Program transcript for:
BAY WINDOW: RAISING A RUCKUS
THE FOLLOWING IS A CO-PRODUCTION OF KQED
NARRATOR
Demonstrations around the world against globalization have captured the public's attention.
Han Shan:
Economic corporate-led globalization, not only is it not inevitable, um, it's inevitable that we have to stop it.
Juliette:
All that we need to sustain and, and to create healthy-society is on a collision course with these economic policies that are all about making money
NARRATOR:
We have seen the action in the streets but a debate also goes on behind closed doors.
Bono
The president of the World Bank, is brave bold and stupid enough to let me into his office
Wolfensohn
Dialogue is not something that I am afraid of-
Wolfensohn speaking over march:
But I have a serious problem with is when the presumption is that you should close down discussion.
NARRATOR
There are radical anarchists in this movement.
Tim Ream
The spark of the revolution was a large number of people going out into the dark of night and destroying large amounts of valuable property, at an event we call the Boston Tea Party.
NARRATOR
There is also a new generation of young activists.
Malachi
There's a new acknowledgement of people like us can be political and that you don't have to be a dork. You know, like, you can listen to hip-hop, or like, run the mall, and like, you could still be really political.
NARRATOR
But can they make a difference?
Carson
What protests can do is force people to take into account this concern. That if you don't take that into account we're going to disrupt your peace.
BAY WINDOW MUSIC AND TITLE
Host, Scott Shafer:
There is a long tradition of social protest in our country. From the Boston Tea Party and the struggle against slavery, to the labor movements of the 1930's and the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements of the 1960's. Each wave of protest led to significant change: from independence for the republic to equal rights for all.
The latest wave of protests target the institutions that symbolize the new global economy -- the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While these institutions were set up to encourage free trade, alleviate poverty and promote economic development, the protesters say their policies have hurt the poorest of the poor and undermined labor and environmental protections.
The Bay Area has often been at the center of social protest and the new movement against globalization is no different.
Tonight we will follow some Bay Area activists across the country and around the globe, as they struggle against the odds to change the world they live in. We will find out what motivates them, what they hope to achieve, and what stands in their way.
Next on Bay Window "Raising a Ruckus."
END STUDIO
Prague clash flares up
"Raising a Ruckus"
Police in riot gear, Seattle
NARRATOR
Our story starts in Seattle, November 1999. The city hosted the annual meeting of the World Trade Organization, the vast and powerful international bureaucracy that controls world commerce. While the delegates met inside, nearly 50,000 protesters marched outside. While most of the protests were peaceful, nearly all of the attention focused on the demonstrators who turned violent. By the third day, the demonstrations had forced the WTO to cancel the remaining meetings and a new movement had come of age. At the heart of this new movement is a small group of organizers based in Berkeley, California: The Ruckus Society. Media savvy and technologically sophisticated, their tactics are a mix of street theater and extreme sports. John Sellers is the group's director. His provocative media stunts like climbing bridges and unfurling massive protest banners are the group's trademark.
NARRATOR
Han Shan, the 28-year-old program director of the Ruckus Society is a Zen Buddhist and the group's key spokesperson. Celia Alario is the group's media trainer, coaching activists in the art of delivering the 10-second sound-bite. After Ruckus rallied their troops for a protest against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C., they became an undisputed force in the new social movement against corporate-led globalization.
NARRATOR
Two or three times a year, The Ruckus Society holds week-long training sessions called "action camps." This is where they pass on the techniques of protest that were so successful in Seattle and D.C.-- their next targets are the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
Sandra:
My parents were like this is a really interesting place, I've never really seen anything like it. My dad was like are you guys learning how to break windows? And I was just like, 'come on,' and he was like, I'm joking, I just have to bug you about that.'
John Sellers:
We're in the Santa Monica Mountains, uh, in Malibu. A really beautiful piece of land here and we are about to start our democracy action camp. And we have about 150 participants coming from all over the United States to learn some of the most important tactics in achieving social change, tactics of nonviolent direct action and creative confrontation.
Han Shan:
First of all, my name is Han Shan. I'm the program director for the Ruckus Society. I actually was just kind of an angry white kid from Baltimore who, you know, found community in the punk community. I was just a punk rock kid who, who was, um, you know, looking for a place to plug in, and looking for a way to, to follow my, channel my anger, uh, because I, I really, I just saw so much, uh injustice, so much oppression. I mean, some of it sounds corny, but they weren't my struggles, but I really found myself challenged to find a place to plug in and be a, a person of conscience.
John Sellers:
We have a considerable amount of media at the camp and, uh, someone told me some of them are actually corporate media. That we actually think are probably pretty good people that just work in a really weird, twisted system. But I'd like uh Celia to maybe make a few uh comments on how we're going to deal with media this week.
Celia:
Please be, um, really communicative about what it is that you want and what you don't want. You do not have to be interviewed and you do not have to be filmed. Just remember that, that this is your event and the number one priority here is for us all to share skills and to learn and to really grow together as a unified movement.
