WORLD BANK/IMF PROTESTS ROCK DC POLICE SPIN CONTROL MASKS ESCALATED REPRESSION

by Bill Weinberg

The Mobilization for Global Justice, which coordinated the DC protests, included the Direct Action Network (which had played a similar role at Seattle), the Ruckus Society and ecology groups like the Rainforest Action Network--as well as big labor unions like the Teamsters, United Steelworkers and UNITE. The diverse, new network shut down downtown DC for both days, turning the streets around the WB/IMF headquarters into a mobile, high-spirited carnival of protest, and succeeded in drawing national attention to the WB/IMF's role in expanding global corporate rule.

But police and media were not taken by surprise as they were in Seattle--both law enforcement and global technocrats were better able to ride out the storm this time. DC police had learned the lessons of Seattle, and managed to keep spectacular scenes of street clashes from hitting the nation's TV screens--while using methods against the protestors more insidious and hardly less brutal than those employed at Seattle. Meanwhile, activists pledge to continue the direct action campaign at this summer's Democratic and Republican conventions.

Friday, April 14

On Friday afternoon, a Critical Mass ride of nearly 100 bicyclists met at Dupont Circle--and succeeded in passing right by the still lightly guarded WB/IMF complex at Pennsylvania Ave. and H Street. At that moment, another group was holding a rally in support of the Zapatistas at the Mexican embassy, just across Pennsylvania from the WB/IMF complex. The Critical Massers stopped, cheered, and lifted their bikes in the air to show solidarity--as men in black with video cameras came out of the woodwork. The Critical Mass ride went around the block, and passed by a second time--this time, to be met by motorcycle cops, who chased them off.

From this point on, the DC police would be taking no chances. A radius around the WB/IMF complex was sealed off to motor and pedestrian traffic, extending from 20th and H streets in the west to the Treasury Building on 15th street east of the White House.

Saturday, April 15

That afternoon, police in full riot gear showed up at a vacant city-owned building in the low-income but gentrifying Shaw neighborhood which protesters--including many from New York's Lower East Side--had opened as a public squat in cooperation with local activists. Most of the squatters agreed to leave peacefully if they would not be arrested, but when others refused, police turned violent. Local housing advocate Jennifer Kirby reports on the Internet: "As the police dragged the last person out of the house, one officer was kicking him and saying “stop attacking my foot” and then all the police slammed him against a wall, saying “stop attacking the wall.” They dragged him into a six-inch deep puddle and left him in it for five minutes while they kicked him."

The victim was another local activist, Paul Kostas, who says all he did to provoke the police was to go limp. Kirby, who also went limp, says that when the police came for her, one of them said, "Make sure you drag her through the puddle." They did.

That evening, a march of several hundred against the prison industrial complex was unexpectedly treated to a little taste of exactly what they were protesting. The march had a permit, but deviated from the approved route, and was immediately surrounded by riot police--even though the marchers were on the sidewalk and moving. Hours went by, with hundreds trapped behind police lines at the intersection of 20th and K streets. The police were in full body armor and black helmets, displaying some of the new material bought specially for the WB/IMF protests. They were backed up by three black military-type armored vehicles (one innocently marked "PARKS DEPARTMENT"). Finally, police-commandeered school and city buses came in, hauling off some 600 protesters to jail. They would be held for just up to the 24-hour legal limit.

Sunday, April 16

In the pre-dawn half-light of Sunday morning, hours before the IMF was scheduled to begin its meeting, thousands of protesters gathered at various locations in the streets surrounding the police perimeter around the WB/IMF complex, linking arms and blocking intersections. Police vehicles with sirens blaring were forced to turn around by the blockades. Frustrated officers responded with random use of mace and pepper spray. At 19th and K, video cameraman John Fiege of Essential Information (http://publicwebworks.org) was maced in the face from a passing patrol car.

The police were spread too thin, and surrendered several intersections. Choppers circled above intersections jammed with protesters beating on drums and dancing. Masked "Black Block" anarchists raided nearby construction sites to drag debris into the streets. Other protestors held aloft huge puppets and banners painted with scenes depicting global struggles against World Bank-funded mega-projects. One read: YACYRETA DAM, ARGENTINA/PARAGUAY, 76,000 DISPLACED. Another spelled: RIO NEGRO MASSACRE, CHIXOY DAM, 1982, a reference to Maya Indians gunned down by the Guatemalan military while protesting construction of the giant hydro-dam which would flood their lands.

