Serious protests at WTO Geneva meeting - pics - somebody is pissed off

[autorank]

Thousands to protest WTO meeting in Geneva
Published by http://tinyurl.com/ykp7mvz">Xinhua Thursday, 26 November 2009

Geneva (xn) - Thousands are expected to protest a meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Saturday in Geneva, reported the Agence Telegraphique Suisse (ATS) on Wednesday. According to the ATS, organizers expect between 5,000 to 6,000 protestors to show their opposition the seventh WTO Ministerial Conference.

The protesters, who will represent small-scale farmers and NGOs, have been authorized by Geneva's police to march from Place Neuve to the Parc des Cropettes, with the WTO headquarters as their final destination. It will mark a ten-year anniversary, almost to the day, of the protests against a similar WTO conference in Seattle, when 40,000 people took to the streets and 600 arrests were made.

The Geneva-based WTO was established in 1995 and has 153 members.

November 28 (CNN) -- Violence erupted in the Swiss city of Geneva Saturday as a scheduled peaceful protest of a World Trade Organization conference turned violent and police had to use tear gas and rubber bullets. Link

Geneva welcomes the WTO

[autorank]

1. Maybe some of these people read truedelphi's post

Unemployment - the Pictorial Graph -- very scary and impressive

You are my true Delphi! Great post.

[truedelphi]

11. Now I am

Blushing...

But hey, if these people can equal the havoc that Seattle protesters created, such that the GMO foods and seeds were not foisted onto the European market, I'll be quite pleased.

[knowbody0]

2. what's the circled "E" stand for?

[autorank]

4. "Equality"

We had this discussion before and I'm happy to see you and have it again or is my memory failing me;)

Equality. So what's the "A" stand for?

That pic is from the 2000 protests in Washington DC at the Bush-Cheney Inauguration. It's a classic.

:hi:

[patrice]

5. circled A = Anarchy

[autorank]

7. AE

:)

[knowbody0]

10. I cannot blame it on short term memory loss then?

dang! the long term thingy is broken as well.

I knew I knew it. lazy, way too full, and way weary. getting claustrophobic with all these visitors. cats are all hiding.

[autorank]

14. Memory

"If you remember the 60's, you weren't there." True False

Here's a kitty for you

[me b zola]

3. Yeah, 99% of us are pissed off.

But unfortunately a large number of the pissed off become distracted by shiny objects--like sarah.

[autorank]

6. They're just lookinig for leadership;)

We need to give Kucinich some real visibility. His stand on health reform was courageous and he's
been right on social justice/economic issues all along. Sarah will flame out soon but the left needs
a firebrand and soon.

Did you see how the crowd turned on her when she didn't show up at a book signing. They were read to
run her out of town on a rail. I'd say her support is thin;)

[patrice]

9. I'm thinking a significant part of that crowd has the mentality of highschool gossip culture

Who's in, who's out today and the whole thing IS a merry-go-round at heart and THAT'S the point.

[Sianara]

8. Protest footage

found some footage on youtube regarding the protests in Geneva


Protest footage

[mdmc]

39. welcome to du

:toast:

[maryf]

50. Great first post!!

Glad to have you here!

[pleah]

12. K&R

[stevedeshazer]

13. Might it come to pass that the Euros have to save the U.S.?

Gulp.

:hide:

[Ysabel]

16. if not for altruistic reasons...

still it'd be in their interest lest we drag them down with us...

[autorank]

19. That's a BIG Gulp

Hey steve, you may be right. Maybe we should all lose weight and put on some designer jeans to
get ready.

Seriously, the WTO protests in Seattle had a huge impact, although you'd never know it from corporate
media. Now we've got the G-20, new and improved version of the G-8. Even Argentina joined.

Is there an international organization for the people. Maybe Rotary International or the International
Workers of the World?

Good to see you!

:donut:

[leftstreet]

15. K&R

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Odin2005]

18. I will have sympathy for them when they quit vandalizing cars and smashing windows.

[Ysabel]

20. so how does that compare to wage slavery / exploitation / etc. N-fucking-T...

[Odin2005]

22. Is that an excuse to act like an asshole?

"he does it, too!" was wrong on the playground and it's wrong everywhere else, too.

I hate the corporatist bastards, but I don't smash cars, throw rocks at windows, and other JUVENILE things

[leftstreet]

23. What would be a non-'juvenile' way to stop the class WAR against us?

Vote?

Write a sternly worded letter?

Refuse to shop at MegaStore?

:shrug:

[Warren DeMontague]

26. I'd say lighting random cars on fire probably isn't the most productive way to get the point across.

But, whatever.

[Greyhound]

28. It's only a "class war" when we fight back.n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

29. Who is "we"?

I suppose you get around on a fireproof bicycle?

