against us," said one of the spokesmen, who all declined to give their names. He said his movement wanted to close down the Forum and ensure its elimination. After attacks on shops and cars and clashes between police and protesters at last January's gathering, local authorities in Davos have banned all protests this year and called in police reinforcements from around Switzerland. The Swiss government has pledged to help pay for the security operation, but is reluctant to be seen mounting a major operation which could be portrayed by protesters as suppressing their freedom of speech. The Coordination played a key role in often violent demonstrations during a WTO ministerial conference in Geneva in May 1998. 'NO DIALOGUE' Its spokesmen said on Saturday they did not want discussions with Forum officials "because in our view the Forum has no legitimacy" -- a stance adopted by many demonstrators against the WTO at that body's last Ministerial Conference in Seattle in December 1999. The Seattle protesters, who briefly blocked access to the Conference before being dispersed by police with tear gas, declared that they represented "the people of the world." Such movements claim to represent "civil society" but critics say they lack legitimacy because of their opaque structure and lack of democracy in appointing leaders. The Forum, whose founder and president is German economics professor Klaus Schwab, issued a statement on Saturday saying it was always ready to meet critics of globalisation to discuss the effects of the process on both rich and poor. But Forum officials "will not engage in dialogue with individuals or groups who resort to violence or confrontation tactics aimed at drawing media attention to themselves or their cause," the statement declared. There will be 57 representatives from non-governmental organisations, or NGOs, at Davos this month, it added. Trade union bodies and NGOs from developing countries have used the Forum over recent years as a platform to argue their case on the dangers posed by globalisation for living and working standards around the world. © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without Reuters prior written consent. ©2001 At Home Corporation. All rights reserved ========================================== Protesters warn of violence at Swiss business forum Updated 1:45 PM ET January 6, 2001 GENEVA, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Leaders of a Swiss group opposed to opening global markets for freer trade warned on Saturday of possible violence at this month's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the mountain resort of Davos. The three youthful spokesmen of the self-styled "Anti-WTO Coordination" were speaking at an impromptu news conference in heavy rain near the Forum's modernistic headquarters overlooking Lake Geneva in the Geneva suburb of Cologny. "We do not rule out the possibility of excesses at Davos because police will be there in force and could take extremely repressive measures against us," said one of the spokesmen, who all declined to give their names. The Forum, attended by business, financial and political leaders from around the world, is to be held from January 25 to 31. After attacks on shops and cars and clashes between police and protesters at the 2000 Forum, local authorities in Davos, an eastern Swiss ski resort, have banned all protests this year and called in police reinforcements from around Switzerland. The Swiss government has pledged to help pay for the security operation which officials say is needed to safeguard leaders attending the gathering, a regular event on the global political and business calendar over the past 30 years. The Cologny protesters' organisation played a key role in often violent demonstrations during the World Trade Organisation's ministerial conference in Geneva in May 1998. 'NO DIALOGUE' They said on Saturday that they opposed the "liberal ideas" promoted by the Forum and wanted to close it down. They had no wish to hold a dialogue with Forum officials "because in our view the Forum has no legitimacy" -- a stance adopted by many demonstrators against the WTO at that body's last Ministerial Conference in Seattle in December 1999. The Seattle protesters, who briefly blocked access to the Conference before being dispersed by police with tear gas, declared that they represented "the people of the world." Such movements claim to represent "civil society" but critics say they lack legitimacy because of their opaque structure and lack of democracy in appointing leaders. The Forum, whose founder and president is German economics professor Klaus Schwab, issued a statement on Saturday saying it was always ready to meet critics of globalisation to discuss the effects of the process on both rich and poor. But Forum officials would not "go down into the street" for such meetings. The Forum "will not engage in dialogue with individuals or groups who resort to violence or confrontation tactics aimed at drawing media attention to themselves or their cause," the statement declared. There will be representatives from 57 non-governmental organisations, or NGOs, at Davos this month, it added. Trade union bodies have criticised globalisation's impact on living and working standards around the world. Unionists and NGOs from developing countries have used the Forum over the past few years as a platform to argue their case on the dangers of globalisation. © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without Reuters prior written consent. ©2001 At Home Corporation. All rights reserved. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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