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ACTIVISTS GREET GUESTS AT WORLD ECONOMIC FORUMMore than 1,000 anti-free trade activists defied a protest ban and staged a hectic demonstration at a gathering of the world's political and corporate elite in the Swiss alpine resort of Davos on January 29. Some of the protesters - including environmentalists and anarchists - broke windows at a McDonald's restaurant and vandalised several cars. Others burned an American flag they had pulled down from the facade of a luxury hotel where most of the world leaders are staying, and used police barricades to try to break the hotel's windows. "But at least Davos didn't become a second Seattle," said local government president Peter Aliesch in reference to the riots duringDecember's World Trade Organisation meeting. Two police officers were injured, though not seriously, officials said. The protests took place outside the site where President Clinton delivered a speech to the gathered leaders. After several hours and under increasingly heavy snow, the protesters dispersed with the cry "We'll be back!" and some of them singing the Communist anthem, the Internationale. Swiss President Adolf Ogi criticised the skirmishes. "The use of force is extremely regrettable," he told journalists. The World Economic Forum, which organised the Davos meeting, deplored that "a limited number of demonstrators chose violence over dialogue." Despite having declared a ban on all protests during Clinton's visit and calling out troops for extra backup, authorities made no attempt to stop the first demonstrators as they entered the long narrow main street through the village. But they then seemed to be taken by surprise as an estimated 1,300 protesters pushed through control barriers. Firing warning shots, security forces retreated to less than 500 metres from the conference centre and hotel hosting Clinton. They then barricaded off the street with land cruisers equipped with huge metal grids to prevent further disruption. Clinton was in the hotel at the time, conducting business. The critics say they have the same concerns about the World Economic Forum as about the World Trade Organisation: that it is undemocratic, secretive and only concerned with maximising commercial profits. They say that vital deals and decisions are struck behind closed doors with little consideration shown to public concerns, for example on genetically modified foods. Radical French farmers' unions, which have campaigned against McDonald's in France and the globalisation it represents and which were out in force in Seattle, were among the protesters.
Many of the demonstrators were clad in ski gear to escape official
attention. Others were masked and belonged to anarchist groups. An AP
photographer was roughed up as he took a picture of a demonstrator
felling a police officer with a cross country ski.
MAYDAY 2000Following on from the successes of June 18 and November 30 last year, plans areunderway for a third Global Day of Action against Capitalism on May 1, 2000. May 1 will continue the process of building up a strong, bold, and creative grassroots movement against the exploitation and oppression of people, communities, and the environment, and for solidarity, co-operation, grassroots democracy, and ecological sustainability. It will foster networking and shored organising within our communities. Diverse issues con often be considered from the point of view of a comprehensive critique of the capitalist system, so May 1 will be a good opportunity to bring separate struggles and actions together. As on previous occasions, people of different movements and different countries will join forces on this day against the social, political, and economic institutions of the capitalist system. Workers, the unemployed, students, trade unionists, peasants, the landless, fishers, women's groups, ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, peace activists, environmental activists, ecologists, and so on will work in solidarity with one another in the understanding that their various struggles are not isolated from each other. The simultaneous occupation and transformation of the capitalist social order around the globe - in the streets, neighbourhoods, fields, factories, offices, commercial centres, financial districts, and so on - will strengthen mutual bonds at the local, national, and international levels. As before, the day will be organised in a non-hierarchical way, as a decentralised and informal network of grassroots groups that employ non-authoritarian, grassroots democratic forms of organisation, struggle independent of the social, political, and economic institutions of the capitalist system, and seek to effect change directly through their own action.
For further information on activities planned for Aotearoa, see the NZ
May Day 2000 website at:
You can also join the NZ May Day 2000 e-mail list by sending a blank
e-mail to
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MEXICAN STUDENT STRIKERS UNDER ATTACKOne person was killed and 37 others injured in clashes between police and striking students at the campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) recently. Thousands of students at the university have been striking since early 1999 to show their opposition to the neo-liberal policies of the Mexican government and the IMF, in particular the privitisation of education and the introduction of tuition fees. Free access to public education (including post-secondary) is guaranteed under the Mexican constitution, yet the UNAM authorities are attempting to impose tuition fees - something that would deny many impoverished students access to post secondary education. The latest violence began when 200 students opposed to the strike forced their way onto the campus tossing rocks and waving sticks as they forced the strikers to abandon the buildings they have held and barricaded since April 20. Soon after, 150 people identified by the university rector as members of the university's security force arrived to help the anti-strikers defend the campus. But by late afternoon, more strikers arrived and they were able to retake the campus. One man died from stab wounds to the chest. At least four others suffered skull fractures. Three striking students were arrested outside the school and charged with possession of gasoline bombs. Four hundred federal police officers later took control of the school. They rounded up the strikers without resistance and took 148 of them to jail. Throughout the strike the students have received support from the ELM and from labour unions who also oppose the neoliberalisation of Mexico. Last year the rector of the university- a close friend of President Ernesto Zedillo - was forced to resign over the strike.
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