----- Original Message ----- From: F J BERNAL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: STOP NATO! - �No Pasar�n! <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2000 2:56 PM Subject: [STOPNATO.ORG.UK] ANTI- IMF/WORLD BANK PROTESTS BEGIN IN PRAGUE STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 POSTMARK PRAGUE No.318 News Release Sunday 24 September 2000 ANTI- IMF/WORLD BANK PROTESTS BEGIN IN PRAGUE With the opening of the IMF/World Bank summit still two days away, the first protests against capitalist globalisation took place on a warm and sunny afternoon yesterday (Saturday) in Prague. The largest, organised by the left-wing Stop the IMF! campaign, was attended by 5,000 mostly young demonstrators from all over Europe and Turkey. Red flags, many of them carrying the hammer and sickle, predominated. Speakers at the hour-long rally, which was chaired by Josef Gottwald of the Czech Republic's Communist Union of Youth (KSM), included Miroslav Grebenicek MP, chair of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM), and a leader of the large delegation from the Italian Communist Party of Refoundation (PRC). In general the speakers expressed their support for the Stop the IMF! campaign's three main demands abolition of the IMF and World Bank and their replacement by new democratically created and controlled international organisations, cancellation of the debts of the Third World and eastern European countries, and taxation of movements of speculative capital. But many of them, like the young leader of the Socialist Organisation of Working People, also called for a revolutionary socialist solution to the problems created by capitalist globalisation. Apart from the Italians, there were strong and vociferous contingents at the rally were from Britain, Turkey, Germany and Greece. The latter included a contingent of building workers. A police attempt to sabotage the rally shortly before it began by declaring the truck which was to serve as the speakers' platform unroadworthy (there was a small crack in one of the cab windows!) was foiled. But during the rally a police helicopter repeatedly circled over the heads of the crowd in an apparent attempt to drown out the speakers. Despite these provocations, the two-hour march through the heavily-policed streets of central Prague and Wenceslas Square which followed the rally was disciplined and noisily militant, both in its slogans and songs. It was headed by the young Czech leaders of the Stop the IMF! campaign and two vice-chairs of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, Vaclav Exner MP and Miloslav Ransdorf MP, even though some elements of the party's leadership support the view that the IMF and World Bank should be reformed rather than replaced. It was the first time since the 1989 "velvet" counter-revolution that Praguers had seen a large left-wing street demonstration. Militant slogans echoed through the streets, notably as the marchers made their way between the tall buildings on Political Prisoners' Street, where the Czech Communists have their headquarters. Some of the staff stood outside applauding and giving clenched fist salutes. Two other anti-IMF/WB demonstrations on Saturday were organised by Anti-Fascist Action, an anarchist group, who mobilised several hundred supporters, many of them masked, and the neo-fascist National Alliance, whose rally at Letna Plain was attended by several dozen skinheads. Members of the two groups clashed at Prague's main railway station, with the skinheads coming off decidedly worse. Naturally, TV news programmes focussed on these clashes while minimising the signifiance of the Stop the IMF! campaign's demonstration. The main mobilisation of anti-IMF/WB protesters is expected on Tuesday (September 26), when the Initiative against Economic Globalisation is expected to concentrate its forces on blockading the bankers in their hotels, while smaller groups of "commandos" take other forms of direct action. But the protests will continue for the whole of next week, with more than 200 events planned. END * EDITORS! Your readers can obtain a free sample copy of Postmark Prague's 16-page illustrated monthly news review by writing to PP, PO Box 42, 182 21 Prague 8, Czech Republic, or e-mailing [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: N/A iQA/AwUBOdCrAEY4L8gv88U8EQKVcwCeJGyvyOoQoGQH+1kUP5t7ZQyaPoEAoMLw +Bnpxefl3QnGMq7oesZjeG/w =Wsgs -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get on EqualFooting and get $25 back! Find everything your office will ever need-and get $25 back on your first purchase of $50 or more! For everything from erasers to printer paper-click and get on 'equal footing' today. http://on.linkexchange.com/?ATID=27&AID=1482
