WASHINGTON DC, 9/28/02 -- Follow the mainstream press concerning the policies of the IMF and World Bank and you will find yourself in an undifferentiated stream of quotable snippets and commentary leading nowhere. Today, the Washington Post headline decried in its reportage about the rallies held in DC, "Low Turnout for Second Day of Protests."

Throughout the Post's commentary, we find incisive reportage, such as "Some protestors...suggested the anti-globalization movement has suffered from a shift in activist priorities since September 11, and that it embraces issues that don't provide easy rallying points." Whatever these rallying points may be, they get short shift throughout the article. Of more interest to the Post writers are the exchanges between a group of counter-demonstrators yelling, "Go to Cuba!" at the marchers and the burning of a flag at Farragut Park.

Official Demands of the September 28th Mobilization

What were the demands that mobilized more than 5,000 people to leave their homes as far away as Vermont, Virginia, Florida, and the Midwest to gather in Washington DC for 4-6 hours? Had the reporters looked on the Mobilization for Global Justice website, they would have found that there were clear demands associated with the march. These include the opening to the public of the IMF and World Bank meetings, the canceling of debt, the end to destructive programs such as structural adjustment, and the prohibition of projects that ruin the environment and are destructive socially.

Speakers Craft Clear Messages

Left out of the Post's articles were the strong and coherent messages heard throughout the 1-1/2 hour program at the Sylvan theater and from the over 5,000 rally and march participants on Saturday, September 28. Indeed, the article makes no mention of a 15 minute speech by Ralph Nader, 2000 Presidential candidate of the Green Party. He castigated the ruling "oligarchy" of the U.S. and the World Bank's and IMF's economic policies causing poverty and environmental degradation throughout the world.

Nader asserted that corporate power has subjugated the "sovereign power of the individual." In reference to war and the military industrial complex, he spoke about the $380 billion being spent by the US to prepare for war. He told the crowd that 50% of the U.S. discretionary budget goes toward the military. Nader summarized the essence of the anti-IMF, World Bank movement in this way: "What today is all about, what the struggle for democracy is all about is, Who decides? Who pays? Who writes the rules? Who builds the future? Who plans for humanity"

The specifics of the World Bank's and IMF's onslaught were spelled out by many speakers from countries in the Global South where resistance to World Bank/IMF policies is rapidly growing. In exchange for loans, the IMF and World Bank demand that these countries privatize formerly publicly owned services.

Rudolf Amenga-Etego of the Ghana National Coalition Against Privatization of Water said, "In the poor communities of Ghana, people earn less than a dollar per day. Twenty to thirty per cent of their income pays for water." When it comes between choosing between having water or paying for their children to go to school, the families are forced to choose water over school.

Before they get elected to national office, candidates from Ghana oppose programs such as structural adjustment, according to Amenga-Etego. "Then when they get to power, they go along with it."

Holding a sign "World Bank - Quit India," a woman from India spoke about the World Bank and its projects to build dams and "super dams" that dislocate thousands of people and destroy rich farm land, while benefiting only a few. The $450 million Sadar Sarovar dam project, if completed, will result in the displacement of half a million people. Indians who have resisted the project are intimidated and jailed in spite of the fact that a study from 1992 stated that the project would do more harm than good.

Rally Participants Draw Logical Conclusions

It wasn't only the speakers who had a clear notion of what the march and rally represented. Though they may have been motivated by specific issues such as AIDS, war, poverty, imperialism, capitalist exploitation, sexism and racism, rally participants understood the role of the United States Government, corporations, the IMF and World Bank in heightening suffering, social and economic injustice through the world.

Freshman Jason from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, traveled with 14 students to attend the event. He and others belong to "Food not Bombs" and "The Human Rights Club." When asked why he had come to the march he said, "The alleviation of poverty is the best way to defeat terrorism." He also said, "Structural adjustment is not working."

Look for phrases like "structural adjustment" in Post articles about this demonstration. You won't find them. Scan the articles for the tough questions and cogent answers and you will find ruminations from Police Chief Ramsey who didn't feel that the turnout necessarily signified the "end of the movement."

Imagination at Work

Creatively constructed props and signs were prolific. Danielle, from Baltimore, helped build a yellow 8' long by 6' high cardboard Caterpillar bulldozer splashed with red paint. Active in a group called SUSTAIN (Stop US Tax Funded Aid to Israel Now) she said, "I don't support the economic imperialism of the IMF and World Bank nor do I support the Israeli occupation of Palestine." She and others of her group have organized a campaign against Caterpillar, a US corporation that sells bulldozers to Israel with American tax funded dollars. The bulldozers are used by the Israel Defense Forces to demolish homes, ruin roads, create roadblocks, and knock down trees and dig up crops.

Members of Bread and Puppet Theater from Grover, Vermont, manipulated the movements of a 20' high white-faced puppet, dressed in a black suit with bloodied hands. A woman named Strawberry, who led the group through the streets spoke about the significance of the puppet made nearly 20 years ago. "This puppet is a museum piece from the 80's. He represents the bloody hands of the corporations." The rest of the Bread and Puppet troop wore white masks of death and carried black-clad puppet bodies.

March Lifts Spirits and Sparks Defiance

The rally culminated with a lively march to Farragut Park. Flanked on all sides by cops on horses, officers on motorcycles, riot troops swathed in riot gear and weighed down with tear gas launchers and canisters, the marchers danced, chanted and walked through the streets. You could hear such chants as, "No blood for oil!" and, "No Justice, No Peace, US. Out of the Middle East!"

As the march neared its destination, the crowd cheered at on-lookers' peace-signs and waves of encouragement from the windows of residential buildings. Two women stepped out of the Unique Salon and Hair Spa to smile and wave at the passing march. A policeman repeatedly ordered the two to go back into the store. "Why?" one yelled. He yelled back, "You're encouraging them." She stared defiantly at the policeman and yelled back, "You don't have the right to tell me that I can't stand in front of my store, and besides, I do support them and I want to encourage them!"

Lots of people were connecting the dots between corporations, war, dictatorship, structural adjustment, imperialism, poverty and injustice. But activists will not be able to rely on major media like the Washington Post to be better informed or activated. As Ralph Nader put it, "The reason people have to go to the streets is because they've been excluded from the public airways."