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Protest in Doha tonight, Saturday by Thatcher Collins 12:28pm Sun Nov 11 '01

Protest in Doha tonight, Saturday   About 65 members of Non-Governmental Organizations attending the WTO Ministierial in Doha, Qatar blocked the door exiting the Nakhil hall at the Doha Sheraton Hotel. Robert B. Zoellick, the United STates Trade Representative, gave a press conference in that room after the official accession of China to the WTO. Jose Bove, Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow, and Walden Bellow stood toe-to-toe with the Qatari security, as they and over 60 others chanted (in french and english) "What's going on behind closed doors? Arm twisting! Arm twisting!" They held signs that said "Arm Twisting." The protest was organized 20 minutes before it happened--more protests are planned for the next few days. Last night, many of the same people stood outside with tape over their mouths before the opening session as trade ministers entered the Sheraton. Developing countries are threatening to vote to stop a new trade round over the issues of expanding agriculture trade liberalization, AIDS drug patent protection, and the lack of a commitment to development. Vandana Shiva said "The majority of countries are silenced systematically. The pretention of consensus goes on and an anti-concensus anti-democratic treaty that is shaped under machine guns, under security forces is not worth celebrating. We want a democratic treaty." Walden Bello challenged WTO Director General Michael Moore yesterday in an NGO briefing about the "mini-ministerials" held in Mexico and Singapore. Maude Barlow said at the protest that the same sort of exclusion continues at this official ministerial: "We are hearing terrible stories from the developing country delegates that they are being told what to do. They got brought into this meeting in the first place with a text they didn't agree. And the text was announced the first night as if it was agreed by everybody and it never was agreed. And now they're told they are not even going to have proper meetings with each other there's going to be somebody assigned to go get consensus." Zoellick annouced at the press conference: "I believe that as this century unfolds and people look backn on today, they will conclude that in admitting China to the WTO we took a decisive step in shaping the global ecnomic and commerical system." In a sense, War on Want agrees, "This means that millions of workers elsewhere in the world will face wage cuts and unemployment" due to low labour costs in China. The protest ended peacefully, after Zoellick and the rest of the press conference exited out a back door. The smiling Qatari security carried no weapons and no body armour but wore only their traditional white robes. They held lines against the protest by holding hands. Jose Bove took a photograph with the line of Qatari security, they hugged each other as Bove held his "Arm Twisting" sign. Maude Barlow and a few others followed suit. add your own comments