WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity
Encyclopedia
Protest activity surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999
, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade
negotiations, occurred on November 30, 1999 (nicknamed "N30" on similar lines to J18
and similar mobilizations), when the World Trade Organization
(WTO) convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
in Seattle, Washington, United States
. The negotiations were quickly overshadowed by massive and controversial street protest
s outside the hotel
s and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
, in what became the second phase of the anti-globalization movement
in the United States. The scale of the demonstrations—even the lowest estimates put the crowd at over 40,000—dwarfed any previous demonstration in the United States against a world meeting of any of the organizations generally associated with economic globalization
(such as the WTO, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), or the World Bank
). The events are sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle or the Battle in Seattle.
(especially those concerned with labor issues, the environment, and consumer protection), labor unions (including the AFL-CIO
), student groups, religiously-based groups (Jubilee 2000
), and anarchists
(some of whom formed a black bloc
).
The coalition was loose, with some opponent groups focused on opposition to WTO policies (especially those related to free trade
), with others motivated by pro-labor, anti-capitalist, or environmental agendas. Many of the NGOs represented at the protests came with credentials to participate in the official meetings, while also planning various educational and press events. The AFL-CIO, with cooperation from its member unions, organized a large permitted rally and march from Seattle Center
to downtown.
Others, however, were more interested in taking direct action
including both civil disobedience
and acts of vandalism and property destruction to disrupt the meeting. Several groups were loosely organized together under the Direct Action Network
(DAN), with a plan to disrupt the meetings by blocking streets and intersections downtown to prevent delegates from reaching the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
, where the meeting was to be held.
(where they had gathered that summer for a music
festival), advocated more confrontational tactics, and planned and conducted deliberate vandalism
of corporate properties
in downtown Seattle. In a subsequent communique, they listed the particular corporations targeted, which they contend to have committed corporate crime
:
(MAI) were convinced that the WTO would be used by transnational corporate influencers as a forum in which to advance the global corporate agenda to the detriment of worldwide civil society
and especially the interests of third-world
countries.
As a token of the effectiveness of democratic lobbying at local level, Seattle declared itself an MAI Free-Zone by unanimous vote in the City Council on Monday, April 12, joining numerous cities in the US and around the world.
On 12 July, the Financial Times
reported that the latest United Nations Human Development report advocated "principles of performance for multinationals on labour standards, fair trade and environmental protection ... needed to counter the negative effects of globalisation on the poorest nations". The report itself argued that "An essential aspect of global governance is responsibility to people—to equity, to justice, to enlarging the choices of all".
On 16 July, Helene Cooper of the Wall Street Journal warned of an impending "massive mobilization against globalization" being planned for the end-of-year Seattle WTO conference. Next day, the London Independent
newspaper savaged the WTO and appeared to side with the organisers of the rapidly developing storm of protest:
On November 16, two weeks before the conference, President Bill Clinton
issued Executive Order 13141—Environmental Review of Trade Agreements, which committed the United States to a policy of "assessment and consideration of the environmental impacts of trade agreements" and stated "Trade agreements should contribute to the broader goal of sustainable development."
A spectacular coup was staged against Seattle's daily paper the Post Intelligencer on Wednesday 24 November. Thousands of hoax editions of a 4-page front-cover wrap-around were printed and inserted into piles of newspapers awaiting distribution in hundreds of street boxes and retail outlets. The spoof front-page stories were "Boeing to move overseas" (to Indonesia) and "Clinton pledges help for poorest nations". The byline on the Boeing story attributed it to Joe Hill
(a union organizer who was executed by firing squad in Utah early in the century). On the same day, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development reported that:
This ominously foreshadowed the impending conflict of the North-South divide
which was to result in the collapse of the forthcoming WTO talks.
