Anti-capitalist Protests in Prague took place during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank summit on September 27, 2000, in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.
This protest followed similar protests in Seattle and Washington. [1]
Thousands of activists who travelled from all over the world protested and some clashed with police in the streets of Prague for several days. About 12,000 demonstrators were involved in the protests and over 900 people were detained. [2] 64 policemen and 20 demonstrators were injured in the events.
Various anti-capitalist protesters saw these institutions as one of the reasons for the economic problems faced by the third world. Anger was directed against the way the IMF and World Bank pushed for a policy of directing power to the markets and multinational companies.
Most radical activists tried to prevent the opening of the summit by blocking access roads to the Prague Congress Centre. There were barricades in the streets and camouflaged protestors threw Molotov cocktails and cobblestones. There were also reported attacks on journalists and breaking of shop windows in the city center.[ citation needed ]
Tear gas and water cannons were used to force back a breakaway group of activists that attempted to reach the summit venue to shut down the meetings of the global financial institutions. In spite of the large police presence, the protesters succeeded in breaking up the last day of the summit. [1]
Additionally this action was marked by the emergence of both the "pink bloc" and the "white overall" tactics used by the Italian radical group Ya Basta! . Many video activist groups from across the EU joined up to share footage and produce a number of documentaries. UK-based Undercurrents produced Revolting in Prague, giving a street view of the various blockade groups.
The WOMBLES were a loosely aligned anarchist and anti-capitalist group based in London. They gained prominence in the early 2000s for wearing white overalls with padding and helmets at May Day protests, mimicking the Italian group Tute Bianche.
Tactical frivolity is a form of public protest involving humour; often including peaceful non-compliance with authorities, carnival and whimsical antics. Humour has played a role in political protests at least as far back as the Classical period in ancient Greece. However, it is only since the 1990s that the term tactical frivolity gained common currency for describing the use of humour in opposing perceived political injustice. Generally, the term is used to denote a whimsical, nonconfrontational approach rather than aggressive mocking or cutting jokes.
A black bloc is a tactic used by protesters who wear black clothing, ski masks, scarves, sunglasses, motorcycle helmets with padding or other face-concealing and face-protecting items. The clothing is used to conceal wearers' identities and hinder criminal prosecution by making it difficult to distinguish between participants. It is also used to protect their faces and eyes from pepper spray, which is used by police during protests or civil unrest. The tactic also allows the group to appear as one large unified mass. Black bloc participants are often associated with anarchism, anarcho-communism, communism, libertarian socialism and the anti-globalization movement.
The 27th G8 summit was held in Genoa, Italy, on 20–22 July 2001 and is remembered as a highpoint of the worldwide anti-globalization movement as well as for human rights violations against demonstrators.
The 1999 Seattle WTO protests, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle, were a series of anti-globalization protests surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, when members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington on November 30, 1999. The Conference was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations.
Rhythms of Resistance, sometimes abbreviated to RoR, is a network of percussion bands that play at demonstrations and direct actions that fall within the broad definition of 'anti-capitalist'. Since RoR London was formed in 2000, similar groups have arisen around the world; while not all such bands use the Rhythms of Resistance name, they generally share the same ideology, described on the RoR website:
- We are a transnational anti-hierarchical anticapitalist, antisexist and antiracist network fighting for social and ecological justice.
- We are activists using tactical frivolity as a form of political action to confront any system of domination.
- We also directly support everybody experiencing or struggling against exploitation, discrimination and oppression, without compromising our principles.
- Our tactics include drumming and dancing inspired by samba and carnival.
- We reject any false opposition between militancy and creative forms of resistance.
- Even if we are different bands operating in a decentralized fashion, we aim to maximise participation in our collective process.
- We are an open network to any people who share our principles.
- Come with us! We have everything to play for!
S11 refers to a series of protests against meetings of the World Economic Forum on 11, 12 and 13 September 2000 in Melbourne, Australia, where approximately 10,000 people of many ages and a wide cross section of the community were involved. One of the groups involved in the protests called itself the S11 Alliance. This group was dominated by various socialist parties. The success of the protest led them to the creation of the M1 Alliance on 1 November 2000 in preparation for the next year's May Day events and the S26 Alliance, in solidarity with protest against the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meetings in Prague. The other main organising network for the protest was the autonomist & anarchist s11 AWOL.
