'The best party I've been to in years'
C.D. SIX
Close to 10,000 protesters showed up to the 2000 Washington, DC meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, with a goal of forming human blockades and demonstrating against the policies of the organization.
Fresh off of the protests in Seattle that created hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage, Washington was prepared for the worst.
Pepper spray, billy clubs and smoke grenades were used to disperse the protesters -- some armed with rocks, nails, slingshots, urine and bleach -- around the organizations’ downtown buildings as police avoided the riots which gripped Seattle just a few months earlier.
Yes, misguided protesters did cause some damage. They mistook a television station’s white Crown Victoria for a police car, slashing its tires, smashing its windows, and scribbling “Pigs” and “End Fascism” on it.
Overall, little damage was reported in the downtown Washington area that houses the IMF and World Bank offices.
The fun ended on a rainy Monday, when police and protesters negotiated an orchestrated arrest of those who wanted to be taken into custody. Some 1000 in all were arrested over the course of the weekend, which was declared a “rousing success” by the protest’s organizers.
The unique part of the whole weekend were the protesters themselves. They were the odd assortment of white, coffee-house college students I had remembered from my days at American University -- The kind that get by in the district primarily on mommy’s or daddy’s money, and can be spotted in their natural habit at by their baggy, olive-drab cargo pants, combat-like boots, beaded necklaces and designer t-shirts.
The males often sport bushy hair, goatees, long side burns and John Lennon-style round, metal specs. The gals usually go for long, straight hair, a distinct lack of makeup, and glasses of the cat’s-eye variety. Your basic, every day D.C. coffeehouse crowd. By the time the rain arrived on Sunday, they had retreated into their designer rain slickers, using plastic duct pipe to complete their “human” chain, only surfacing into the open long enough to sip their coffee and light up their smokes.
Interspersed among them were the aging flower children, who encouraged our college friends to wear flowers in their hair and get down to the rock ‘n’ roll.
“It’s the best par ty I’ve been to in years,” said 23-year-old Rachel Aaron to a newspaper reporter, as she danced topless to reggae music on Pennsylvania Avenue, near the White House. “We may not close down the IMF, but we’re definitely letting people know we are here.”
Avoiding the obvious point that Miss Aaron’s parents were probably delighted to know that their daughter was prancing around topless, just a stone’s throw from Bill Clinton’s White House, her statement sums up this whole “protest” in a nutshell. What a party!
Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins showed up for the cause. Indigo Girls provided the music on the Mall. People danced to the beat of street musicians. Women bared breasts, and men danced in their underwear, all to hammer home the point that the World Bank and I MF have harsh economic policies that they impose upon economically troubled countries -- that free trade has not trickled down to benefit poor nations -- and that their policies are environmentally destructive.
This protest is just chock full o’ irony. As many of our protesting friends were warming up on the mall to the tunes, the IMF and World Bank delegates were being shuttled into the meetings, thus our young protesters missed their opportunity to shut down the debate like their counterparts in Seattle. Only the ministers from France, Brazil, Portugal and Thailand, who must have risen late Sunday morning, were delayed by the human chains. Some unrelated downtown businesses never opened Monday, but who’s going to be upset about not having to work Monday?
And as our protesting friends split into groups who wanted to be arrested and those who did not, and donned their costumes and de ücorated their floats for their march to headquarters, banging their drums and blowing their whistles, looking more like they belonged in the French Quarter or a Mummers parade than in a protest, few would admit that current economic policies had been very good to their mommies and daddies, providing them with the means to send the protesters to their little carnival.
Few would admit that, as they burned Bill Clinton in effigy, the presidential candidate they had the most in common with that day, as far as policies concerning the IMF and World Bank, was Patrick J. Buchanan.
And few would admit that inside, the delegates were already addressing their concerns, working on plans to modernize their loaning methods.
They knew the protesters were there, but unless they were from France, Brazil, Portugal or Thailand, they really didn’t care.
Best the “rebels without a clue” did not know. It might have spoiled the party.
