Having long ignored its critics, the World Economic Forum is moving, cautiously, to embrace them.

Each winter, the forum invites prominent government officials, academics, corporate titans and journalists to a conference in the posh alpine ski village of Davos, Switzerland. For this year's six-day schmooze-fest, which opens a week from tomorrow, the forum has invited more representatives of nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, and other independent bodies, many of which challenge the economic and political assumptions of Davos regulars. The conference emerged in the 1990s as a lofty pulpit for those who preach that the best way to promote prosperity world-wide is through globalization of business, free trade and a reduced role for government. But that creed has drawn a backlash over the past few years. Financial crises in East Asia and elsewhere have tested faith in free trade, and violent protests against globalization disrupted meetings of the World Bank in Prague last year and the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999.

At last year's Davos conference, small-scale protests fizzled out. But Swiss police are bracing for the possibility of bigger demonstrations by anarchic groups at next week's gathering of some 2,000 conference delegates. The conference organizers are hoping for a genteel clash of ideas. They have invited 59 representatives of NGOs, philanthropic organizations and labor groups, up from 46 last year. Among this year's invitees are officials of Amnesty International and the U.S.-based AFL-CIO labor federation, along with individuals such as Jeremy Rifkin, an American author and globalization critic who has campaigned against genetically modified food. Though such participants will still be a small minority, "their presence will enrich the discussion," says Klaus Schwab, president of the World Economic Forum. "You get different viewpoints." Mr. Rifkin agrees. He is attending the Davos conference for the first time this year and has been given a role on several panels. "Anything that promotes communication is good," he says.

Other critics worry that they risk being window dressing at Davos. "I'm concerned that there won't be a balanced debate because, frankly, there aren't enough voices who share my views," says Martin Khor, a Malaysian who heads Third World Network and is an invited speaker. His organization, based in Penang, Malaysia, has been sharply critical of the WTO and favors trade protection for developing countries.

Still, even a few more diverse voices may mean livelier debate at a conference that in years past reflexively endorsed government polices to promote freer trade and create easier operating environments for multinational corporations. The question is how much patience corporate chieftains will have for insistent questions about their faith in the benefits of laissez-faire capitalism. "Is this global corporate business sector really ready to engage the logic" of critics? asks Saskia Sassen, a Dutch-American professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, past Davos participant and an adviser to the forum. "Is the corporate sector ready to recognize that the environmental question, the global poverty question, the global spread of diseases -- that these questions need to be  engaged and that they will have to adjust at least some of their businesslogic to accommodate other concerns?

"If this comes about, then a very productive dialogue could take place at Davos," Ms. Sassen adds. "Then Davos becomes something new: a place where leaders from the sectors of business, the environment and social justice can have fruitful discussions, and not in the typical Davos forum, where critics have to toe the line."

The forum is funded mainly by dues from its corporate members. Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, is a member of the forum, and some of its executives participate in forum events. Jonathan Lash, an environmentalist and president of the World Resources Institute, is optimistic about his chances for influencing the debate. When he attended two years ago, "I certainly was not a major player. But Davos is about the powers that be, about money. So the idea of civil society being a participant was, at that point at least, a sideshow." At next week's gathering, however, he is getting a bigger platform as a member of two prominent panels the first day.

Some wonder whether more diverse voices will make the gathering less useful and say that by inviting critics the conference may simply be giving in to a fad for bashing globalization. "I would not want these new voices to make it a fashion that economic globalization is a bad thing," says Jagdish Bhagwati, an international economist at Columbia University who will address the forum. "I believe in listening to everybody, but I don't see a grand design here, and it's needed," he says, in order to make sense out of divergent views.

Meanwhile, some critics of globalization worry that they may be seen as being co-opted by their participation in the forum. "It is probably unrealistic to expect Davos to change into a place where CEOs listen to NGOs," Mr. Khor says.

Outside the conference hall, the Swiss police say they will tolerate peaceful protests in Davos but insist they are ready to stop any violence. Mr. Rifkin, the American activist, frets that if the police are too heavy-handed with dissidents he may be forced to consider leaving the conference. "If there is overreaction to peaceful protest, that sends the wrong message," he says. "There's a responsibility to have peaceful protests, but I'd urge the government to take a careful, thoughtful approach."

