Shipping containers return to Bangkok streets as farmers protest IMF-World Bank meetings

BANGKOK — Police have deployed shipping containers along roads leading to the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre as farmers and grassroots activists march through Bangkok to protest the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings.

Members of Thailand’s Assembly of the Poor, which is part of the international peasant movement La Via Campesina, gathered at 8:00 on Friday at Gate 1 of Lumpini Park, opposite Lumpini Police Station, before marching towards Sukhumvit Road and Asok intersection, near the meeting venue.

Police from the Metropolitan Police Bureau placed containers along both sides of Ratchadaphisek Road to prevent protesters from reaching the convention centre, where the annual meetings are being held from 12-18 October.

The demonstration is part of a coordinated action involving La Via Campesina members in more than 60 countries, calling for six demands directed at global financial institutions, particularly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The protesters argue that the institutions undermine democracy and food sovereignty while perpetuating what they describe as a system of neo-colonialism that oppresses and dominates grassroots communities.

The IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings bring together central bankers, finance and development ministers, private sector executives, civil society representatives and academics to discuss the global economic outlook, financial stability, poverty reduction and other international issues.

The 2026 meetings are being held in Bangkok from Monday, 12 October, to Sunday, 18 October.