NARRATOR
This is a boot camp where activists come to learn the latest techniques of street protest.
Scene: locking people together: We're a lot more difficult to move as two people. When you walk into an office, and you sit. Two other people walk into an office, and they sit, and you get interlocked with each other.
Scene Media Workshop Celia in front of easel: If you're not in a live interview situation, you don't have to answer their question, you need to respond and speak the sound-bites and the talking points that you and your affinity group have been working so hard for days and days on.
Celia:
My parents have been really supportive of my activism. They were both physicists, scientists, and, uh, they had to survive the scrutiny of, of the McCarthy Era, as, as particle physicists in the 40's and 50's. And, as a result of that, I think they were, you know, slightly politicized, and, and I was blessed to be instilled with this idea that one person can make a difference.
NARRATOR
In a classroom setting, the media workshops teach young activists how to boil down their messages.
Celia: When I'm getting interviewed, I usually start by asking them a battery of questions before they ever ask me one. I ask them about the organization that they work for-what kind of a story are you writing? What's your angle? What's your slant? Who else are you going to talk to?
NARRATOR
After the lecture, the activists-in-training get to try out their new skills in a hectic protest situation.
Scene: Juliette Beck being interviewed with chanting to simulate protest.
Juliette: Because the Democrats have been responsible for these economic policies that are really hurting people both at home and abroad. We need to turn that around and that's why we're here to protest and hopefully...
NARRATOR
Juliette Beck is an economic policy expert at Global Exchange, the San Francisco-based organization best known for its campaign against sweatshops.
Juliette Beck:
The first thing that I ever organized was around the Disney campaign, around the workers in Haiti were making 11 cents an hour when the CEO of Disney was making $39,000 an hour. So I, I started in with that campaign and have been on this trail ever since.
SCENE
Fiddle music and stills of early Ruckus camps where people hang from trees
NARRATOR
The Ruckus Society started hosting these camps in 1995, training environmental activists who were protecting old growth forests. Today the camp's trademark fifty-foot scaffolding is used to train in the latest form of urban guerrilla protest -- the banner hang.
SCENE
Pecolia learning to climb..
Pecolia:
I work with Third Eye Movement, which is a youth community organization that's primarily youth under the age of 25, um, mostly high school students, but also, we have, you know, older folks, it's all very, intergenerational.
NARRATOR
This camp is the first attempt by the Ruckus Society to bring in young people of color and their issues.
Malachi: This our prison, you know, it's going to be like a prison cell and then have little puppets of like, kids and like brown folks and poor people inside.
NARRATOR
Malachi Larrabee-Garcia is from West Pittsburgh, California. The daughter of a missionary father and a Mexican mother, a lesbian, and a passionate opponent of the prison industrial complex.
Malachi: You know like when you just talk to people they don't listen, but if you actually see an image that portrays a a reality, you can't, it's hard to deny I think.
Favianna: That's why we really have ta try to communicate our message through pictures. It's like an education campaign through pictures, you know.
NARRATOR
Favianna Rodriguez dropped out of UC Berkeley after the passage of Prop 209, which abolished affirmative action. She is a self- taught web designer by day, whose calling is the "schools not jails" campaign.
Favianna: I'm here at Ruckus to learn some organizing skills. In Oakland I work with a lot of the youth and, uh, the reality is that Oakland is a largely uh, black and brown school district. And the schools are just horrible, and what this creates is an unsafe atmosphere for a lot of our young people and they don't want to go to school, they end up dropping out.
Prison discussion:
White guys and black guy SOT: And there was 344 juveniles tried as adults for drug crimes in the United States. I think that's between 95 and 98, out of 344, two were white. Two? Out of 344? It's pretty cut and dry like that that's the class system, right? The status system.
SCENE
Drummers, singers
NARRATOR
Ruckus believes that by forming an alliance with groups who are focused on issues that affect poor communities and people of color, they will expand the base of support for their movement.
Malachi:
This camp is a really historical moment, um, I think because it's bringing together groups of activists that necessarily maybe haven't worked together. But the movement has such broad common themes now, um, 'cause it's so easy to see what's going on, right, um, and so, we're bringing our troops and, um, you know, everyone else is bringing their troops, and so we're, we're trying to work together and see how the different cultures, the different backgrounds, the different people and the different causes, you know, 'cause you're a vegan and you don't eat dairy and I work against prisons, you know, and so, how can we go together to a mass thing and have the same message.
Sandra: The other piece that would be nice is the drug war impacts at home.
NARRATOR
Sandra Alvarez is a first generation Colombian-American who works on human rights issues. She supports the goal of broadening the movement, but says it will be difficult.
Sandra:
If we want to move the movement forward, we need to be unified a lot more, we need to be in solidarity more and we need to come together and, and, see where our work intersects. But people are coming from a lot of different backgrounds and white folks here have never been confronted with having to deal with people from other backgrounds. They are used to, um, everybody talking their language.
