Where did it all begin? There are probably many who could legitimately claim to have thought of having large demonstrations at the Spring 2000 IMF/World Bank meetings.  The 50 Years Is Enough Network, of course, routinely sponsors demonstrations at both the spring and fall general meetings in Washington, although the spring demonstrations, which don‚t benefit from following our national conference, are usually quite small (25-50 people).  The momentum of Seattle, which was palpable by noon on November 30, when thousands of activists were putting themselves on the line for global justice, inspired many that day to start looking toward April in Washington.

  The first step toward making something big happen in April was to get a sense of what folks in D.C. were prepared to do.  On December 15th, 50 Years Is Enough sponsored a "report-back" on Seattle at the University of the District of Columbia, which drew over 50 area activists.  We capped the evening with a discussion of what could be done to build on the momentum from Seattle.  The people present were enthused about the prospect of a big action in Washington in April. 

  On January 11, 50 Years sponsored the first meeting expressly dedicated to planning the April actions.  Over 70 activists turned out at UDC.  Working groups were formed, a non-violence agreement based on the one used in Seattle was agreed to, and the ball was rolling for the April action ˆ inevitably dubbed "A16" for the date, April 16th, on which the IMF‚s International Monetary and Financial Committee ˜ the most important at the Spring Meetings. 

  Over the next several weeks, the group met and continued to grow, reaching about 120 at some general meetings.  Adopting a flexible consensus-based approach employing working groups and a representative "spokescouncil," we built an atmosphere of mutual trust, and created the plans for what we chose to call the Mobilization for Global Justice.  That name was applied to both our burgeoning coalition and the ten days of activities planned for April 8-17, but it never wholly eclipsed the shorthand "A16."

  The Mobilization brought together dozens, even hundreds, of activists in Washington with an amazing array of talents and unsoppable dedication.  It is tempting to recognize a few of the people who performed nearly heroic feats for the Mobilization, but the list would be practically endless, and would inevitably leave out some activists deserving of recognition.  The only rational choice is to continue in the spirit of the Mobilization, for which dozens of organizations and individual activists willingly submerged their egos for the sake of creating quality actions and, almost as important, a microcosmic world of genuine solidarity and cooperation.

  Given all that happened as part of the Mobilization for Global Justice, perhaps the best way to review the events and how they came together is to review the efforts of each Working Group:

Arts in  Action:  This group provided the beautiful and festive puppets and other props that make actions like those in Seattle and Washington so visually impressive and which put on display the sort of world the movement for global economic justice is working towards ˆ one with humor, beauty, and cooperation.  A body of people proficient in the art of making these props has been building over the last several years, including several in Washington, who were joined by others from around the continent as the action drew closer.

Communications:  The Communications Working Group took on two main tasks: maintaining the website (www.a16.org, which is still functioning) and coordinating the communications devices (cell phones, two-way radios, etc.) used by affinity groups during the direct action. The website in particular was an invaluable resource ˆ it promoted the action around the world, recruited endorsers and participants, educated people about the IMF and World Bank, helped people find housing, carried a calendar of events not only for Washington but for related events around the world, supplied links to other relevant organizations and events, listed endorsing organizations, and provided space for dialogue.  The Working Group also set up e-mail listservs for both D.C. area activists and for those around the world as they worked to plot strategy and make plans for April.  Many of the individual working groups set up their own listservs to facilitate their work.

Convergence/Training:  A series of non-violence trainings, which introduced participants to techniques for protesting, blockading, and dealing with authority figures, were offered to Washington activists in the months leading up to April 16, and on a nearly-daily basis for activists arriving from out-of-town as the appointed days grew nearer.  Trainings were also offered in how to deal with the media and how to facilitate meetings using a consensus approach. This group also took responsibility for locating the building used for the Mobilization‚s "convergence center" ˆ the place for most of the trainings, spokescouncils, prop construction, legal preparations, food preparation and provision, etc.  Located in a warehouse in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, the Convergence Center became the nerve center of the Mobilization, with constant . On the morning of April 15, the day before the actions, the municipal authorities went on the offensive and closed the center, confiscating most of the materials inside, on the grounds of alleged violations of the fire code.  This cheap harassment tactic failed to sideline preparations for the following day, as activists quickly re-grouped at two nearby churches.

