INTERNATIONAL NEWS ROUNDUP

protests against bush

Tens of thousands of demonstrators, including several hundred members of a Revolutionary Anti-Authoritarian Bloc, descended on Washington DC on January 20 for what turned out to be the largest anti-inaugural protest since the beginning of the second term of Richard Nixon in 1973.

Despite heavy security, which included checkpoints and over 7,000 police officers, secret service agents and members of the national guard, most of the demonstrators made it through to the route of the inauguration parade in time to greet President George W. Bush with chants, missiles and placards with slogans such as "Hail to the Thief" and "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal".

The president's motorcade was forced to speed past several sections of the parade route where demonstrators outnumbered Bush supporters, and Bush's limousine was hit by at least one egg along the way.

CONTENTS

on the waterfront:
war on the waterfront
from the picketline
50 years ago

SWO and anarchism

glimpses of an alternative
society (part 2)

international news roundup

uncle sam's balls of doom

eminem and the prolephobes

protests against WEF
in davos, switzerland

Security was even tighter in the Swiss resort of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum later the same week. Thousand of demonstrators were stopped on Switzerland's borders, and Davos itself was virtually cut off from the rest of the country.

Swiss authorities had threatened to combat any protests by firing liquid manure at demonstrators, but they were forced to resort to more traditional weapons (water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets) after Swiss farmers refused to hand over to police the necessary "ammunition".

Most Swiss newspapers and many residents criticised the security operation as excessive. The US State Department had earlier warned Americans not to visit Davos during the forum as it would be too dangerous.

victory for zlin eleven

The three-year legal and political battle for justice for eleven anarchists and antifascists charged with assault after a 1998 incident in the Czech city of Zlin has ended in almost total victory for the accused.

The Zlin City Court on January 8 acquitted eight of the eleven defendants. The remaining three received suspended jail sentences. The state prosecutor, who had demanded stiff prison terms for all the accused, immediately appealed to the High Court.

The charges resulted from an incident in April 1998 in which a group of neo-nazis attacked a local pub frequented by anarchists and antifascists. The fight left one fascist seriously wounded, and police subsequently rounded up several well-known local activists and charged them with assault.

Support for neo-nazis is strong among the Czech Republic's police force, with the Ministry of Internal Affairs estimating that one third of police officers are members or active sympathisers of fascist or extreme nationalist organisations. In 1998 another Czech anarchist, Michal Patera, was charged with attempted murder after a similar incident in Prague (see Thr@ll #6).