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Reuters; BBC; AFP. 16 March 2002. Street Violence After Free - Market EU Summit; Police confront EU summit protesters; More than 300,000 join final big march against EU summit. BARCELONA -- Up to 300,000 people joined a final protest march against the EU economic summit in Barcelona, according to first estimates by organizers. Marching behind a banner that declared: "Against a Europe of capital -- another world is possible," the overwhelmingly young demonstrators headed from Placa de Catalunya to the harborfront. Organizers estimated the marchers at 300,000 to 500,000 while police said at least 140,000 had massed in the streets. Violence broke out on the streets of Barcelona on Saturday after European Union leaders struck a deal there on free-market reforms that they hope can help Europe match America's economic dynamism [i.e. neoliberal exploitation]. Spanish police repeatedly fired rubber bullets and charged, batons flailing, at groups that had stayed on in the city center after a quarter of a million people marched to denounce the EU summit as a sell-out to U.S.-run global capitalism. Police in Barcelona have fired tear gas during running skirmishes with protesters staging a march in response to the EU economic summit, which finished on Saturday. The bulk of the protest passed off peacefully but some people had set fires and damaged property. Banks and an international clothing store were smashed up, witnesses said. Police are now chasing protesters in the southern part of the city, and our correspondent says that because many of the protesters - who have numbered up to 300,000 - are still waiting to finish the march, the potential for chaos is huge. The participants - who have been marching from Placa de Catalunya to the harbour front - are protesting against everything from the Euro and free-market globalisation to Israeli violence. Along with communists, Greens, and the opponents of globalisation are Catalan and Basque nationalists. There is also a group of anti-Americans masquerading as Afghan prisoners detained at Camp X-ray in Cuba. The protest even encroached on one of the biggest Spanish football matches of the season, between Barcelona and Real Madrid, in Barcelona on Saturday evening. The game had to be stopped briefly as two demonstrators who had handcuffed themselves to the goal posts were removed. Jose Bove, the mustachioed French activist best known for leading an assault on a McDonald's fast-food outlet in southwest France in August 1999, was in the city and expected to participate in the march. "Europe's leaders are implementing policies and directives that only serve the interests of liberalization and attack the rights of workers," Bove told AFP earlier in the day. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
