New World Order
Protest gets heated in the Czech capital
ABC Australia visits the violent protests in Prague and examines the goals and methods of the anti-capitalist campaigners.
The meeting of the WTO in Prague was meant to mark the triumph of Capitalism over communism but instead it saw the worst violence since the 1968 Soviet invasion. The event saw the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the IMF. For the World Bank President James Wolfensohn it was a chance for the agencies to reassert themselves as champions of ending poverty. But across the town young protesters are planning to disrupt the meeting. Their idealists and part of a growing breed of protestors who linked by the Internet have a shared disdain for capitalism. They feel big multinationals are taking over the world and exploiting the poor. Protestors chant: “IMF, they can’t pay, how many kids will you kill today?”
It began quietly and ended up in a full-scale riot. In a global debate for hearts and minds it has struck a devastating blow.
FULL SYNOPSIS
Produced by ABC Australia