Han Shan:
First of all, you have to look at where Ruckus comes from and we come from the environmental movement primarily. We have been mostly white and uh still are mostly white. But what we are recognizing is that we, we need to, you know, really understand that all these issues are interconnected, um, racism and, uh, uh, sexism and environmental destruction and human rights, social justice. I mean you can't separate one from another. If you do, you know, you're going to have a democracy that's lop-sided.
Hans on cell phone: I think, you know, Seattle was certainly a watershed moment. Seattle was, incredibly important and and incredibly impactful. But, uh, Seattle also, uh, displayed to us that, uh, we have a lot of work to do.
Han holds up phone victoriously and says, "Another Convert!".
SCENE
Seattle march
NARRATOR
In Seattle, the new alliance between labor and environmental groups -- demonstrating against the WTO -- built momentum for the growing anti globalization movement here in the United States.
Juliette: The track record of the WTO was clear, five years of decision-making against the public interests, against the hard fought-for consumer and environmental and public-interest laws. It was clear that the WTO was overturning these policies and operating only for a small elite.
Han: These are institutions that are totally non-transparent, un-democratic, unaccountable to you or I, um, making decisions behind closed doors, in Geneva and Washington and, you know, on Wall Street, um, that affect people profoundly.
Joseph Stiglitz:
The global institutions that have been established, IMF, the World Bank, WTO are viewed to be very far from democratic, very far from open participatory, uh, they have, the concern is, that the critics, they have some fundamental flaws.
NARRATOR
Joseph Stiglitz is the former chief economist of the World Bank. Last year he left the bank to protest the tough economic policies of the IMF that he says, devastate the economies of poor countries.
Stiglitz:
I was dealing with, with the consequences of these mistaken policies on a day to day basis, well before the protest struck in, in Seattle. For me, it was almost like, you know, here was something that I'd been struggling with, finally had reached, reached global prominence.
SCENE
BACK at Camp: Drumming, bird kites:
NARRATOR
After their success in joining forces with labor in Seattle, Ruckus is now forging links with social justice groups that they hope will make the movement even stronger.
Juliette: Look throughout history at the gains that we've made through activism, through this type of street protest movement, you know. Ends to slavery, end to apartheid in South Africa, giving women the right to vote...hello! The eight-hour day? You know, these are gains that all of society has, has benefited from.
SCENE
Camp mock protest
NARRATOR
Today is the final day of the Ruckus training camp. Now they are ready to take to the streets. First stop, the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
Fade up on Philadelphia Street filled with protestors
Title: Day 1 Republican Convention, Philadelphia
Free Mumia March
SCENE
Protestors, chanting what do we want? Justice Free Mumia Abu Jamal
Lock-arm line of protesters
NARRATOR
In Philadelphia, the first challenge for the protestors is running multiple marches on different fronts.
Edget:
D.C. and Seattle were really different because they were all focused on one day and so everybody was out in the streets at the same time. Whereas with the conventions they go on for four days apiece and so different groups are working on different days.
NARRATOR
While thousands gather to march peacefully, a faction of protestors turn violent. Local news showing violence
NARRATOR
At the first sign of violence, the police crack down hard. Hundreds are arrested and Ruckus becomes a target.
News Reporter:
Action News has learned that the two men being held chiefly responsible for orchestrating the violence and chaos of Tuesday night, run boot camps for rebellion. It is their organization that coordinated the disruption of the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle last fall. Now Sellers and Mc- are charged with orchestrating the violence and destruction of property during the sporadic rash of protest demonstration Tuesday night. Both men face a long laundry list of charges that include: conspiracy. Reckless endangerment. Possession of an instrument of crime, and obstruction of justice.
Larry Krassner:
John Sellers was arrested and he has been charged with a number of misdemeanor charges. He has had bail set in the amount of 1 million dollars. Which in my 13 years of practicing criminal law and civil rights in Philadelphia is a new one.
Celia at Press Conference:
What we do is facilitate trainings in the history and practice of non-violent civil disobedience and non-violent direct action. And a lot of what was experienced in the streets on Tuesday and Wednesday may not fit the bill of the types of things that Ruckus would put forth in a training or hope had happened in the streets-
Carson:
In the grand scheme of things, you know, breaking a a few windows is, is not, um, a threat to the social order of an entire society, and yet sometimes that becomes the pretext for a kind of repression that effects all elements of, of dissent -- even non-violent dissent.
NARRATOR
Clayborne Carson is a history professor at Stanford and was active in the civil rights struggles of the 1960's.
Carson:
One of the things that our, our experience, in, um, during the 1960's, uh taught us was that, um, that violence can be quite destructive to the movement's goals and because a large number of people who might be sympathetic to a movement would rather have order than disorder that is seen as dangerous, is seen as threatening.
