On the 6th and 7th of October the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had their annual meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. They discussed changes to be made in the structures and priorities in their core being. Something that was also discussed during the G20 summit held earlier in Pittsburgh, USA.
Whilst so-called world and financial leaders were gathering in the Congress Valley thousands were marching and protesting against them.
Ironically just as Turkeys Prime Minister opened the IMF’s and WB’s meeting addressing change and stating that this new world order also had to listen to the protesters outside his police forces gassed the non-violent and peaceful protest with tear gas.
It was clearly a contradiction between acts and words by a neo-liberal and neo-conservative prime minister trying to shatter every bit of leftish and progressive politics that was left in the nation state that is the Turkish Republic.
But worse than this contradiction is the complete and utter manipulation of the media that was followed after the severe attack on protesters and innocent people on the 6th of October on Taksim Square. The media was sold the story that the police only gassed the protesters on Taksim Square after they provoked the police and ‘leftish groups’ or ‘ civil society groups’ started throwing molotov cocktails. Witch was a complete lie.
It is true that groups of protesters were in a something that resembled a guerilla war with the police. But this only happened after the attack of the police on Taksim Square. Nobody of the protesters on the square was expecting such a brutal attack by the police. We were barely recovering from the happiness of being on Taksim Square, since after the riots of 1979 no political or activist group was allowed to protest on the square itself. And then it happened.
It was clear that the police waited till all the protesters groups arrived on Taksim Square to throw Tear gas bombs into the people. This was so shocking that some protesters have indeed reacted in a violent manner by throwing molotov cocktails and trying to destroy the banks that were located in the main shopping street of Istanbul, Istiklal. But remaining non-violent was not helped by the word on the street that right wing groups were hunting down protesters who fled Taksim after the tear gas attack nor the brutal and violent behavior of the police by randomly arresting and beating people in the streets surrounding Taksim and Istiklal. For hours that area resembled a war zone with activist fleeing, the police shooting tear gas and then beating the people they came across as every person on the streets was perceived as an activist.
Brutal force and violence was executed by both the police and the right wing groups who came to help the police. And this was only the first day. The second day of the IMF and WB meeting things were not better. Protests were provoked and activist were intimidated. With the outcome that again in certain parts of Istanbul riots broke loose. The protests that remained non-violent were under great stress from the police forces as no effort was spared to try and get them to act violent as well.
It is pure irony that as such the real criminals of this world, the cause of todays economical and ecological crisis were inside the Congress Valley, protected by the police force. This whilst they who were protesting the imperial policies of the IMF and WB, the suffering they have caused in the Global South, the adaptation to a global capitalist economy of countries that didn’t need it in the first place, was battered in such a manner. It is also a clear example of how this supposedly New World Order wants to continue. They want to continue on the path of richness for few and poverty for many forgetting any kind of humanity and even the Millennium Goals they themselves signed not so many years ago. I’ve only got one word for this; hypocrisy.
And that’s just what it is. Hypocrisy. The IMF and the WB want to be perceived as democratic entities that do good for the global community and countries that struggle with their economies. But in reality they are just a means for oppression. By the hands of neo-liberal economy. But also by taking away participation, ignoring civil society, oppressing different voices, etc..
It’s the economy stupid. For wealth and well being of few.
. It is our role as youth to press for a more ambitious climate deal. When countries do not move because other countries refuse to, we are going nowhere. And when the climate experts and politicians do not manage to seal the deal this time, we can only hope to be left with some COP-decisions that have a shorter lifespan and less impact. We young people therefore need to help the politicians in our own countries and outside of that to understand the urgency of the moment. We need a climate deal right now. And we young greens will press the politicians to move at COP15.
That same Saturday, on the 16th of May, I joined Ecolo (j) and (Jong) Groen together with Battal and Bruno at the Gaypride in Brussels to make a statement on anti-discrimination and equal rights.
As you can see in the pictures, there was a large group bicycle by which we moved through Brussels. In the mean time we drank organic wine, brewed from flowers and syrup which tasted really well! And as you can also see in the pictures, Ecolo and Groen brought a whole bunch of tattoos with a heart in rainbow colours. People will be making green statements for quite a couple of days probably, since I found out that it is very difficult to wash them off… 