On the morning of November 30, 1999, the Direct Action Network
's plan was put into effect. Several hundred activists arrived in the deserted streets near the convention center and began to take control of key intersections. Over the next few hours, a number of marchers began to converge on the area from different directions. These included a student march from the north and a march of citizens of the developing world who marched in from the south. Some demonstrators held rallies, others held teach-ins and at least one group staged an early-morning street party. Meanwhile, a number of protesters still controlled the intersections using lockdown formations.
The control of the intersections, plus the sheer numbers of protesters in the area, prevented delegates from getting from their hotels to the Convention Center. It also had the effect of cutting the police forces in two: the police who had formed a cordon around the convention center were cut off from the rest of the city. The police outside of the area eventually tried to break through the protesters' lines in the south.
That morning, the King County Sheriff's Office and Seattle Police Department
fired pepper spray
, tear gas canisters, stun grenades, and eventually rubber bullets
at protesters at several intersections in an attempt to reopen the blocked streets and allow as many WTO delegates as possible through the blockade. At 6th Avenue and Union Street, the crowd threw them back.
The situation was complicated around noon, when black-clad anarchists (in a formation known as a black bloc
) began smashing windows and vandalizing storefronts, beginning with Fox's Gem Shop. This produced some of the most famous and controversial images of the protests. This set off a chain-reaction of sorts, with additional protesters pushing dumpsters into the middle of intersections and lighting them on fire, deflating the tires of police vehicles, non-black bloc demonstrators joining in the property destruction, and a general disruption of all commercial activity in downtown Seattle.
Other protesters tried to physically block the activities of the black bloc
. Seattle police, led by Chief Norm Stamper, did not react immediately, because they had been convinced by protest organizers during the protest-permit process that peaceful organizers would quell these kinds of activities.
The police were eventually overwhelmed by the mass of protesters downtown, including many who had chained themselves together and were blocking intersections. Meanwhile, the late-morning labor-organized rally and march drew tens of thousands; though the intended march route had them turning back before they reached the convention center, some ignored the marshals and joined what had become a street-carnival-like scene downtown.
The opening of the meetings was delayed, and it took police much of the afternoon and evening to clear the streets. Seattle mayor Paul Schell
imposed a curfew
and a 50-block "No-Protest Zone".
Over 600 people were arrested over the next few days. One particularly violent confrontation occurred the evening of November 30, when police pursued protesters fleeing from downtown into the bohemian neighborhood of Capitol Hill
, using tear gas, pepper spray, and physical force. A police order that day also banned the use or sale of gas masks downtown, provoking criticism.
printed an erroneous article that stated that protesters at the 1999 WTO convention in Seattle threw Molotov cocktail
s at police. Two days later, The New York Times printed a correction saying that the protest was mostly peaceful and no protesters were accused of throwing objects at delegates or the police, but the original error persisted in later accounts in the mainstream media.
The Seattle City Council also dispelled these rumors with its own investigation findings:
An article in the magazine The Nation disputed that Molotov cocktails have ever been thrown at an anti-globalization protest within the US.
, and arguably played a role in Schell's loss to Greg Nickels
in the 2001 mayoral primary election.
Similar tactics, on the part of both police and protesters, were repeated at subsequent meetings of the WTO, IMF
/World Bank
, Free Trade Area of the Americas
, and other international organizations, as well as the Democratic
and Republican
National Conventions in the US.
To many in North America
n anarchist and radical circles, the Seattle WTO riots, protests, and demonstrations were viewed as a success. Prior to the "Battle of Seattle," there was almost no mention of "anti-globalization" in the US media, while the protests are seen as having forced the media to report on why anybody would oppose the WTO. However, this was only the second phase of these mass demonstrations. The first began on 12 December 1997 in which newly formed grass-roots organizations blockaded Melbourne
, Perth
, Sydney
and Darwin
city centers.
On January 16, 2004, the city settled with 157 individuals arrested outside of the no-protest zone during the WTO events, agreeing to pay them a total of $250,000.
