The World Economic Forum's star turn, Bill Gates, criticised the anti-capitalist demonstrators who clashed with police during a second day of violence outside the Melbourne conference yesterday.
As 500 protesters continued their blockade of the Crown casino, the Microsoft founder warned delegates at the Asia-Pacific regional meeting that "the big losers" in any curbing of global trade "will be the poor people of the world".
"Living standards have risen around the world," he said. "World trade is the mechanism that's allowing these poor countries to get enough wealth to start taking care of very basic human needs."
Mr Gates also rallied support for the battered internet sector. "People ask where do we go from here ... and say 'okay, is this finally the end of technology doing miracle things?'," he told delegates. "My answer is ... absolutely not." Mr Gates said new applications would drive further growth.
"If we can bring exciting new applications that make those knowledge workers more effective, the continued benefits we have - the PC, the software revolution, the internet - those will continue to grow very strongly," he said.
Despite his bullish views, continuing blockades by protesters forced Mr Gates to cancel two engagements outside the casino later in the day.
In a change of tactic that was criticised by activists, police baton-charged the blockades in the early morning and evening, allowing seven buses of delegates in and out of the building.
Organisers said a dozen demonstrators were hospitalised and 50 injured were treated at the scene. They included two New Zealand Green MPs, who said they would raise the issue in parliament.
The protesters' legal team has lodged a complaint with the state ombudsman alleging "brutal, highly dangerous and provocative" police tactics, said spokesman Damien Lawson.
Police violence
Anti-capitalist activists claimed that police violence worsened when TV cameras departed after the evening news. They also complained about the removal of badges from police uniforms, preventing the identification of officers.
Police reported just one arrest and said they had used the appropriate force necessary to prevent a repeat of yesterday, when blockades confined 200 delegates to their hotel rooms.
"The precision used this morning made our operation very successful and the majority of the delegates arrived in the forum at the designated time," said Victoria police's deputy commissioner of operations Neil O'Loughlin.
Andre Haermeyer, Victoria's police minister, told reporters that the police had been targeted with ball bearings, marbles, screws, glass and urine thrown by protesters.
Victoria's prime minister, Steve Bracks, condemned the demonstration as un-Australian.
"Trying to restrain people from getting into the venue is effectively a form of violence which they've pursued which I absolutely deplore and is not acceptable in the way we operate in Australia," he told radio 3AW.
More than 5,000 trade unionists later staged a peaceful rally outside the privately funded forum.
The next fixture in the autumn season of global protest could be the Olympic Games in Sydney, which opens in three days. More definite targets are the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Prague later this month.
Klaus Schwab, president of the Swiss-based WEF, condemned the violence.
"Peaceful protest is an inalienable right in a democracy. But what has happened today in Melbourne is unjust, undemocratic and uncivilised," he said.
Mr Schwab defended the WEF: "No other organisation brings together the leaders of business, government and civil society in an open dialogue about the big issues facing the world the way the forum does," he said.
Delegates also heard the views of the protesters, represented by Indian eco-feminist Vandana Shiva.
"We are blockading the Crown casino today to use one of the tools that we as community groups and individuals have -civil disobedience," Ms Shiva said. "People across the world are suffering under corporate defined globalisation.
"We have both the right and the responsibility to take action in the face of corporate disregard for human rights, environmental protection, public health and labour regulation," she went on.
Protesters say they will maintain their blockade for the third and final day of the conference today.
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