One puppet depicted a giant pig labeled "IMF" with a globe in its mouth like an apple. Another was a monstrous three-headed cobra, with the heads labelled "World Bank, IMF, WTO." Another was shaped like a miniature nuke plant, and read: "NO WB/IMF LOANS FOR NUKES--STOP TEMELIN, CLOSE KOLODUY," a reference to the decrepit Communist-era reactors in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, respectively, now being kept open with World Bank funds.

At the intersections closest to the WB/IMF complex, protesters sat in the streets with their arms chained together in PVC pipes. Each time police tried to cut access for IMF delegates, protestors massed, chanting, "No one is getting through!", "This is what democracy looks like!", and "Hey hey, Ho ho, Capitalism has got to go!"

When a van full of delegates was surrounded and immobilized at 15th and Pennsylvania, police on horseback charged the crowd, beating back protesters with batons, and trampling some under their horses' hooves. The activists attempted to stand their ground, chanting, "The whole world is watching!" and "We are nonviolent!" Reports Jeannette Gabriel, a labor activist from New York who was on the scene: "Even after the police had brutally beaten us back, the van full of delegates still retreated. The crowd brushed itself off, cheered wildly and dashed on."

Around midday, thousands began gathering at The Ellipse, a public park just south of the White House, for the Mobilization's legal rally. From the stage, George Becker of United Steelworkers of America noted the chaos in the surrounding streets, calling the police tactics "a shameful betrayal of a cornerstone of our democracy--they seal off an area around the World Bank and IMF and deny you your Constitutional right to protest there. This is the power of the corporate state."

Police put the number gathered on the Ellipse at 10,000, while the Mobilization claimed 35,000. But whatever the number, throughout the legal rally at least twenty percent again as many were in roving, mobile civil disobedience actions in the streets within a mile perimeter around the WB/IMF complex.

The Black Block saw its best moment that afternoon, when outnumbered cops were pushed back from the George Washington University campus by waves of masked anarchists, who relentlessly advanced on the police lines, nose-to-nose with Darth Vaderish riot squads, gaining ground foot-by-foot. A patrol car left unguarded on the campus had its windows smashed, and was spray painted with circle-A's.

Monday, April 17

The protestors also fled, of course, surging down K street. The Guardsmen and recombobulated cops give chase, picking people out of the crowd at random, throwing them to the ground and swinging clubs down on their heads before dragging them off. Rob Fish of the Independent Media Center (the alternative press coalition which first came together for the Seattle protests) was himself bloodied by plainclothes cops after taking photos of protesters getting clobbered. As he briefly spoke with reporters before a friend helped him stagger away to the hospital, a nasty gash on top of head was gushing blood. He was obviously going to need stitches.

This scene was repeated several times throughout downtown DC, as protesters scattered and then regrouped to occupy intersections. Finally, the police allowed protesters to remain in one intersection which had already been closed to traffic anyway--the convergence of 20th, I and Pennsylvania, just a block north of the WB/IMF complex. Police amassed their forces behind metal barricades, penning the protesters in on three sides, leaving only the east end of I Street open. But they did not interfere as the protesters beat drums, danced in the rain for hours, and strung a banner across the intersection from street poles, reading "WORLD BANK START SHAKING, TODAY'S PIG IS TOMORROW'S BACON." At a construction site on I Street, the Rainforest Action Network hung another banner: "WORLD BANK DESTROYS TROPICAL RAINFORESTS." With the crowd as cover, anarchists with spray-paint guns left their mark on the wall of the Gap outlet on 20th Street: "SWEATSHOP FASHION" and "FUCK THE GAP." The intersection had become a temporary autonomous zone.

But any protestors who attempted to pass the police barricades toward the WB/IMF complex were beaten and maced. Chief Ramsey appeared at the police lines to negotiate with the protesters who wanted to proceed past the barricades toward the WB/IMF complex and get arrested. Talks went on for hours. At one point, a protester pulled the four stars from Ramsey's left epaulet and made off with them. Later, a protester gave him a red rose as a gesture of good faith.

