A Call for a WEF Counter-Summit

National Activist and Student Mobilization

Thursday, January 31st to Friday, February 1st 2002

at Columbia University in New York City


1. Background on the World Economic Forum (WEF)

What is the WEF?

Every year, 1,000 top business leaders, come together to shape the global agenda, while political elites and media luminaries gaze on admiringly. The World Economic Forum (WEF) will hold its annual meeting at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City from January 31st to February 4th 2002. By its own description, the WEF is a special club of elite business leaders, whose annual meeting is the world's global business summit.

What is the WEF's agenda?

At the New York WEF summit, the world's richest CEOs will collaborate with the world's most powerful politicians to set the global economic agenda. Meanwhile, in the halls of Congress, the world's most powerful politicians are collaborating with the world's richest CEOs to expand the "war on terrorism."

hydrarchist writes:
New York Social Forum Preparatory Conference

Sunday January 27, 2002, 10 am - 5 pm

Brecht Forum

122 W. 27th Street, 10th floor, New York City

This year, New York is playing host to the World Economic Forum (WEF),
which will be held from January 31st to February 4th, 2002. According
to the WEF, their annual summits define the global political,
economic, and business agenda for the year.

The WEF is a leading proponent of neo-liberal globalization, and its
membership is composed of CEOs as well as heads of state, trade
ministers, and intellectual elites. While the WEF claims to be in
solidarity with New Yorkers, the interests it represents are those of
its elite members. In Porto Alegr? Brazil, the WEF's annual meetings
have become the occasion for building positive alternatives to the
current world order at a World Social Forum. We believe the WEF's
visit to New York presents our city with a similar occasion.

A Year in the Streets: WTO Seattle to the Bush Inauguration

produced by the Cascadia Media Collective.

Friday February 1 at 8:00pm at ABC No Rio

Sliding Scale: $2—$5

"85 minutes of glorious footage from the revolutionary movement against capitalism and globalization."

--AK Press

A new generation of activists rises to expose the atrocities of neoliberal
economic globalization and to confront the violence of the capitalist police
state. In the belly of the beast, people are hitting the streets in mass
actions, struggling for a future in which domination, exploitation and
ecocide will be sad memories of a bygone era. Their message is a vibrant,
raging cry for justice and a free humanity. From WTO Seattle to the Bush
inauguration protests, A Year in the Streets criss-crosses the country,
providing a street-level view of the clash between activists who recognize
the need for urgent radical change and a state apparatus engaged in the
widespread repression of free speech and assembly.

The videomakers will be present.

The Cascadia Media Collective is an uncompromising group of videographers
producing "left of left" videos on resistance to environmental destruction,
political demonstrations and the collapse of the techno-capitalist era. CMC
challenges typical liberal viewpoints to expand and accept more radical
approaches to today's looming problems, as well as their solutions. Through
its films and media projects, CMC has appealed to a wide cross section of the
public without compromising its radical viewpoints, providing a healthy,
vibrant alternative to the mainstream corporate media.

ABC No Rio

156 Rivington Street (between Clinton & Suffolk)

(212) 254-3697

http://www.abcnorio.org

hydrarchist writes: "The following article has recently been published in Red and Black Revolution produced by the Workers Solidarity Movement in Ireland.

Bashing the Black Bloc?

We believe that part of the purpose of this
magazine is to address issues that anarchists may find controversial.
This essay represents the opinion of one member of the WSM - we hope
this will add to the debate, and would like to receive responses from
other anarchists.

Although the basic idea of the Black bloc has been around for
years, it only really entered the public consciousness after the
Seattle demonstrations. But after two years of Black Blocs at all the
major summit protests, has the Black Bloc tactic reached the end of
its usefulness? What role should anarchists play in the
anti-globalisation protests? Are they still relevant at all?

nomadlab writes: "I am not totally sure what to make of this, but --via a list I am on-- I was sent a fwd of an email that went out on friday. It seems that the NYC Civilian Complaints Review Board (the powerless group that has the job of reviewing complaints against the police) has contacted a number of groups that are planning to participate in the anti-WEF demonstrations. They even sent an attachment -- the form necessary to file a compalint. I guess someone is expecting a ton of trouble.

below is the email and a link to the .pdf file (hey, can't hurt to hand out some of these at the demo.)

entropia writes: "After a long time anarchist and antiauthoritarian groups from Athens co-operated in order to organise an anarchist demonstration on 12th of January. The main subjects of the demonstration were the opposition to the "anti"terrorist law, to the European army, to the war and to assassinations of immigrants and racial minorities by police forces.
On 11th of January, anarchist groups organised protestations in the Polytechnic School of Athens, despite the decision of the school authorities to evacuate the place after 15:00. Banners with the slogans "Demonstration of resistance and solidarity", "Against the plundering of our lives - Solidarity to the insurrection in Argentina", "We are all foreigners and insurrected" and "Cops - Pigs - Assassins (in the Albanian language) were hanged up. Meanwhile counter-information brochures and leaflets were distributed to passing-by people. On the afternoon a movie was projected and followed an act of the Darien Fo's "I, Ulrike Meinhof" theatre play. The protestations finished with concert by the anarchist band "Ohra Spiroheti".
About 300-400 people participated the first day protestations. On 12th of January about 700-800 comrades demonstrated behind a central banner with the slogan "Wherever order and security exists, smells human flesh - Sabotage to social consensus". Due to massive police presence the demonstrators organised their self-defence (wear helmets, held crowbars and formed 3 lines of chains - tied hands). The demonstrators chanted for class war, solidarity to the social insurrection in Argentina, solidarity to immigrants and against repression. The demonstration finished peacefully on the entrance of the Polytechnic School. On midnight took place an assault, with stones and petrol bombs, against a riot police van, near the central offices of the PASOK (ruling party). On Thessaloniki, sub-capital of Greece, 4 hooded activists assaulted with stones and petrol bombs to a bank."

