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In Washington, Yalies protest the IMF

Sleeping bag, mess kit, small bills, bandanna, flashlight, wristwatch, good footwear, gas mask, goggles. That was the packing list handed out to 60 Yalies in the Dwight Hall Chapel at 10 p.m. on Mon., Apr. 10, as they departed for Washington, D.C. to protest at the semi-annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Most people looked excited; some looked nervous. Some wanted to know where to buy a gas mask in New Haven. Others wanted to make sure they'd be home in time to hear Wyclef.

On Monday night, the meeting centered on strategy, not action. Still, organizers distributed sheets that read, "The IMF has created a system of modern day colonialism. The IMF, along with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Bank, is directing the global economy on a path of greater inequality."

It wasn't just Yalies who geared up. District police, national media, and thousands of other activists were also preparing to enter the fray. Everyone remembered—either from news reports or first-hand experience—how heated and violent the protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization had been. Would the protests in D.C. be the same?

In retrospect, the IMF protests were far less unpleasant. When the Yalies left campus at 11 p.m. on Sat., Apr. 15, both the weather and the prospects for their safety seemed ominous. As the rain beat down on the bus, the activists learned, via radio, how 600 protesters were arrested in what was referred to as a "pre-emptive strike." But even though most of the media coverage focused on the few actual incidences of violence, the level of strife was minimal.

Areas in which protest was forbidden were clearly demarcated by heavy metal fences. Cops, clad in black with helmets and goggles and clubs, stood ready for a possible confrontation. Meanwhile, the nearly 10,000 protesters were relatively calm.

By Sunday, the protesters knew that they were not going to prevent the IMF and World Bank meetings. But with the air swirling with vinegar (carrying it was a common defense against pepper spray), the protesters came out in force, engaged in marching, chanting, and interpretive dancing. They held puppets which included caricatures of politicians, a symbolic image of "Liberation," and even a "Structural Adjustment Policy Machine" depicted processing a person holding a sign that read "farm land" and spit him back out with a sign that read "gentrified Yuppyville."

The event was reminiscent of a carnival, clouded with confusion and excitement. In addition to the hodge-podge of people, there was also a mixture of demands. The protesters shared a disdain for corporate greed, but little else united their causes, which ranged from sweatshops to discrimination against women to the political conditions in Peru and genocide in Turkey. Fashion-wise, the protesters wore everything from all black to tie-dye to flannel to collared shirts and khaki pants, and prepared to shield themselves with everything from goggles to Yale hats.

Of the Yale hat-wearers, most were back on the bus by 7 p.m. Headed north toward New Haven, 60 people slumped in their seats, tired and tanned. No one had been hurt. The only groans stemmed from the thought of Monday, and the anticipation of the final week of classes.

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Photos by Liz Oliner and Danica Novgorodoff.

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