for Their Critics?
In the wake of September 11, the IMF-World Bank meeting this
weekend in Washington has been cancelled, and the movement opposing
it is in limbo.
‘I know that one part of the deep mourning I feel is for the global
justice movements as they were before those planes crashed into the
Twin Towers: steadily growing in scope and influence, increasingly
occupying a central place on the global stage,’ writes L.A.
Kauffman in AlterNet. ‘We were blown off that stage
on September 11, and the context for our ongoing activism is now
utterly transformed.’
Now, she notes, ‘So much is inappropriate now that just one week
ago made political sense.’ Anti-globalization forces had planned a
series of demonstrations in Washington this weekend that were
unprecedented in its scope and intensity. The AFL-CIO had committed
massive amounts of resources to the event, and thousands of people
from faith-based and non-governmental organizations were planning
to participate. Organizers were even prepared to allow ‘diverse
tactics,’ including a more confrontational approach to security
forces and property destruction.
Such tactics are clearly out of the question now, Kauffman notes,
‘. . . especially in New York and Washington, where the sound of
breaking glass connotes death and devastation, and the masked
uniform of the Black Bloc will only inspire fear.’
So how will the movement deliver a still-necessary critique of
global capitalism without seeming to justify the atrocities of
September 11? The answer is being played out all over the country,
she says, in an upsurge of peace actions ranging from anti-racist
teams to antiwar teach-ins. ‘Our movements vision of global justice
is needed now more than ever; we will simply need to take great
care in presenting that vision in a way people can hear.’
–Craig Cox
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