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Prague - New World Order

The old battlefields of the Middle East and the Balkans still rivet world attention and generate considerable unease, but the new war zone taking shape around the world is borderless – the nebulous but explosive economic phenomenon known as globalisation.

Its champions park it up there with gravity as a natural law – knocking over trade barriers and national impediments on the way to capitalism's Nirvana – unfettered free trade – a global laissez-faire ground.

And with the grave diggers patting down the topsoil on communism's plot, the Internet empowering individuals and shrinking the world, and boom time thundering away in corporate America, there's a lot of drive in the globalisation juggernaut.

But as we've seen here in Melbourne and overseas, there's a growing army taking aim at globalisation and at its front line the World Bank, the IMF, the World Trade Organisation.

Who are the anti-global warriors and what are they trying to achieve? Eric Campbell from behind the barricades in Prague.

Rioters throw grenades

FX: Gunshots

02+00

Campbell: This was meant to mark the triumph of capitalism over communism. Instead it saw the worst violence since the 1968 Soviet invasion.

Wolfensohn

Wolfensohn: It shocks me, it angers me and I find it distressing.

02+19

Protestors

Chanting: …no peace. Fuck the police!

02+22

Campbell: Prague's battle of ideas became a war on the streets. A protest by idealists became a rampage by thugs. This is a story about what they were fighting for, and how it all went so wrong.

Map Czech Republic

Music

02+43

Jazz band on street in Prague

Campbell: In late September, as the world was focussed on the Sydney Olympics, the world's corporate champions converged on Prague. The event was the Annual General Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. And the venue was pointedly symbolic. The old Communist Party Congress Centre, little used since the communists were overthrown 11 years.

For World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, fresh off the plane from the Olympics, it was a chance to repair the financiers' image, to reassert themselves as agencies committed to ending poverty.

Wolfensohn

Wolfensohn: Two billion more people are going to come on to the planet in the next 25 years. And they'll all be going to developing countries. And unless something is done about that issue of poverty, there's no way you'll have peace in the world.

03+32

Campbell: So you're not a tool of big business?

Wolfensohn: If I was a tool of big business, I'd have stayed in my old job and got paid for it.

03+44

Domenica

Campbell: But across town in a far more modest venue, protesters were planning to make the bankers regret they came. Like Wolfensohn, Domenica had also jetted in from Australia, fresh from the Melbourne protests against the World Trade Organisation.

03+52

Domenica: I was quite heavily involved in the protests, which for the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I got on a plane Wednesday night and I'm here and jetlagged.

04+10

Campbell: Domenica is part of a new global generation of protestors, linked by the Internet and a shared disdain for capitalism. Young idealists like her plan their holidays or travels around a road show of protests.

Domenica: Yeah, well my boyfriend lives here, so it's kind of dual purpose for spending heaps of money…

04+29

Campbell: They've been called here via a website for a group called INPEG. They see moves to break down economic barriers and reshape Third World economies, as nothing more than ploys to exploit the poor.

04+36

Domenica: Essentially, they are about helping those in power, which is the richer companies and richer countries, at the expense of everybody who's not in power, which is most of the planet.

04+48

Wolfensohn

Campbell: Does it rankle when the protestors see you as the chief blood-sucking pariah?

Super:

James Wolfensohn

President, World Bank

Wolfensohn: Yes, it does. [laughs] Wouldn't it for you? I've spent the last five years really addressing frontally the issue of poverty. I've been to 110 countries, I've been in more slums and villages and dealt with more human stories than I think most of the demonstrators, and so it rankles.

05+03

Protest

Protestor

Campbell: The protest juggernaut has rolled on from Seattle to Washington, to London, to Melbourne.

05+27

Campbell to camera

Super: Eric Campbell

But here for the first time it's come to a place where globalisation is much more than an abstract concept. Here, the advent of western capitalism, a free market, and multinational corporations has turned the country upside down. Little more than a decade on, it's become what the IMF sees as a showcase of reform, and what critics see as another case of globalisation gone wrong.

05+38

Prague

Music

06+02

Campbell: Prague today is unrecognisable from its communist roots. The city has an air of central European prosperity. Its historic buildings have been restored, its emblems of past glory reinstated. There is a vibrant business culture here – its post-communist youth pursue capitalism like they were born to it.

Dana and Jan in office

Dana: What I'm hearing from the market is that there are two different segments…

06+31

Campbell: Dana and Jan are typical of the new generation. Fluent English speakers, they run a finance reference company with plans to expand abroad. For them, globalisation means a normal life.

Jan

Jan: In the practical life it means you can drink Coke and go to McDonalds. It also means you have bigger opportunities. You can really travel, you can get employed abroad.

