While several hundred demonstrators turned up outside the World Economic Forum (WEF) in New York, the focus for many hundreds of anti-capitalist militants yesterday was at Port Alegre in Brazil where an anti-WEF gathering called the World Social Forum is being held.
Among the anti-globalisation speakers is Prof Noam Chomsky, a linguistics professor in Massachusetts, who was reported as saying that the World Economic Forum theme "leadership in a fragile world" could be translated to "maintaining our leadership and domination even under conditions of uncertainty that we happen to face".
In New York, the overwhelming security around the Waldorf Astoria Hotel forced protesters to pick sites some distance away. About 1,000 demonstrators rallied outside Gap's main store on Fifth Avenue on Thursday evening to accuse the clothing retailer of running sweatshops in developing countries, with low wages and poor working conditions.
At the rally, AFL-CIO president Mr John Sweeney said the global economy did not work. "Despite the promises of unregulated free trade, 2.8 billion people around the world still eke out a desperate existence on less than $2 a day." When they tried to form unions they were often murdered: "160 were killed in Columbia last year alone".
