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WEF Protests: News and Chronology
Welcome to Monkeyfist.com's WEF Protest Newswire, a production of The
Monkeyfist Collective. We're aggregating all relevant WEF protest news
on this site, in order to reduce some of the load on IMC sites and
servers.
If you have corrections, comments, attributions, or events to add to
this chronology, send them to kendall@monkeyfist.com.
All times are EST unless otherwise noted.
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Contents
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Saturday, 2 February 2002 Chronology
Friday, 1 February 2002 Chronology
Thursday, 31 January 2002 Chronology
WEF Protest & Security Background
WEF Protest News Sources
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Saturday, 2 February 2002
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9.53a Police arrest two for wearing masks at 52nd and Park rally
11.24a Cars carrying puppets ticketed
Pictures: #1, #2
12.19p Unpermitted Reclaim the Streets march begins, as many as 3500
particpating
Police tactics harsh:
"While gathering with a group of about 500 protesters at 9:30 am
this morning I am disgusted and repulsed by the overt facism of the
NY police and the tactics of "penning" in protesters behind steel
fencing, pushing us off the sidewalks and limiting our movement
from block to block and pen to pen. Divide and herd is the tactic
here. Even staff who were trying to distribute food and water to
protesters were not allowed to go from pen to pen. This is protest
in the USA in NY today."
(via IMC.)
1.07p RTS march joins Another World is Possible march, begin making
its way to WEF conference site (Waldorf hotel); perhaps 8000
marchers
2.11p Arrests, pepper spray outside Waldorf
SCP camera map of the Waldorf area
AP wire report:
Thousands of raucous demonstrators rallied against globalization,
war and corporate greed under a heavy police watch on Saturday in a
massive protest aimed at the World Economic Forum that avoided the
violence that has marred similar past meetings.
As protesters marched more than a mile through midtown Manhattan,
wearing costumes, carrying signs and puppets, making music and
chanting slogans before finishing near the WaldorfAstoria Hotel
where the forum was being held, even the police praised their
peaceful conduct.
"They've been wonderful," police spokesman Kevin Czartoryski said
of the protesters.
Just seven people were arrested for disorderly conduct during the
march that drew more than 5,000 people, a police spokesman said.
Two others were arrested for disorderly conduct at an earlier rally
outside the hotel that drew another estimated 3,000 demonstrators.
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Friday, 1 February 2002
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9.40a After 20+ hours in jail, 5 remaining ACT UP protesters were
released on reduced charges; bail was requested for one but
judge refused it. The DA's "WEF Protest Policy" is to offer
time served for guilty pleas.
Noon Chris Anderson reports:
In a little over a day and a half, almost one-thousand
students have traveled to Columbia University to participate
in the Students for Global Justice (SGJ) WEF
counter-forum. The forum, entitled "Globalizing Justice" is
being held at Columbia from January 31st through February
4th, and is meant to educate students "about the shortcomings
of the WEF's one-sided agenda."
5.00p Protest of Remy Cointreau maltreatment of Haitian workers, 6th Ave and
55th St.
(See video of Remy protest.)
5.27p Environmentalists protest Gap's old-growth forest devastation.
7.56p Prison privatization protested at Four Seasons
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Thursday, 31 January 2002
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10a WEF site goes down; a denial-of-service attack thought to be cause
The "virtual sit-in" was called by Electronic Disturbance Theater,
RTMark, Federation of Random Action, and others.
(Read Wired's report.)
11.41a WBAI reports 7 ACT UP protesters arrested near Canal St.,
reportedly to be transported to and held at Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The Guardian (UK) reported:
By noon, police reported their first arrests - five women
charged with trespassing and reckless endangerment in lower
Manhattan for climbing to a building rooftop and unfurling
a banner that read, ``Bush and big biz agree that people
with AIDS drop dead.''
Police also reported a handful of vandalism incidents at
several chain businesses around Manhattan, with one
arrest. Chain stores have been targeted in the past by
demonstrators upset at large international companies
pursuing worldwide markets at the expense of local
businesses.
(Listen to ACT-UP action report; read the AP wire report)
>1p Anti-sweatshop protest (called by AFL-CIO?) focused on the
flagship Gap store. Boston Globe reports 500 protesters present.
Pictures: #1, #2, #3 Village Voice Gap protest photos
WEF Protest & Security Background (via randomWalks)
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4,000 police (in riot gear and undercover) as well as contingents of
FBI, and Secret Service agents will be greeting tens of thousands of
protesters who don't think that the wealthiest and most powerful
0.0000005% of humanity should make antidemocratic, unaccountable
decisions that will affect 6 billion people behind closed doors
Police will be protecting corporate retail outlets, like Gap and
Starbucks, throughout the city.
Police will be enforcing a dead 1845 state law barring people in
groups of 3 or more from wearing masks, originally intended as an
anti-KKK measure
Many protestors are planning to wear the surgical masks which are
commonly used by those who live or work near ground zero.
If police behavior at other large recent demonstrations is a reliable
guide, protestors carrying signs and large puppets, sitting, chanting,
singing, and dancing the tango will likely be attacked in assaults --
either unprovoked or triggered by undercover agents of the state -- by
police who have been training and threatening for weeks to brutalize
innocent people
View a map of surveillance cameras in the Washington Square Park area,
where many protests are planned (via Surveillance Camera Players).
WEF Protest News Sources
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NYC IMC
Yahoo News, Yahoo pix
Village Voice
NY Times
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