NARRATOR
Most of the violence in the movement has been caused by a few groups that hide their identity behind black masks. They say that the violence is not random but targeted to make a point.
Tim Ream:
I myself, I have engaged in acts of property destruction to defend the earth and, and to stop oppression and I will continue to do that.
NARRATOR
Tim Ream is an anarchist who believes that the violence that targets property -- not people -- is a necessary tactic.
Tim Ream:
It's these large amounts of property, generally corporate property, that are the instruments of destruction of the planet and, and whether that's a big dam in India or a bulldozer in Oregon's forests or, or whether or not that's a storefront window that allows a, a product ill-gained overseas to be sold to unwitting American consumers, in all cases, that piece of property is a tool of oppression. And once people snap out of their, uh, their Madison Avenue haze in believing the American dream then they can see that they need to stop those institutions, those corporations from continuing that destruction. We have to take the, the weapons away from them even when those weapons are dams and bulldozers and storefront windows.
Celia:
Property destruction is a tactic. It's not a tactic that we train at the Ruckus Society, it's not a tactic that always makes sense and it's not a tactic that always helps to broaden your movement, it alienates a lot of people.
Carson:
I think the non-violent leader has to at some point say 'If you want to be in my tent, you have to make a commitment to stay within non-violence.' But I guess what I'm saying is that not everybody comes under that tent.
Celia
I don't think violence is the answer. I think violence begets violence. And I think to a certain extent property destruction isn't going to get us where we're going. It'll help some people, and in certain instances I would advocate it. I would stand in complete support of that indigenous community in Latin America that's gonna just drill a bunch of holes in the pipeline and then send a letter saying, 'You know what, drilled a bunch of holes in the pipeline-you can't pump oil through there, you know.' I'm gonna support them 100 %. But I don't think that it always makes sense to go smash windows at Starbucks.
NARRATOR
Ream says he has tried working within the system but now he believes that radical tactics are the only option.
Tim Ream:
I was raised as a conservative suburban Midwestern republican who voted for Ronald Reagan-twice and I have gone through being a liberal Peace Corps volunteer uh, who voted for Clinton and a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or an employee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to a forest activist that believes in totally nonviolent tactics to someone who now realizes a total abolition of these institutions through the whatever means are necessary is the only thing that's really gonna bring a sustainable earth.
NARRATOR
The next stop for the protesters is Los Angeles. 10,000 people are expected to demonstrate at the Democratic convention, more than three times the numbers in Philadelphia.
Scene: Lt. Commander Kalish watches video from Seattle.
Kalish:
We believe that the vast majority of people who are coming here to protest will do so legally and will do so peacefully.
NARRATOR
But LAPD spokesman-- LT. Commander David Kalish says that the LAPD will not tolerate another Seattle.
SCENE
"Back! Back!" LAPD exercise
Kalish:
If people on the extreme are causing property damage and they are becoming extremely violent and they are aggressive and they are harming people or they are threatening public safety, we will move in with whatever force is necessary and reasonable to handle that situation.
SCENE
YWCA training inside school gym No Violence, No Violence!
NARRATOR
Back in the Bay Area, activists who attended the Ruckus camp are passing on the organizing skills to their communities in preparation for the demonstrations in LA.
Malachi:
We're really preparing the youth to be a vital force in the movement, specially because youth are so often the target of police brutality, and so we talked about sometimes you have to take the blows from the police ‘cause they're gonna give em to you and they're nothing compared to what our communities go through every day.
Carson:
One of the aspects of non-violent struggle is that it's easier to do the higher you are in the society.
SCENE
Gym training
Malachi:
You guys are kinda curved, can you just form a straight line, how you were sitting next to each other before? We're developing young youth of color, young poor youth of organizers.
Carson:
The goal of any organizer is to try and maximize the range of tactics by, by making available, not just one tactic, not just one way of expressing yourself, but a wide variety of ways for people to get involved.
CHYRON THIRD EYE MOVEMENT BBQ RALLY, SAN FRANCISCO
Malachi:
There's a new, I think, acknowledgement of people like us can be leaders in a movement, people like us can be political and that you don't have to be a dork. You know, like, you can listen to hip-hop, and like, you know, skateboard and do whatever you do, or like, run the mall, and like, you could still be really political.
Jessie:
That's pretty much what the DNC is about gonna be about. It's gonna be a week-long a mass protest and we want a lot of people from the community to get involved.
NARRATOR
In the final days before heading to LA, 17-year-old Pecolia Manigo is trying to bring in new recruits.
Pecolia:
We're trying to reach out to everybody. Because everybody needs to be educated, everybody needs to be involved. So this is not an event to say, OK, well you are over this age limit or, you know, you are under this age limit, or something like that. This is an event to say 'if you are 2 or if you are 1 if you ain't even born yet, we gonna feed you , and we gonna give you a show, and we gonna politicize you at the same time.
