Hundreds of anti-globalization activists gathered here this week for the 2001 Civicus Assembly met Thursday with a top official of the World Bank, one of the agencies most widely condemned by the militants.
Mats Karlsson, the vice president for external affairs and the United Nations, was the sole agency official to respond to the invitation from assembly organizers, though representatives from governments including the Philippines and Mexico were also in attendance.
The conference, billed as a "World Alliance for Citizen Participation" gathered some 800 representatives of non-governmental organizations, unions and civic movements from 90 countries through Thursday.
Among the goals of the "Putting People at the Centre: Voluntary Action Shaping Social and Economic Change" conference was to launch a dialogue between protesters and powerbrokers following the violent clashes that marred recent meetings, which culminated with the death of an activist at last month's G8 summit in Genoa, Italy.
"You have had an impact on the way the World Bank works. And you still do. We need to see leaders of civil society emerge from this open revolution," Karlsson told the assembly, while expressing regret at the violence.
"We need to create a trusted space where we can work together, with these new interested leaders, and make sure that the changes actually happen."
Civicus president Kumi Naidoo was gratified by Karlsson's attendance at the assembly as it responded to the "vital need for a critical dialogue to take place, face to face" with one of the institutions that exemplifies the anti-globalization frustration.
Ann Pettifor, a co-founder of Britain's Jubilee 2000 Coalition, which seeks the cancellation of the international debt of the world's poorest developing countries, said Karlsson's presence was but a first step that offered no guarantees.
World leaders continue to evade dialogue with their critics, "meeting behind walls amid security concerns," Pettifor charged.
"Now they're running away to the mountains of Alberta," she scorned, alluding to the plan by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to host the next G8 summit at Kananaskis, a tiny and isolated enclave nestled in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. |
