BY ROHAN PEARCE
The movement against corporate globalisation in the United States faces an important test at the January 31-February 4 meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in New York: has the wave of "anti-terrorist" hysteria crippled it?
Although corporate-owned media commentators assure us that the movement is terminally ill, the lengths that the organisers of the WEF and the New York Police Department (NYPD) have gone to prepare for this year's summit indicates that they are not so sure.
The opening "pre-emptive strike" against the movement was moving this year's meeting from Davos in Switzerland to New York. WEF spokesperson Charles McLean claimed that the move was to "show solidarity with New York in the wake of [the] September 11" attack on the World Trade Center — perish the thought that it was a cynical attempt to exploit President George Bush's "anti-terrorist" propaganda, the grief of working-class New Yorkers and the "hero status" of the NYPD to prevent protests.
"After September 11, anyone who thinks that violence is a legitimate form of protest certainly won't find anyone to agree with them. My guess is New Yorkers won't be very sympathetic", McLean said.
An editorial in the New York Daily News described anti-WEF protesters as "legions of agitators" and "crazies". "You have a right to free speech, but try to disrupt this town, and you'll get your anti-globalization butts kicked. Capish?", it threatened.
An article in the Village Voice noted that, "In the post-9-11 world of law enforcement, cops see these brick throwers and car burners as almost al Qaeda-like, down to their transnational wandering, their leaders' wealthy backgrounds, and their fundamentalist message."
According to media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, "Mainstream New York City newspapers have tended to frame discussion of the demonstrations in terms of their status as a security problem. A search of the Lexis-Nexis database found that most articles in the New York Daily News, New York Post, New York Times and Newsday mentioning the WEF have focused on police preparations for the protests... The political debate over the WEF has been obscured, as have concerns about police brutality and civil liberties."
The highly visible police preparations were a blatant attempt to scare off protesters and stir up expectations of violence amongst New York's population. The police have called their preparations for the WEF "Operation Decorum at the Forum". The most overt police intimidation has been the NYPD's practice sessions in Shea Stadium. Police practised violent methods of breaking up pickets, performing mass arrests and using mounted officers to isolate protesters.
The NYPD has said that during the WEF 3800 officers will be working each day, with an extra 700 standing by. There will be roof-top snipers, police aircraft aloft, as well as mounted, canine and bomb squads deployed.
In addition to uniformed police and detectives, FBI officers, Secret Service operatives and private security guards are to "protect" the corporate and government heads attending the WEF. The area around the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the meeting's venue, is surrounded by security checkpoints.
Beau Dietl Associates, headed by John Timoney, is providing additional security. Timoney is better known as the former police commissioner of Philadelphia. During the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, he was responsible for the arrest and brutalisation of hundreds of protesters. Timoney has coined the expression "Fortress Waldorf" to describe the WEF security.
NYPD chief of patrol Joseph Esposito has stated that the police intend to enforce an 1845 state law that bans protesters from wearing masks. The police intend to apply it to any group of "three or more" who are marching. Fittingly, the law was originally introduced to stop tenant farmers from disguising themselves during protests against their landlords.
By January 31 eight activists had been arrested: one for graffiti and seven for putting up banners.
From Green Left Weekly, February 6, 2002.
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