Tony Coleman:
Let me put it like this: when it's, when it's a hip thing to come to a protest and you see friends that you ain't seen for, uh, a long time and you happen to see 'em there, and then that's when you're gonna start seeing a whole lot of changein' and that's what were doing with the Third Eye Movement.
SCENE
Fade up to the LA Democratic Convention
Titel: Day 1 Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles
Human Need Not Corporate Greed March
NARRATOR
In LA, the biggest day of protest is the Human Need Not Corporate Greed March - 10,000 people have united their individual issues to hit the streets and raise their voices under one common banner.
Pacolia:
In seventeen years I've gone through homelessness, poverty, eviction, um, poor schooling, all of it. So, if I'm seventeen years old and have gone through all of that knowing all the things in my life are not supposed to be that and I see that that's wrong, I am going to act upon it. We were, I've been taught that if you don't like something, do something about it. So that's why I am here.
NARRATOR
Malachi is leading a group from the Third Eye Movement - She feels confident she can harness the youth's energy in a positive and non-violent way.
Malachi:
I think as organizers you're so inclined to be non-violent because you're getting answers. You know. People get violent when they don't know what is going on, when they're pissed off and they have nowhere to go. And I see our youth as they're getting political becoming more peaceful, because they are starting to organize the people and talking to people and getting the answers and it makes sense, so it's not infuriurating (sic), you know. You, you, you know what you are fighting against so you can work against it.
NARRATOR
A key strategy of the new movement is to link global concerns to local issues.
Favianna:
We're trying to build a mass movement and that means standing in solidarity with each other, you know. Linking our issues. Before that wasn't always made, you know. The youth issues weren't always linked to, um, to global injustice issues or sweatshop issues. And now that we're making that connection, this is the kind of power we have. We have people power. And I hope we can keep this peaceful and you know, just have a good time. And really get the media to focus on us and tell what we're trying to say.
Chant: "Power of the people!"
NARRATOR
The march finishes at the Staples Center official protest area, where a free concert is being given by Rage Against the Machine.
SCENE
Pull back from the Staples Center to reveal a sea of young people raging against the machine.
NARRATOR
The celebration suddenly turns ugly as a few angry young people start to taunt the police.
Juliette:
We just got news that over at the Staples center there is a standoff with the police and a very tense situation.
NARRATOR
After the sun goes down, the authorities shut down the protest area.
Police at scene:
In the name of the people of the State of California I command all those assembled to immediately disperse.
NARRATOR
The concert melee dominates the local news broadcasts ---
LOCAL NEWS FOOTAGE-KCAL 9:
The mounted officers moved in-let's roll that video tape and you'll see this was about an hour ago, the mounted police officers moved in -- periodically, they were firing flash grenades to move people out...
NARRATOR
So after all their preparation and hard work, the message of solidarity is lost. But there is some good news for Ruckus . John Sellers -- released from jail just days earlier -- arrives in Los Angeles.
John Sellers:
I'm actually very late in getting out to LA, for the corporate coronation of Al Gore. Like hundreds of others, I was jailed for non-violently speaking out against this take-over.
NARRATOR
Even though he was targeted as the ringleader in Philadelphia, eventually, all charges against him were dropped.
John Sellers:
I think that um they had an overblown uh, conception of what the Ruckus society is about. I think that, I mean if they were pretty, they were pretty, um candid about saying that they believed that I was a protest leader, that I was, you know, kind of a puppet master the evil puppet master in Philadelphia pulling the strings, creating the context for mayhem and destruction. Ah, that couldn't be further from the truth
Han:
This isn't a movement, you know, with a body and head that you can just cut off the head a couple people take them out like John Sellers in Philadelphia, and think that the body will die. This is a, a movement that's far more, uh, horizontal, non-hierarchical, uh, it's, it's a loose network, but it's solid, and, uh, that's an exciting trajectory I think.
John:
It will be a great honor to introduce our first speaker, Sandra Alvarez, from Global Exchange. She is an amazing activist and, uh, an expert on human rights in Columbia, please, uh, join me in welcoming Sandra Alvarez.
NARRATOR
Over the next three days there are dozens of peaceful protests -- and organizers from the Ruckus camp get another chance to get their own messages out.
Sandra:
The drug war is just a guise. They wanna take control there so that they can exploit the petroleum, so that they can make money from the war. And it's the corporations that are making our foreign policy.
NARRATOR
There is a protest against oil drilling on tribal lands in Colombia.
Sandra:
I could have been born in the countryside like my father in Colombia. I could have been born on the border. I could have been born anywhere else. And so if I know about these things, I cannot turn my back on them.
NARRATOR
A march for better schools.
Favianna at "Schools Not Prisons" March:
We're going to Governor Gray Davis' office to hit him up about our education. You know, he's been called the education governor but he's not doing anything for the young people in the inner city schools.
NARRATOR
And a demonstration against police brutality by the LAPD.
NARRATOR
There were so many marches, critics said, no clear message got through.
