Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 18:29:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Another Brick at the Gap <satellitecrash-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Re: Protester Shot in Head, Run Over in Genoa


humorous quote from danaher, as if our issues would be
treated serioulsy minus the violence...

--- Michael Pugliese <debsian-AT-pacbell.net> wrote:
> http://www.sfgate.com/
>  Anti-globalization effort scores points Protesters'
> influence grows despite
> violence, SF Chronicle, front pg. bottom fold,
> 7/25/01 or 25/7/01 to y'all
> in the European land mass!
> 
> Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer
>  From Genoa, Italy, to the Bay Area, these are heady
> yet bewildering times
> for the growing throngs of people who are taking to
> the streets to denounce
> free trade.
> 
> Last weekend's Group of Eight summit was yet more
> proof that the anti-
> globalization movement has become the biggest
> left-of-center force for
> social protest in decades.
> 
> But many worry that the movement's newfound
> influence could be jeopardized
> by the hooligans who turned Genoa and other protest
> venues into
> battlegrounds.
> 
> Those thoughts were going through Kevin Danaher's
> mind as he wandered past
> block after block of burned cars and gutted
> buildings in Genoa.
> 
> "I've never seen anything like this," said Danaher,
> co-founder of Global
> Exchange, a San Francisco human rights group that
> has been a key organizer
> in the anti-globalization movement. Speaking by
> telephone, he added: "The
> violence by police and by a minority of protesters
> have managed to wipe our
> issues off the table."
> 
> "We've advanced to the point where we have to show
> people that (reform) can
> be done without disorder," Danaher said.
> 
> Despite the chaos, some global leaders -- including
> French President Jacques
> Chirac and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi
> Annan -- have partially
> endorsed the protesters' demands that trade be
> linked to human rights and
> the environment and that poor nations' foreign debt
> be forgiven.
> 
> But Chirac said he and his G-8 counterparts were
> "traumatized" by the Genoa
> violence, which left one protester dead, more than
> 400 people injured and
> roughly $45 million in damages.
> 
> The anti-globalization movement's growing influence
> can also be seen on
> Capitol Hill, where Republicans this week are
> fighting an uphill battle to
> renew "fast track" authority, which would enable
> President Bush to negotiate
> international trade pacts and force Congress to vote
> on them without
> amendments.
> 
> Bush needs fast track to persuade foreign leaders to
> make concessions in
> talks at the World Trade Organization and
> negotiations to expand the North
> American Free Trade Agreement to the entire Western
> Hemisphere. Both
> initiatives are stalled because of numerous
> commercial disputes.
> 
> The change in attitudes is personified by Rep.
> Robert Matsui, D-Sacramento,
> a staunch free trader who now opposes the Bush
> fast-track plan. "I don't
> agree with the protesters in Genoa, but there are
> fundamental problems we
> need to resolve about free trade," Matsui said.
> 
> "For example, what kind of controls are we going to
> allow about food safety,
> 
> like on beef hormones or genetically altered food?
> Or if the Europeans turn
> down American companies' mergers and acquisitions,
> should that be part of
> trade discussions? These are legitimate issues that
> this White House hasn't
> even begun to think or talk about."
> 
> 


====

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/


     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---