21 - 27 June 2001
Issue No.539
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 June 2001 Issue No.539 |
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Ghouls in Gothenburg
Police shot at protesters at the EU summit in Gothenburg last week, even as they boasted of their "restraint." Meanwhile the protesters were clobbered again: by the media, writes Faiza Rady
The spectre of alternative "people's summits," inevitably trailed by disruptive anti- globalisation demonstrations, now haunts every major trade meeting around the world. The quiet Swedish town of Gothenburg is the latest victim of disturbances as police and protesters clashed during the recent EU summit.
Anti-globalisation activists protest the EU summit
(photo: AFP)
The shock-waves of the international protest movement first reverberated through the hallways of power when street demonstrations helped close the 1999 World Trade Organisation (WTO) Summit in Seattle. More recently, fear of confrontation with anti- capitalist activists caused the World Bank to cancel a conference on poverty in Barcelona. In the wake of Seattle, other struggles followed, in Washington, Seoul, Prague, Nice and Quebec City.
Hosting the European Union (EU) Summit on 15 and 16 June, Gothenburg also hosted an international alternative People's Summit sponsored by, among others, the Non- Violence Network of Gothenburg; the Swedish Network against Racism; the Swedish AntiFascistisk Aktion; the Swedish branch of the Socialist Justice Party; the US- based People's Global Action; the Swedish Revolutionary Syndicalist Union; and representatives from Bangladeshi, South African, Siberian, French, German, Spanish and North American trade unions.
As an estimated 25,000 people started a march though the city last Thursday, they unfolded a sea of banners showing posters of Mao Zedong and Che Guevara. Banners reading "People not Profits" and "Boycott Israel, recognise Palestine," displayed prominently. The demonstration started peacefully, but the quaint 17th century coastal town was suddenly transformed into a battle-ground as police used force to prevent activists from marching to the Gothenburg Convention Centre to address the EU meeting.
Far outnumbered by a crowd of 25,0000, the police force of 1000 was briefly overwhelmed by the protesters, who took control of entire sections of the city, including the commercial thoroughfare, which is lined with chic shops and posh restaurants catering to the town's yuppies. There were reports of police being dragged from their horses and of riderless mounts galloping down the 17th century lanes of the old city. EU leaders huddled inside the haven of the heavily protected convention centre, as street battles raged, missing planned dinners in the city.
Yet the protesters never made it to the convention centre. As always, the forces of law and order prevailed. They successfully thwarted "the people's" attempts to address their elected leaders and engage in critical dialogue.
Buttressed by a fleet of buzzing helicopters and massive personnel reinforcement, the police defeated the protesters by clobbering demonstrators and shooting live bullets. At the end of the day, three people were admitted to intensive care, 65 had to be hospitalised and more than 600 were arrested.
Intermittent confrontations continued throughout the two- day summit. After having initially lost ground during the battle over the convention centre, the Gothenburg police quickly regained their composure and assumed blunter tactics. Turning up the heat, the police adopted "preventive detention" tactics by cordoning off hundreds of suspected "rioters." On Thursday, officers sealed off a school with hundreds of activists inside. In an attempt to justify the unconstitutional detention of peaceful protesters, the police said they had found material that could serve to manufacture weapons. But they admitted that their "discovery" came after they detained the marchers.
The police were better at selling their story. The press and the political elite conveniently regurgitated police assertions. "The security forces are using the media to describe us as a threat," charged the Swedish Socialist Justice Party.
Reuters, for example, played down police brutality in their coverage, depicting the Gothenburg force as exceptionally restrained. The news agency quoted police spokesman, Jan Olsen, as saying that the use of conventional anti-riot tools, like tear gas and water cannons, was not an option. "We have tear gas in Sweden but we haven't used it for many years. We can't use tear gas against our own citizens," Olsen said, in horror. Presumably the bullets that Olsen's forces did use are less harmful: bleed, by all means, as long as you don't cry.
The New York Times joined the chorus by smearing the protest movement through selective quotes. "Two to three hundred people came down the avenue like a virus," the paper quoted a bar worker saying. The "virus" simile was duly padded by additional quotes from police spokesman Bengt Staaf. Another peace-lover, Staaf declared that the protesters' "violence terrified" him, the paper quoted the tough-looking Staaf saying.
True to form, EU leaders concurred, condemning the demonstrators for their "violent" and "destructive" behaviour. Never one to exaggerate, Swedish Prime Minister, Goran Persson, said it was "tragic" that the demonstrators had diverted the summit away from debates on the enlargement of the EU. "Those who are destroying this kind of democratic dialogue want us to withdraw, hide, go away," Persson told reporters. British Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed the activists were "misguided," before gravely explaining that world trade promotes jobs and living standards.
Activists disagree. They came to Gothenburg precisely to denounce lost jobs and deteriorating conditions, which may worsen under the EU's future enlargement plans. The twelve Eastern European candidates to the EU have a total population of 105 million people. They will make up 28 per cent of the EU population, but only account for four per cent of the collective gross product. While western European capitalists long to access the eastern market's natural resources and cheap workers, they are unwilling to pay to help emerging economies make progress. Twenty-two per cent of eastern European labourers works in farming, and badly need the subsidies many current EU farmers enjoy.
But this policy is not on the agenda. Instead, many east European workers will presumably swell the ranks of the EU's 50 million poor and 17 million unemployed.
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