On Tuesday, September 26, 2000 in Burlington, Vermont an estimated 75 members of the Vermont Action Network (VAN), concerned activists, and citizens from northern and central Vermont marched, demonstrated, and took part in nonviolent direct actions as part of the international celebration of the 4th International Day Against Capitalism.
The actions, in solidarity with protests against the IMF/World Bank meetings in Prague, Czech Republic yesterday, began at the University of Vermont's Billings Student Center, continued down Pearl St. to Burlington's downtown, and culminated in a demonstration and nonviolent direct actions against Gap, Inc. at the corporate multi-national's new Old Navy location on Church St. Protester targets included Sodexho Marriott, Gap, Inc., Old Navy, McDonald's and Ben & Jerry's, all of which are seen by the Vermont Action Network as part and parcel of corporate globalization: the spread of global corporate dominance.
VAN began its festivities by visiting Sodexho Marriott's dining hall in the Billings Student Center, where literature was handed out to dining students about the corporation's massive investments in the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison corporation in the country. VAN presented Sodexho Marriott with a giant check representing the profits it has gained from investing in the private prison industry. The demonstrators then exited Billings and proceeded to take back Pearl St. from its business-as-usual traffic with a march to the northern block of Church St. The procession was complete with colorful banners decrying the insidious loaning practices and structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), be-suited billionaires, marched to the beat of 5 gallon bucket drums, and came to rest at the doors of Old Navy.
Old Navy, the latest installment of Gap, Inc.'s multi-national chain of retail clothing stores, was targeted for being complicit in its parent company's use of sweatshop labor practices. 6 activists disguised as shoppers entered the building, gathered some "purchases", and began to clog the checkouts asking questions about where the products were produced, the conditions of the factories, and the treatment of the workers. Just as Old Navy's business-as-usual began to slow, its doors burst open and roughly half of the demonstrators outside the store entered with a cacophony of drums, shouting, and banners, along with journalists and at least eight Burlington police officers. At this point, "business-as-usual" for Old Navy was effectively halted.
Outside the store, demonstrators drummed and danced, speaking their minds about the influence of multi-national corporations on the character of their local communities, their ties to the global financial practices of the IMF and World Bank, and the protests occuring simultaneously across the Atlantic. As the sun began to hang low over Lake Champlain it was clear that the Vermont Action Network, as well as concerned activists and citizens from northern and central Vermont, had disrupted "business-as-usual" on the Church St. Marketplace, as well as highlighting the effect, and dubious influence, of multi-national corporations in our community and their ties to the economic oppression of global capitalism as symbolized by the IMF and World Bank.
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Yours in solidarity,
Jason Ford
Northern Forest Campaigner
Native Forest Network
Eastern North American Resource Center
PO Box 57 Burlington, VT 05402
(802)863-0571 phone (802) 864-8203 fax
www.nativeforest.org