Dissent! was the name taken for an international network of local groups, which came together to organise opposition to the G8 summit held in Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire, Scotland in July 2005. Most groups shared an anti-capitalist orientation and anti-authoritarian organizing methods and the network declares itself to be open to anyone prepared to work within the Hallmarks of Peoples' Global Action, an international co-ordination of radical social movements and grassroots campaigns. Dissent acted as a networking tool and created infrastructure which was used by groups with methods of protest ranging from anti-border city tours and street parties to road blockades, graffiti and confrontations with the police.
On September 24, 2005, many protests against the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Iraq War took place.
The First Quarter Storm, often shortened into the acronym FQS, was a period of civil unrest in the Philippines which took place during the "first quarter of the year 1970". It included a series of demonstrations, protests, and marches against the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, mostly organized by students and supported by workers, peasants, and members of the urban poor, from January 26 to March 17, 1970. Protesters at these events raised issues related to social problems, authoritarianism, alleged election fraud, and corruption at the hand of Marcos.
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The Carnival Against Capital took place on Friday 18 June 1999. It was an international day of protest timed to coincide with the 25th G8 summit in Cologne, Germany. The carnival was inspired by the 1980s Stop the City protests, Peoples' Global Action and the Global Street Party, which happened at the same time as the 1998 24th G8 Summit in Birmingham. The rallying slogan was Our Resistance is as Transnational as Capital.
Pittsburgh Organizing Group, often referred to as POG, was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based anarchist organization concerned with anti-militarism, social and economic justice, labor solidarity and police brutality issues locally, nationally, and internationally. POG was formed in 2002, and since then it has been responsible for the most persistent local protests against the Iraq War and claims to be one of the largest radical groups in Pittsburgh. The group has organized protests, pickets, vigils, direct actions, street theatre, concerts, teach-ins, conferences, and rallies. Some of its events have been overtly confrontational and disruptive. More than 122 people have been arrested at POG organized direct actions, and some events have involved direct confrontation with the police. POG is an affiliate group of the Northeast Anarchist Network.
October Rebellion was the collective name for the series of protest events surrounding the fall 2007 meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on October 19 – 20, 2007, in Washington, D.C., United States. The events were organized by the October Coalition. According to the October Coalition's call to action, the group demanded an end to all third world debt using the financial institutions' own resources, the end to structural adjustment policies believed to prioritize profit over the lives of individuals, and an end to social and environmental issues caused by oil and gas production, mining, and certain kinds of infrastructure development.
The 2009 G20 London summit protests occurred in the days around the 2 April 2009 G20 London summit. The summit was the focus of protests from a number of groups over various long-standing and topical issues. These ranged from disquiet over economic policy, anger at the banking system and bankers' remuneration and bonuses, the continued war on terror and concerns over climate change.
The 2011 anti-cuts protest in London, also known as the March for the Alternative, was a demonstration held in central London on 26 March 2011. Organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), it was a protest march against planned public spending cuts by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government that was formed in May 2010.
The 2012 BRICS summit was the fourth annual BRICS summit, an international relations conference attended by the heads of state or heads of government of the five member states Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The summit was held at Taj Hotel in New Delhi, India on 29 March 2012 and began at 10:00 Indian Standard Time. This is the first time that India has hosted a BRICS summit. The theme of the summit was "BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Security and Prosperity".
The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist movement, anti-corporate globalization movement, or movement against neoliberal globalization. There are many definitions of anti-globalization.
Eugene has a long history of community activism, civil unrest, and protest activity. Eugene's cultural status as a place for alternative thought grew along with the University of Oregon in the turbulent 1960s, and its reputation as an outsider's locale grew with the numerous anarchist protests in the late 1990s. According to the Chicago Tribune, the city was called a "cradle to [the] latest generation of anarchist protesters." Occupy Eugene was home to one of the nation's longest-lasting Occupy protests in 2011, with the last protestor leaving the initial Occupy camp on December 27, 2011. The city received national attention during the summer of 2020, after Black Lives Matter protests in response to the murder of George Floyd grew violent.