Fundraising:  The Mobilization cost over $140,000 when all was said and done, so the value of this Working Group should be obvious.  About half of the money was raised from small donations in response to a solicitation by the Alliance for Global Justice.  Additional funds came from small foundation grants and some of the larger endorsing organizations.

Issues Forums: The Mobilization knew there would be a need for activist education about the IMF and World Bank, so a series of workshops were arranged starting Monday, April 10.  Some were held at the Convergence Center; others which wouldn‚t fit there took place at nearby churches and, on Saturday, at the University of the District of Columbia.  In addition to daily sessions on the basic facts of the institutions and structural adjustment, there were also workshops on more specific topics such as the campaign for reparations for damages caused by Bank-financed large dam projects, bilateral investment treaties, and the campaign to boycott World Bank bonds. There was also a video series split between UDC and the Jewish Community Center.  The most popular event, however, was unquestionably a debate pitting Njoki Njoroge Njehu, Director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network and Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South (Philippines/Thailand) against representatives of the IMF and World Bank on April 15 at the Jewish Community Center. The debate drew hundreds of people, of whom only a fraction could fit in the venue ˆ the largest we could find.  (The Issues Forums Working Group did not have responsibility for the International Forum on Globalization or an April 13 session on alternatives to corporate globalization, both of which were organized in large part by the Institute for Policy Studies.)

Labor: Labor was the only constituency to have a working group dedicated to it, on account of the unique demands of dealing with union bureaucracies, and the potential significance of having major backing from the unions.  And it succeeded: not only the AFL-CIO itself, but a range of unions from the Teamsters to the Steelworkers to the United Electrical Workers (UE) and the American Federation of Government Employees lent their support to the permitted rally; UE and the AFGE also endorsed the Mobilization.  By demonstrating that the coalition that came together in Seattle was united in opposing IMF/World Bank policies, we succeeded in getting our message out and heard by many thousands more than we otherwise could have reached. We are now building on the relationship established with Jobs with Justice during this effort, and look forward to collaborating on actions to parallel those in Prague for the September IMF/World Bank meetings.

Legal:  Teams of volunteer lawyers and paralegals associated with the National Lawyers Guild and Midnight Special Law Collective provided trainings for legal observers who sought to be witnesses to any actions by the authorities that might infringe on activists‚ rights.  The legal teams also provided trainings and advice for protesters who were risking arrest, and representation for those put in jail.  Over 1200 people were arrested during the course of the Mobilization.  Jail solidarity tactics worked out in advance succeeded in reducing the charges against those who did not accept early release (with a fine) to the equivalent of jaywalking (a traffic offense) and a $5 fine ˆ though that required several nights in jail under conditions some found abusive or intimidating.  The legal teams have continued working to represent those whose charges led to court dates (in several cases the charges have been dropped), and a lawsuit is now being prepared seeking damages for police mistreatment, and spurious arrests and confiscations. 

Logistics:  Among the least glamorous but most-appreciated tasks was that of finding housing, parking, and food for the thousands of activists coming into Washington.  It wasn‚t easy.  Months of cajoling, lobbying, nagging, and pleading finally yielded thousands of places on area residents‚ floors and sofas, and in tents in backyards and farms, and in churches and offices and union halls.  The food was much easier: Seeds of Peace provided mobile kitchens and supplies, which together with donated food allowed them to feed hundreds of people every day the Convergence Center was open. 

Media:  For most progressive activists in the U.S., the challenge is usually to attract mainstream media coverage.  In the wake of Seattle, our situation turned out to be different.  Our debut press conference, immediately following a speech by World Bank President James Wolfensohn at the National Press Club on March 14, drew about 60 journalists ˆ many had to stand in the hall and strain to hear what was being said.  Even before that, Reuters and the Washington Post had published stories on our plans.  The Media Working Group fielded press calls and schmoozed with reporters, securing particularly good coverage in, among other outlets, Time magazine, the BBC, CNN, and NBC.  The Mobilization was, in the end, covered thoroughly by nearly every major media outlet.  Alternative and progressive media also covered the Mobilization extensively, with The Nation, for instance, printing a special issue to correspond to the week of events.  (The Independent Media Center was, as the name indicates, separate from the Mobilization for Global Justice, though it did receive a start-up grant for facilities and equipment from us, and its volunteers did cooperate on many occasions with the Media Working Group, as they did with virtually everyone working with and for the media.)

