Washington pledges to avoid repeat of Seattle protests

WASHINGTON (AP) - The signs are popping up all over town: ''More World, Less Bank - Shut down the IMF and the World Bank.''

The protest groups on the streets as the World Trade Organization meetings collapsed in a cloud of tear gas in Seattle are taking aim at an even bigger target: The April 16-17 meetings of the largest multinational lending agencies.

Organized under the umbrella name Mobilization for Global Justice, the protest groups, ranging from the AFL-CIO to Friends of the Earth and the Forum of Indian Leftists, are planning 10 days of teach-ins and street protests starting Saturday.

All the activity will be aimed at a massive rally on the Ellipse, the park across the street from the White House, on April 16. That's when finance ministers from around the world will be in town for the start of the spring meetings of the 182-nation International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

''We think this will be the biggest thing to happen to the IMF in its history. It will serve like Seattle did for the WTO to put the IMF on the map for people to notice. The IMF is doing some very bad things,'' said Scott Nova, director of Citizens Global Trade Watch, an anti-WTO group that helped organized the Seattle demonstrations.

Parading under an anti-globalization banner, the protesters believe that the operating rules of the WTO, IMF and World Bank are rigged in favor of wealthy multinational corporations at the expense of poor people, labor unions and the environment.

The groups are vague about just what they will be doing during their protests, but there have been training sessions in such activities as blocking traffic, hanging banners from tall buildings and being chained to immovable objects.

Group leaders insist the demonstrations will be nonviolent. District of Columbia police and federal authorities are taking no chances, given what happened in Seattle.

''The protesters are the ones who will decide if this is going to be peaceful or if it's not going to be peaceful,'' said the city's police chief, Chars Ramsey.

His department will have 1,500 officers ready - nearly half the force. They have been taking lessons since January, watching videos of how the Seattle police lost control and brushing up on their crowd control tactics.