Carson:
I think it's well and good that within this new movement you see decentralization of leadership. And that has a strength. But it also has a weakness. Um, the lack of coherence in terms of, of the protest activity, means that there's a lack of coherence in terms of what is being sought as a goal.
Gitlin:
A list is not a movement. A list is not a political program. And when the central import of the movement gets diffused and people then become the followers of this that and other list um, their energy is diffused.
NARRATOR
Todd Gitlin is a sociologist and a veteran of the 1960's Free Speech movement in Berkeley. He says that this movement is at a turning point.
Gitlin:
Movements are gonna be ragged, um. And out of this raggedness, if this movement is to be something with legs, which I certainly hope it is, uh, those people, the forces within the movement have to be able to work strategically, and that means doing more than just sort of collecting a lot of grievances. They have to apply, they have to federate and, uh, focus their energies.
Juliette Beck:
The criticism that the movement is, is fragmented and has too many issues thrown into the pot um, is a legitimate concern. I think that we do need to focus on one issue at a time.
Han Shan:
We need to link up this movement in the way that it needs to be so that the people all the people standing together can confront the tiny one percent, the little tiny business elite that really is running things.
Celia:
You know we turned in these conventions to domestic issues to really call our politicians out on the carpet and say to them, 'We are gonna hold you accountable locally for your involvement in, in perpetuating and, and fueling corporate-driven globalization and corporate dominance of, of our culture here.' But we also need to keep the pressure on internationally because the, the unholy trinity, the World Bank and the IMF and the WTO have to know that they're not, they can't just breath a sigh of relief. You know, they have to know that everywhere they go, every time they meet, we're gonna be there.
Fade up on shots of Prague.
NARRATOR
One month after the Democratic convention, more than 15 thousand delegates from the Work Bank and the International Monetary Fund gathered in Prague for their annual joint meeting. End on shots at cocktail party ñ dissolve through to Shots of protesters arriving. The protesters were there too -- estimated at more than 10,000. Celia Alario was there from Ruckus.
Celia:
It's amazing. Listening to all the chants. You can't even figure out some of the languages. -at least 10 different languages I'm hearin' 'em in. There are at least 2-3 thousand people that gathered at the park, and there were at least a couple thousand people beyond that that we're starting to see that are blocking various cross streets and intersections as we march, we're meeting up with them and seein' them.
NARRATOR
The protesters are planning an all-out assault on the third day of the meetings. In the meantime, they work to focus their message.
Someone introduces another:
Good morning. First of all, on the agenda today we have Global Movements and Looking Towards the Future, so we are pleased to introduce to you Marie Shaba, thank you for being here with us.
Marie Shaba:
Yeah, the drive in my country and the rest of Africa for capitalism is gaining momentum and that is making the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Celia:
I think that Prague is, um, incredibly important because it's going to do few things. It's going to remind the world of how global this movement is. This movement that is challenging corporate dominance and corporate-driven globalization. I think it's going to remind our elected officials that uh in addition to the immediate domestic concerns that they have, that they, of their own citizenry that they have to look at how many people in Europe and across the world are also very active and very concerned because of course the United States plays a major role in this craziness.
Joseph Stiglitz:
The fundamental problem I see in the IMF and World Bank is that the voting rights are not allocated on the principles of any democratic society. Most of the votes go to the wealthy industrial countries. In the United States and Europe, no one would accept the right, the principle that one dollar equals one vote. But this is the principle that underlies the IMF and the World Bank. The more money you have, the more votes you have.
Tim Ream:
I've never been given an opportunity to vote for anybody in the WTO, World Bank or IMF and yet they are establishing international, uh, global policy for all of the people of the world and all of the other life forms of the world.
Celia:
What's really important is that a growing number of people are questioning who are these institutions that are, you know, writing the rules of the new global economy? What do they stand for? How is my life or the life of, of someone else directly effected? How is the environment directly effected? And what are we going to do about it?
NARRATOR
The Prague police have prepared for a siege with 11,000 officers around the city. But that doesn't stop the protesters from pulling off some of their famous "urban messaging."
Close up of three men hanging banners on bridge.
Woman looks through binoculars and speaks.
Woman: The three climbers seem to be unfurling two banners. One says, "People, Not Profit." They've been there for about an hour. And about 10 minutes ago a fire truck came, and an ambulance, but they have both disappeared.
Deepa Narayan:
I think protest, and especially when it's picked up by the media, has a tremendous impact on the policies of the Bank. Because it can't be ignored.
NARRATOR
Deepa Narayan is the top social development specialist at the World Bank. She says that the protesters have forced reform onto the agenda
Narayan:
I think the protests are about a world that's changing very rapidly in which people feel they are being left out; in which people feel that their values and their lifestyles and their culture -- a sense, their identity is being questioned and trampled over and run over without, uh, people even being, even realizing that this is happening. So I think the protests around the world have really, uh, articulated this fear. This agenda is squarely on the table. For the bank, this means that, uh, economic policy, social policy and thinking about cultures and values all has to be thought of at the same time.
