WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- The "Battle After Seattle" this week may be fought on a high plain.
The Ruckus Society, a non-violent element among the groups expected to protest at the meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, has been working on its high-wire act.
The Ruckus Society held an Alternative Spring Break Action Camp at the Peace River Campground near Arcadia, Fla., to build on the momentum of the environmentalist protests against the World Trade Organization at Seattle in November.
The centerpiece for the 80 campers in central Florida was a five-story tower, used by the students to work on hanging huge signs and practicing their rappels and swoops. They also worked on safety, keeping in mind the safety slogan, "A good activist is a living activist."
In addition to their work on the scaffolding, they added to their repertoire the formation of human blockades and the environmental messages they are trying to get across.
The Ruckus Society camp, in cooperation with the Rainforest Action Network, Free the Planet and Ozone Action groups, was headed by John Sellers. He is best known for helping actor Woody Harrelson hang a huge banner about saving California's redwoods from the Golden Gate Bridge. One of his most recent stunts was hanging a sign from a crane at the construction site of the Houston Astros' new baseball stadium, Enron Field.
It was in full view of an oil executives' meeting and said, "Houston, We Have a Problem -- Stop Oil Exploration."
"I wouldn't be surprised to see a number of high profile activities to get attention in Washington, including some action involving climbing skills," Sellers said.
Ruckus is based in Berkeley, Calif., and was founded by Mike Roselle, a 45-year-old former Greenpeace leader who boasted to the St. Petersburg Times, "I've put more people behind bars than most district attorneys."
Roselle's signature was a climb of Mt. Rushmore to put a gas mask on George Washington's stone likeness in an anti-pollution protest.
Although the Ruckus Society tries to be non-violent, as do mainstream groups such as labor unions, environmentalists and church groups, the Seattle protest turned violent. Sellers was there and he blames the Seattle police.
"They started to use rubber, wood and cork bullets hours before any windows were smashed, he said.
Sellers does not expect to see a repeat in Washington because police are used to demonstrations, some of them thousands of times larger that the numbers expected this week.
"We're up against the varsity in Washington," he said. "I have never seen the Washington, D.C., police or other law enforcement in that jurisdiction lose their composure like the way I saw Seattle police lose their composure."
It is likely to be a different kind of law enforcement challenge.
Estimates of the numbers of IMF-World Bank protesters range from 5,000 to 30,000 -- most of them experienced and well-trained. As many as 2,000 of them were trained by the Ruckus Society in 18 camps across the nation over the past several years.
The protesters are fighting the global economy, claiming that banking organizations have left poor countries in debt, destroyed rain forests for no reason and protected large corporations such as Disney and Nike at the expense of the Third World's working poor.
"We're doing non-violent, direct action to confront corrupt institutions and corporations," the 33-year-old Sellers said.
Two demonstrations were conducted over the weekend, resulting in no violence, although there was a human chain around the capitol. D.C. police renewed a pledge to avoid violence.
The protests will continue throughout the week, but the target for most groups is Sunday when the IMF meeting takes place.
Ruckus Society members also like to think they have a practical side. In Seattle they rented warehouse space and fed 500 people a day.
"We're the logistics geeks of the movement," Sellers said. Their $500,000 annual budget comes from foundations, individual contributors and other organizations.
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