By noon, the protesters had worked out a deal, allowing them to cross the lines for orderly arrest in return for the police pulling back the riot squad and pledging not to use violence. Ten feet past the line, the protesters were handcuffed, searched, photographed and then escorted to the waiting buses. Despite the no-violence pledge, protesters who chose to go limp were manhandled, and some had their heads smashed against walls and other solid objects.

This situation persisted until around five in the afternoon, when police decided enough was enough, and finally cleared the intersection, once again employing tear gas. But for the hundreds who had been arrested that day, the ordeal had only begun..

Hidden Brutality

The arrestees nonetheless maintained their own strategy of "jail solidarity." Those accused of misdemeanors like blocking traffic or crossing police lines had the option of "signing out" and being immediately released by paying a $100 bond. Instead, they refused to give their names or pay anything until all charges were dropped down to infractions.

Some were permitted to make local phone calls, but the number of the legal defense team was continually busy. Writes Abe Walker, a Wesleyan student arrested on Monday: "We later learned that police were using a machine that automatically dialed that number over and over again." He also reports that "our clothes were damp and the cells were deliberately cold, so some of us began shivering. After prolonged insistence, the cops gave the 11 of us in the cell a single blanket to share."

US Marshals and police at a holding cell at the municipal court building told arrestees that if they didn't sign out, they'd be taken down to the DC city jail, which "is not a good place for white boys." One asked, "Have you ever been raped?" They also told arrestees that their "solidarity bullshit" was breaking down, and that most people had already paid the fine and left. (This was not true.)

According to a report by the Midnight Special Law Collective, the protesters' legal team, when such threats failed to get the desired result, the marshals turned violent. "A cell of thirty men were taken to the basement of their facility, put into a cage, and surrounded by US Marshals who yelled threatening comments to them, such as: “'There are no video cameras down here, we can do what we want...” They were threatened to be put into general population, saying that 'they love to kill fuckin' white boys in there, you pussy faggot protestors.' When any of the men looked up at the marshal yelling at them, they were punched in the face and told not to make eye contact. Some of the men were put into strangle holds until they turned blue."

Women protestors were shackled at their waist and ankles and strip-searched by male officers, who took the opportunity to grab breasts and make lewd comments. Food and water was denied to protestors the entire first day of their stay in jail, and medical attention denied even as wet-clothed arrestees in cold cells began to develop hypothermia.

Midnight Special also reports that one judge processing arrested protesters for arraignment lied to them, claiming that "all but about twenty people have given their names and left the jail... you might as well do what everyone else has done." This was said at a time when over 200 people had already refused to give their names in court. Says Midnight Special: "Our legal team sat in the courtroom and watched this judge lie to groups of defendants without being allowed to say anything to warn them or correct her comments. They finally managed to get a note to those defendants...warning them of this judge's tactics."

Even more underhanded tactics went on in the jail. One woman claimed to be a lawyer from Midnight Special, but was unable to produce any credentials, or give the name of her firm. Writes Walker: "After interrogating her for awhile, it became apparent that she was an undercover agent posing as a lawyer. Eventually, the police allowed us to meet with a guy who we were pretty sure was in fact a real Midnight Special attorney. He told us that solidarity was still around 80%."

On Friday, after much negotiation, the DC city legal department finally blinked and agreed to drop the charges down to jaywalking--an infraction--and release the last 150 arrestees with a five-dollar fine. The deal was also to apply retroactively to the 250 other Monday arrestees who had already been released on condition they return for trial.

The deal covered some 400 arrestees. Another 250 "posted & forfeited"--coughed up the bond and got credit for time served--while several more were "no papered"--simply released without being processed because the system was overwhelmed. Another 25 still face federal charges, because the US Attorney's office refused to negotiate. At least five of these are face felony charges, although Midnight Special calls them spurious and is certain they will be dismissed or dropped to misdemeanors. The 600 arrested Saturday also either "posted & forfeited" or were released with infractions. This brings the total number arrested to nearly 1,300.

Many were released from jail in the middle of a cold, rainy night, without jackets, shoes, in some cases without shirts, and without any money--all had been taken from them by officials. In response, protestors started a 24-hour vigil outside the DC Courthouse at 500 Indiana Avenue. When the last were released Friday, they were greeted by scenes of jubilation.

