NYC Protests Planned Against World Economic Forum Over 1,000 of the world's corporate leaders, along with top political and media representatives, will meet behind closed doors in New York City from January 31 to February 4 at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. Meanwhile thousands of students, union members and activists plan to protest in what is expected to be the largest American anti-corporate globalization demonstration post-9/11. Formed in 1971, the Davos-based WEF is viewed by critics as the architect of corporate globalization and the catalyst for the formation of the World Trade Organization. Although the Forum is a private affair, the meeting's clout has begun to rival that of the United Nations as the world's leading global body. "Should a Forum that is dominated by corporate interests be encouraged to take on the role of mapping out future frameworks for global governance?" asked scholar Peter Goodman in his piece "The WEF: Capital's First International?" For protest organizers such as Students For Global Justice, Another World Is Possible and the New York Anti-Capitalist Convergence the answer is clearly no. At the same time protesters pour into New York to protest the global elite meet-and-greet, activists in Porto Alegro, Brazil, will attend the World Social Forum to discuss alterative social and economic models to prove "Another World Is Possible". http://www.indymedia.org/