WTO/IMF Protest, 2001, by Chris Chan

From MemoryArchive

Who: Chris Chan
What: WTO/IMF
When: 2001
Where: Washington, DC

In 2001, my family and I took a vacation to Washington DC. We were going to take in the many different museums and monuments that Washington had to offer us. Unfortunately, we met an unexpected surprise. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) had a conference in Washington while we were there. It was a particularly contentious meeting. China had just been accepted into the World Trade Organization as a member, which caused many concerns due to their track record with fair trade and human rights.

Because of the conference in general and also because of China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization, protests littered the streets of Washington. As me and my family walked to the National Mall from our hotel downtown, we were met by a plethora of graffiti sprayed out across the sidewalk. Stone pillars were adorned with the artwork of protesters. The graffiti ranged from anger towards the WTO and IMF’s policies polluting the environment to lambasting the global trade and development giants for their policies towards third world countries. Some of the graffiti also targeted China and its acceptance into the WTO.

As we walked toward the mall, we began to realize that the crowds of protesters were actually converging on the National Mall. That was our signal to head in a different direction. While we wanted to see some of the monuments, my parents decided it wasn’t worth risking being in the middle of another protest such as Seattle, which occurred only recently before.