By HARRY DUNPHY
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Opponents of global financial powers threatened Tuesday to shut down World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings next month, but pledged to avoid the violence that paralyzed Seattle during world trade talks.
Both financial institutions said they were ready for discussions with the protest groups but were drawing up contingency plans to prevent disruptions of the April 9-17 sessions, which draw finance ministers, central bank governors and other officials from 182 nations.
District of Columbia police said they have put together a team to prepare for the demonstrators and will not allow the capital to be shut down.
Representatives of the Mobilization for Global Justice said at a news conference that they expect tens of thousands of protesters from around the United States and abroad to come to the U.S. capital for demonstrations that will include blocking streets or buildings in an effort to prevent officials from attending their meetings.
Previous semiannual meetings of the banking institutions have seen only small protests. But the December World Trade Organizaton protests in Seattle set a confrontational tone for global financial issues. The WTO attracted mass protests that resulted in broken windows and in scuffles between protesters and police.
In addition to human blockades, labor groups and others said they will hold teach-ins, parades with giant puppets ridiculing the IMF and World Bank to build on the momentum they said they established in Seattle against the increasing globalization of the world economy.
They will lobby members of Congress as well on such issues as debt forgiveness for the world's poorest nations.
The protest groups view the IMF and the World Bank, both based in Washington, as institutions whose programs have failed these countries while enriching corporations and degrading the environment.
Demonstrators, including U.S. labor unions, will use the occasion to challenge the Clinton administration's efforts to secure congressional approval of normal trade relations with China.
Nadine Black, an organizer of the Mobilization for Global Justice, umbrella group for more than 250 organizations, said, "nonviolence and no property destruction are guidelines being emphasized in training sessions" for those who will lead the protests.
Asked at a news conference if officials would be blocked in their hotels as they were in Seattle, Black replied, "It's possible."
Graylan Hagler, a minister at the Plymouth Congregation of the United Church of Christ in Washington, said he was concerned about reports metropolitan police had received riot control equipment and training.
"We are committed to nonviolence but we hope the police are equally committed to protecting the rights of free speech."
In a speech Tuesday at the National Press Club World Bank President James Wolfensohn defended the record of his organization, admitting some mistakes had been made but a lot of good had been done as well.
Replying to a question about the planned protests, he said, "Demonstrating is useful but I would prefer sorting things out in discussions." He has met several times in the past with nongovernment organizations critical of the bank.
IMF spokesman Thomas Dawson said, "We are reaching out and look forward to talking to anyone who wants to talk to us. We have attempted to maintain a dialogue and some do respond.":
