Financial Times - March 18, 2002
EUROPE: Huge protest march passes off peacefully
By LESLIE CRAWFORD
Hundreds of thousands of people staged a peaceful demonstration
against global capitalism in Barcelona on Saturday, underlining that
their movement did not die with the September 11 attacks against the
US and that their protests need not be marred by violence.
Organisers said the turnout, which they put at more than 500,000,
surpassed their expectations. The march was the largest staged in
"Red Barcelona", a city that was collectivised by anarchists during
the Spanish civil war and which retains strong leftwing sympathies.
The protest would have been much larger were it not for the fact that
dozens of buses carrying anti-globalisation protesters were detained
at the French border. Spain suspended the Schengen treaty, which
guarantees the free movement of European Union citizens, during the
duration of the EU summit.
To lessen the potential for conflict, organisers agreed to stage
their main demonstration on Saturday evening, after the EU summit was
over. The route of the march was also away from the the summit venue.
Barcelona's city authorities agreed that riot police would keep a low
profile during the march.
"One of our main aims was to remove the stigma of violence that had
become attached to our anti-globalisation movement," said Luis Edo, a
member of Attac, a group that advocates a worldwide tax on
speculative capital movements and the forgiveness of third world
debt. "We convinced police that we were capable of keeping the peace."
The march was organised in three blocs, like samba schools in a
carnival parade. The first was led by the Movement against a
Capitalist Europe, with more than 100 organisations. A middle group
was led by European "nations without a state" - Catalans, Basques,
Corsicans and Scots who want to be independent nations within Europe.
The third group of Socialist party and trade union activists did not
even get a chance to parade, such was the human logjam on the streets.
Police later reported isolated clashes with radical youths which
ended with some smashed shop fronts and 50 arrests.
Mr Edo believed the Barcelona protest set a milestone for the
anti-globalisation movement. "Our challenge now is to convince the
public that our proposals are not Utopian," he said.
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