Insidious Police State

The tactic of preemptory arrests did raise some eyebrows in the media. Mayor Anthony A. Williams defended the tactic, telling the New York Times that Saturday's mass arrests of peaceful protesters was justified as a matter of prudence. "But it is like steering a raft down a raging river," he said. "You can control it, but then the unexpected can happen."

The National Lawyers Guild, which provided legal observers at the protests, complained in a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno about arbitrary arrests and harassment of suspected activists in the days leading up to the actions. The area around the World Bank "resembles an occupied city," the letter stated.

Early on Wednesday, April 12th, two activists leaving the Convergence Center with stacks of literature were followed by undercover police in an unmarked car. The activists noticed they were being followed and made a number of turns in a vain attempt to lose the car. Finally, the activists were cut off by a marked patrol car. Police took their ID, frisked them, and told them to put their hands on the car. When questioned, police said they pulled them over because of a unnecessary and quick turn. "Next time, just let us follow you," one officer suggested. When the cops began questioning the activists and searching the car, they activists said they did not consent to the search and were going to remain silent until they could speak to their lawyer. Police immediately responded with verbal abuse, calling the activists "trouble makers" who "had nothing better to do than protest." They finally let the activists go--but confiscated the literature.

That night, seven activists were stopped by the DC police intelligence section and charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and possessing "up to 300 implements that could be used to block traffic"--PVC pipes, chicken wire and duct tape.

On Friday, police raided a house in DC's Kalorama section and arrested three for possession of similar materials. Police called the material "implements of crime."

The next day, when the Convergence Center was raided, police told reporters a molotov cocktail had been found. It turned out to be a homemade gas mask, which the BATF certified was harmless.

Police also said protesters were preparing homemade pepper spray at the Convergence Center. What they were really making was chili for dinner.

After the Sunday violence, Chief Ramsey actually told the Washington Post that "witnesses may have been fooled by protesters dressed as police beating fellow protesters."

The Post admitted the police tactics for the protests involved "undercover gambits, informants, intimidation, guile and testing the limits of legality." The Post even reported a protester's claim that he was frisked by Secret Service agents on Wednesday the 12th at K & 20th--and the agents showed him they already had a photo of him.

DC police spent over $1 million for new equipment in preparation for the protests, including full body armor of the type seen in Seattle--which covered officers' badges. When protesters taunted Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, "When are your badges going back on?", he shot back, "When are your masks coming off?" Actually, only a small percentage of the protestors were masked.

One protester told the Washington Post the police refused to tell him what he was being charged with until 10 hours after he had been detained. "The first thing they told me was that I was guilty of POP--pissing off the police."

Brandy Wirrer, a 20-year-old shopper swept up with the protesters in the Saturday arrests complained to the Post : "I don't even know where the World Bank is or what these guys were protesting. It was some sort of prison industrial complex thing, whatever that is, and I was trying to do some shopping, and the police would not, like, let me out." She spent the next twelve hours handcuffed. "I was put in three different holding cells...and they wouldn't let us go to the bathroom. They said I was charged with parading without a permit, and I was like, what parade?"

Dr. Kirk Murphy, coordinator of the medical collective which came together for the actions, says some of the protesters trampled by police horses showed "clinical evidence of fractures," and were referred to hospital emergency rooms. He says some arrestees developed hypothermia in jail and were taken to the hospital by supporters upon release. He calls the conditions in the jail a "gross failure of competence or worse--an intentional infliction of suffering. This is a very real and very chilling disregard for safety and human life on the part of the US Marshals." None of this was reported in the mainstream media.

To a far greater degree than in Seattle, the media largely let the police get away with doctoring their own spin. Ramsey told the Washington Post: "This was a turning point for the department, sworn and civilian. We're all on cloud nine." Ramsey to the Baltimore Sun: "I have absolutely no regrets about anything. I'm so proud of the men and women in my department..." Ramsey to the New York Times: "We were able to keep ourselves from being the issue."

It is especially incongruous that the media should let the police get away with not "being the issue" given how many media workers were themselves brutalized by police. Heesoon Yim, an AP freelance photographer, was taking pictures of demonstrators linked in a human chain near the White House on Saturday when police moved to clear the intersection and he was struck on the back of the head. Treated at a local hospital for a concussion and an inch-and-a-half cut on his scalp, Yim said he didn't see who hit him.

