Coalition Protesting Policies of World Bank and IMF Lays Out 4 Key Demands in Advance of September Actions

Interview by Between The Lines' Scott Harris.

Large demonstrations in Seattle, Prague, Quebec, Gottenborg, Genoa and other cities around the globe over the past two years have heralded the birth of a new international social justice movement. Whether the target was the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund or the leaders of the eight leading industrial nations, the demands of protesters that shadow these meetings revolve around similar themes: reducing the growing gap between rich and poor nations, protecting the earth's environment and placing human values above market values.

Tens of thousands of activists are now planning to converge in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 29 and 30 to protest the policies of the World Bank and IMF for the second time since April 2000. Demonstrators, who are organizing both legal demonstrations and non-violent civil disobedience, will be met by a 6-foot high fence constructed around a large section of the nation's capitol and thousands of police recruited from all over the east coast.

Although much of the corporate media narrowly focus their coverage of this growing protest movement on confrontations between demonstrators and police, the organizers behind this action are working hard to place their complaints about the policies of the World Bank and IMF before the public. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Robert Naiman, senior analyst with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, currently working with the Mobilization for Global Justice, who lays out the demands of labor, environmental, and human rights groups coming to Washington, D.C. the last week in September(A RealAudio Version of this interview may be found At http://www.btlonline.org).

Contact the Mobilization for Global Justice office at (203) 265-7714 or visit their Web site at www.globalizethis.org

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