It is a global movement!

A Thailand meeting of the Asian Development Bank was welcomed by mass protests in the latest evidence of the worldwide nature of the anti-corporate globalism movement. The AP wire reports,

The Asian Development Bank has become the latest victim of protests and new scrutiny that have dogged big multilateral economic institutions since the World Trade Organization's debacle in Seattle last year.

Many demonstrators came from a coastal area south of the capital, Bangkok, where the bank is helping fund a mammoth wastewater treatment plant to clean up pollution from barely regulated industries that have sprouted over the years. The villagers, who make their living mostly from fishing and farming, see the location of the facility as punishment for a mess they didn't make.

The protesters demanded that the bank stop funding the project and, echoing antiglobalization demonstrations, cease making loans that increase the indebtedness of poor countries or harm farmers and the poor in the name of financial restructuring and reform.

The next time you read some lunatic columnist or hear a talking head question the motivations of American citizens involved in protests in Seattle or DC, remember that we're only following the lead of our friends in the Global South.