*{ http://www.attac.org/fra/asso/doc/doc62en.htm 16 aout 2002 After the events at Gothenburg -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We shall not allow opposition to liberal globalisation to be depicted as criminal. ATTAC France Prudence Dwyer } As a popular educational movement with some involvement in action, Attac France is not intending to avoid the issue of violence during demonstations nor to offer some stereotyped discourse on the subject. To make our position better understood, let us first recall some facts - both basic facts and facts related to present circumstances Attac is a movement which, in the thirty or so countries where it exists, has chosen to act in a non-violent manner without ever yielding ,as regards principles ,to the pressures of authorities that refuse dialogue (which -, let us make plain,- was not the case in Sweden). This choice is not open to compromise. The three significant factors at Gothenborg , and extremely worrying as regards the first two, are : the use of live ammunition by the police in the course of an operation to maintain order, quite without precedent for decades in a democratic country; the autistic isolation of the Commision and the Governments of the Fifteen who, despite growing disquiet on the part of public opinion regarding the consequences of liberal globalisation, persisted in their determination to "liberalise" to the utmost; finally the size of the mobilisation - about twenty thousand citizens from numerous countries, and the great majority of them non-violent ,who demonstrated on the occasion of this last European Council under Swedish Presidency. Let us say first of all that we totally disassociate ourselves from the groups of violent trouble-makers who devastated the centre of Gothenburg during the counter-summit. Such behaviour is to tally unacceptable for three reasons. Firstly it constitutes a breach of the democratically agreed practices in operation on the occasion of large gatherings opposed to the neoliberal policies of international and European institutions. Then, because of the priority attention given it by the media . it enables the stakes at issue and the extent of these mobilisations to be overlooked. Finally, and more serious still, it provides, at an opportune moment, arguments for all those, governments and business organisations in particular, who disquieted, with just cause, by the popular rejection which their policies are arousing, believe that they have found there a means of turning the tables, by attempting to criminalise opposition to a profoundly unjust social order. The Swedish authorities bear a heavy responsibility in this regard. They did not respect the series of undertakings agreed with the counter-summit organisations regarding the form of intervention to be employed by the police - whose attitude was often provocative. In particular, they permitted the use of live ammunition against the demonstrators. We formally condemn this initial occurrence in the management of demonstrations in Europe. More generally, it is the attitude of the Brussels Commission and the European Union Governments , meeting as the European Council, which poses a problem. At the very moment when strong opposition to liberal globalisation is being expressed, and not in the street alone, they thought good at Gothenburg, , along with George Bush, to request that a new dose of trade exchange liberalisation affecting agriculture, services etc. be put on the agenda for the WTO ministerial conference planned for Qatar in November. They they are thus giving good grounds for all those who put them in the same category as the G8. the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD and the WTO, as authors and agents of the neoliberal policies which have wrought havoc as these same institutions very well know and understand. The European decision makers and others are fully aware of the unpopularity of their policies. In pursuing them as if this did not matter, in taking no account of public opinion, they are actively contributing to exacerbating tensions and downgrading democracy and by this course of action they are creating the conditions for depicting citizen protest as criminal. This irresponsible blindness must cease and give way to attentive listening tothe demands of societies. In the coming months - at Genoa in July for the G8 Meeting; in various towns around the world at the time of the WTO Conference in Qatar next November; during the Belgian Presidency of the EU in the coming six months - all of the social movements which think that a different world is possible and that it is imperative to make it come about, are going to continue making their voices clearly heard. They will do it with determination, refusing to let themselves be taken hostage either by groups of provocateurs or by the political authorities opposing their constitutional right to peaceful demonstration. Attac France congratulates Attac Sweden very warmly on the remarkable work carried out , on the coordination achieved to create the conditions for public discussion without assistance from the European authorities, for the quality of the debates which marked the counter-summit and for the success of the non-violent demonstrations (20,000 people on Saturday 9the June) all of which (though partially concealed).constitute the reality of Gothenburg. *{ Paris, 19 June 2001. }