Posted on 01/20/2004 5:09:35 AM PST by blam
Bush's 'anti-ambassadors' at global summit
January 20 2004 at 10:16AM
By Shaun Tandon
Mumbai - For many anti-globalisation activists meeting here the United States is shorthand for all that is wrong with the world. But the Americans they are finding at the World Social Forum are just as angry at President George Bush.
At panels and demonstrations throughout the annual convention of the anti-globalistion movement, the United States has been castigated left and right for everything from the occupation of Iraq to genetically modified agriculture.
So what does an American feel when seeing posters portraying Bush alternately as a bloodsucking vampire, a criminal in police lockup, or a Hindu version of Satan?
'If you're here people know you don't support Bush' "It's fabulous," said Zach Allen, a campaigner against nuclear weapons from San Francisco.
"It's useful to have faces for a movement to rally against and Bush right now represents that militarised state of the world," said Allen, as a dozen Indian trade unionists nearby chanted "Down, down, Bush!"
Of the 100 000 people attending the six-day World Social Forum which closes on Wednesday, at least 1 000 are Americans, according to organisers.
"If you're here people know you don't support Bush," Allen said.
But some Americans, despite their dislike of Bush, were at times weary of the tone of the forum.
'I tell them, I'm here because of George Bush' "Sometimes I've wanted to borrow one of those burqas and just cover my American face," said Kathleen Sheehan of the San Francisco-based fair trade movement Global Exchange.
She remembered seeing a skit in which a character playing Bush drags away an innocent person by a noose.
"It's just my personal response, but I think I connect more with something more humorous or artful," she said.
"But I think this is the space to express views like that. Obviously some people are very angry."
Kathleen Sullivan, an anti-nuclear activist from New York, said more Americans would protest at home if not for the "corporate control on the media by the right."
The Bush administration "stole the election, they've run the biggest deficit and the biggest military budget in history but many Americans are not speaking out because they're suffering," said Sullivan, who wore a button demanding a US pullout from Iraq.
But Sullivan said other world leaders should also come in for criticism as it was not just the United States but all five permanent members of the UN Security Council as well as India and Pakistan that had nuclear arsenals.
"Focusing on Bush is great, but it's a little misleading," she said.
Few Americans reported any serious confrontations at the forum.
"Some people have said, 'You're from the country of George Bush, why are you here?' And I tell them, I'm here because of George Bush," said JR Austin of San Francisco, here with the International Socialist Organisation.
"It is because of George Bush that my cousin who just wanted to go to college is still in Iraq," Austin said.
"I've encountered hostility here maybe twice, but it's quickly given over when I explain that I oppose imperialist policies," Austin said
Austin, 23, was making his first visit outside the United States, and Bombay, with its millions of poor, was an eye-opening experience for someone committed to changing the world order.
"All the mental baggage goes when you see the level of poverty that is here," Austin said.
"There are homeless in the US, too, but when a shantytown goes up under a highway the police send in the cleaning crews right away to get rid of them," Austin said.
After a talk in a tent on comparative "liberation" movements by Iraqis, Kashmiris and Palestinians, another delegate asked for a copy of a leftist magazine Austin was selling for 200 rupees, or about four dollars
"Isn't it 50 rupees?" the delegate asked.
Austin replied the socialists were asking for a little more from "the comrades in Europe and America".
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