During next week's Davos forum, some of the protesters will be halfway across the world in the Brazilian port city of Porto Alegre, where critics of globalization are staging an "anti-Davos" conference. While the World Economic Forum isn't forging ties with the upstart gathering, Mr. Schwab says he will send an observer to the Brazilian event so that the forum's daily newspaper, published during the Davos gathering, will have aneyewitness account of the counterforum.

This year's Davos conference won't feature some of the superstars of past years, so the media spotlight, always intense, might be a little dimmer. Last year, Presidentl Clinton dominated the show, but no senior official from President-elect George W. Bush's administration is scheduled to attend. Still, six U.S. senators and a few state governors are expected to show up, as are a gaggle of world leaders, including United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the presidents of South Africa, Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico. Among the big-name corporate executives the forum is expecting are Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates; Percy Barnevik, chairman of Sweden's Investor AB; Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers; and AOL Time Warner Inc. Chairman Steve Case.
Credit: Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Outrage and condemnation at Swiss government officials and "robocops" from Swiss major media as well as from civil society and victimized Swiss citizens, is growing by the minute. It was also disclosed that police had plans to use liquid manure against the protesters.

In a rare departure from the Swiss major media's normally agreeable stance towards state authorities, harsh crisicism of the militaristic and excessively violent tactics being used by Swiss "robocops" ostensibly to insure the smooth  running of the WEF meeting in Davos is being expressed by most of the major media throughout Switzerland. The repressive policies instituted by the government to squelch potential public protests and the outrageous police behaviour of the last few days has been described as "unprecidented," "disproportionate compared to the threat from the protesters," and has created spectacles of a "dictatorship." The "War games" carried out by Swiss authorities "will  have consequences," warns a popular national daily journal (a Swiss equivelant of the USA Today daily).

Many NGOs, parliament ministers, and regular Swiss citizens are angrily denouncing the police violence and over-reaction, and intolerable violations of Swiss civil rights laws by the government and police. At a press conference organized by the IMC in Davos on Friday evening, a lawyer described to the press many of the human rights violations that were taking place in Davos and elswhere in Switzerland. Several of the NGOs who had been officially invited into the WEF are now considering withdrawing in protest.

Large numbers of regular Swiss citizens who were not involved with any protests found themselves caught in the middle of many of the police attacks, and many Swiss people who were simply tring to exercise their right of free travel, trying to go skiing, etc., are outraged by the victimization they recived from Swiss police at police checkpoints, or near police actions against protesters, including many bystanders who were gassed or shot with rubber bullets last night in Zurich. Even official WEF participants were blocked by police from getting to the forum in Davos

Many people were shocked to learn that the police were planning to use liquid manure on protesters. In fact, the police were unable to obtain the substance - which could be classified as biological warfare material posing severe health hazards - because Swiss farmers would not give any to the police and criticezed the idea of using manure on protesters as crazy.

A coalition of NGOs are expected to hold a press conference at 7pm today, 28 of January in Davos to discuss human rights violations. The media conference will take place at the Dutch Astma Clinic on Sunday, 28 January 2001, at 1 p.m. at the Dutch Astma Clinic, Scalettastrasse 19, Davos (walking distance from the Congress Centre). On behalf of a larger group of WEF and "Public Eye" participants, the following NGO representatives will participate in the media conference:

Jeremy Rifkin, The Foundation on Economic Trends,USA

Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India

Peter Bosshard, Berne Declaration, Switzerland

Adam Ma'anit, Corporate Europe Observatory, Netherlands (temporarily deported by the Swiss police)

DAVOS, Switzerland - The Swiss today sharply criticised what was described as a heavy-handed police crackdown on an anti-globalisation demonstration in Davos yesterday.

"Police mobilisation like in a dictatorship" ran the headline in the German-language weekly Sonntagsblick, the day after police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a demonstration in Zurich, and imposed tight security to prevent protests in Davos.

A Sunday newspaper, Sonntagszeitung, wrote: "The spirit of Davos was suffocated in teargas" and the Swiss police "trampled on basic rights".