Joseph Stiglitz:
The Bank has always had as its mission reducing poverty. Not-It hasn't always done this in the most effective way, but that has been very, its core mission. It's always had a large group of people in the Bank really committed to that, that issue. And so in a way what has happened is the protestors have empowered that particular group and have their voices heard more loudly.
Todd Gitlin:
At its best I think this movement effects the way in which people talk about these issues inside the institutions. I published an article in the 'Washington Post' during the Washington demonstrations and uh, they put the headline on it, uh, 'Shouts Lead to Murmurs.' That, that conveys the argument that I was making, which was that, yes there was a lot of noise on the street and sometimes what people were saying wasn't so well thought out and there were lots of inadequacies in what was being chanted by the people on the street. But that the the absolutely indispensable virtue of these kinds of demonstrations is that they encourage insiders who are themselves reformers.
NARRATOR
One of those inside reformers is Steen Jorgenson --the Director for Social Development at the World Bank. He arrived in Prague hoping that this would be the meeting where a real dialogue would start with the protesters.
Steen Jorgenson:
I use to be on that other side of those barricades. I used to be there, I used to be part of the, the, the pacifist movement, a part of the anti-war movement, part of the movement that made sure we don't have nuclear power in Denmark. That used to be, that's my background. That's my blood. And that's why I decided to work in development and go to work for the World Bank.
Wolfensohn at Opening Ceremonies:
"Outside these walls, young people are demonstrating against globalization."
NARRATOR
At the start there are encouraging words for the movement. In his opening remarks, World Bank President James Wolfensohn acknowledges the protestors and their concerns.
Wolfensohn:
"And I embrace the commitment of the new generation to fight poverty. We live in a world scarred by inequality. Something is wrong when the richest 20 percent of the global population receive more than 80 percent of the global income."
NARRATOR 58
As a gesture of his sincerity, Wolfensohn reaches out to the protesters through his newest ally -- international rock star Bono -- viewed by millions as a powerful voice for human rights and social change.
SCENE:
Wolfensohn at meeting:
I really wanted to particularly to welcome Bono here today. He has been doing a perfectly remarkable advocacy job on the issue of global debt. Um, he is received in places that I wait weeks to get an appointment, and I only wish I could dress like him, look like him and play like him. And I'm thinking of it, so next year, next year at the annual meetings, if you see someone (going) in a black suit with heavy glasses as you' ll all know, it's not Bono but me-So with that, let me introduce...
Bono at Meeting:
Can I just say I, I'm not used to speaking to less than 70,000 people, so you can forgive my shyness. (laughter) I also would like to mention the president of the World Bank, um, who sits beside me on my left is brave bold and stupid enough to let me into his office and let me bend his ear and I have taken that, uh, opportunity. I know he does it because I represent a constituency of people, lots and lots of them, who have lost confidence in institutions like the World Bank and the fund.
Wolfensohn:
Dialogue is not something I am afraid of and giving someone like Bono, who is very serious, who is very committed, the chance to speak to say whatever he wants in a discussion on development seems to me to be not a risk. Uhhm, What's important is that everybody should talk.
SCENE: Sign in protest reads Our world is not for sale. Protestors rolling earth down the street
Bono :
For every dollar we are giving in government aid to the continent of Africa for example, they are giving us back $8 servicing old debts. I would say that's obscene. And that's why there have been riots because they there is a feeling that this is an obscenity and they blame institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. Something has gotten out of hand here and we have to put it right.
Celia:
I think that one of the things that we can point to, uh, as progress, and, and, at least, claim small victory for, in the last year is a real change in the song that the World Bank and the IMF are singing. Um, to hear James Wofensohn, uh, uttering the quote that many different NGOs have been talking about for years now about 20% of the people having 80% of the resources and the wealth in the world. I mean, I think that was tremendous progress. But, now what we have to do is really challenge them to put their money where their mouth is.
Joseph Stiglitz:
I think rhetoric does have an effect on behavior. When people think about something, it, it inevitably, uh, has some impact.
Wolfensohn:
I think it's important that you keep an open mind to all the things that have been said by people, I think to say that I have been uninfluenced would be wrong. (T68-10) When you talk about poverty, environment and equity and justice- they're the things that 10,000 people in the Bank think they are doing. That is certainly why I'm at the Bank.
Stiglitz:
Oh I think he is a very serious reformer. Uh, I think he takes these issues very seriously. I think he is very committed to, to fighting poverty. He's caught between a large bureaucracy on the one hand, and a set of governors, finance ministries, central banks, with an often different mindset. Managing that process is extremely difficult. So far, he's taken a stance trying to avoid outright confrontation with his bosses.
NARRATOR
The 10,000 demonstrators are determined to keep the pressure on.
SCENE:
Anarchist marching band
NARRATOR
The majority of the marchers are peaceful. But one group is bent on confrontation with the police.
