us about the upcoming WEF meetings. He provided us with a good Mother Jones article about it (click READ MORE to see it). On January 31, the Swiss-based World Economic Forum will hold its annual meeting in the US in New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Thousands of anti-corporate globalization protesters are expected to converge against the WEF, which is hoping that the post 9/11 tension will halt any demonstrations. More than 2,000 corporate leaders, heads of state and other members of the world's financial elite gather will be at the meeting. Politically minded bands have been relaying this information to their fans for the past month or so, especially Propagandhi and Strike Anywhere. Members of Strike Anywhere hope to attend the protests. Check out Indymedia, which offers a guide to the forum and the protests.
From Mother Jones:
Already derailed by the war in Afghanistan, the movement against corporate-led globalization faces another challenge late next week, when more than 2,000 corporate leaders, heads of state and other members of the world's financial elite gather in New York for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum January 31- Febuary 4.
Some activists see the meeting as a vital opportunity to revive the movement against corporate-led globalization, which has struggled for direction in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Still, the decision by WEF leadership to hold the 2002 meeting at New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel presents those same activists with a quandary: How can a movement which has relied on militant street actions to sustain its momentum stage protests in a still-shaken city without alienating the public at large?
The movement seized the world's attention in 1999, virtual shutting down the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle with a high-profile campaign stressing non-violent direct action. Since then, similar tactics have been used to disrupt other global summits, such as the IMF/World Bank meetings in Prague and Washington and the 2000 WEF regional meeting in Melbourne, Australia. But the increasing trend toward violence and property destruction by militants -- which culminated in smashed storefronts and police shootings of young activists in Gothenburg, Sweden and Genoa, Italy last summer -- have put authorities in New York on edge. In fact, some activists say it is no accident the WEF chose to switch its annual meeting to New York from its regular haunt -- the Swiss resort town of Davos. While WEF officials are publicly promoting the move to New York as a show of solidarity with the stricken city, it is no secret they were looking to escape the wrath of European activists, who for the last two years have transformed Davos into a security-planner's nightmare. "It's a brilliant PR move, to essentially dare the globalization movement to do anything in confrontation with the NYPD," says Mike Dolan, deputy director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "And I think it's a potential PR disaster if we don't agree on rules of engagement that are explicitly non-violent. The minute a provocateur puts a brick through a window in Midtown Manhattan, the media will grab onto it and that'll be the story. In the post 9/11 climate, this is a trap."
While vowing to allow peaceful demonstrations to go forward during the WEF summit, which starts Jan. 31 and ends Feb. 4, New York officials have vowed to crack down quickly and decisively if any protests turn violent. Activists say their threat is being exaggerated--the militants in Europe have always been far more hardcore than their counterparts in the US, and no oneâs expecting vast numbers of protesters to saturate the streets of New York. Still, With the New York Daily News already describing protesters as "crazies" and even the Village Voice portraying the New York police as "blue-collared multi-ethnic centurians" set to do battle with "jet-setting troublemakers," activists concede they are swimming in hostile waters.
Nevertheless, many activists insist that it would be a mistake wrong to let the subdued mood in New York scare them off the streets.