1999 Seattle WTO protests
Part of the anti-globalization movement
A police officer sprays pepper spray at the crowd
DateNovember 30 – December 3, 1999
Location
Seattle, Washington, United States
Resulted inResignation of Seattle police chief Norm Stamper;
Increased exposure of the WTO in US media; 157 individuals arrested but released for lack of probable cause or hard evidence; $250,000 paid to the arrested by the city of Seattle; Creation of the Independent Media Center
Parties
Anti-globalization movement
Direct Action Network
NGOs
Labor unions
Student and religious groups
Number
~40,000
Unknown

The 1999 Seattle WTO protests, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle,[1] were a series of anti-globalization protests surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, when members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington on November 30, 1999. The Conference was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations.

The negotiations were quickly overshadowed by massive street protests outside the hotels and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The protests were nicknamed "N30", akin to J18 and similar mobilizations, and were deemed controversial by the media. The large scale of the demonstrations, estimated at no fewer than 40,000 protesters, 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, and the World Bank.[2]

Organizations and planning

Planning for the actions began months in advance and included local, national, and international organizations. Among the most notable participants were national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as Global Exchange[3] (especially those concerned with labor issues, the environment, and consumer protection), labor unions (including the AFL–CIO), student groups, religion-based groups (Jubilee 2000), and anarchists (some of whom formed a black bloc).[4] The protests also drew support from some political conservatives, such as American presidential candidate and commentator Pat Buchanan.[5]

The coalition was loose, with some opponent groups focused on opposition to WTO policies (especially those related to free trade), with others motivated by prolabor, anticapitalist, 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.

The "turtles": protestors in sea turtle costumes

However, others 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 convention center, where the meeting was to be held. The black bloc was not affiliated with DAN, but was responding to the original call for autonomous resistance actions on November 30 issued by People's Global Action.[6]

Of the different coalitions that aligned in protest were the "teamsters and turtles" – a blue–green alliance consisting of the teamsters (trade unions) and environmentalists.[7]

Corporations targeted

Certain activists, including locals and an additional group of anarchists from Eugene, Oregon[8] (where they had gathered that summer for a music festival),[9] advocated more confrontational tactics, and conducted vandalism of corporate properties in downtown Seattle. In a subsequent communique, they listed the particular corporations targeted, which they considered to have committed corporate crime.[10]

Lead-up months

On July 12, 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, "An essential aspect of global governance is responsibility to people—to equity, to justice, to enlarging the choices of all".[11]

On July 16, 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.[12] Next day, the London Independent newspaper savaged the WTO and appeared to side with the organizers 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."[13]

On November 16, two weeks before the conference, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13141—Environmental Review of Trade Agreements,[14] 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."

Black bloc organizing during WTO protests

Activists staged a spoof of Seattle daily newspaper the Post-Intelligencer on Wednesday November 24, inserting thousands of hoax editions of a four-page front-page wrap-around into piles of newspapers awaiting distribution to 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".[15] The byline on the Boeing story attributed it to Joe Hill (a union organizer who had been executed by firing squad in Utah in 1915). On the same day, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development reported:

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).[16]

N30

Seattle police on Union Street, during the protests

On the morning of Tuesday, November 30, 1999, the DAN'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, a march of citizens of the developing world who marched in from the south and, beginning around 09:00, militant anarchists (in a formation known as a black bloc) marching down Pike Street from 6th Avenue, blockading the streets with newspaper boxes and smashing windows.[17] 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.

Flag used by some protestors

That morning, the King County Sheriff's Office and Seattle Police Department fired pepper spray, tear gas canisters, and stun grenades[18] at protesters at several intersections in an attempt to reopen the blocked streets and allow as many WTO delegates as possible through the blockade.[19] At 6th Avenue and Union Street, the crowd threw objects back at the police.[20]

By late morning, the black bloc had swelled to 200 people and smashed dozens of shops and police cars. This seems to have set off a chain reaction of sorts, with previously nonviolent protesters throwing bottles at police and joining in the vandalism shortly before noon.[17]

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 chaotic scene downtown.

Army National Guardsmen marching to their next assignment

At noon, the opening ceremony at the convention center was officially canceled.[17] It took police much of the afternoon and evening to clear the streets. Seattle mayor Paul Schell declared a state of emergency, imposed a curfew, and a 50-block "no-protest zone."