Medical: The experiences of participants in the Seattle direct actions convinced any who weren‚t already persuaded of the importance of medical teams.  We were fortunate to have the help of several doctors and nurses with experience from Seattle and other actions.  While there was less police tear gas to deal with in Washington, there was some pepper spray, and of course injuries from assaults by police officers with clubs, fists, horses, and motor vehicles.  Many people also found themselves overcome by afternoon heat, which surprised many who were lulled into leaving extra water behind by a rainy early morning.  The police complicated the medical effort further by confiscating the majority of the first aid supplies we had collected during the raid of the convergence center.  Fortunately no injuries or conditions were aggravated by the forced recourse to improvisation. 

Messaging/Propaganda:  The first order of business was drafting a call for endorsements that was used not only to garner support but to simply inform people around the world of the Mobilization‚s existence and plans.  The Working Group‚s focus then shifted to the composition and production of a four-page fold-out  brochure offering basic facts about the IMF and World Bank and the week of actions in April.  Also produced were a series of factsheets on such topics as the parallels between structural adjustment and domestic economic policies devastating the impoverished in the U.S. ("Adjusting America") and a history of organizing and major actions against the IMF and World Bank in the global South over the last 20 years.  (These factsheets are still available on the www.a16.org website and the 50 Years website ˆ www.50years.org.  This Working Group also created designs for Mobilization T-shirts, stickers, and buttons. 

Outreach:  One of the elementary tasks in creating a successful action is, of course, getting people there.  The Outreach Working Group, which ended up focusing almost exclusively on the Washington area, coordinated teach-ins and meetings with community groups, churches, and on campuses to tell people why activists would be converging on Washington, and to encourage them to join the fun.  The Mobilization hired someone to work full-time on spreading the message about the Mobilization in the area‚s communities of color.  A local crisis added urgency to the outreach effort as the city of Washington condemned several buildings, occupied mainly by immigrants, located in the same neighborhood as the convergence center ˆ an area ripe for gentrification. The Mobilization took up the cause along with immigrants-rights activists in the city , comparing the moves of the city government to the impact of structural adjustment on housing availability in Southern countries.  The outcry from many quarters forced the city to delay the slated evictions, and has just been resolved with a $250,000 renovation fund set up by the building owners and the transfer of ownership to the city.

Permitted Rally:  Although many of the Washington organizers were veterans of many a rally and march, few had planned an event for 20,000 people on the Ellipse, the park behind the White House.  A quick learning curve was called for as the group negotiated for rally and march permits and good prices on sound and stage equipment, and learned the finer points of constructing a platform to National Park Service specifications.  More negotiations concerned the appearance of many prominent speakers, such as heads of labor unions and various people‚s organizations from the North and the South.  In the end, the effort was a great success: lots of entertainment, stirring words, prominent speakers, and press coverage. The crowd was huge, and the short march allowed people to display their numbers, their message, and their support for all the forces opposing corporate globalization, the IMF, and the World Bank.

Roadshow/Caravan: Modeled on similar efforts made in advance of the Seattle WTO meeting, a troupe of musicians, improvisational actors, and activists was assembled and sent on a tour of campuses and cities up and down the East Coast, from Québec to Florida starting six weeks before the April actions.  In their performances they provided introductions to the IMF and World Bank and urged audience members to make arrangements to come to Washington for the demonstrations.  This Working Group also helped coordinate caravans of activists coming to Washington from all over North America.

Scenario:  Charged with coming up with possible plans for the direct actions on April 16 and 17, this group had one of the most sensitive jobs.  It gathered information on the likely movements of delegates and the police response, and created plans for street blockades to prevent delegates from reaching he meeting site at IMF headquarters.  All plans formulated by the Scenario Working Group were submitted to the Action Spokescouncil, consisting of representatives of each affinity group participating in the direct action, which started meeting April 8.  The ultimate outcome of this process was an agreement by affinity groups to take responsibility for specific "pie slices" of urban territory for the blockades.  Although many delegates got up in the middle of the night to beat the blockades, which went up around dawn on the 16th, once they were in place, the authorities faced an insurmountable task in getting delegates through them.

Welcome Center:  One of the last-formed Working Groups was a crew dedicated to making sure that the activists arriving at the Convergence Center would actually find people who could answer their questions and that journalists covering the activities there would not get in the way of vital preparations.