Word reaches us that this article has become the source of much controversy, thus meriting its return to the front page. Readers may be interested to know that we hope to shortly publish another article from Kevin Coogan "Lords of Chaos" (previously published also in Hitlist), on the fascist underground/third position. As the IAC will be demonstrating in New York City against the WEF on February 2nd, at a time when many anti-authoritarians will also be on the streets, people should understand the nature of their politics and not mistake them for allies.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

[The following article has been reprinted from the underground rock'n'roll magazine Hit List, vol. 3, number 3 (November/December 2001). For further information, please contact Hit List, either by mail at PO Box 8345/Berkeley, CA 94044 or via email at jmbale@att.net.]

When originally published the following article was accompanied by three sidebars focussing on specific aspects of the WWP:
Appendix 1: The IAC and the Campaign Against Sanctions: Helping the Iraqi People or Saddam Husayn?

Appendix 2: "ANSWER" and "The Pod People"

Appendix 3: The WWP: From Kim Il Sung's Birthday Party to the Russian "Red-Brown Alliance"..

The International Action Center:

"Peace Activists" with a Secret Agenda?

By Kevin Coogan

Introduction

On September 29th, 2001, just a few weeks following the September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a large peace rally was held in Washington, D.C., to oppose an American military response to the attack. The main organizer of the D.C. rally, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism), was officially established shortly after the 9/11 attack. The leading force behind ANSWER's creation is the International Action Center (IAC), which represents itself as a progressive organization devoted to peace, justice, and human rights issues. The IAC's organizational clout is considerable: for the past decade it has played a leading role in organizing protest demonstrations against U.S. military actions against both Iraq and Serbia. After the September 11th attack, the IAC decided to turn its long-organized planned protest against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank gathering, scheduled for the 29th, into an action opposing any use of U.S. military power in response to terrorism.

The IAC owes its current success to Ramsey Clark, a former Attorney General during the Johnson Administration, who is listed on the IAC's website as its founder. Clark's establishment credentials have caused many in the mass media to accept the IAC's self-portrayal as a group of disinterested humanitarians appalled by war and poverty who are working to turn American foreign policy towards a more humane course. On its website the IAC says it was "Founded by Ramsey Clark" and then describes its purpose: "Information, Activism, and Resistance to U.S. Militarism, War, and Corporate Greed, Linking with Struggles Against Racism and Oppression within the United States."

Chuck Morse writes: "The following review appeared in the first issue of The New Formulation: An Anti-Authoritarian Review of Books (Vol. 1, # 1, November 2001). The complete text of this issue is available at: http://flag.blackened.net/nf/index.htm

Theory of the Anti-Globalization Movement
Review by Chuck Morse


***[A Review of Naming the Enemy: Anti-Corporate Movements Confront Globalization by Amory Starr and Globalization from Below: The Power of Solidarity by Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello, and Brendan Smith ]***

Finally, after years of disintegration and defeat on the Left, a new movement has erupted upon the political landscape. It is not organized around a single issue, identity based, or somehow “implicitly” radical. On the contrary, this movement directly attacks global capital’s economic and political infrastructure with a radically democratic politics and a strategy of confrontation. It is bold, anti-authoritarian, and truly global.

Update #1 Reclaim the Streets Party Announced for February 2nd

Update #2 Drawing Resistanxce exhibition of Political Art in ABC NoRio

Update #3 Poster now available for the InterGalactic Anarchist Convention

Update #4 Schedule of events now available for the InterGalactic Anarchist Convention.

Update #5 Calendar of events during the WEF maintained by 'Another World Is Possible.'

Updates follow the main text of the article below.

Introduction

The World Economic Forum will hold its annual meeting in the Astoria Waldorf Hotel in New York City between January 31st and February 4th. The WEF is an entirely private forum without any direct relationship with a specific international trade treaty, yet each year, Presidents and Prime Ministers, Foreign Policy and Finance Czars, collaborationist Union leaders and phalanxes of CEOs(check out the list), make their way there for the great capitalist confab, and deep immersion in the mysteries of free market utopianism. Given the star studded list of attendees, we can only assume that the food is terrific and the conversation exceptional. But rather than passing you to prejudiced leftists for a description of the WEF, here is one from that pillar of bourgeois respectability, the Financial Times.

Check out the official WEF web site and their magazine!

Traditionally of course, this meeting has been held in the picture postcard setting of Davos, Switzerland. And it has been the habit of nay-sayers, refuseniks, dissidents, rejectionists, contrarians and ne'er-do-wells of all stripes to make the journey there too, and give them the stiff finger salute (read a report from last year to get an idea). True to form, news of the conference triggered a call to action by anarchists, amongst others.

hydrarchist writes: "

The Socialist Workers Party is the sister organization to Left Turn in the United States. Through their front organization 'Globalize resistance' (on which please see the essay 'Monopolise Resistance?'), they have endeavoured to assume the leading role in actions against the institutions of capiotalist globalization in Europe. As the SWP are a traditional trot outfit their demonstrations are neither colourful, imaginative or amusing and they happear to feel that they are losing ground. The following essay appeared in their journal in december, some months before Alex Callinicos produced a critique of Empire (Toni Negri in Perspective) which he claimed to be the intellectual basis behind the 'black block.' This was manifestly wrong, so now it appears that the SWP are knocking on the door of those who really do endorse the Empire agenda to a large degree, the White Overalls, and their leader Luca Casarini. Interested readers will find other articles on the subject in our archives which are easily and efficiently searchable.

Theories of Conflict


How does the anti-capitalist movement face up to the challenges of war and state repression? Luca Casarini and Alex Callinicos discuss the issues