For several commentators, Switzerland's image had suffered a blow when police prevented even a European Parliament member, Roseline Vachetta, from travelling to Davos, an up-market ski resort hosting the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Among intellectuals, sociologist Jean Ziegler denounced in an open letter to the government "the shameful face of the Swiss", while the socialists took an even harder line.

"I wouldn't have believed that possible in Switzerland. The police have trampled on state law,"  Franco Cavalli, head of the Socialist Party in parliament, said in an interview in Sonntagsblick.

Warning there would be "political consequences" to pay in parliament, Cavalli said he wanted a  parliamentary investigation of the police attitude launched.

He said he also will insist that the army would no longer be mobilised for public demonstrations.

The police defended their actions, saying they used "moderate, exemplary intervention".

Several government officials backed the police, saying that the measures were needed to protect the thousands of top political and business leaders at the summit.

However, in a Sonntagsblick editorial, Frank Meyer blamed politicians: "The police would not have been able to play this game, if politicians respectful of democracy and their responsibilities had taken things in hand."

Meyer said "the police force coup had inflicted more damage on the global salon" of WEF founder Klaus Schwab than the anti-globalisation protesters had dreamed of with their demonstrations.

He criticised the "provincialism" of the authorities and police in the eastern Swiss canton Grisons, who had halted train service to Davos yesterday.

The French-language newspaper Dimanche.ch said that the canton authorities, frustrated by too much quiet in their snowy Alps, "wanted to break out of it" and make themselves important.

Financier George Soros, a frequent participant at the WEF summits in the Swiss ski resort, said in an interview with French newspaper Le Matin: "In becoming increasingly harsher, the security measures risk harming the spirit of Davos, and could dissuade participants from returning there, where the calm is a strength of the world forum."

The Swiss socialist president, Moritz Leuenberger, who visited the WEF summit and a counter-forum, "Public Eye on Davos", took a moderate line.

In a text published in Sonntagszeitung, he wrote:"We must guarantee, as best we can, the WEF presence. Especially in the face of threats saying it should disappear."

As for any lawsuits alleging excessive use of force by authorities, he said, "independent courts" exist in Switzerland to deal with them.

 ABC-TV news bulletin, 7.00 PM on Sunday 28 January,had a short piece about demonstrators in Davos. The introductory script, which was read by the announcer (but, presumably, written by a journo in the Sydney or Melbourne newsroom) began by talking about "violent protesters" in Davos. But, a few seconds later, the visual footage started and this merely showed two scenes:

FIRST, a few protesters marching quietly (and non-violently) along a street, holding up a banner; and

SECOND, scenes of Swiss police bashing people -- violently.

So, the only violence shown on the screen was from the police. Why, then, did the ABC scriptwriter have to write the bit about "violent" protesters? Or, if the ABC had some footage of protesters behavaing violently, why didn't they show it? I can only assume that the ABC had no footage available of protester-violence, only footage of police-violence.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that no protester anywhere is violent. And I am aware that, in Europe especially, there is a traditional ongoing warfare between police and protesters, going back to the time of Hitler and Stalin (or earlier).

Whenever script-writers and sub-editors insert the word "violent" in front of the word "protesters", is  this for the same reason that (for example) they insert the word "Merry" in front of "Christmas" or  "Happy" in front of "New Year"? Is it just a reflex?

The AFP (Agence France-Presse) story quoted by David at the top of this page is from the Age web site, breaking-news section. On the same site, I have also found the following in an AFP story which throws some more light on Davos:-

Jeremy Rifkin, the president of The Foundation on Economic Trends, a US-based non-governmental organisation, said today they were "very troubled" by the measures taken by the Swiss authorities.

"I would find it impossible to participate in future economic forums unless there's some acknowledgment... that there were some serious errors made," Rifkin told a news conference.

 "They have to 'walk the walk, not just talk the talk,"' he said, adding that the Swiss government and WEF had to take responsibility.

 Rifkin was taking part in a counter-forum of NGOs in Davos held simultaneously with the WEF forum and designed to offer an alternative view on globalisation.

 The tight Swiss security measures met with sharp criticism in the Swiss press today.

