Activists Plan IMF Protests in D.C.

A coalition of advocacy groups, including veterans of violent street protests a year ago, announced plans Monday to make next month’s meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund here the next staging ground for the anti-globalization movement.

The organizations accused police of overreacting to demonstrators, resulting in last month’s fatal shooting of a protester in Genoa, Italy, and violent clashes at other meetings of world financial leaders.

They said a proposal last week by IMF and World Bank officials to compress the meeting schedule from seven days to two, Sept. 29 and 30, was designed to minimize demonstrations and thus avert potential political and public relations problems. The executive directors of the two institutions are expected to make a final decision on the schedule today.

“It’s looking more and more like France around 1789, and they’re starting to realize that,” said Brian Becker, co-director of International Action Center, which hopes to gather tens of thousands of protesters for next month’s sessions.

World Bank spokeswoman Ana Elisa Luna said the decision to reduce the schedule would not prevent the boards of the organizations from addressing the official agenda but would limit opportunities for less formal interaction.

“It doesn’t detract from the core business of the institutions,” she said. “But it represents a lost opportunity for dialogue.”

The IMF and World Bank are among the principal targets of international protesters who accuse industrial nations of pursuing policies that widen the gap between rich and poor. Demonstrators want the debts of poor countries to be forgiven, and they want the two institutions to hold public meetings.

During the last two years, the anti-globalization groups have disrupted meetings of world leaders in Seattle; Quebec City; Prague, Czech Republic; and Genoa. The confrontations have become increasingly violent. At last year’s IMF and World Bank sessions in Washington, police arrested about 1,300 of the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 demonstrators who took to the streets near the headquarters of the two organizations. Groups of activists formed human blockades to try to prevent delegates from reaching the buildings where the meetings were held. But they were dispersed by police wielding pepper spray, and the sessions went on as scheduled.

Police prepared extensively for last year’s security operation. They studied video footage of protesters in action, spent $1 million for new riot-control gear and gathered intelligence on the most disruptive demonstrators in Seattle. Organizers of this year’s demonstrations say they expect an equally aggressive security offensive in September.

“The police are attempting to create obstacles, create a climate of fear, destroy the 1st Amendment and demonize demonstrators,” said Teresa Gutierrez, an organizer of next month’s protests. Even so, she said, “this movement is not going away.”

The groups said they would go to court soon to try to prevent local officials from cordoning off a large portion of downtown Washington during the meetings, which will be attended by public officials and policymakers from 183 member countries.

Washington Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey and Mayor Anthony A. Williams have asked White House and Justice Department officials for as much as $29 million in federal funds to help cover the cost of this year’s security operation, which will involve several thousand police officers.

“We’re hoping the majority of people come to demonstrate lawfully and peacefully,” police spokesman Sgt. Joe Gentile said. “A few people come to break the law, but most demonstrators come to get their point across. We’re hoping that cooler heads will prevail.”