Beltway Area Indymedia

Audio files:
Intro: 1:25
Congo March: 7:38
IMF Soccer Riot 2007: 2:09

From April 12 to April 15, an unusual set of protests accompanied the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings. This time around, instead of thousands of students, many protesters were first generation Congolese immigrants, union workers, or others harmed by neoliberal economics.

The UNITE HERE protest(covered elsewhere) was a clear threat by hotel workers to strike during the Fall Meeting is they don't get a fair contract.

The UNITE HERE action in many ways set the tone for everything, as the World Social Forum in Kenya called for a global mobilization against the IMF and World Bank during their fall meetings Oct 19-1.

The Wolfowitz home demo(covered elsewhere) was small, but things got serious the next day. On Saturday, April 14, Friends of the Congo staged a march to the Bank, demanding an end to the Bank and Fund support for mining projects in the Congo.

Between 4 and 5 million people have died in a series of wars in Congo fed by the West's greed for minerals like Coltan(used in capacitors in cell phones, etc) and tin(used in solder). "Bloody" cell phones were thrown to the ground to symbolize this connection.

This many deaths is nearly as severe as the Nazi Holocaust in Europe, but receives shamefully little attention compared to the intensive interest Congo's mines are getting.

The World Bank staffers lost their courage and did not come out to demonstrate for the firing of Wolfowitz as they had announced they would. Their signs calling for the Bank's Board of Governors to fire Wolfowitz did show up, however and were put to good use.

After the rally, a forum was held at GW University comparing the practices of the Bank and the Fund to the behavior of payday lenders and subprime mortgage lenders right here in DC.

"Traditional" protesters were the last to deploy, staging the second "IMF Soccer Riot" in a row, waking up delegates staying in five hotels from 3:30 to 5 AM. KUDOS to SDS for turning people out for the soccer riot and doing so much last-minute organizing!

These actions were but a sample of what's to come from October 19-Oct 21, at the IMF and World Bank Fall Meetings. The World Social Forum held in January in Kenya has put out the call for an international mobilization against the Fall Meetings of the IMF and World Bank this year.