Raising A Ruckus

Deep in the Florida woods recently, a group that vows to bring down multi-national, multi-trillion dollar institutions, trained, in preparation for protests at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings.

CBS News Correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports that a high energy — and highly theatrical — contingent aptly called The Ruckus Society planned in advance to raise a ruckus along with other organizations that converged on Washington this weekend.

Ruckus is a new group of mostly twenty-somethings whose parents might have looked and acted similarly in the sixties. The training in Florida was a dress rehearsal for the drama Ruckus and other protesters hope to stage during the meetings is the nation’s capital.

"This is our alternative spring break action camp," said Ruckus director John Sellers in advance of the Washington protests. The reason for the training, he said, is that "these institutions, the World Bank, the IMF, they pave the way for corporate exploitation of poor people and the environment."

Some of the tactics look downright silly. But Ruckus isn’t kidding around.

The group was battle-tested in the Seattle street fights during the World Trade Organization meeting. In the past week, they chained themselves to the World Bank.

Many — if not most — Americans have barely heard of the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.

However, professor Todd Gitlin, who was president of Students for a Democratic Society in the sixties, sees in Ruckus a kind of revival.

"I think what’s going on now is smarter. It can afford to be smarter because it’s not being driven mad by a war," Gitlin observes.

Washington police agreeThey also spent weeks getting ready for the protests, and are looking out for groups like Ruckus. They remember Seattle, too.