We're here to protest........what was it again?

[Skins24]

Great article on those idiots who trash the city every year for no reason.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3510-2002Sep25.html

Anti-IMF Antics Hurt Little People, Not Fat Cats

By Marc Fisher

Thursday, September 26, 2002

In the moral ledger of the organizers of the "Anti-Capitalist Scavenger Hunt," part of this week's edition of the Collegiate Protest Potpourri, trashing the inside of a retail chain store scores 500 points, and "liberating" food from Fresh Fields wins 300 points. But, according to a protest Web site, if you accomplish nothing more than talking to someone on the street about the evil of capitalism, you collect a paltry 100 points.

So at least the anti-globalization gang isn't pretending to have much interest in engaging the public in any discussion of ideas or policy.

For many years, the International Monetary Fund has blessed us with its annual gathering, an unctuous parade of arrogance in which fat cats from across the globe clog our streets with limos and spend untold millions on the finest food and drink, all whilst fretting over the terrible inequalities in the world.

But when it comes to self-importance, even the economics ministers with their pathetic demands for police escorts do not hold a candle to the adolescent cry for attention of the protesters who've piled into town for tomorrow's attempt to "Shut Down the City."

The anti-globalization forces intend to paralyze the city's streets, prevent workers from getting to their jobs and trash businesses and institutions they consider part of the evil machinery of profit -- you know, the places where people work in exchange for money with which to feed their children.

The "Anti-Capitalist Target List," also conveniently posted on the Web as a cute little exercise in homespun terrorism, includes every McDonald's, Starbucks and Chipotle (owned by McDonald's and therefore evil) in town; various media devils, including this very journal ("pro-government and capitalist"); Neiman Marcus ("sells fur"); Fresh Fields ("gentrification force"); a bunch of PR firms (even misguided protesters are occasionally right); and various other institutions of the right and left alike.

Of course, some of the thousands of young people who have scooped up every hostel bed in the city are here to protest nonviolently against policies that they, with good reason, believe have exacerbated the gap between rich and poor around the world. But that message is invisible in what has become a catchall roar of rage against the war on Iraq, gentrification, Israel, "car culture," Big Oil and, most egregiously, the people of Washington, D.C.

Make no mistake: If the protesters wanted to aim their wrath against the World Bank, the IMF and the government, they have opportunity aplenty to do so. But they choose instead to attempt to shut down this city, a place and a people already disrespected and disadvantaged by those same institutions.

Instead of protesting against a federal government that blithely deprives residents of the U.S. capital of the vote, or against hugely rich nonprofits that bleed the city's accounts for police protection while paying no taxes, the demonstrators turn their violence against the voiceless and the ignored -- the people of Washington. The college students who come here to chant themselves hoarse about abuses of power dare to shout about racism even as they assault a black-run city that has struggled for decades for basic equality.

Protesters may wish to note that the fancy pants executives and bankers whom they view as targets have no intention whatsoever of trying to make it to the office tomorrow. You see, they get paid whether they show up or not. The victims of this so-called People's Strike are, in fact, folks who work for a living, the office workers and federal employees, the people who cook food and clean buildings. If they don't work, they don't eat.

But go ahead, enjoy your sport, shut down the town. What do you care? In a couple of years, some of you will grab your diplomas, leave your chants and phony claims of solidarity behind, and head off to the latest high-tech ventures, brimming with rhetoric about how this isn't like old businesses and how new technologies will erase economic inequalities. And then, if you're real lucky, you can shaft another generation of employees and stockholders, knowing that when you were 19, you were down with the people.

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Most of the activity is happening not to far from where my office is...I think I may go down there and, I don't know, maybe throw rocks at them(the protesters)...hit them with baseball bats.....whichever will give me the most 'points'.