The next day, UPI chief photographer Joel Rennich was chased by police and pepper-sprayed in the face despite trying to comply with orders to disperse. He told The Freedom Forum Online: "I pancake into a construction fence across the street, and I look up and this cop blasts me with pepper spray and then he goes away." He had his press pass and ID prominently displayed, he said, "but it doesn't seem to matter much here."

On Monday, AP Radio reporter Ross Simpson was clubbed in the back by a riot police. And Carol Guzy, a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for the Washington Post, was swept up in the mass "pre-emptory arrests" on Saturday. (So was Leon Galindo, a World Bank consultant from Bolivia).

In addition to police forces from several counties and municipalities around DC, US Marshals (including Border Patrol), US Park Police, Secret Service and FBI, the entire 3,000-strong DC National Guard force was on emergency weekend duty--with 150 backing up the police in the streets, according the DC Guard's Lt. Col. Phyllis Phipps-Barnes. Police officials from other US cities including New York and Boston, as well as Canada, were on hand to witness the protests.

Another coup for the cops and technocrats was a slight erosion of the historic labor-ecologist alliance which came together at Seattle. While the AFL-CIO endorsed the WB/IMF protests at the last minute, most of the unionists pulled out of town after their day of lobbying-four days before the WB/IMF actions began. Tilting back to the right, Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa invited Pat Buchanan to address the crowd at his Wednesday rally--who delivered a typically nauseating xenophobic commentary. Only the United Steelworkers kept a large contingent in DC to back up the WB/IMF protestors. The Steelworkers have been most advanced in seeking an alliance with environmentalists since 1988, when a local were locked out of a Kaiser plant in Spokane, WA, owned by Maxxam--the same corporation which owns Northern California's Pacific Lumber and is fast liquidating some of the world's last old-growth redwood.

Another coup for the cops and technocrats was a slight erosion of the historic labor-ecologist alliance which came together at Seattle. While the AFL-CIO endorsed the WB/IMF protests at the last minute, most of the unionists pulled out of town after their day of lobbying--four days before the WB/IMF actions began. Tilting back to the right, Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa invited Pat Buchanan to address the crowd at his Wednesday rally--who delivered a typically nauseating xenophobic commentary. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, meanwhile, remains on the Al Gore bandwagon. Only the United Steelworkers kept a large contingent in DC to back up the WB/IMF protestors. The Steelworkers have been most advanced in seeking an alliance with environmentalists since 1988, when a local was locked out of a Kaiser plant in Spokane, WA, owned by Maxxam--the same corporation which owns Northern California's Pacific Lumber and is fast liquidating some of the world's last old-growth redwood.

WB/IMF Doctor Global Spin

IMF chief Stanley Fischer told Reuters, "We have the same goals as the demonstrators... We are not trying to keep poor countries down."

Cried World Bank President James Wolfensohn to the New York Times: "What I find demoralizing is that there is no organization on earth that is doing more for the poor than we do. Globalization is not something the World Bank can turn back. Its not something the International Monetary Fund can stop. We can only help people and countries adjust to it, to try to close the gaps." He quoted WTO chief Mike Moore's comment after the Seattle protests that "blaming us for civil strife and poverty is like blaming the Red Cross for war."

Meanwhile in Havana, the G77--the international organization of developing nations--were holding their own meeting, and many delegates expressed support for the DC protests. Arthur Mbanefo of Nigeria, spokesman for the G77 meeting, told the Washington Post, "I, for one, support the demonstrators." Belize Prime Minister Said Musa said WB/IMF policies "have stabilized poverty."

The Seattle protests were a giant step forward in unmasking the Big Lie that "free markets" equal democracy. The police violence vividly demonstrated that--as in Pinochet's Chile and Deng's China--economic "liberalization" can often only be imposed by the most repressive and undemocratic measures. But with the more sophisticated management strategies employed in DC, it is clear the growing protest movement will likewise have to outmaneuver the state with new strategies to remain effective.

Protesters will soon have the opportunity to rise to this challenge. At a six-hour meeting at the DC offices of Common Cause on Tuesday the 18th, many of the Mobilization for Global Justice groups hashed out preliminary plans for the next phase of national protests--at the Democratic and Republican conventions in, respectively, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. The new campaign is being dubbed "Summer of Action: Turning the Tide for True Democracy."

CZECH ACTIVISTS TAKE TO THE STREETS IN SOLIDARITY WITH DC PROTESTS