Chicago Tribune - February 3, 2002

Dozens of mounted police guarded the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, and hundreds more officers wearing riot gear stood guard as thousands of protesters chanted, banged drums and waved signs near the site.

By mid-evening, all the protest groups had dispersed and left the area. About 4,000 police officers were on duty to maintain calm.

The 2,700 business and political leaders and celebrities attending the five-day forum are discussing U.S. foreign policy, its possible role in breeding terrorism and the downside of globalization--all key issues for the protest groups.

At a morning session on the world's economy, Horst Kohler, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, bluntly criticized the United States for protecting its agricultural and textile industries from cheap foreign competition through tariffs and government subsidies.

Such policies keep poor countries from fully participating in the global economy, he said.

"We need to focus on giving developing countries better access, and this includes the phasing out of these subsidies, which are absolutely distorting and devastating sectors in the poor world," Kohler said to loud applause from the gallery.

U.S. textile manufacturers have argued against lowering tariffs, saying it would jeopardize American jobs. Government subsidies of U.S. crops, such as soybeans, help American farmers compete with foreign producers, such as Brazil, which can sell crops for a fraction of U.S. prices.

Protesters contend the forum's discussions are just lip service. They say that wealthy countries exploit poorer ones by pressuring them to remove protective trade barriers and by allowing multinational corporations to dominate their fragile economies.

Outside the hotel, police arrested 36 protesters, including 27 who were carrying wooden shields or masks. The group was taken into custody based on "specific information" that its members planned to attack police, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

Protest leaders had insisted that they would demonstrate peacefully, and Kelly agreed that they generally complied.

At the conference Saturday morning, Bill Gates, chairman of software giant Microsoft, and Bono, the lead singer of the rock group U2, called on governments and corporations to substantially increase their contributions for global health programs, especially for AIDS victims.

"We can't afford to let them die," Bono said of AIDS victims in poor countries. "We actually may not be able to afford to look after all the orphans. Even in cold, clinical terms it may be more expensive to the developed world to let them die."

Gates chastised the U.S. government as "the laggard" among world aid donors.

He said the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would donate $50 million to help prevent the spread of HIV. But he warned that private philanthropy would not solve the problem in developing countries, and that governments--especially the United States--would have to increase funding.

However, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill made clear that he was opposed to appeals for a major increase in aid from wealthy nations. Poor countries have received "trillions of dollars in aid over the years with precious little to show for it," he said.

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