...its late at night so im just writing this off the top of my head....
 

Today in Madrid centre a large manifestion of about 5-7000 people took place to coincide with the anti-capitalist demonstrations against the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. While many people elected to take the free trains from Barcelona and participate in the chaos in switzerland many people were on hand here in madrid.

Organized by the MRG (movimiento resistencia de globalizacion)-Madrid (a loose but organized coalition of groups and individuals in the area, but autonomous from MRGs in other spanish cities), the demonstraion/march/fiesta was aimed to show solidarity with anti-capitalist protestors around the world and in Davos who were speaking out against capitalist globalization; to manifest our voices and show the growth of the anti-capitalist globalization movement; and to show solidarity with immigrants and refugees around the world who are being faced with increasingly facist laws.

While the free trade forces are breaking down borders for investment and cash, they are lobbying to increase the harshness of immigration policies, hoping to keep a tight reign on the poorer sections of the world it is screwing over. In the European Community, Spain, being close to Morrocco, is one country that has been increasing its draw of immigrants from the ever enlarging pool of displaced peoples throughout the world.  This past week, new laws have been passed giving authorities the power to eject within 24 hours any suspected immigrants found without papers. The left in Spain has fought against these facist laws, and this week there have been numerous occupations of buildings throughout spain by immigrants who will not stand for the new laws.

In fact, the overwhelming theme of todays march was against these new immigration laws and the opening up of borders for profit while closing them to people. Throughout the two and a half hour march, continuous chants of Niguna ser humano, es ilegal!(No humans are illegal) were heard and at one point a building was scaled by some white monkeys to hang a banner with the same theme. A manifesto was read out in support of the immigrants fighting against these laws and another manifesto by a group of immigrants who had just occupied some building.

The march itself went something like this. At 6:30 people began to arrive at Ciebles downtown. Many police were on hand in riot gear with close to 50 police vans. This demo had a permit as well, despite the police harrassment. As people walked out of the metro station they were harrassed by the police, bags checked, and people told all kinds of things from..the manifestacion is on the other side of the street to could you please move over a foot as youre not allowed to stand here. thank you, im just doing my job. Why is it that police the world over, when at a protest, have to find some line or geographical feature to fixate on and repeatedly tell people to move away from it. Does it really matter if someone walks on that part of the sidewalk, or steps on that grass, especially when the boundries will change within the hour. Anyway, getting on with the story.

After about an hour when enough people had ammassed (conservative estimate at about 5000), the music system/truck began to move out onto the road but stopped and suddenly there was a rush of people running. The police had just detained about 70 white monkey activists (people dressed in white overalls with, helmets, balloons, and other interesting protective gear) and were refusing to let them go. The truck refused to go, as did the rest of the 5000 gathered, and soon the white monkeys were returned. The march proceed from Ciebles to Callao (one major street downtown Madrid) with music pumping and chants going. such as the ever popular (and all too true) Policia! Assesina! (police are killers).

Half way there, the white monkeys surrounded a large construction scaffolding along the side of the road and three of them climbed about 15 stories to the top where they hung a giant banner against cpaitalism and the toughening of immigration laws, over an advertisment. Again, riot police moved in, but with the white monkeys surrounding the scaffolding with their arms held high in the air, video cameras all around, and the crowd surging in, the police were soon surrounded and hightailed it out of there.

After the successful banner hanging, the march continued with people mostly dancing in the street, chanting slogans, and sticking large stickers over banks and other buildings we passed. The stickers read things like ....Closed: Due to the malfunctioning of capitalism. Suffer the consequences.etc.

At the final destination, the party continued for another hour or so and grew into a larger fiesta as it was at a main plaza in the busy shopping district of downtown. A few people spoke to the crowd about what was taking palce in Davos and the WEF, and about the new immigration laws, and of course a few good rants against capitalism for all the passer bys. Even after the organizers left with the music, many of the people stayed on and continued to party in the streets.

anyway....ill leave it at that. for more information check out the following sites:

http://nodo50.org/mrg/mani.htm
http://nodo50.org/racismo/home.htm
http://davos.indymedia.org/
http://www.sindominio.net/ninguna/