>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: EYEWITNESS FROM PRAGUE: Thousands say "Smash the IMF" >Reply-To: "International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >TANKS CAN'T STOP PROTESTS IN PRAGUE AS >THOUSANDS SAY, : "SMASH THE IMF!" > >By Bill Dorr >Prague, Czech Republic > >They came to wreck and destroy. From Washington and Wall >Street, Frankfurt, Tokyo, the Bourse in Paris and the City of >London, silk-suited bankers, financiers and economists descended >on this beautiful Central European city to consort with and dictate to >finance ministers from over 100 countries at the annual meeting of >the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. > >Behind the bankers' smooth professions of concern for the 2 billion >people on this planet who go to bed hungry was an ill-concealed >hidden agenda-cut wages, raise prices, shut down plants, schools, >hospitals, eliminate jobs. And make sure that interest continues to >flow from the world's poorest countries to the world's richest banks. > >But these global economic tyrants could not carry out their agenda >in peace or silence. They had to hide behind armies of police and >walls of tanks as thousands of protesters from all over Europe filled >the cobblestoned streets of Prague Sept. 26. > >The bankers had to travel to their hotels in special guarded subway >cars as activists fought armored police on bridges and intersections >leading to the Prague Congress Center. IMF-WB delegates who >dared travel the streets in chartered buses found themselves >surrounded by angry crowds. > >DEMOCRACY, CAPITALIST STYLE > >Czech president Vaclav Havel sent tanks into the streets of Prague >to intimidate the anti-corporate protesters. He sent 15,000 cops and >2,000 soldiers to gas them, beat them and spray them with water >cannon. Teams of FBI agents sent from the United States >supervised the Czech police forces. > >Havel, a former anti-communist dissident and darling of the Western >corporate media, is a longtime servant of capital. After the >overthrow of socialism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, he rented out the >wall of his home to Campbell's Soup for an advertisement. > >Massive police force managed to stop three columns of protesters >from actually reaching the IMF-WB meeting. But it failed to >intimidate the marchers, who repeatedly charged police lines in an >effort to break through and confront the bankers. On the Gottwald >Bridge, demonstrators fought the police hand to hand for hours amid >chants of "No pasaran." > > �CAPITALISM, A SHAME AND DISGRACE� > >The rest of Prague belonged to the demonstrators, and anti- >capitalist slogans in a dozen languages echoed through its winding >streets: "Smash the IMF," "Cancel the debt," and "Capitalism, a >shame and disgrace." > >The Prague metro was shut down for a day so the bankers could >travel without being confronted, and many shuttered businesses bore >signs saying "Closed Until the IMF Protests Are Over." > >Throughout the night, street fighting continued in and around Wenceslas >Square. Demonstrators surrounded the state opera, forcing the IMF and >World Bank to cancel a dinner they had planned to hold there. > >MASS ARREST OF CZECH CITIZENS > >Late in the night, having failed to break the protests, police began >rounding up and arresting ordinary Czech citizens on streets around >the city center. While the corporate media claimed the majority of >protesters were foreign, of the 422 people arrested, 392 were >Czech citizens. They are being held in the city of Plzen, far from >Prague, and have so far not been allowed to speak to lawyers. > >Tuesday's battle was the climax of a week of protests. These >included a 3,000-strong Stop the IMF march on Sept. 23, >organized by the Communist Union of Youth and backed by trade >unions and the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia. > >That same day there as a 1,000-strong antifascist march to counter >a rally by the neo-Nazi National Alliance. Racist skinheads who try >and terrorize Roma and other people of color found the tables >turned as protesters chased them through the streets. A few of the >racists escaped unharmed. > >Most of the protesters who came to Prague were young, many of >them students, many of them teenagers. But there were also >construction workers from Greece, steelworkers from Germany, >railroad workers from France, public employees from Britain and >dock workers from Seattle. > >The contingents from Italy and Spain were especially large and >militant and took the front line in fighting the police. Marchers from >Germany and Scotland carried flags demanding justice for Mumia >Abu Jamal. > >A delegation from the International Action Center in the United >States distributed a statement headlined "Abolish NATO, the IMF's >strike force!" It called the IMF and NATO "partners in genocide" >and demanded "US-NATO Hands off Yugoslavia." The statement >also exposed the racist U.S. prison system and urged international >support for Mumia. > >Hundreds of Czechs joined the protests despite months of hysterical >violence-baiting by the government and media aimed at turning the >population against the protesters. Eighty percent of the Czech >Republic's media is owned by foreign corporations. > >Members of the Czech Communist Youth Union and the Socialist >Youth of Slovakia marched behind a banner saying "Stop the >dictatorship of the World Bank and the International Monetary >Fund." They chanted "Black and white, unite and fight" and "Prague, >Seattle, take it all the way, we will expropriate capital." > >Marching with them was Mario, an 18-year-old Roma man from >Slovakia. "In the past 10 years everybody in Slovakia has become >poor, but the Roma are the most poor. Under socialism most Roma >people worked in heavy industry, but now we are 90-percent >unemployed. The government tries to make us scapegoats, and >there is a growing racist movement. We have to fight back." > >Dragan, a 35-year-old Serbian construction worker, said he would >stand on the front lines of every demonstration. "I've lived in Prague >for nine years," he said. "People here now have more freedom to >travel abroad, but that's the only thing that's better. Life has become >much harder-there is no social security. The Czech Republic is being >walked like a poodle by international monopolies and has been >dragged into the aggressive NATO alliance." > >He was particularly outraged at the campaign against Yugoslavia. >"It's all lies," he said. "I'm Serb but Croats, Bosnians, Albanians are >my brothers. We are a multi-ethnic country. They call Milosevic a >nationalist but all he wants is an independent Yugoslavia." > >LABOR SUPPORTS PROTESTS > >At Saturday's rally Petr Simunek, president of the Trade Union >association of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, told why his unions >supported the protests. "IMF and World Bank policies have >destroyed most of the social gains we had under socialism and they >want to take the rest. The biggest blow is the destruction of heavy >industry. > >�There is 10 percent unemployment in the Czech Republic today but >in industrial areas like north Moravia and north Bohemia it is 25 and >30 percent. For those who are working, prices and rents have gone >up much faster than incomes. But it is not only here. > >�Throughout the world 9,000 people are plunged into poverty >everyday because of policies dictated by the World Bank and >International Monetary Fund." Simunek condemned U.S. and >European Union economic sanctions against Yugoslavia, Cuba, >Iraq, Libya, Sudan and north Korea. > >Also taking part in the protests or applauding from the sidewalks >were older Czech people who remembered the mass labor >demonstrations of 1948 that overthrew capitalism in >Czechoslovakia. > >Since 1989, when socialism was overthrown here and the country >divided in two, the Czech Republic has been held up as a supposed >"success story" of capitalism in East Europe. It might seem that way >in Prague, where there is a lot of tourism and foreign investment. But >since the economic crash of 1998 much of the country has been >plunged into poverty. > >A Czech worker from Plsen told us how he now works 120 hours a >week to support his family. The extent of the desperation here is >shown by the fact that Prague has become the center of prostitution >in Europe. The World Bank's own figures, released shortly before >the meeting, admitted a drastic rise in poverty and inequality >throughout East and Central Europe in the past five years. > >At press conferences and in media statements IMF and World >Bank officials decried the poverty they have helped cause and threw >around phrases like "humane investing." And some of the protest >organizers spoke of "reforming' the IMF and World Bank. But as >several protesters put it, "A tiger will never become a vegetarian." > >The feelings of most of the protesters who spoke to us were >summed up in a slogan chanted by young Czech Communists: "Why >are we here? Stop the IMF! What do we want? Smash the IMF! >What will we do? Unite and fight? What will we win? A world for >us!" > >(As of Sept. 27, protests are continuing in the streets of Prague.) > >International Action Center >39 West 14th Street, Room 206 >New York, NY 10011 >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >web: www.iacenter.org >CHECK OUT THE NEW SITE www.mumia2000.org >phone: 212 633-6646 >fax: 212 633-2889 > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. 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