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News :: Globalization : Human Rights : Organizing |
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Reportback From the Anticapitalathon Games |
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by Anonymous |
24 May 2010
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On the weekend of April 23 - 25, the Anticapitalathon Games were held Washington, DC to protest the International Monetary Fund/World Bank spring meetings. The "Games" were organized by the Self Described Anarchist Collective (http://selfdescribed.org), a regional anti-authoritarian group. While this year's protest was smaller than in years past, tremendous energy and enthusiasm was demonstrated by all who took part. |
The IMF, and neoliberalism in general, have fallen on hard times since the height of the Washington Consensus in the late nineties. As David Graeber noted in his essay The Shock of Victory, total South American debt to the IMF had dropped by more than 98% by 2007. The Free Trade Area of the Americas never got off the ground. The Doha round of World Trade Organization talks collapsed in failure in 2006, and despite pledges to revive it by the G20 group of nations last September, has shown no signs of life since. Recently however, the financial collapse has provided the ruling class with an excuse to attempt to resuscitate neoliberalism. The G20, at their London meeting last year, promised 1.1 trillion dollars in financing to the IMF. But that money has not gone toward re-exerting control over the global south. Countries like China, India, Argentina and Brazil have shown no inclination to return to IMF-enforced debt peonage.
Instead, the IMF has had to focus on propping up the European Union. In order to keep the Greek government from defaulting on its loans, which could well have touched off an EU-wide financial panic, the IMF contributed about a third of a 143 billion dollar bailout package (with the rest coming from other EU nations, mostly Germany). In accordance with the IMF's usual practice, that money is being loaned to the Greek government to pay off existing debt on the condition that they impose austerity measures on the Greek public. Similar to the "poverty reduction programs" forced on previous recipients of IMF and World Bank loans, the austerity measures include layoffs, salary reductions and pension cuts for government employees, as well as an increase in the regressive Value Added Tax. On Saturday the 24th, Greek anarchists and workers held a massive rally in Athens against the IMF, although most Anticapitalathon protesters didn't hear about it until later.
The festivities in DC began on Friday the 23rd with the Run on the Bank, a permitted 5K run featuring a banner and a sound system, as well as a heavy police escort. Despite some difficulties with the sound system, which included the cops drowning it out with their sirens when it was finally working, the run was a success. One runner was briefly detained the cops after placing a brick wrapped in Monopoly money in front of a bank, but was not arrested. The run was followed by a rally with speakers in front of the IMF's headquarters.
Next on the schedule was the Walking Tour, a guided tour of downtown DC pointing out sites of interest to radicals, including hotels where IMF delegates stay, lobbyists offices, and condos that were formerly homeless shelters. Police presence was once again heavy, with riot cops lining the sidewalk and closing businesses as the tour passed. The World Bank "infoshop," a stop on last year's tour, was reportedly closed for the day.
Friday evening was the Soccer Game, an unpermitted night march with a soccer theme. Marchers carried soccer balls and banners on poles to the Concordia Hotel, which is owned by the IMF and houses delegates during meetings. The banners were reassembled into goals, and participants played soccer, chanted, and harassed delegates on their way into the hotel. Several confrontations occurred when the cops confiscated noisemakers and drums, with protesters linking arms to protect their comrades.
After about four hours in front of the Concordia, the march continued to Washington Circle, where several protesters went into the Washington Circle Hotel, which also houses IMF personnel during meetings. Captain Jeffrey Herold, the DC cop in charge at the scene, immediately ordered the arrests of everyone who had gone in. A scuffle ensued in which eight protesters were arrested, not all of whom had actually entered the hotel. Charges included unlawful entry, failure to disperse and assault on a police officer, as well as one unfortunate protester who was charged with possession of unregistered ammunition. The arrestees were all released on their own recognizance the next day. The arrests were unusual for DC, where protesters there go into hotels on a regular basis but are simply kicked back out, not arrested.
Saturday began with the Scavenger Hunt, in which participants traveled around DC collecting various items related to gentrification, neoliberalism and DC local issues. Items included ornaments from city councilors' lawns, souvenirs from the lobbies of delegate hotels, and rubbings from the DC's law enforcement memorial. The idea was to educate scavengers about DC geography and politics in preparation for future demos, in a fun and relatively risk-free setting.
The Scavenger Hunt was supposed to have been followed by a baseball game in which the security perimeter around the meetings would have served as the home run fence, but this was canceled due to rain and uncertainty over its exact location. The next event was a brisk game of Capture the Flag, followed by the Closing Ceremony and Procession of Athletes, another night march. In contrast to the previous night's soccer game, police presence was minimal, and Herold, normally a fixture at unpermitted protests in DC, was nowhere to be seen. This allowed marchers to take the streets, where they stayed for about 45 minutes, moving into the Columbia Heights neighborhood before the cops could muster enough reinforcements to move them onto the sidewalk. From there, marchers continued for another hour or so, making lots of noise and attracting considerable attention from locals, before breaking up a little after midnight.
Considering the low number of athletes, the Anticapitalathon was a successful demo. However, there was room for improvement. While the medical and legal workshops were informative and well-presented, several other planned workshops were canceled due to presenters not showing up or being in jail.
Logistics likewise were kind of spotty. Organizers did cover the basics of housing, food, convergence space, and legal and medical support. However, food was sometimes late and/or not enough to feed everyone, and the mass housing was extremely cramped Friday night. Comms were basically nonexistent. A Twitter channel was set up, but no announcements were sent over it. This led to unnecessary confusion when events and workshops were canceled, and when the closing ceremony starting point was changed at the last minute.
More worryingly, numbers of protesters were only about half what they were at April Uprising, the anti-IMF protest last year, which in turn drew only about half as many as October Rebellion in 2007. The purpose of the Anticapitalathon was more to inform participants about neoliberalism and DC issues, as well as recruit organizers for October, than to create a massive demo to shut down the meetings. While that might have convinced some to wait for the fall IMF meetings, the overall attendance trend is still disturbing.
Sunday was reserved for a consulta to discuss the fall meetings, scheduled for October 9 - 11 in DC. It was decided to form a working group to plan for October (with a name to be determined later), seek endorsements from interested groups, and tentatively to hold another consulta in Philadelphia in early June. |
This work is in the public domain. |
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