On January 30, 2007, a federal jury found that the city of Seattle had violated protesters' Fourth Amendment constitutional rights by arresting them without probable cause or hard evidence.
The massive size of the protest pushed the city of Seattle $3 million over its estimated budget of $6 million, partly due to city cleanup and police overtime bills. In addition, the damage to commercial businesses from vandalism and lost sales has been estimated at $20 million.
WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999
The WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 was a meeting of the World Trade Organization, convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington, USA, over the course of three days, beginning November 30, 1999. A week before the meeting, delegates admitted failure to agree...
, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
negotiations, occurred on November 30, 1999 (nicknamed "N30" on similar lines to J18
Carnival Against Capitalism
The Global Carnival Against Capital took place on Friday, 18th June, 1999. It was an international day of protest timed to coincide with the 25th G8 Summit in Cologne, Germany. The carnival was inspired by the 1980s Stop the City protests and the Global Street Party, which happened at the same time...
and similar mobilizations), when the World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
(WTO) convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
Washington State Convention and Trade Center
The Washington State Convention Center is a convention center located next to and over Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, Washington, adjacent to Freeway Park. Planning for its construction began in 1982; construction began in 1985, and the center opened on June 18, 1988. An expansion that doubled...
in Seattle, Washington, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The negotiations were quickly overshadowed by massive and controversial street protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
s outside the hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
Washington State Convention and Trade Center
The Washington State Convention Center is a convention center located next to and over Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, Washington, adjacent to Freeway Park. Planning for its construction began in 1982; construction began in 1985, and the center opened on June 18, 1988. An expansion that doubled...
, in what became the second phase of the anti-globalization movement
Anti-globalization movement
The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalisation movement, is critical of the globalization of corporate capitalism. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist movement, anti-corporate globalization movement, or...
in the United States. The scale of the demonstrations—even the lowest estimates put the crowd at over 40,000—dwarfed any previous demonstration in the United States against a world meeting of any of the organizations generally associated with economic globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
(such as the WTO, the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
(IMF), or the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
). The events are sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle or the Battle in Seattle.
Organizations and planning
Planning for the demonstrations began months in advance and included local, national, and international organizations. Among the most notable participants were national and international NGOsNon-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
(especially those concerned with labor issues, the environment, and consumer protection), labor unions (including the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
), student groups, religiously-based groups (Jubilee 2000
Jubilee 2000
Jubilee 2000 was an international coalition movement in over 40 countries that called for cancellation of third world debt by the year 2000. This movement coincided with the Great Jubilee, the celebration of the year 2000 in the Catholic Church...
), and anarchists
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
(some of whom formed a black bloc
Black bloc
A black bloc is a tactic for protests and marches, whereby individuals wear black clothing, scarves, ski masks, motorcycle helmets with padding, or other face-concealing items...
).
The coalition was loose, with some opponent groups focused on opposition to WTO policies (especially those related to free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
), with others motivated by pro-labor, anti-capitalist, or environmental agendas. Many of the NGOs represented at the protests came with credentials to participate in the official meetings, while also planning various educational and press events. The AFL-CIO, with cooperation from its member unions, organized a large permitted rally and march from Seattle Center
Seattle Center
Seattle Center is a park and arts and entertainment center in Seattle, Washington. The campus is the site used in 1962 by the Century 21 Exposition. It is located just north of Belltown in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood.-Attractions:...
to downtown.
Others, however, were more interested in taking direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
including both civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
and acts of vandalism and property destruction to disrupt the meeting. Several groups were loosely organized together under the Direct Action Network
Direct Action Network
Direct Action Network was a confederation of anarchist and anti-authoritarian affinity groups, collectives, and organizations that was formed to coordinate the direct action portion of anti-WTO mobilization in Seattle in 1999....
