Activists Plan Upcoming WEF Protests

From Jan. 31 to Feb. 4, more than 1,500 corporate leaders and their political allies will be gathering in New York City for the meeting of the World Economic Forum. The annual meeting held in Davos, Switzerland since 1971, was moved to New York City this year due in part to growing protests at the Swiss Alps ski resort in recent years by groups opposed to the forum's agenda promoting corporate-led globalization.

Over the years, discussions at the World Economic Forum have spawned the creation of controversial institutions such as the World Trade Organization and have supported free trade economic policies. Similar to what's occurred at other recent global summit meetings, thousands of labor, environmental and student activists from the U.S. and around the world are planning to greet the elite delegates as they come to New York for the forum with protests, street theater and teach-ins.

Scott Harris, host of popular radio show Between the Lines, spoke with Michael Dolan, deputy director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, who discusses the history of the World Economic Forum, the planned protests and the concern that in the post-Sept. 11 environment in New York City, police may not tolerate dissent and instead label those engaged in direct action as "terrorists."

Michael Dolan: The World Economic Forum (WEF) is essentially a ruling class caucus. It's an elite member-based institution funded by approximately 1,000 multinational corporations. Some of them pay as much as $300,000 per year for the privilege. They gather in sort of a clubby kind of environment and then they hatch plans that relegate or subordinate civil society values: labor, environment, sustainability, consumer and human rights. They subordinate all those values to their bottom line, geopolitical interests and their corporate interests.

We'll be there, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, and a lot of different organizations are mobilizing to confront the WEF there. We certainly expect the top brass of the Bush administration to go to New York to be a part of the welcome, a part of the discussions: Bush, Cheney, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, probably Robert Zoellick, the U.S. Trade Representative.

We're going to take the opportunity in the streets of New York, and in parallel forums in Manhattan, to describe our critique of the WEF, but also to petition our government for the redress of grievances relating to the neoliberal economic model. I encourage people to mark their calendars for a few days to proclaim our critique loudly to the press and to the policy and corporate elites in New York City.

Scott Harris: You describe the decision by the World Economic Forum organizers to come to New York City as a brilliant public relations strategy. Do you mean that there is some thought on the part of the WEF organizers that the protests they've encountered in Switzerland may not be tolerated or permitted in New York City, given the tragic events of Sept. 11?

Michael Dolan: That's exactly what I mean. I think they've really in many ways set a trap for this movement, for the anti-globalization movement.

In all the "summit stalking" that's gone on since the "battle in Seattle" over two years ago against the World Trade Organization, there's always been some rowdiness, some property destruction at the periphery requiring police to chase protesters, and "black-clad anarchists" around and all the rest. Well, by going to New York in the aftermath of the events of September at a time when the New York City Police Dept. is incredibly popular nationally, even globally, it creates the opportunity for enormous sympathy for them having to deal with protesters and it could have the effect of further marginalizing the anti-globalization movement.