December 1

Overnight, the governor of Washington, Gary Locke, called in two battalions of Army National Guardsmen, other law enforcement agencies sent support, and before daylight on Wednesday, troops and officers lined the perimeter of the no-protest zone. Police surrounded and arrested several groups of would-be protesters (and more than one bystander). Beginning at 21:00, a major clash took place on Broadway in the vicinity of Denny Way, involving rocks, bottles, and police concussion grenades. It did not involve a black bloc, but appears to have included local residents, although it is known that many local residents were treated as protesters, even being teargassed, despite having no part in the protests. Police called in from other cities mistook the typically crowded streets of Capitol Hill as groups of protesters.[21][22] More than 500 people were jailed on Wednesday. Throughout the day, police used tear gas to disperse crowds downtown, although a permitted demonstration organized by the Steelworkers Union was held along the waterfront.[23]

December 2–3

Protests continued the following days. Thousands demonstrated outside the Seattle Police Department protesting their tactics and arrests of peaceful protestors. President Clinton arrived and attended the conference. On December 3 the conference ended as delegations were unable to reach agreements, partly in response to the protests.[24][25] Confrontations with the police continued, albeit at a lower intensity. The primary goal of disrupting the trade talks achieved, some sought the horizons of possibility; it was determined quickly that the necessary ambition to achieve the broader goals of various anarchist factions was not sufficient.[26]

Media response

The New York Times printed an erroneous article that stated that protesters at the 1999 WTO convention in Seattle threw Molotov cocktails at police.[27] 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.[28]

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.[29]

An article in the magazine The Nation disputed that Molotov cocktails have ever been thrown at an antiglobalization protest within the US.[30]

Though media coverage of the Battle in Seattle condemned the violence of some of the protesters, the nature of this violence has been justified by some people. Specifically, the violence employed was not person-to-person violence, but "acts directed toward property, not people."[31] Though many still denounced the violent tactics used by protesters of the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle, this violence clearly resulted in increased media coverage of the event. The WTO meeting had an increase in evening news airtime from 10 minutes and 40 seconds on the first day of the meeting to 17 minutes on the first day of violence. In addition, WTO coverage was the lead or second story on CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC after violence was reported. Two days after the start of violence, the meeting remained the top story on three of the four networks. Though these numbers alone are telling, the media coverage of subsequent demonstrations that did not include violence by protesters shows even more the effect of violence on coverage. For example, the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (WB/IMF) meetings in the spring showed a "coverage pattern that was almost the reverse of that in Seattle" and that "suggests the crucial role of violence in garnering time on the public screen." In an even more striking example of the effects of violence on media coverage, the 2001 WTO meeting in Doha, Qatar, included no reports of violence. As a result, "there was absolutely no TV evening news coverage by the four major networks."[31]

This coverage did not center exclusively on the violence. Instead, details of the protesters' message and antiglobalization campaign were included along with the discussions of symbolic violence taking place. DeLuca believes the violence served as a dense surface that opened viewers' and readers' minds to a whole new way of thinking about globalization and corporations' operations. That is, not only was this violence contained within the familiar setting of television, and not only did it meet the criteria of being dramatic and emotional enough to warrant air time, but it also shattered preconceived notions of globalization and the practices of corporations that drive so much of America's economy.[31]

Aftermath

To many in North American anarchist and radical circles, the Seattle WTO riots, protests, and demonstrations were viewed as a success.[32] Prior to the "Battle of Seattle", almost no mention was made of "antiglobalization" in the US media, while the protests were seen as having forced the media to report on 'why' anybody would oppose the WTO.[33]

Previous mass demonstrations had taken place in Australia in December 1997, in which newly formed grass-roots organizations blockaded Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, and Darwin city centers.[34]

Controversy over the city's response to the protests resulted in the resignation of the police chief of Seattle, Norm Stamper,[35] and arguably played a role in Schell's loss to Greg Nickels in the 2001 mayoral primary election.[36][37] The massive size of the protest added $3 million to the city's estimated meeting 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.[38]

On January 16, 2004, the city of Seattle settled with 157 individuals arrested outside of the no-protest zone during the WTO events, agreeing to pay them a total of $250,000.[39] On January 30, 2007, a federal jury found that the city had violated protesters' Fourth Amendment constitutional rights by arresting them without probable cause or evidence.[40][41]