(DAN), with a plan to disrupt the meetings by blocking streets and intersections downtown to prevent delegates from reaching the Washington State Convention and Trade Center
Washington State Convention and Trade Center
The Washington State Convention Center is a convention center located next to and over Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle, Washington, adjacent to Freeway Park. Planning for its construction began in 1982; construction began in 1985, and the center opened on June 18, 1988. An expansion that doubled...
, where the meeting was to be held.
Corporations targeted
Certain activists, notably a group of anarchists from Eugene, OregonEugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
(where they had gathered that summer for a music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
festival), advocated more confrontational tactics, and planned and conducted deliberate vandalism
Vandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
of corporate properties
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
in downtown Seattle. In a subsequent communique, they listed the particular corporations targeted, which they contend to have committed corporate crime
Corporate crime
In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes committed either by a corporation , or by individuals acting on behalf of a corporation or other business entity...
:
Lead-up months
Activists of the successful 1998 campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on InvestmentMultilateral Agreement on Investment
The Multilateral Agreement on Investment was a draft agreement negotiated between members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1995–1998. Its ostensible purpose was to develop multilateral rules that would ensure international investment was governed in a more...
(MAI) were convinced that the WTO would be used by transnational corporate influencers as a forum in which to advance the global corporate agenda to the detriment of worldwide civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
and especially the interests of third-world
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
countries.
As a token of the effectiveness of democratic lobbying at local level, Seattle declared itself an MAI Free-Zone by unanimous vote in the City Council on Monday, April 12, joining numerous cities in the US and around the world.
On 12 July, the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
reported that the latest United Nations Human Development report advocated "principles of performance for multinationals on labour standards, fair trade and environmental protection ... needed to counter the negative effects of globalisation on the poorest nations". The report itself argued that "An essential aspect of global governance is responsibility to people—to equity, to justice, to enlarging the choices of all".
On 16 July, Helene Cooper of the Wall Street Journal warned of an impending "massive mobilization against globalization" being planned for the end-of-year Seattle WTO conference. Next day, the London Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
newspaper savaged the WTO and appeared to side with the organisers of the rapidly developing storm of protest:
The way it has used [its] powers is leading to a growing suspicion that its initials should really stand for World Take Over. In a series of rulings it has struck down measures to help the world's poor, protect the environment, and safeguard health in the interests of private—usually American—companies.
"The WTO seems to be on a crusade to increase private profit at the expense of all other considerations, including the well-being and quality of life of the mass of the world's people," says Ronnie Hall, trade campaigner at Friends of the Earth International. "It seems to have a relentless drive to extend its power."
On November 16, two weeks before the conference, President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
issued Executive Order 13141—Environmental Review of Trade Agreements, which committed the United States to a policy of "assessment and consideration of the environmental impacts of trade agreements" and stated "Trade agreements should contribute to the broader goal of sustainable development."
A spectacular coup was staged against Seattle's daily paper the Post Intelligencer on Wednesday 24 November. Thousands of hoax editions of a 4-page front-cover wrap-around were printed and inserted into piles of newspapers awaiting distribution in hundreds of street boxes and retail outlets. The spoof front-page stories were "Boeing to move overseas" (to Indonesia) and "Clinton pledges help for poorest nations". The byline on the Boeing story attributed it to Joe Hill
Joe Hill
Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund in Gävle , and also known as Joseph Hillström was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World...
(a union organizer who was executed by firing squad in Utah early in the century). On the same day, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development reported that:
"...developing countries have remained steadfast in their demand that developed countries honour Uruguay Round commitments before moving forward full force with new trade negotiations.
Specifically, developing countries are concerned over developed countries’ compliance with agreements on market access for textiles, their use of antidumping measures against developing countries’ exports, and over-implementation of the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)".
This ominously foreshadowed the impending conflict of the North-South divide
North-South divide
The north–south divide is a socio-economic and political division that exists between the wealthy developed countries, known collectively as "the north", and the poorer developing countries , or "the south." Although most nations comprising the "North" are in fact located in the Northern Hemisphere ,...
which was to result in the collapse of the forthcoming WTO talks.