[Greyhound]

30. And your "possessions" are apparently paramount to you.

You guys are so amusing. You are prepared to fight and possibly (probably) die for a box on wheels, but the global enslavement of millions is a "non-issue".
:rofl:

And if I were in Europe, I would be teaching them how to build much more effective tools and pointing out far better targets. Why waste all that training?

[cali]

32. yes, yes. you're just sooo all saintly and anyone who doesn';t agree

with your every holy little word is corporate stooge enemy.

cute.

[Greyhound]

33. I'm almost as far from saintly as you are, though I am afflicted with a modicum of conscience that

you are obviously unburdened by.

In fact, I wonder why you even bother to respond to my posts/replies, I've found your primary motivation (unadulterated selfishness) and exposed you before (even though you have it deleted, others read it and learn what you're about before it disappears down the memory-hole). I avoid you and your posts except on the rare occasion that you make any sense and limit my reply to a simple K&R, so why do you persist in supplying rocks while hiding behind your glass walls?

Anytime the issue is maintaining your comfort at the expense of others, you expose your indifference and agenda, so why do you persist? You would gladly take the 30 pieces of silver without even a thought of giving it to those in real need, as you've already demonstrated countless times.

[cali]

38. you're making up an absurd narrative, that in fact, has no factual basis.

and I find your religious reference, sick. as for your supposedly exposing me, that exists only in your delusions.

I respond to you because I find your posts, generally, utterly disgusting.

[Greyhound]

56. Unfortunately the rules forbid me from directing anyone that is reading this to the exchanges,

screenshots, and related threads, but they are available elsewhere. I was warned about you shortly after I was turned on to DU and so took steps to preserve them.

You have quite the "fan club".

Now, go away.

[Warren DeMontague]

48. You're afflicted with a conscience, that's why you think it's hunky dory to light cars on fire.

Oh, of course, it's only the bad people's cars that get lit on fire. Good members of the proletariat with appropriate levels of class consciousness will never get their cars lit on fire, or if they do, they will be glad to see their car in flames, because they know it was done as a proper 'statement' against war and oppression and corporations an' stuff, and besides, real revolutionaries don't give a shit about their "possessions"...

....right?

[Greyhound]

58. The property is insured and the inconvenience unfortunate, but this is the only method

of attracting attention to the cause.

Remember the anti-war rallies across the nation against the unlawful invasion of Iraq? Possibly, since you are here, but the overwhelming number of Americans would honestly tell you that there never were any since they never heard about them.

Another DUer posted a thread yesterday or the day before lamenting the non-events that he has documented and saved from those days, as well as the protests from the coup of 2000 that were specifically ignored.

It's just an unfortunate fact that this gets the press that would otherwise ignore these events.
:shrug:

[Warren DeMontague]

62. Yeah, I was at a couple of them. Were you?

One in San Francisco had a few requisite idiots (as opposed to the 100,000+ of us who marched peacefully) breaking windows and lighting mailboxes on fire on Market St.

Well, by your logic, since random shit was lit on fire and broken, that should have "attracted attention" to the protests, "made them memorable", right?...

...except, wait, you just said no one remembers them.

(I do, but maybe that's because I was there? :shrug:)


Hmmm. Maybe it's because no cars were lit on fire-- THAT surely would have stopped the war, huh?




Actually, my experience was just the opposite; the media seized on the actions of a few idiots as an excuse to marginalize the large numbers of peaceful anti-war people who made a ton of sense.

So this sort of crap is totally counter-productive, in addition to "inconvenient" :eyes: for the folks whose cars happen to be the subject of the "messaging action".

[Odin2005]

42. Wow, you are trying really hard to justify vandalism.

You think not liking people vandalizing my stuff means I don't care about the plight of others? Fuck you! :grr:

[Warren DeMontague]

46. I guess I just don't see the essential "us v. them" dichotomy that is clear to you, here.

"Us" being the oppressed peoples of the world, and "Them" being the poor fucker who had the bad luck to park in the wrong place that day.

[Odin2005]

41. And vandalizing innocent bystanders' property helps HOW?

[glitch]

44. Post on internet forums?

:evilgrin:

[phasma ex machina]

57. LOL nt

[glitch]

65. Posting a joke on an internet forum and getting a laugh 12 hrs later is so strange, but gratifying

and then finally seeing that laugh the next day, what fun!
Thanks! :hi:

[autorank]

24. "Colonists Vandalize Ships! Throw Tea into Harbor"

I'm opposed to violence and vandalism period. But I'm not going to avoid taking a cause seriously just
because a small portion of the demonstrators engage in vandalism against property.

The real vandals are the occupants of the White House who, without any real constitutional authority, attack other nations, kill, maim, and destroy property, and hide behind the mantle of the presidency
and "American exceptionalism." Those are the people to dismiss because their acts are so broadly violent and destructive.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. You might feel differently if you were about to go home, and found your car on fire.