C.D. Six is The Mercury's Graphics Editor. E-mail him at [email protected]
C.D. SIX
Close to 10,000 protesters showed up to the 2000 Washington, DC meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, with a goal of forming human blockades and demonstrating against the policies of the organization.
Fresh off of the protests in Seattle that created hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage, Washington was prepared for the worst.
Pepper spray, billy clubs and smoke grenades were used to disperse the protesters -- some armed with rocks, nails, slingshots, urine and bleach -- around the organizations’ downtown buildings as police avoided the riots which gripped Seattle just a few months earlier.
Yes, misguided protesters did cause some damage. They mistook a television station’s white Crown Victoria for a police car, slashing its tires, smashing its windows, and scribbling “Pigs” and “End Fascism” on it.
Overall, little damage was reported in the downtown Washington area that houses the IMF and World Bank offices.
The fun ended on a rainy Monday, when police and protesters negotiated an orchestrated arrest of those who wanted to be taken into custody. Some 1000 in all were arrested over the course of the weekend, which was declared a “rousing success” by the protest’s organizers.
The unique part of the whole weekend were the protesters themselves. They were the odd assortment of white, coffee-house college students I had remembered from my days at American University -- The kind that get by in the district primarily on mommy’s or daddy’s money, and can be spotted in their natural habit at by their baggy, olive-drab cargo pants, combat-like boots, beaded necklaces and designer t-shirts.
The males often sport bushy hair, goatees, long side burns and John Lennon-style round, metal specs. The gals usually go for long, straight hair, a distinct lack of makeup, and glasses of the cat’s-eye variety. Your basic, every day D.C. coffeehouse crowd. By the time the rain arrived on Sunday, they had retreated into their designer rain slickers, using plastic duct pipe to complete their “human” chain, only surfacing into the open long enough to sip their coffee and light up their smokes.
Interspersed among them were the aging flower children, who encouraged our college friends to wear flowers in their hair and get down to the rock ‘n’ roll.
“It’s the best par ty I’ve been to in years,” said 23-year-old Rachel Aaron to a newspaper reporter, as she danced topless to reggae music on Pennsylvania Avenue, near the White House. “We may not close down the IMF, but we’re definitely letting people know we are here.”
Avoiding the obvious point that Miss Aaron’s parents were probably delighted to know that their daughter was prancing around topless, just a stone’s throw from Bill Clinton’s White House, her statement sums up this whole “protest” in a nutshell. What a party!
Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins showed up for the cause. Indigo Girls provided the music on the Mall. People danced to the beat of street musicians. Women bared breasts, and men danced in their underwear, all to hammer home the point that the World Bank and I MF have harsh economic policies that they impose upon economically troubled countries -- that free trade has not trickled down to benefit poor nations -- and that their policies are environmentally destructive.
This protest is just chock full o’ irony. As many of our protesting friends were warming up on the mall to the tunes, the IMF and World Bank delegates were being shuttled into the meetings, thus our young protesters missed their opportunity to shut down the debate like their counterparts in Seattle. Only the ministers from France, Brazil, Portugal and Thailand, who must have risen late Sunday morning, were delayed by the human chains. Some unrelated downtown businesses never opened Monday, but who’s going to be upset about not having to work Monday?
And as our protesting friends split into groups who wanted to be arrested and those who did not, and donned their costumes and de ücorated their floats for their march to headquarters, banging their drums and blowing their whistles, looking more like they belonged in the French Quarter or a Mummers parade than in a protest, few would admit that current economic policies had been very good to their mommies and daddies, providing them with the means to send the protesters to their little carnival.
Few would admit that, as they burned Bill Clinton in effigy, the presidential candidate they had the most in common with that day, as far as policies concerning the IMF and World Bank, was Patrick J. Buchanan.
And few would admit that inside, the delegates were already addressing their concerns, working on plans to modernize their loaning methods.
They knew the protesters were there, but unless they were from France, Brazil, Portugal or Thailand, they really didn’t care.
Best the “rebels without a clue” did not know. It might have spoiled the party.
C.D. Six is The Mercury's Graphics Editor. E-mail him at [email protected]