CANCUN (Mexico): A motley band of anti-globalization activists ranging from Italian anarchists to straw-hatted Mexican peasants is heading for a showdown in the sun in Cancun, a brash symbol of the world tourism industry.

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected in the resort on Mexico’s Caribbean coast next week to disrupt a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting on liberalizing global export markets.

Campaigners say anger at the US war in Iraq will add an edge to planned demonstrations against big business on Cancun’s palm-lined avenues.

“We say that globalization is war by another means, but actually the war was globalization by other means. The war was a way to privatize Iraqi oil,” said Deborah James of the Global Exchange human rights group in San Francisco.

“There are going to be street blockades, there is going to be direct action,” another US campaigner said of Cancun.

Used to handling raucous North American students on vacation in Cancun, Mexican authorities will deploy security forces but they also hope a softly-softly approach will help prevent the kind of violent protests that erupted at the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999.

Public buildings and beach spaces have been put aside to allow campaigners to let off steam at concerts and “alternative workshops” on topics from gender issues to labour rights.

“The willingness of the municipality to give them places where they can express their opinions should prevent violent acts,” said Cancun’s deputy mayor, Jose Eduardo Galaviz.

Built in the 1970s on a mosquito-infested sand spit, Cancun’s main tourist area, the Zona Hotelera, now epitomises the globalization of tourism.

Multinationals own the hotels that dominate the Cancun skyline. Fast food restaurants are everywhere, English is the lingua franca and US dollars are widely accepted. Long-haul flights have also opened Cancun up to Europeans in recent years.

Cancun boasts a balmy climate all year round but, while its white beaches attract two million visitors a year, there is plenty for critics to attack in its brand of mass tourism.

AN ILLUSION: “The WTO’s Cancun is a thin strip of hotels looking out over the sea with its back to the city and the jungle. It is an illusion of a place outside of history and geography — where there is no poverty, no memory, and no need to change your dollars,” said an article on the anti-globalization website http://www.indymedia.org.

Police plan to keep protesters well away from the Zona Hotelera area, where trade ministers from the 146 nations will meet. Temperatures could also rise inside the convention centre with sharp disagreements expected on rich nations’ agricultural tariffs and EU restrictions on biotech food imports.

A deal reached last week that allows poor nations to import cheap generic drugs to fight killer diseases like AIDS may help to defuse protesters’ ire, but not kill it completely.

Protests are expected mostly in Cancun town and activists have begun to arrive at camp sites and budget accommodation.

Two Mexican Navy warships are already patrolling the turquoise waters off Cancun’s coast to deter any terrorist attack. More than 6,000 delegates, officials and members of the media are expected to attend.

Local authorities expect 50,000 activists in Cancun and possible flashpoints are two large demonstrations: a farmers’ march on September 10 as the WTO meeting starts and a protest to mark the “Worldwide Day of Action Against Corporate Globalization and War” three days later.

Campaigners say the anti-globalization movement has matured since the Seattle riots and violence at a G8 summit in Genoa, Italy where police shot a protester dead in 2001.

“People have learned after Seattle, Genoa and whatever that we don’t want the focus of the news to be broken windows or police brutality. We want to talk about the issues, that the WTO is a bankrupt idea,” said Ronnie Cummins, founder of the US-based Organic Consumers’ Association.

The meeting has put Cancun on the map of “protest tourism” for the socially committed wanting to visit world hotspots.

The Organic Consumers’ Association is taking two dozen people on package tours to Cancun, including accommodation, seminars and meetings with Mexican farmers for a cost of $850.

The Global Exchange group is also sending tourists to Cancun as part of its programme of “Reality Tours” which include trips to Iran, Afghanistan and Vietnam.—Reuters