South african police have surrounded the International Forum on Globalisation

SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE HAVE SURROUNDED THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON GLOBALISATION
Total onslaught as police fire teargas on Vandana Shiva and Naomi Klein

The IFG have just closed today's forum at Wits University with a rally in support of the freedom of expression, and against the brutal clampdown on dissent. The IFG delegates are joining the Anti Privatisation Forum in a march to Thabo Mbeki Square (formerly the famous John Vorster Square). Moments ago, the marchers were attempting to leave the university campus on route to the police station where over 250 members of the Soldiers Forum and Landless Peoples Movement (LPM) were until yesterday detained. The soldiers have still not been released and reports of their fingers being broken by police, teargassing in their cells and the coughing-up of blood have not relented the state's resolve.

Police had cordoned off the rally and are now trying to restrict it to the university campus. With such heavy security deployment and with the police seeing only red, the prospect of arrests is not unlikely. Vandana Shiva and Naomi Klein, among the most prominent of the IFG speakers, are participating in the march and could well found themselves victims of the South African government's ‘total onslaught'.

News just in is that the police have fired teargas on the marchers and have arrested a reknowned South African filmmaker, Rehad Desai. The marchers are refusing to leave the point of confrontation until Rehad is released.
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State repression intensifies!
by Social Movement Indaba • Sunday August 25, 2002 at 02:20 PM

Earlier this evening (Saturday 24th August) the South African Police attacked the Freedom of Expression march in Johannesburg, organised jointly by the Social Movements Indaba (SMI) and International Forum on Globalisation (IFG). At least three marchers were injured and a prominent South African filmmaker, Rehad Desai arrested.
State repression intensifies!
Freedom of Expression March attacked by police

The march was intended as a public statement of protest against the South African government's increasingly brutal repression of those who would dare voice dissent against the corporate agenda of the WSSD and government policies that are wreaking such devastation on the poor. Armed with candles, the several hundred marchers from all over South Africa and from various corners of the globe, were proceeding from Wits University (in Braamfontein) to the Johannesburg Central Prison (John Vorster Square), when the police, without warning, attacked them with concussion grenades.

In the ensuing melee, a Canadian activist, Karen Coge, was hit by one of the grenades and had to be rushed to hospital, suffering from serious burns. Anti-Privatisation member, Dudu Mphenyeke was also taken to hospital with a dislocated knee and at least one other marcher was injured. Several children who had joined the peaceful march were left in a state of trauma. Desai, who was filming the march, was arrested for ‘obstructing police operations' and hauled off to Hillbrow Police Station where he was charged and released on R1000 bail. Several internationally renowned anti-globalisation activists and intellectuals, including Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, Naomi Klein, Tony Clarke and John Saul, were caught up in the police attack.

After the attack, marchers regrouped in the street and faced-off against a small army of heavily armed and aggressive police. March leaders attempted to reason with the police to allow the march to proceed, to no avail. The police responded by indicating that they were prepared to forcibly arrest everyone. After a spirited street rally, marchers peacefully dispersed.

The events of this evening are only further confirmation of the ever-narrowing space in the ‘new' South Africa, for the exercise of the basic constitutional and human rights to freedom of expression and assembly. If not before, it should now be crystal clear that the South African government is hell-bent on smashing legitimate dissent by whatever means they deem appropriate, including attacking peaceful marchers and terrorising children. The ghosts of the South African past are returning with a vengeance.

The SMI says again – the South African government is making a serious mistake if it believes that it can bludgeon into submission, those who seek to expose the W$$D for the fraud that it is and who oppose government policies against the poor. The freedoms that so many South Africans fought so long for will not be given up because of the arrogance and authoritarianism of a new set of elites.

It is time for all those who support such freedoms to stand up and be counted. Silence is the voice of complicity.
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FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ‘UNSUSTAINABLE' DURING W$$D
by Indymedia South Africa • Sunday August 25, 2002 at 01:49 PM

Marchers against privatisation gathered at Wits University this afternoon, under the banner of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF). A teach-in at Wits University, organised by the International Forum on Globalisation (IFG), culminated in a march where APF protesters were joined by conference delegates, led by Trevor Ngwane, Naomi Klein, Maude Barlow, Njoki Njehu and Tony Clarke
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ‘UNSUSTAINABLE' DURING W$$D
Marchers against privatisation gathered at Wits University this afternoon, under the banner of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF). A teach-in at Wits University, organised by the International Forum on Globalisation (IFG), culminated in a march where APF protesters were joined by conference delegates, led by Trevor Ngwane, Naomi Klein, Maude Barlow, Njoki Njehu and Tony Clarke. The APF led demonstration was heading towards Johannesburg Central Prison (the old John-Vorster-Square, which had just been renamed earlier that day into ‘Thabo-Mbeki-John-Vorster-Square') to protest against the recent apartheid-style arrests by the government. Those arrested include protesters from the Landless People's Movement involved in Wednesday's and Thursday's marches to Sam Shilowa's office (Anne Eveleth is still to be released), the Kensington 87 and members of the Soldiers Forum.
The peaceful demonstration (it was actually a candle-light march, and don't candles represent peaceful intentions?) had not even left the campus when it was met by massive police presence. Seven vehicles miraculously multiplied into 14, and very quickly there were 21! As the marchers continued police vehicles diced alongside them, creating a feeling of urgency, panic and, ultimately, intimidation. Candle-holding marchers made it to the corner of Jorrison and Eendracht streets (which is barely a block from the campus) when police opened fire. What sounded like gunshots, were in fact concussion grenades- something new from the north! The confusion was great: people were running away, not quite knowing whether it was tear gas or real gun shots that had been fired. Some of the protesters got injured in the chaos. A protester from Canada experienced burns on her legs as one of the stun-grenades exploded right next to her. Two other marchers reported disjointed wrists and knees. All of the injured were taken to hospital.
These deterrence techniques are reminiscent of apartheid and worldwide responses to anti-globalisation movements in their willingness to use violence against peaceful protesters. In disbelief Johannesburg based journalist and acclaimed documentary filmmaker Rehad Desai approached police asking for an explanation of this unnecessary use of force. This simple question was reason enough to arrest him. One can only wonder what happened to the freedom of expression in this country? Has it been suspended for the time of the W$$D?
Negotiation was not an option either. Police told APF representatives ‘We do not want you here', and that any means available would be used to remove protesters. Protesters' continual emphasis that this was a peaceful demonstration was countered by a reference to ‘right procedures'. However, these so called ‘right procedures' limit freedom of expression and movement by confining marchers to small, contained spaces, with little public visibility. When asked if it was possible for the group to walk to John Vorster Square using the pavement, thus not disrupting traffic, Commander Isaac Maake replied that any unofficial group gathering would be considered illegal.
Protest songs and speeches- from APF members and IFG delegates continued for a while. It became clear that staying any longer would mean arrest, as other police vehicles had started pulling up behind the now seated marchers. It was decided to retreat so as to be able to ‘fight another day'. As the probably most famous W$$D absentee, the cowboy from Texas, would say in his unique rhetorical style, ‘MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT': there will be a lot of other days! Until then the only way it seems that we will be able to get to John Vorster –Thabo Mbeki Square, if we want to, is in a police car.
In anticipation of many more and bigger marches planned for the W$$D this melodramatic response by the police to a peaceful demonstration can only be a precursor of heightened confrontation between protesters and a state, which will not allow for the freedom of expression and movement. With Sandton already transformed into a no-go area for critical spirits and much of the city ‘disneyfied' so as to tell the wonderful tale of the South African transformation, not much space is left for the voices of those excluded.
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arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)