AMY GOODMAN: As we talk about what the Steelworkers and Alliance for Retired Americans and others are come — calling for now, coming out of the police response to the FTAA protests, hearing from Marco Trbovich saying he believes that the police cracked down in the way they did to justify the $8.5 million that Miami police department got out of the $87 billion Iraq Reconstruction Bill to deal with these protests. Medea Benjamin is on the line with us, co-founder of the Global Exchange. You were at the FTAAA protests, what happened to you? Do these stories you’re hearing sound familiar?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Of course, they do, Amy, and I was on my way home one evening. We were in a van and got stopped by 12 police with guns put to our heads, forced out of the car, frisked, held, every piece of paper in the van gone through, and no markings on the police. They wouldn’t tell us their names. They wouldn’t tell us who they were with. They wouldn’t tell us who was in charge. As we kept complaining, and yelling, and they kept threatening us. Finally one of them took me over to show me the booty they had collected from other cars. And they said, “Look, the reason we have to search everybody is because we came up with this”, — and this was two hockey sticks and a baseball bat and one slingshot. They spent about $600 per protester on repressive tactics. My sense is that the real aim was to equate protesters with terrorists, and to make the people of Miami feel that the use of helicopters, of tanks in the streets, of robocops in full riot gear is really an attempt to make people feel that this is an appropriate response to the exercise of people’s First Amendment rights, to make people get used to feeling this level of repression is, “in their own interests”, and that’s why it’s so important that we fight against this.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Marco Trbovich, what calling for now, what are you demanding?

MARCO TRBOVICH: We are demanding an investigation by the Congress into the police department in Miami.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think that’s realistic?

MARCO TRBOVICH: Well, what — I don’t know whether it’s realistic. It’s absolutely necessary. You cannot let things like this pass without challenging particularly when you your tax dollars are being used to repress you. So, there’s no question that this needs to be pursued. Whether or not it will be pursued will be up to Congress. I don’t know that. I do want to say, Amy, I think part of the reason for this are the reasons that Medea cited will, I think we’re winning. I think that those of us who are challenging these bankrupt trading policies which are hollowing out this economy and destroying good paying, and particularly union jobs, I think we’re winning because their back pedaling on these policies and I think there’s sort of an inversion relationship, correlation between the extent to which we’re winning and the extent to which there’s a certain desperate need to characterize us as somehow evil or terroristic. So, on the one hand it’s appalling and outraging. On the other hand, I’m somewhat encouraged that the FTAA framework that was announced is sheer mockery. It’s an empty shell. They cannot any longer hide the fact that these trade agreements and their enforcement through the International Monetary Fund are creating riots in South America. 10 million people in Brazil voted against the IMF’s policies. They cannot hide this under a bushel basket any longer.

AMY GOODMAN: Marco Trbovich, spokesman for the United Steelworkers of America, Bentley Killmon, retired airline pilot, who was arrested, and Medea Benjamin with us from Global Exchange.