When the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on August 10th that it would "consolidate" its scheduled week-long annual meeting in Washington DC, by cutting it down to two days, and moving it to a weekend, they said the reason was to "ensure the conduct of all essential business with the least possible disruption" to the US capital.
A senior IMF official put it rather differently. It was because the DC police could not afford the cost of policing the city during a longer meeting, during which anti-globalisation protesters would descend on the city, he said. The protestors had thus already dictated the agenda and essential business would now be difficult to conduct, the official conceded, because there would be insufficient time for the world's finance ministers to make individual contributions to the important debate on World Bank/IMF policies.
Indeed, when the Minister for Finance Mr McCreevy and his global counterparts arrive in Washington for the September 29th-30th meeting they will find themselves besieged behind a two-mile fence erected at a cost of $2.5 million (€2.75 million) around a 220-acre zone enclosing the White House, the State Department, and the World Bank and IMF buildings.
Following the riotous scenes in Genoa, Italy at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in July when one protester was killed, hundreds injured and property damaged, Washington is planning its biggest-ever security operation with police brought in from all over the US. Some 1,000 will come from New York alone, to augment the 3,600-strong local force. DC police chief Charles Ramsey predicts that 100,000 demonstrators will assemble in the DC streets, compared to 20,000 last year when police arrested more than 1,000 people.
Protesters are planning to surround the White House on Saturday, September 29th, and march on the World Bank and IMF the following day. Washington officials are squabbling with the world financial institutions over the estimated $29 million cost. After the Bush administration said it would pay only $16 million, DC Mayor Anthony Williams asked the World Bank and the IMF to help make up the difference, but an IMF spokesman said he knew of no such request in the past from a host government, which had the responsibility for providing "a secure working environment".
Meanwhile lawyers for the protest groups have asked the US District Court to stop plans for the 9 foot-high fence as a denial of constitutional liberties. Ms Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer for the DC-based Partnership for Civil Justice, said: "When the government begins to create these artificial areas to deny full access to our public land, it infringes on people's First Amendment rights."
Some protest organisers argue that the number of demonstrators and the potential for violence have been exaggerated by the police to justify the $29 million security plan, which involves buying new equipment. "It is inappropriate for police forces to be used as private security for unpopular financial institutions," said Matthew Smucker of Mobilisation for Social Justice, one of the main groups seeking to stage a peaceful protest.
The group has sent four reform demands to the World Bank and IMF: to open their meetings to the public; to cancel the debt of the world's impoverished countries; to end policies that hinder access to the poor to food, health care and education; and to stop funding socially and environmentally destructive projects.
IMF spokesman Mr William Murray said the demands gave a false impression of the Fund, as it provided billions in debt relief to poor countries, opened meetings to the media and NGOs, and never opposed expenditures on healthcare and other social services.
World Bank spokeswoman Caroline Anstey said its policies could not be characterised as "anti-poor" and that the institution was willing to debate the issues with protest groups.
However, many protesters want also to voice opposition to the Bush administration as well as the World Bank and IMF. Ms Teresa Gutierrez, co-director of International Action Centre, has called on supporters in Washington to protest against the policies of President George W Bush which were designed "to maximise profit for oil companies, mining companies and defence contractors", while destroying environmental protections and trade union rights and promoting the policies of the ultra-right. The Ruckus Society which teaches non-violent direct action techniques, is holding a five-day Global Justice Action Camp for protesters at Middleburg, Virginia from September 14th to 18th, one of a number of similar meetings being held in other parts of the US and Canada.
Washington police have advised tourists to stay away from the city during the World Bank and IMF meeting.