"N30"
Direct Action Network
Direct Action Network was a confederation of anarchist and anti-authoritarian affinity groups, collectives, and organizations that was formed to coordinate the direct action portion of anti-WTO mobilization in Seattle in 1999....
's plan was put into effect. Several hundred activists arrived in the deserted streets near the convention center and began to take control of key intersections. Over the next few hours, a number of marchers began to converge on the area from different directions. These included a student march from the north and a march of citizens of the developing world who marched in from the south. Some demonstrators held rallies, others held teach-ins and at least one group staged an early-morning street party. Meanwhile, a number of protesters still controlled the intersections using lockdown formations.
The control of the intersections, plus the sheer numbers of protesters in the area, prevented delegates from getting from their hotels to the Convention Center. It also had the effect of cutting the police forces in two: the police who had formed a cordon around the convention center were cut off from the rest of the city. The police outside of the area eventually tried to break through the protesters' lines in the south.
That morning, the King County Sheriff's Office and Seattle Police Department
Seattle Police Department
The Seattle Police Department is the principal law enforcement agency of the city of Seattle, Washington, except for the campus of the University of Washington, for which responsibility falls to the University of Washington Police Department...
fired pepper spray
Pepper spray
Pepper spray, also known as OC spray , OC gas, and capsicum spray, is a lachrymatory agent that is used in riot control, crowd control and personal self-defense, including defense against dogs and bears...
, tear gas canisters, stun grenades, and eventually rubber bullets
Rubber Bullets
"Rubber Bullets" is a song by 10cc from their debut self-titled album.Written and sung by Kevin Godley, Lol Creme and Graham Gouldman and produced by 10cc, "Rubber Bullets" was the band's first number one single in the United Kingdom, spending a single week at the top in June 1973. It fared worse...
at protesters at several intersections in an attempt to reopen the blocked streets and allow as many WTO delegates as possible through the blockade. At 6th Avenue and Union Street, the crowd threw them back.
The situation was complicated around noon, when black-clad anarchists (in a formation known as a black bloc
Black bloc
A black bloc is a tactic for protests and marches, whereby individuals wear black clothing, scarves, ski masks, motorcycle helmets with padding, or other face-concealing items...
) began smashing windows and vandalizing storefronts, beginning with Fox's Gem Shop. This produced some of the most famous and controversial images of the protests. This set off a chain-reaction of sorts, with additional protesters pushing dumpsters into the middle of intersections and lighting them on fire, deflating the tires of police vehicles, non-black bloc demonstrators joining in the property destruction, and a general disruption of all commercial activity in downtown Seattle.
Other protesters tried to physically block the activities of the black bloc
Black bloc
A black bloc is a tactic for protests and marches, whereby individuals wear black clothing, scarves, ski masks, motorcycle helmets with padding, or other face-concealing items...
. Seattle police, led by Chief Norm Stamper, did not react immediately, because they had been convinced by protest organizers during the protest-permit process that peaceful organizers would quell these kinds of activities.
The police were eventually overwhelmed by the mass of protesters downtown, including many who had chained themselves together and were blocking intersections. Meanwhile, the late-morning labor-organized rally and march drew tens of thousands; though the intended march route had them turning back before they reached the convention center, some ignored the marshals and joined what had become a street-carnival-like scene downtown.
The opening of the meetings was delayed, and it took police much of the afternoon and evening to clear the streets. Seattle mayor Paul Schell
Paul Schell
Paul Schell, born Paul Schlachtenhaufen on October 8, 1937, in Fort Dodge, Iowa, was the 50th mayor of Seattle, Washington. His four-year term as mayor began on January 1, 1998....
imposed a curfew
Curfew
A curfew is an order specifying a time after which certain regulations apply. Examples:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time...
and a 50-block "No-Protest Zone".