06+48

1989 Protests

Campbell: And it was all achieved by protest. In 1989 the people took to the streets to demand freedom.

07+01

Dana was then a 21 year old student of Marxist economics.

Dana

Dana: It started being really cohesive, infused, we didn’t want the regime, we don’t want Communism, we want liberty, we want travel, we want to have connections with the rest of the world.

07+13

Campbell: All were resolutely non-violent.

Dana: They had candles, and to police said please go home, we don’t want you here, don’t be violent.

07+26

1989 Protests

Campbell: Within weeks, the Velvet Revolution, as it became known, had overthrown the regime, and the country took a U turn to market capitalism.

07+35

Music

Capitalist Prague

Campbell: The IMF was instrumental in creating this new culture, lending money to the new state on condition it privatised industries, cut back on state services, and allowed in foreign business. The World Bank lent money to modernise the Soviet infrastructure.

07+48

Power station

Thanks to a $50 million loan, the main electricity plant outside Prague is now clean, slimmed down and one-third privatised. But not everyone's been a winner.

08+06

The cuts in subsidies have seen unemployment in the surrounding towns skyrocket.

Tomas and Campbell

Tomas Tozicka is the pastor in the nearby city of Most.

08+23

Tomas: It means very high unemployment here in Most which is today 22% and we expect that it will reach 30% by the end of the year. That is a catastrophic situation and nobody has any idea how to solve it.

Brass band/Jubilee 2000 march

Music

08+16

Campbell: Tomas heads the Czech branch of Jubilee 2000 -- a church-based group demanding debt relief.

They argue the burden of re-paying IMF and World Bank robs countries of money for health or education. This mock funeral represented an estimated 19,000 children who die of preventable disease each year.

Tomas in march

Campbell: And you blame the IMF and World Bank for those children dying?

09+13

Tomas: IMF and the World Bank are one of the institutions who decide about that. But of course especially the national governments are responsible.

Campbell: There have been protests against globalisation in every country where the IMF and World Bank operates.

09+30

Protestors chanting: IMF, they can’t pay, how many kids will you kill today?

Protests

Campbell: But it’s been relatively affluent Westerners who’ve had the time and resources to make it international.

09+41

Chelsea on phone

Chelsea Mozen was the front-person for the Prague protests. She grew up in a well-to-do family in Atlanta, Georgia -- the headquarters of Coca-Cola.

09+48

Chelsea

Chelsea: I have always been very concerned about poverty issues and the idea that some people in the world have so little while very few people have so much, and saw that in my travels and in living in the US and Bolivia. I am very, very concerned about that and want to do something about it.

09+59

Prague statues/buildings

Campbell: Chelsea arrived in Prague last June to help organise the protests, but here, it’s been a tough battle. While Czech anarchists were happy to be involved, there was little support from mainstream groups. Instead, thousands of residents simply left town in fear of riots. Shops boarded up their windows, as thousands of police poured in to prepare for the protests. Even the horses were given riot gear.

10+17

Chelsea

Chelsea: In Czech Republic we often get the question, if you don’t want capitalism, why do you want communism? It’s not one or the other; we can go somewhere else we believe. We can go somewhere where people around the world have a say in the policies that they implement in their own countries, what they grow, what they wear, where they educate themselves.

10+42

Skinheads

Campbell: But the movement against globalisation goes far beyond fresh-faced idealism.

10+59

Protestors chanting

Campbell: Ultra-nationalists also oppose the IMF and World Bank, claiming open markets will see third-world workers steal their jobs.

Skinhead on loudspeaker

Skinhead: We stand here today not only as opponents of globalisation -- as representatives of the economic and political sovereignty of the Czech State, but also as the defenders of public morals and traditional values.

11+18

Protestors: Stop the IMF, smash the IMF!

Communist rally

Campbell: Nearby, communist rallies called for global socialism instead, while anarchists demanded an end to global government. It is a bizarre and at times dangerous confluence between groups with more differences than common ground.

11+33

Chelsea

Chelsea: We’re completely non-violent. If you look at Martin Luther King or Ghandi the non-violent direct action means very much that. Your doing something for a reason that you strongly believe.

11+48

Demonstrators at Congress opening

Campbell: By the day of the official Congress opening, more than 12,000 demonstrators had arrived for the main march.

12+03

Domenica

Domenica: There’s a huge diversity of people here and there certainly will be some blockading, whereas there's others who prefer to keep it a bit calmer than that.

12+15

Ya Basta

Campbell: The single-largest group was 1,000 Italian anarchists, known as “Ya Basta”, meaning “That’s enough”. Sergio Zulian, given the job of rallying the march … insisted the padding was just for self-defence.

