Anti-IDB Demo in Fortaleza

pablo

From March 7 to 13, in Fortaleza, Brazil, over 40 ministers of finance and presidents from 3 Latin American countries met with businessmen and diplomats to discuss the policies of the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB). The IDB is one of the largest "development" banks investing in social projects in Brazil, funding from roads to dams, from schools to urban remodeling. Like the World Bank, the IDB get criticisms for driving decision making from the already non-democratic instance of representative government to the farther and more autocratic instance of multilateral institutions. When local governments have no funds to decide their own policies and to set their own priorities, they have to recourse to those funding institutions whose policies are dictated by their own funders, the rich countries from the global North.

In order to protect the meeting of the IDB "Board of Governors" a huge police operation was established. More than 3,000 police officers were mobilized plus 1,500 reinforcements from the military and the federal police in an operation coordinated by the Brazilian army. Three large sections of the city were totally blockaded: the UNIFOR Convention Center, the SEBRAE building and a large section of the city downtown. Main activities were carried out at the UNIFOR (University of Fortaleza) Convention Center and the SEBRAE building and the downtown area was cleared out for "cultural" activities and cocktails for the global elite. Besides that, a municipal holiday was set up on Monday, March 11 (opening day for the main meeting), so the streets would be cleared for the movement of delegates and anyone else on the streets, specially near the blockaded areas, would be considered a "protester" and would be subject to police repression.

The blockades were very annoying, particularly for people living inside the blockaded zones. That alone made the population sympathetic to protesters who focused a lot on the restriction of the freedom of movement and expression. At UNIFOR University, some 200 students occupied the management's office lobby to protest the support of the university to the IDB meeting. There were lots of propaganda on TV on the benefits of IDB's policies and how this meeting would bring profit to hotels, restaurants and the tourism industry, but the overall feeling of the population ranged from apathy to irritation. Besides the blockades the overt presence of the army made the city seem to be preparing for war that is never pleasant to see.

The preparatory IDB seminars started on March 7 and so did the first protests. On the first day, a small group of 50 protesters tried to break through the police lines and there were some minor clashes. The day before, there were also protests at UNIFOR and at the airport. Two UNIFOR students were arrested after destroying IDB propaganda banners. Another anti-IDB protester was arrested at the airport the next day after refusing to let his picture be taken. Security was very tight if people wanted to get into the city. Everyone coming by air would have the picture taken at the airport and non-commercial buses were all stopped from entering the city. There is no precise information, but at least 13 buses with protesters were simply stopped at the road for no other reason than going to Fortaleza to protest the IDB.

March 9 there was a march on International Women's Day with a couple of thousand people. Many buses coming to town for the Women's March were already stopped at the road making clear that there would be no reinforcements for the big protest on March 11. During the Women's march two helicopters were flying very low and one could see many police infiltrated in the march and at the balcony of buildings taking pictures and shooting videos.

March 11 was coming close and one could see that protests were not going to be very big. Fortaleza was a very clever choice for the IDB meeting organizers. It's very far (at least 3 days by bus) from the largest cities in the south (Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre) and the local movement seemed very inexperienced. There were 4 major groups organizing protests. First, the unions, left parties and traditional social movements, who apparently weren't putting a lot of effort on the protests. Then there was the youth committee (which was the youth of that large coalition) and then the anarchist/ autonomists and a group called Crítica Radical. Those last three seemed to have very similar ideas of horizontal organizing, not wanting to be involved with political parties and wanting direct action, but for some reason they didn't manage to work together. That plus the government preventing outsiders to come to town made the protests loose much of its potential power.

On March 11, there was a march with a few thousand people who were heading to a police blockade. Meanwhile, anarchists and autonomists were doing a public assembly in a poor community who is going to be kicked out of their houses due to an IDB project making the avenue where they live larger and building fancy hotels over their homes. Also, a small group of the Crítica Radical people found a way to get through the police lines and did a protest only 20 meters away from the Convention Center.

The big march finally reached the police blockade and got stuck. Hundreds of riot police plus horses and dogs were blockading their way. The group stood there for at least one hour with union people in the sound truck shouting slogans and boring speeches. At that point the youth committee broke out of the march and tried to detour the police blockade when the unions and political parties simply left the demo. That's right, they just left, went home! The youth committee went back to the barrier and clashes started. There were tear gas, concussion bombs and plastic bullets but not much fight because the police wanted to hold its position. A few people got hurt and the protest dispersed.

French singer Manu Chao was at the protest and had decided to sing to that poor community who is going to be kicked out of their neighborhood due to an IDB project. However, after repression, the concert was relocated to the very spot were clashes happened, 50 meters away from the police barrier and on the other direction, also 50 meters away from a cultural center where IDB delegates were holding a cocktail party. So, six hours later in a "surprise" concert, Manu Chao started to sing to some 400 people in a square surrounded by riot cops and flied over all the time by a police helicopter. The sound truck never made its way to the square and many protesters could not reach the spot because police barriers were blockading accesses to the square. With no sound equipment and with only a small percussion band, the concert was amazing. One hour of really strong energy!

The next day, 400 activists from the MAB, a direct action movement of the people affected by dams occupied the lobby of a building in downtown Fortaleza in protest against the construction of the Castanhão Dam. Even though this particular dam is not financed by the IDB, the IDB has financed many dams throughout the country with no respect whatsoever for their social and environmental impacts. That was the reason why the MAB came to Fortaleza for the protests on March 11.

The last day of protest (M13) saw another march through Fortaleza downtown.

The march was opened with people with brooms, symbolically sweeping out the IDB out of town. The march then headed near the SEBRAE where people burned banners spread all over the street saying: "Welcome IDB delegates! This road has been cleared out just for you!"

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Anti-BID relatos | www.agp.org