Activists Organize Protests to Greet Elite Delegates
at World Economic Forum in NYC Jan. 31 to Feb. 4
 http://www.wpkn.org/wpkn/news/dolan012502.ram
Interview by Scott Harris.




>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.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris 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. So
that's what the World Economic Forum is.

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 very neoliberal economic model. So we'll
be there and I encourage your listeners 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.

Between The Lines: 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. So it's imperative for us to maintain
really peaceful, explicitly non-violent protests. No less dramatic, no
less creative, no less militant, but in no way should we try to engage
the New York City Police Dept. The press will marginalize us, the
corporate elites will marginalize this movement. And after the loss of
the Fast Track trade legislation in the House, that very narrow vote on
fast track, after the launch of the World Trade Organization ministerial
in November and certainly after the events of September, it could be a
public relations catastrophe for this movement to get further
marginalized. It's very important that we get out there and prove that
we're as broad and wide and deep and sophisticated a movement as we have
always been and we do not allow ourselves be marginalized by the
mainstream media.

Between The Lines: Mike, when it comes to the goals of the opponents of
neoliberal economic policies and the work of the World Economic Forum,
what are those objectives? What do people want to accomplish, what is
the message that they want to send out?

Michael Dolan: First of all, there's going to be a lot of noise about
the war. The basic critique obviously being that it is in fact the real
life effects of the neoliberal model, the social injustice, the growing
income gap globally, "the haves and have nots," that has caused so much
of the animosity toward the United States, for example. And so looking
at the real causes of terrorism, of the war, making the link between
militarism and the neoliberal model is going to be one piece of the
agenda.

Second, we'll be calling on those political elites to fore swear a
flawed
and failed free trade model. Additionally, it's important that we frame
our critique of the World Economic Forum and the neoliberal model within
a context of the search for alternatives and what another world will
look like. In fact, the local organizing in New York is gathering around
this notion of "another world is possible." The Another World is
Possible coalition in New York, arising out of the Direct Action
Network, the Independent Media Center and your usual collection of
non-governmental organizations that look at this, including Public
Citizen's Global Trade Watch, will be having press conferences
beforehand, panels and plenaries throughout, marches, vigils and rallies
on the street and then ending up with some summary events which will
proclaim, not only our critique of the World Economic Forum and its
agenda, but also our search for alternatives, the alternatives that we
are recommending to the policy elites as well as to the mainstream
media.

Contact Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch by calling (202) 546-4996 or
visit their
Web site at:  http://www.tradewatch.org

See related links and listen to an excerpt of this interview in a
RealAudio segment or in MP3 on our Web site at: www.btlonline.org

for the week ending 1/25/02.

=============================

Scott Harris is the executive producer of Between The Lines. This
interview excerpt was featured on the award-winning, syndicated weekly
radio newsmagazine, Between The Lines, for the week ending Jan. 18,
2002.

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