September 26th 2000 was another day in a string of global solidarity protests. This time we were in league with the protesters at the World Bank meeting in Prague [Czech Republic]. As you can understand, we are all very angry at the World Bank (and all banks) for their actions in creating 3rd world poverty.
So I rolled up to the designated meeting place for the protest, slightly sceptical because it was at the Auckland University (or government brain-washing facility). I expected to be greeted with droves of dirty punks and the like, but instead there was no one. As I wondered if I was early, a small group of about 20 people cruised up. It seemed from their placards that these people were university students from the communist group - you could tell because of the large advertising for their Socialist Worker newspaper that was on every placard. I was even more sceptical, but hey, I was here to protest, not to judge these people.
They got up with their megaphone and tried to goad the indifferent students who were sitting in the quad eating their lunch to come on the protest. It's amazing the ability of these "normal" people in their trendy expensive clothes to not only ignore protest cries, but to ignore them in such a way that it seems that like it's not even happening. I was sitting there watching the proceedings, and it was like the communists existed in a vacuum.
Eventually Willy turned up to represent the punks with an anarchist flag, and then it was time to march. I was a little surprised to see the police following us right from the start. There were only a few of us, and the chants that we hadn't rehearsed were a little weak sounding as everyone got to grips with the words:
* Seattle, London, Prague, Melbourne - Babylon it's time to burn!
* World Bank come off it - the enemy is profit!
* World Bank, what a lie - you don't care if children die!
* Multi-national corporations - genocide in the starving nations!
* The peoples' persistance - will globalise resistance!
We walked from the quad down to Wellesly Street, staying on the footpath until we got to Queen Street, where there were quite a few more police cars. Here we took to the road, disrupting the traffic. I think that the communists must have got permission for the protest, because the police cars made way for us, and the officers walked with us and directed the traffic.
Since we were on Queen Street, there were lots of people about, and our chants gained volume - although at times they broke down as the communists with the megaphone couldn't quite decide which one to start with next. As I looked at all the vacant faces staring at us as we walked down the middle of the street, I felt energised in a way I haven't since I danced in the streets of Wellington. There is something about being the "odd one out" that gives you a feeling of power.
Of course no one knew what we were on about, and it wasn't so obvious, but somehow our numbers swelled to maybe 50 people. We walked to Albert Street, where Tradenz have their offices. Tradenz is a government agency which deals with the World Bank and advertises New Zealand overseas as a great place to get cheap labour and stuff like that. The communists leading us knew the number of the building, but we ended up walking up and down the street a couple of times before they worked out which building it was. It seemed that it was in the ANZ Bank tower.
So we gathered there, and the communists gave some speaches about what we were protesting about, and a girl named Victoria who'd been an organiser for the S11 protests against the World Economic Forum in Melbourne spoke about how important it is that we get out and show them that we are against their capitalist agenda. All this fell on deaf ears - there were no public around except for the suits flowing in and out of the building. They all gave us very bemused looks, and some particularly smug ones laughed at us.
I wondered what would happen at this point, as it was a bit of a stand-off: the police were all standing around (about 20 of them, with about four cars and one truck: probably enough to subdue us if they needed to, and they looked like they weren't in a hurry to go anywhere and solve any crimes or anything), we were all standing around (rather at a loss for what to do next, and none of us with any bricks to throw), and the people in the building were sitting in their building unaware of our existence.
Eventually the communists with the megaphone decided we should head back to the university for some coffee [grown in the 3rd world for consumption in the 1st world - I wonder if the communists saw the irony]. They were a little worried at the lack of solidarity that this might seem to show, but we could all see that there was no ready target here to make an impression on.
So we headed back down Queen Street, stopping outside all the banks that we passed to "chant and wave placards" as the Herald put it in a small column on page four the next day. We also handed out a lot of flyers to people explaining how the World Bank creates 3rd world poverty. Of course, people never read stuff like that, and if they had I'm sure they would have thought it to be the ravings of crazed lunatics. It's safer for them not to know how the world really works.
Wellington managed nine arrests and the front page in The Dominion. Still, there's always next time to start the riot...
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5 years ago