12+24

Sergio

Sergio: Just protection against the violence of the police because the violence comes from the police. So we have to protect ourselves, our brothers and sisters. But no sticks, no offensive weapons.

12+39

Campbell: Just water pistols … just water pistols?

Sergio: Yes, because we want to liquidate the IMF.

Ya Basta/police

Campbell: It all began peacefully, Ya Basta leading the main march, shadowed by a huge police escort. But the mood changed dramatically when they reached the bridge leading to the conference. A cordon of riot police and armoured personnel carriers blocked their path.

12+57

Campbell

Campbell: The police have let them march this far without a permit but this is the end of official tolerance. Beyond there is the Congress Centre and the police have made clear they will not be allowed to pass.

13+13

Police: Go to your homes, please.

Police/Ya Basta charge

Campbell: As police called on them to disperse, the Ya Basta anarchists geared up for their first charge.

Cushioned by inner tubes, the charges caused little damage.

But as more frustrated protesters joined in, a dangerous momentum was building.

13+27

Sergio: No provocatore.

Campbell: Sergio struggled desperately to control the hotheads.

Campbell: What is the plan now?

Sergio: I don’t know. We’re trying to go on but there are some provocateurs here, drunk provocateurs.

13+56

Campbell: But the violence that followed appeared intentional and planned.

A group of Turkish Communists began pulling back the police barriers. On cue they began their attack.

Riot police

Whether by design … or because of the international spotlight, the police showed extraordinary restraint. They used pepper spray and batons, but only to stop the protesters taking the last barrier. It was not the response the Communists had hoped for. One by one, they began trying to provoke a police charge -- the INPEG organisers tried hard to restrain the crowd. It was a losing battle.

14+21

Wolfensohn's speech in Congress Centre

Inside the Congress Centre, the meeting began as planned -- the delegates unaware of the storm building outside.

14+55

Wolfensohn: Outside these walls, young people are demonstrating against globalisation. I believe deeply that many of them are asking legitimate questions, and I and I embrace the commitment of a new generation to fight poverty. I share their passion and their questioning. Yes, we all have a lot to learn. But I believe we can only move forward if we deal with each other constructively and with mutual respect.

Protestors/ Bridge attacks

Campbell: But the bridge attacks were simply a diversion. On the roads outside, masked anarchists began full-scale attacks on the police lines. This time, no amount of appeals for calm by the INPEG organisers could stop them. Anarchists ripped up cobblestones and hurled them at police.

15+28

Advertising billboards became fuel for burning barricades.

When the protest looked like reaching the Congress Centre, the police held the line with water cannons -- the first time they had been used since the end of Communism. For the people of Prague, who had overthrown a dictatorship without violence, it was a shocking sight.

16+00

Dana

Dana: It is pretty shocking, because it’s not the way to start communicating. Using stones, etcetera and destroying shops. Then the other party gets resistant to talking or bringing respect to these groups, so I was rather shocked.

16+14

Protesters

PROTESTERS CHANTING “VIVE, VIE LA REVOLUCION”

16+34

Campbell: As the afternoon wore on, the protests began to disperse. But the calm was short-lived.

Protestors: Let’s go to the opera, and find McDonalds on the way.

Attacks on McDonalds

Campbell: As darkness fell, the mob moved on to the city centre to attack the symbols of global capitalism.

Throughout the day, most of the protest had been peaceful. But once again a violent minority had hijacked it and destroyed the message the main groups had tried to bring.

16+53

Sirens

Campbell: By morning, police had arrested more than 400 people, and a shell-shocked city returned to work. Unlike INPEG, the main businesses had expected violence. McDonalds had even pre-ordered new windows.

Aftermath of protest

What had been planned as a three-day protest was effectively over. A chastened Chelsea Mozen faced the media to call for a day of peace.

17+31

Chelsea: I’d like to say that we are very, very disappointed in what happened yesterday. We are extremely committed to non-violence and it’s precisely because we are committed to non-violence that we oppose the IMF and the World Bank and the violence they facilitate around the world on a daily basis.

Journalist: Do you feel responsible for the violence that happened yesterday?

17+56

Chelsea: I think we are very frustrated that it happened and very sad…

Journalist: That's not an answer – yes or no please.

INPEG Woman: Would you ask us if we feel responsible for the 19,000 children… who dying every day if we don’t do something about this.

Protestors

Campbell: But to many, a mob rampage cannot be dismissed as a side issue. In the global debate for hearts and minds, it has struck a devastating blow. The protest juggernaut will roll on again to more meetings in more cities. But Prague’s not-so-Velvet Revolution may prove a fatal turning point for a movement that looked set to rock the world.

18+22

Credits:

Reporter: Eric Campbell

Camera: John Benes

Editor: Louise Turley

Research: Sharon Roobol