WTO Protests Rattle Seattle
by Steve Stallone

The World Trade Organization came to Seattle, a trade center in the economically most powerful country, to showcase its plans for reordering the global economy But instead of a celebration and affirmation of its new world order, the WTO found a mass movement opposing it and division and paralysis among its own ranks.

On Tuesday, Nov. 30, the opening day of the WTO ministerial meeting, 30,000 unionists, some 1,500 of them ILWU members from every part of the North American West Coast, gathered in Memorial Stadium for a huge labor rally. For three hours they applauded speeches by union leaders denouncing the WTO s agenda, assailing its vision of free trade as destroying workers' rights, environmental protections and democracy.

But the loudest cheers came near the end of the rally when ILWU International President Brian McWilliams announced that the union had closed all the ports on the U.S. West Coast to make a statement. "The free trade advocates of the WTO have come to Seattle to further their strategic takeover of the global economy. We in the ILWU want to give them the welcome they deserve, and let them know what we think of their plans. 

So we've closed the Port of Seattle and the other ports on the West Coast. There will be no business as usual today," McWilliams thundered. "In closing these ports the ILWU is demonstrating to the corporate CEOs and their agents here in Seattle that the global economy will not run without the consent of the workers. McWilliams was nearly drowned out when he turned to the North stands where the ILWU contingent assembled, their bright yellow and blue picket signs punctuating his words.

"No one can make this statement stronger than longshore workers who make their living moving international cargo. And what do we want? We demand fair trade -- not free trade --  not the policies of the WTO that are devastating workers everywhere and the planet that sustains us," he said. As the speeches wound down, the crowd filed out of the stadium and lined up to march to downtown Seattle to take its message to the WTO.

While the unionists were in the stadium that morning, tens of thousands of other WTO protesters -- environmentalists, social justice activists, fair trade advocates, students and others -- had taken the streets of downtown Seattle, many planning -- and succeeding -- to physically block and shutdown the WTO's opening ceremonies at the Paramount Theater. The out-numbered police responded with tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd.

Later that morning a handful of so-called "black-clad anarchists" began smashing the windows of such sweatshop outlets as The Gap and Old Navy as well as other Seattle-based companies like Nordstrom's and Starbucks. Police used these activities as an excuse to escalate their "crowd control" tactics, hosing people with pepper spray, shooting rubber bullets into crowds and beating and arresting protesters who had nothing to do with the vandalism.

Although the labor march had ended and dispersed peacefully by late afternoon, Seattle Mayor Paul Schell suspended First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly in the city imposing a 7:00p.m. to dawn curfew an declaring a large 50-block section of downtown, a "no-protest zone." Later that night police pushed protesters away from the downtown area to the Capitol Hill neighborhood. There, far from the no protest zone, police inundated the residential neighborhood with tear gas and beat an arrested people completely unconnected with the protests as they patronized their local restaurants and cafes.

Skirmishes between demonstrators and police continued in the streets and the stinging smell of tear gas lingered in Seattle most of the night. The corporate media focused on the spectacular -- the broken windows and street bonfires and the violent clashes between police and demonstrators. Those scenes were easier to report and sold more newspapers than stories dealing with the political criticism of the WTO's free trade policies.

The next day the United Steelworkers of America held a rally in conjunction with environmentalists at Seattle's Pier 63 to protest Japan, Russia and other countries dumping steel at below production costs on the American market, resulting in the loss of many steel workers' jobs. At the demonstration steel workers threw mock steel I-beams made of Styrofoam labeled "Dump prison labor goods" and "Human rights for working families" overseas into the Puget Sound to symbolize their discontent with the U.S. government's lack of protection against the dumping practice. 

McWilliams joined Steelworkers' President George Becker on stage lauding their leadership and large presence at the WTO demonstrations and pledging the ILWU's solidarity in their struggles. About 5:00 p.m. police cornered a group of 150 demonstrators marching down First Avenue, more than a mile from the designated no-protest zone and just a block from the Labor Temple where the King County Labor Council, ILWU Locals 9 and 52 and many other union locals have their offices.

Ron Judd, Secretary-Treasurer of the King County Labor Council, came down from his office when he heard the police sirens and approached the commanding officer, demanding that these law-abiding demonstrators be released rather than arrested and taken to jail. Grabbing his cell phone Judd called Mayor Schell and asked the demonstrators be released into his custody and allowed to take refuge in the Labor Temple. But Schell, under pressure from the Secret Service and under the microscope of international media, refused to budge. The protesters, including many unionists, were handcuffed and hauled off to the county jail.

That evening, residents of Capitol Hill, joined by some trade unionists and elected officials, protested the presence of National Guard, cops, tear gas and pepper spray in their neighborhood. For the second night in a row law enforcement officers used tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades on the area, this time while residents and Republican King County Council member Brian Derdowski sang Christmas carols.

By that evening the media began to get it that police were out of control, using excessive force and systematically violating citizens' Constitutional rights. Reports, photos and video footage of police brutality were everywhere. Suddenly Mayor Schell and Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper were on the hot seat.

Thursday students from the University of Washington and Seattle Central Community College organized a march challenging the no-protest zone and joined up with another march of several thousand farmers from all over the world protesting the WTO's policies on genetically modified foods and its attempt at establishing an agricultural agreement favoring corporate farming over family farms.

The police, on the defensive about allegations of attacking non-violent protesters, kept their distance and allowed the march to proceed to Steinberg Park on the waterfront for a rally. Speakers included Ralph Nader and Jim Hightower, who jabbed the WTO with humorous lines. With an almost warm sun shining the gathering took on a festive mood. Later that evening hundreds of demonstrators marched on the county jail, surrounding the complex for several hours and demanding that the nearly 500 people incarcerated that week during protests be released. Many people, at times surging to a crowd of 1,000, maintained a round-the-clock presence at the jail continuously through Sunday.

Trade unionists, including ILWU members, played an important role at the prison vigil. The gathering culminated on Sunday afternoon in a multi-faith religious service with testimony from some who had been victimized by the police and jail authorities. Ultimately the number of arrests rose to nearly 600, with most of them released by Monday Dec. 6. On Friday local labor leaders, community activists, environmentalists and students organized another march to claim back their city from the police state imposed and to refocus attention away from the violence issue and back to their concerns about the WTO.

Some 4,000 people assembled in front of the Labor Temple and marched into the no-protest zone and back again, pulling off a peaceful demonstration. Some of the youths involved in Tuesday's vandalism joined the march looking for more action, but they were graciously escorted by a contingent of longshore and construction trade workers throughout the day without incident.

By the end of the week the media -- and President Clinton -- acknowledged that the protesters had legitimate points to make and even reported some of them. The demonstrators -- labor, environmentalists, social justice activists and students -- built new bridges and found through their experiences that they could be allies and could make each other stronger. The WTO delegates, on the other hand, learned that they could not find common ground. No consensus was reached on the agricultural agreement that WTO proponents had touted as the all-important one.

And no agreement was reached on how to proceed with the next round of trade talks, giving a victory to opponents who called for no new extensions of WTO power.