International Monetary Fund demonstrations returned to Washington, D.C., last weekend, as the delegates of the World Bank and IMF gathered for their annual spring meeting last Sunday. Anti-war and anti-globalization groups were expected to protest together, but the protests were not nearly as big or vocal as last September’s protests, which managed to shut down part of the city.

According to an alert from the Roam Secure Access Network, Chief of the Security Services Section of the IMF, Frank McLaughlin, expected up to 70,000 protestors. Ginny Leavell (COL ’05) and Ev Yankey (COL ’06) from the Georgetown Solidarity Committee were among the Georgetown students who protested. According to their estimates, about 1,000 protesters were present.

Yankey said he felt that the number of police was disproportionately large compared to the number of protesters. “I don’t know what they expected,” he said. He also said the police tried to “control the march and spoil [them] up.”

Leavell said that the shift of focus from anti-globalization issues to the anti-war sentiment contributed to the low protestor turnout.

“There has been less interest on anti-globalization [since Sept. 11],” she said. “[However] anti-globalization and Sept. 11 policies are inter-connected.”

Yankey agreed. “[Anti-globalization and Sept. 11] are partially connected, along the lines of the dominance of capitalism and U.S. imperialism increased after Sept.11 . It’s just a sense of U.S. and trans-national corporations domination on the rest of the world,” he said.

According to Yankey, the protesters gathered at Malcolm X Park and listened to Latin American speakers representing different movements and labor unions.

Two non-profit organizations, the Latin American Solidarity Coalition and the Mobilization for Global Justice, non-profit organized the protests. The LASC’s Web site promotes the protests as a “Massive March and Rally Against U.S. Intervention in Latin America and across the Globe.” The Latin America Solidarity Conference took place Friday and Saturday preceding the protests.

Yankey said the presence of the IMF and World Bank is not the only influence in Latin American countries, but it has recently been felt in nearly all Latin American countries. Yankey said negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement are also subject to protests.

“[Every Latin American country] is affected by this, because [the agreement] would increase the presence of trans-national corporations and decrease the social services . it harms the workers. It’s horrible for indigenous people and natural resources of these economies,” he said.

According to the official FTAA Web site, negotiations on the agreement are still underway.

The purpose of the agreement is to “unite the economies of the Western Hemisphere” and to eliminate “barriers to trade and investment,” the FTAA Web site reads. Thirty-four countries agreed to sign the agreement.

Following the speeches at Malcolm X Park, protesters marched to the World Bank and the IMF near H and 18th streets.

One of their stops was Taco Bell. Yankey said Taco Bell is accused of underpaying tomato farmers in Mexico. “[The farmers] are not paid anything. [they are] sick and dying of the use of pesticides [in tomato farming],” he said.

The next stop of the protesters was Coca-Cola. According to Yankey, Coca-Cola is causing unrest in Latin and Central America. One of the specific examples, he said, is Colombia. “Unions are trying to form, but people forming unions are receiving death threats . Union leaders have been killed. Coca-Cola denies its involvement with it, but nonetheless it’s only the union leaders for Coca-Cola being killed,” he said.

According to Yankey, the protests aim to educate people of what is going on in other countries. “[We are doing] lots of chanting, making lots of noise, just trying to make our presence known,” he said.

The IMF and World Bank demonstrations occur twice a year, in the fall and in the spring, when the IMF and World Bank meetings are held in Washington, D.C. Yankey was one of the protestors who was arrested in the September demonstration, which was “a lot bigger” than Sunday’s protests. Another demonstration against the FTAA Agreement is being planned to take place in Florida in November.