Protesters began their day with the noon rally at Franklin Square and then marched to a small park outside the IMF and World Bank headquarters near 18th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. To and from the IMF and World Bank buildings, they paused briefly to shout their opposition at the offices of such companies and institutions as Bechtel Corp. and the Inter-American Development Bank. Some marchers banged the bottoms of pots with sticks and spoons to recreate the experience of Argentine demonstrations known as cacerolazos.
As the marchers made their way toward the World Bank and IMF, Cambodian native Sam Vuthy held a corner of a banner that read, "Economic policy for people not for profit." Vuthy said the privatization of the Cambodian economy has hurt the poor in his country. "Now the poor people lose their land," he said. "They are unemployed. . . . [The World Bank and IMF] are exploiting people's economic security."
Maya Renee, a student from Bellingham, Wash., chants with her fellow protesters as the anti-globalization march moves down K Street NW.
(Photos Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)
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Richard Yanul, 67, stood just outside the door of his visual arts shop, the Franz Bader Bookstore, to take in the spectacle on I Street NW. "It's all very noisy and rather silly," he said. "I don't think the World Bank is that evil an organization. It's not perfect, but few organizations are."
Inside the store, his wife, Sabine Yanul, 59, was more sympathetic. "They're idealistic," she told him. "I'm sure when you were that age you had your gripes."
Federal and city police were on hand in large numbers. D.C. police restricted leave for officers to boost their ranks, activated their network of closed-circuit cameras in the downtown area and closed several blocks surrounding the barricaded IMF and World Bank buildings to vehicular traffic. "It's our job to be ready," Ramsey said.
Richard Ishikawa, a 39-year-old engineering director who recently moved to McLean, stood on I Street NW looking at his new $60,000 black Lexus and the long scratch from front to back on one side of the car that someone had scraped. Along that side of the block, a couple of SUVs bore anti-IMF stickers and swirls of scratched paint. "That defeats the purpose of these sorts of demonstrations," Ishikawa said. "Scratching cars and protesting are two different things."
Just before 4 p.m., the marchers returned to Franklin Square, playing Frisbee and climbing trees. Some settled on the grass and listened to more speakers and sang along with musicians whose lyrics criticized the World Bank. People lined up for plates of potato-and-cheese hash and ate oranges. By 5 p.m., the event was over, but not before the last speaker reminded everyone of one last cause -- to clean up the park before they left.
Staff writers Timothy Dwyer, Susan Kinzie, Monte Reel and Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this report.