Over 600 people were arrested over the next few days. One particularly violent confrontation occurred the evening of November 30, when police pursued protesters fleeing from downtown into the bohemian neighborhood of Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington
Capitol Hill is the most densely populated residential district in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the center of the city's gay and counterculture communities, and is one of the city's most prominent nightlife and entertainment districts....
, using tear gas, pepper spray, and physical force. A police order that day also banned the use or sale of gas masks downtown, provoking criticism.
Media response
The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
printed an erroneous article that stated that protesters at the 1999 WTO convention in Seattle threw Molotov cocktail
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
s at police. Two days later, The New York Times printed a correction saying that the protest was mostly peaceful and no protesters were accused of throwing objects at delegates or the police, but the original error persisted in later accounts in the mainstream media.
The Seattle City Council also dispelled these rumors with its own investigation findings:
"The level of panic among police is evident from radio communication and from their inflated crowd estimates, which exceed the numbers shown on news videotapes. ARC investigators found the rumors of "Molotov cocktails" and sale of flammables from a supermarket had no basis in fact. But, rumors were important in contributing to the police sense of being besieged and in considerable danger."
An article in the magazine The Nation disputed that Molotov cocktails have ever been thrown at an anti-globalization protest within the US.
Aftermath
Controversy over the city's response to the protests resulted in the resignation of Seattle police chief Norm StamperNorm Stamper
Norm Stamper is a former Chief of the Seattle Police Department and an author. He is best known for his role in the Seattle's response to the protests of the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which eventually led to his resignation....
, and arguably played a role in Schell's loss to Greg Nickels
Greg Nickels
Gregory J. "Greg" Nickels was the 51st mayor of Seattle, Washington. He took office on January 1, 2002 and was reelected to a second term in 2005. In August 2009, Nickels finished third in the primary election for Seattle mayor, failing to qualify for the November 2009 general election, and...
in the 2001 mayoral primary election.
Similar tactics, on the part of both police and protesters, were repeated at subsequent meetings of the WTO, IMF
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
/World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, Free Trade Area of the Americas
Free Trade Area of the Americas
The Free Trade Area of the Americas , , ) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the Americas but Cuba. In the last round of negotiations, trade ministers from 34 countries met in Miami, United States, in November 2003 to discuss the proposal...
, and other international organizations, as well as the Democratic
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
and Republican
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S...
National Conventions in the US.
To many in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n anarchist and radical circles, the Seattle WTO riots, protests, and demonstrations were viewed as a success. Prior to the "Battle of Seattle," there was almost no mention of "anti-globalization" in the US media, while the protests are seen as having forced the media to report on why anybody would oppose the WTO. However, this was only the second phase of these mass demonstrations. The first began on 12 December 1997 in which newly formed grass-roots organizations blockaded Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
city centers.
On January 16, 2004, the city settled with 157 individuals arrested outside of the no-protest zone during the WTO events, agreeing to pay them a total of $250,000.
On January 30, 2007, a federal jury found that the city of Seattle had violated protesters' Fourth Amendment constitutional rights by arresting them without probable cause or hard evidence.
The massive size of the protest pushed the city of Seattle $3 million over its estimated budget of $6 million, partly due to city cleanup and police overtime bills. In addition, the damage to commercial businesses from vandalism and lost sales has been estimated at $20 million.
See also
- Indymedia, the worldwide network of Independent Media Centers that began with the Seattle IMC during the protests.
- 1998 defeat of the OECD's MAI by protest action
- 30 Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle 200030 Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle 200030 Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle 2000 is a documentary film shot during the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity and contains interviews with many of the protest leaders...
, a documentaryDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
shot during the protests. - ElectrohippiesElectrohippiesThe Electrohippies Collective is an international group of internet activists based in Oxfordshire, England, whose purpose is to express disapproval of governmental policies of mass media censorship and control of the Internet "in order to provide a 'safe environment' for corporations to do their...
