Democracy Now! February 4, 2002

9:01-9:06 HEADLINES 9:06-9:07 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK SINGER: HOLLY ROACH, Art and Revolution collective in San Francisco 9:07-9:20 IS ANOTHER WORLD POSSIBLE? POWER AND PROTEST AS THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM COMES TO NEW YORK More than ten thousand people gathered to protest the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum this weekend in the streets of midtown Manhattan. A diverse array of groups marched downtown from the west and the east sides of the city and converged at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, where the forum took place this weekend. The colorful crowd swarmed over the busy streets, carrying puppets and banners, chanting and singing, culminating in a rally outside the hotel. But despite weeks of preparations by the NYPD and heavy police presence during the weekend of protests, Saturdays demonstration was relatively peaceful. Less than 40 were arrested yesterday, and there were few reports of violence along the demonstration route. But the general calm and festivity of the weekend's protests against the World Economic Forum ended abruptly yesterday, when police broke up chanting demonstrators taking over stretches of the East Village and the Upper East Side. By late evening close to 200 people had been arrested. As members of the Anti Capitalist Convergence gathered in the street of the east village yesterday afternoon, drumming and chanting to prepare for a snake march through the city, the police swept in and arrested over 85 people. Organizers say the arrests were preemptive strikes on people doing nothing illegal, done by a police force trying to prevent civil disobedience from happening later in the day. Most have been charged with loitering and unlawful assembly. Later in the afternoon, thousands of police descended on an Animal and Earth Liberation Front march across one of the city's more exclusive neighborhoods in upper Manhattan. A crowd of a dozen or two quickly grew to more than 100, followed by vans and lines of police officers in riot gear, with choppers circling overhead. Once a demonstrator damaged the outside of a building, scores of police officers swooped in and arrested nearly a hundred. The streets of New York are still heavily covered with police today. TAPE: THE SOUNDS OF THE STREETS OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM PROTESTS THIS WEEKEND Produced by John Hamilton 9:20-9:21 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:21-9:40 HAVE FORUM LEADERS LEARNED TO LISTEN TO THEIR CRITICS, OR HAVE THEY JUST LEARNED TO DEFLECT CRITICISM? Today is the final day of the World Economic Forum, held this year for the first time in New York City. Previously it was held in Davos, Switzerland. For five days, world leaders, CEOs, big-name thinkers, and even the occasional rock star have mingled at the Waldorf Astoria to discuss trade, globalization, and international security. The theme of this years conference: "Leadership in Fragile Times: A Vision for a Shared Future." Few details of the forum have slipped out to the public, but the media so far is billing the event as a time of soul-searching and consciousness-raising. In the words of the New York Times, "the titans of business and politics have seized on many of the same socially liberal issues that they have been accused of ignoring at past gatherings." Yesterday, for example, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, told participants: "We need to move toward a more ethical globalization and find a way to have civic democracy on an international level." Meanwhile, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates warned that the terms of international trade were too favorable to the rich world. And Senator Hillary Clinton cited a global poll characterizing Americans as selfish and bent on arranging the global economy for their own benefit. ``We've not done our fair share to take on some of the global challenges,'' she lamented. But not all are convinced by these expressions of concern. As protesters outside the forum have described them as mere manipulation, critics inside have decried them as pandering to the left. So which is it? Have forum leaders learned to listen to their critics, or have they just learned to deflect them? Today, well have a debate. GUEST: PROFESSOR DAVID HENDERSON David Henderson is a former Chief Economist of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He is now Visiting Professor at the Westminster Business School in London. His most recent book is Misguided Virtue: False Notions of Corporate Social Responsibility. CONTACT: www.oecd.org GUEST: ANTONIA JUHASZ, project director, International Forum on Globalization, and former legislative assistant focusing on globalization issues. She was protesting the WEF on the streets of New York this weekend. IN STUDIO CONTACT: www.ifg.org 9:40-9:41 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:41-9:50 AFTER THOUSANDS HIT THE STREETS OF MIDTOWN MANHATTAN TO PROTEST AGAINST THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, ACTIVISTS TALK ABOUT DIRECT ACTION STRATEGIES More than a thousand corporate chief executives gathered in conference rooms World Economic Forum this weekend. But in four days of nonstop talking, the Enron scandal was hardly mentioned; when it was, the emphasis was lax business practices and how every recession brings down some big company, rather than on the apparent fraud at the heart of Enron's collapse. Several of the groups organizing this weekends protests have planned a demonstration this afternoon outside the Manhattan offices of Anderson Accounting, demanding that they open the books. Its one of many actions taking place during this long weekend of protest against the World Economic Forum. But we want to talk about protest tactics today, about creative puppeteering in the streets and about civil disobedience. GUEST: DAVID SOLNIT, Arts in Action and the Art and Revolution collective in San Francisco IN STUDIO GUEST: L.A. KAUFFMAN, radical journalist, activist and organizer, and author of the upcoming book Direction Action: the Search for a Radical Renewal IN STUDIO CONTACT: www.anotherworldispossible.com 9:50-9:58 THOUSANDS OF ACTIVISTS CONVERGE AT THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM TO WEAVE A NEW VISION OF REALITY Over the last few days, thousands of activists are converging at the World Social Forum to weave a new vision of reality, one in which humans and nature replace profits and power as the center of concern. The forum's theme: another world is possible. The first World Social Forum was held last year, in Porto Alegre, as a kind of "people's" counterweight to the World Economic Forum. It began as a conversation between Brazilian workers, farmers, intellectuals, and clerics, and it triggered strong and immediate international support. Up to 20,000 people gathered at the forum for marches, workshops, testimonies, and movement building. In just a few short days, the WSF came to embody the growing movement against corporate-driven globalization. This year's World Social Forum picks up where the last one left off, yet even bigger. As many as 40,000 activists have gathered in Porto Alegre, including fisherfolk from India, farmers from East Africa, trade unionists from Thailand, indigenous people from Central America, and two Democracy Now producers from New York City. We have a mix of the voices at the forum, sent to us by producers Kris Abrams and Deepa Fernandez. We begin with Marian Albina, of the Palestine Organization for Youth, and move to Jose Bove, French farmer and global justice activist. 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS