Demonstrators outside the Bank of England during the G-20
Summit: Is America about to see a 'wave' of street protests?
Folha, Brazil
London G20 'Street Attacks' May Presage Worse for U.S.
"There
is no small chance that new protests will erupt there, particularly because the
general situation in the U.S. is much worse than in the rest of the developed
world. Unlike Europe and Japan, the U.S. lacks networks of minimum social protection. ... Layoffs are expected to exceed 750,000 in March, on top of
the almost 1.2 million in January and February."
NEW YORK: It took some time, but
it was the global leaders themselves that gave the cue and set the stage for
the return of street protests that had long been dormant.
It had been almost ten years
since we saw what occurred in London this week at the summit of the G20, a
group of countries (including Brazil) who make up 80 percent of global GNP. The
last protests of this kind, against the World Trade Organization [WTO], IMF and
World Bank, had almost been thought relegated to books on contemporary history.
As world leaders gathered for
the G20, with all of their expectations and differing proposals, those on the
street showed that their agenda, although wide-ranging, is well-defined: a lashing
out and general revolt against the state of things - against an impoverishment
that may have wiped out $50 trillion of the globe's wealth.
This is to say nothing of the
millions of layoffs, the loss of homes, reductions of credit card limits and
the mockery of bonuses paid to executives of failed companies - a reward to
those who brought about the biggest global crisis since the Great Depression.
In the face of the G20 picnic,
all of this materialized once more on the streets - though perhaps still in an incipient
way. The summit was an encounter that resembled another event that took place
in the British capital, in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression [the London Economic
Conference]. To the general unhappiness of all, that meeting led nowhere.
The targets of the protests this
time were the Royal Bank of Scotland and the headquarters of the Bank of
England, prime movers in the loss of billions of pounds of British taxpayer money
lost in the continuing global financial crisis. Windows were shattered and
doors were unhinged amid the general outcry. Other secondary banks also
suffered from the fury of demonstrators.
Symbolically at least, the
discontented also held a meeting - to exchange slaps with the police in
Trafalgar Square. In the plaza at the heart of London stands a statue of British
Admiral Nelson. In
1805 off the coast of Spain, Nelson defeated the French and Spanish armadas, blocking
Napoleon's imperial power in the Atlantic [the Battle of Trafalgar].
In late April, there will be
another meeting of a global nature. This time it will be in Washington, when
the IMF and the World Bank are due to meet. There is no small chance that new
protests will erupt there, particularly because the general situation in the
U.S. is much worse than in the rest of the developed world.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Unlike Europe and
Japan, the U.S. lacks social protection or minimal security in the
area of employment. And the layoffs in the country continue. They are expected
to exceed 750,000 in March, on top of the almost 1.2 million in January and
February. The bleeding is accelerating at an unprecedented rate.
Many of those squirming for the
bottom of the well to arrive are beginning to think differently. The World Bank
is already talking about a 1.7 percent shrinkage of global
growth in 2009, almost twice as bad as predicted by the IMF one month ago. The Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development, which brings together the most developed countries, shrank
by 2.75 percent.
We don’t support or recommend
the destruction of public or private property, but the fact is that this may
have been just the beginning a wave. In the past, protests against the IMF,
World Bank and WTO were often staged for reasons of ideology, separatism or
idiocy.
This
time, the reasons are painfully clear.
Fernando
Canzian, 42, is a special reporter for Folha. He was
the managing editor and editor of Brasil and Painel, and a correspondent in Washington and New York. He
won the PrêmioEsso in
2006. He writes on Mondays.
Fernando