- Banner dropBanner dropA banner drop is the act of putting a banner in place as a protest tactic. The banner usually targets a specific corporation, law, political campaign, etc. The banner may itself be dropped on an activists' target, or in conjunction with the beginning of a campaign...
- Battle in SeattleBattle in SeattleBattle in Seattle is a 2007 film and the directorial debut of actor Stuart Townsend. It is based on the protest activity at the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999...
, a dramatic film loosely based on the protests - Breaking the SpellBreaking the Spell (film)Breaking the Spell is a 1999 anarchist documentary, directed by Tim Lewis, Tim Ream, and Sir Chuck A. Rock.Using amateur camera footage recorded by protesters at the scene of the 1999 WTO riots, it documents the riot from the perspective of the anarchists, their opinions of fellow protesters, local...
a documentaryDocumentary filmDocumentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
shot during the protests. - State of EmergencyState of Emergency (video game)State of Emergency is a controversial 2002 action-adventure video game released by Rockstar Games. It was developed by Scottish firm VIS Entertainment for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows.- Reception :...
, a video game inspired by the events of the protest
Further reading
- Seattle Times index of stories and dates
- International newsgroup: StopWTORound 1999 archive with detailed coverage of events before and after Seattle
- Mai-not Discussion: Extensive contemporary documentation and comment
- Parrish, Geov. "Beyond Gandhi". Seattle Weekly. November 24, 1999.
- Gates, Rhoderick. "Seattle Explosion: 2 Years Too Late". Our Time, November 31, 1999.
- Movie This Is What Democracy Looks Like.
- George, Susan Fixing or nixing the WTO Le Monde diplomatique, January 2000.
- Monbiot, George Still bent on world conquest, Guardian, London, December 16, 1999
- The Battle In Seattle: The Story Behind and Beyond the WTO Demonstrations, by Janet Thomas, Fulcrum Publishing, 2000 (book).
- The Battle of Seattle : "Globalize This!" - on the Internet Globalize This! : The Battle Against the World Trade Organization and Corporate Rule, edited by Kevin Danaher & Roger Burbach (Monroe, Maine, Common Courage Press, 2000, 218 pages)
External links
- 30 Frames a Second: The WTO in Seattle 2000, a documentary film shot during the protests.
- Before the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, there were large organized protests against the 1988 World Bank/IMF meetings in Berlin. http://www.daysofdissent.org.uk/berlin.htm
- Breaking the Spell - Documentary about the WTO protests with footage of the riots on the ground.
- Call for direct action convergence; flag.blackened.net accessed October 11, 2004 by the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
. - Geov Parrish, The new anarchists: In Eugene, a youth-fueled movement breaks windows to ask the big questions, Seattle Weekly, September 2–8, 1999.
- No 2 WTO on Infoshop.org.
- Paul Byron Crane in Seattle WTO comment on NPR Radio New Millennium reports
- Paul de Armond, Netwar in the Emerald City - RANDRANDRAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
- Paul de Armond, Storming Seattle - Albion Monitor
- Rob Sharp, Charlize now faces her own battle of Seattle, The Guardian, September 3, 2006: forthcoming Hollywood movie about the Seattle events.
- Stephanie Zimmerman's WTO protest diary on ZMedia.org.
- This Is What Democracy Looks Like, a documentary film shot during the protests and contains interviews with many of the protest leaders
- University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – WTO Seattle Collection A collection of images depicting the protests of the WTO ministerial meeting held in Seattle on November 29 - December 3, 1999.
- University of Washington WTO History Project A collection of interviews with protest organizers and participants, and other documentation concerning the 1999 WTO protest.
- Video: WTO Seattle police abuse
- The Battle of Seattle 10 Years Later: Organizers Reflect on 1999 - video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
- "WTO Meltdown" by Lew RockwellLew RockwellLlewellyn Harrison "Lew" Rockwell, Jr. is an American libertarian political commentator, activist, proponent of the Austrian School of economics, and chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.-Life and work:...
, December 1999