Oh, I'm sure they parked there because they're directly responsible for "American exceptionalism", war, and the WTO, but still.

[Selatius]

35. Depends on who he is. He might disagree depending on circumstance.

If he were an Iraqi and came home and found his car on fire as the result of a firefight between occupation troops and guerrilla fighters, he might think it was an acceptable loss, especially if he lost his family and home during the initial invasion of Iraq during the Shock & Awe heavy bombing campaigns.

[Odin2005]

43. Really stupid analogy.

There was no reason for those cars to be vandalized, none. This was a protest, not a military engagement.

[Warren DeMontague]

47. Right. And if he were a watermelon, he might find himself juicy, red and tasty.

But none of that has to do with the people whose cars got lit on fire because they just happened to be parked near the WTO protest. Do you really think that is making an "effective statement" about war or occupation or globalism or anything? Really?

[autorank]

54. Relative outrage

Lets see, an Audi is torched in Geneva and the response is , "Oh my, horrible."

But 1,000,000 Iraqi civlians get murdered in sectarian violence after the Bush Cheney invasion that
was predicted to let loose the hatreds of centuries and who is outraged? That's not even mentioned
in the press here, not widely discussed on this forum or other left forums in the U.S.

Where is the outrage over 1,000,000 dead civilians? And who really cares that much about a fucking Audi?

[Warren DeMontague]

55. If someone came over to your house and pooped on the porch, it wouldn't help the 1,000,000 dead.

"relative" outrage? How about completely un-related outrage? These idiots are taking it out on random cars that happen to be parked in their path. Oh, I'm sorry, maybe Audi is more responsible for the Iraq war than, say, other car brands. Which of course directly implicates anyone who owns, or at least parks, one.

"Where is the outrage over 1,000,000 dead civilians"? Probably in the threads that deal with that topic.

[autorank]

60. Vulgar, disgusting, and,most importantly, totally irrelevant. n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

61. Yes. My point exactly. nt

[leftstreet]

59. +1

:applause:

[jakefrep]

64. Maybe the guy that OWNS the "fucking" Audi? nt

[Freddie Stubbs]

69. The "wage slaves" seem to have enough leisure time and disposable income to travel to

whatever locale the WTO is meeting at.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Greyhound]

34. What makes you think your sympathy is even desired? n/t

[jonnyblitz]

36. a war supporter like you frets over vandalized cars and windows

yet you have no problem bombing the fuck out of afghan civilians to get at Al Qaeda who isn't even THERE anymore? :crazy: :crazy:

[L0oniX]

37. I will have sympathy for our troops when they quit killing and bombing civilians too.

[HamdenRice]

31. I just wish people had a clearer idea of what they are protesting. Do they know what the WTO is?

Most people don't have the foggiest idea of what it actually is or why it's "bad."

[formercia]

40. I think violence is counterproductive.

It discredits legitimate protesters. I wonder how many of those 'anarchists' were actually government provocateurs?

Notice the two in the lower left-hand image. They appear to have identical sledgehammers.

[glitch]

45. True - and it wasn't the violence that got WTO's attention in Seattle. It was the sheer numbers.

The violence was used to discredit the protesters, make the movement appear "fringe" and get people talking about the violence and not the real issues.

Same old.

[Joe Chi Minh]

49. "... - somebody is pissed off!" A most pithy verdict, Mike, and, seemingly, not

without a marked verisimilitude.

[autorank]

53. To paraphrase Robert Duval from

Apocalypse Now, 'I love the smell of Audi's burning in the morning. Smells like ... victory.'

Of course the violence against property is just a fragment of the protesters but it's what makes
the front pages. The Swiss have been skating for decades as I recall from my WWII history. They
didn't have to accommodate Hitler, but they did. Now they're at the heart of the G-20/WTO
organizations.` It's coming home to roost. But there's always Davos, the truly gated community;)

[maryf]

51. K&R

HHmmm, if the Swiss are the boring wooses rumor would have, what does that make us?

[formercia]

63. Warrior Nation.

Rome reborn.

[Joe Chi Minh]

67. The Swiss were actually fierce warriors in the Middle-Ages. What must have set them

apart as far as our warlord class were concerned, was that they literally didn't take prisoners.

All the armies of the other European countries preferred to capture men of the officer class and hold them hostage, whenever they could, until their connections paid a ransom.

[dysfunctional press]

52. the protests will have to be bigger and more violent before things will change.

people with power don't give it up easily.
and people with LOTS OF POWER? fuggeddaboutit.

[glitch]

66. Nope, just bigger. Let the police start the violence, as they did in Seattle. nt

[dysfunctional press]

68. if you think that they'll give up power without having violence perpetrated against them...

then you're thinking exactly how they want you to think.

drink up!