SCENE:
Protestors throwing rocks at police. Masked protestors picking cobblestones out of sidewalk
SCENE:
Anarchists in crowd. Gas and crowd backing away.
Todd Gitlin:
The people who throw the first stones, or molotov cocktails, are the people who get on the evening news. Those who have another kind of demonstration to make, namely a non-violent one, a one that's more deliberate, a one in which the focus is on arguments rather than tactics, those people get, uh, eclipsed.
Celia at protest:
This is tough, it's, it's I mean, I can, I understand rage that's welling up I understand why people are doing what they're doing, but I kind of feel like unfortunately this feeds, um, this feeds the press and follows up to the bad press that's happened so far and the, um, the schizm that they're trying to create between people who are legitimate in their concerns and people who are, you know, violent rabblerousers. You know. Whatever. It's unfortunate.
Carson:
The threat of violence sometimes is an important spur to reform, and it's a threat that has to be very carefully utilized because, you know, it's kind of like riding the back of a tiger, um, you, you can get eaten up. But I think that most non-violent movements understand that what they are trying to present to the society is saying, "We are here to disrupt." One of the tings that you should think about, is that if you don't respond, there might be something worse in store.
Gitlin:
100...or 200 people can start a riot anywhere under any circumstance, unless the people, the other people there are extremely disciplined. It's very it's very easy to start a riot. And the people who do it know it.
SCENE
Street marchers
Wolfensohn speaking over march:
I have no objection whatsoever to peaceful demonstrations or and I encourage dialogue. But I have a serious problem with is when the presumption is that you should close down discussion and you should close down institutions. I regard that as terribly negative.
NARRATOR
When the police say they can no longer guarantee the delegates' safety, many refuse to leave their hotels -- and the remaining meetings are cancelled.
Steen Jorgenson:
It's O.K. for us to be the lightning rod. I don't mind the Bank being the lightening rod, we've got broad shoulders. We're used to taking the blame for a lot of things. But I do mind if we cannot use that lightening rod for something positive to a more global debate about these issues. And the whole world community needs to realize there are a lot of young people out there who are very unhappy. And it's the whole old and new debate about local and global and how we marry those two things.
Celia:
I want it to be clean and pretty. I want it to be non-violent. I want it to be loving. Um, that's, that's what I would like to see. But I can't point fingers and shake my hand at someone who chose something different. Again, I think in the end a healthy movement is like a healthy ecosystem-it's marked by diversity.
NARRATOR
As the delegates and protesters leave Prague, no one was sure who has won the battle.
Inside the movement, there are questions about the violence that put 20 policemen in the hospital, but also a sense of pride that they have once again stood up to the these massive institutions of global power.
Celia:
In the end, I'm going back now with a whole bunch of European colleagues and contacts from around the world that I meet in Prague who I'm going to keep in touch with. And they can send a fax or e-mail, make a phone call in support of my campaign, I can do the same for them down the road, you know, that's the stuff that in the end is really gonna, gonna challenge these systems and really in the end take us forward and toward justice, you know, which is where everybody's headed.
Gitlin:
The movement has to be thought of as something that has to be cultivated over, not over the course of months or years, not a matter of getting ready for the next demonstration, but over the course of lifetimes. Cause this is the, this is the big one of the 21st Century.
SCENE
Activists camp
NARRATOR
Over the past two years the activists demonstrated in five cities and they say this is just the beginning.
Sandra:
It would be too easy to say, 'This is too much to do.' That's too easy. That's what too many people do. They hear about things, but they're like, 'Oh, that's so,' you know, they feel despair, but despair is a luxury. There's always work to be done. You can never, you can never say, 'OK, we got here.' You know, that never happens.
Malachi
I've been raised a fighter, you know. But a moral and ethical fighter. You know, learning from the teachings of like Gandi, Martin Luther King, using, using your pain and your fire and and translating it into work, you know, the people, the masses is a really healing. That you know, I sometimes I feel selfish, I'm like, 'Wow, I'm doing this, you know, for, for, a living.'
Han I do believe that there is a movement afoot. The important part is that we're always working to build unity, to understand the dynamics of of power, oppression and the consolidation of power and money and just keep struggling.
Scott Shafer in studio:
It was a wild year for political activism. Our characters struggled with issues both internal and external: the effort to link the local with the global and the violence that threatens to erode public support. Nonetheless, all around the world, wherever the WTO, World Bank and IMF met, the demonstrators were there from Seattle to Melbourne, Australia; Washington, DC and Davos, Switzerland. And their message seems to be getting through as we learned tonight. The latest surprise comes from Big Business. The Chief Executive of Caterpillar, Inc. (Glen Barton) says labor and environmental standards should be part of any new WTO trade negotiations. He went even further to say US officials should consult with the free-trade foes who caused such a ruckus in Seattle. Coming up next are trade meetings in Quebec City, Canada, and Ruckus plans to be there.
Copyright © 2001 KQED, Inc.