Inspired by these protests, a similar one occurred in Prague in September 2000.[42] Around 12 thousand activists gathered to protest during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank summit on September 27, 2000.[43]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "WTO riots in Seattle: 15 years ago". November 29, 2014. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
  2. ↑ Seattle Police Department: The Seattle Police Department After Action Report: World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference Seattle, Washington November 29 – December 3, 1999. p. 41.
    "Police estimated the size of this march [the labor march] in excess of 40,000."
  3. ↑ Bogardus, Keven (September 22, 2004). Venezuela Head Polishes Image With Oil Dollars: President Hugo Chavez takes his case to America's streets. Archived October 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
  4. ↑ Anarchism: Two Kinds Archived January 30, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Wendy McElroy. About market, violence, and anarchist reject to WTO.
  5. ↑ Koppel, Naomi (December 1, 1999). "Buchanan Praises WTO Protesters". Associated Press. AP. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  6. ↑ "People's Global Action "November 30th, 1999-A Global Day of Action, Resistance, and Carnival Against the Capitalist System"". www.nadir.org. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  7. ↑ Berg, John C. 2003, Teamsters and Turtles?: U.S. Progressive Political Movements in the 21st Century, Rowman & Littlefield
  8. ↑ Roosevelt, Margot (July 23, 2001). "In Oregon, Anarchists Act Locally". TIME. Archived from the original on October 19, 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  9. ↑ Bishop, Bi1l (July 1, 2007). "Local unrest followed cycle of social movements". The Register-Guard. Archived from the original on September 6, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ "Who were those masked anarchists in Seattle?". Salon. December 10, 1999. Archived from the original on October 17, 2018. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  11. ↑ Globalization with a Human Face Archived July 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine UNHDR, 1999
  12. ↑ "Globalization Foes Plan to Protest WTO's Seattle Round Trade Talks". Globalexchange.org. Archived from the original on August 4, 2009. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
  13. ↑ THE HIDDEN TENTACLES OF THE WORLD'S MOST SECRET BODY Archived February 21, 2022, at the Wayback Machine Sunday Independent, 17 July 1999
  14. ↑ "Presidential Executive Order 13141". Presidency.ucsb.edu. November 16, 1999. Archived from the original on August 4, 2009. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
  15. ↑ Parvaz D "P-I executives not amused by protesters' parody" Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 25, 1999
  16. ↑ No New Issues Without Redress Of Uruguay Round Imbalances Archived February 21, 2022, at the Wayback MachineICTSD Bridges Weekly Seattle 99, Vol 3 No 46, November 24, 1999
  17. 1 2 3 "Day 2: November 30, 1999". depts.washington.edu. Archived from the original on September 24, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
  18. ↑ Reynolds, Paul (December 2, 1999). "Eyewitness: The Battle of Seattle". BBC News. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  19. ↑ Seattle Police Department, After-Action Report, pp. 39–40
    Draft King Country Sheriff's Office Final Report, II.H.2.
    WTO Accountability Review Committee, Combined Timeline of Events During the WTO Ministerial, 1999, Tuesday, Nov. 30: 9:09 am & 10 am.
    A recording of the Seattle Police Department radio channel command-5 is also available, but has a gap from 0836 to 0840.
    Highleyman, Liz, Scenes from the Battle of Seattle.
    St. Clair, Jeffrey, Seattle Diary.
    Gillham, Patrick F., and Marx, Gary T., Complexity and Irony in Policing: The World Trade Organization in Seattle.
    de Armond, Paul, Netwar in the Emerald City: WTO Protest Strategy and Tactics, pp. 216–217.
  20. ↑ Oldham, Kit; Wilma, David (October 20, 2009). "Essay 2142". HistoryLink.org. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  21. ↑ Alex Tizon, "Monday, Nov. 29 – Saturday, Dec. 4: WTO Week" Seattle Times, December 5, 1999 Archived February 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine;
  22. ↑ "Day 3: December 1, 1999". depts.washington.edu. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
  23. ↑ "WTO Meeting and Protests in Seattle (1999) -- Part 2 - HistoryLink.org". www.historylink.org. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved November 10, 2012.
  24. ↑ Four Days in Seattle The 1999 WTO Riots plus news stories one week later, KIRO7, archived from the original on November 18, 2021, retrieved December 7, 2019
  25. ↑ "BBC News | BATTLE FOR FREE TRADE | Seattle trade talks timeline". news.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on December 7, 2019. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  26. ↑ Breaking the Spell, archived from the original on January 11, 2022, retrieved January 10, 2022
  27. ↑ Christian, Nichole M. (June 4, 2000). "Police Brace For Protests In Windsor And Detroit". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
  28. ↑ "Origins of the Molotov Myth". De-Fact-o.com. Archived from the original on August 4, 2009. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
  29. ↑ "Seattle City Council findings" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 7, 2006. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
  30. ↑ The Myth of Protest Violence Archived April 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, David Graeber. The Nation.
  31. 1 2 3 DeLuca & Peeples 2002.
  32. ↑ Seattle WTO Shutdown ’99 to Occupy: Organizing to Win 12 Years Later Archived August 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, DAVID SOLNIT, The Indypendant, Jul 26 – September 4, 2012.
  33. ↑ Owens, Lynn, and Palmer, L. Kendall: Making the News: Anarchist Counter Public Relations on the World Wide Web, p. 9.
    They state that "[t]he protests in Seattle brought attention not only to the WTO and its policies, but also to the widespread organized opposition to those policies."
  34. ↑ Seattle Explosion: 2 Years Too Late, Rhoderick Gates, Our Time, November 30, 1999.
  35. ↑ Kimberly A.C. Wilson, Embattled police chief resigns Archived November 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 7, 1999. Accessed online May 19, 2008.
  36. ↑ Dan Savage, Paul is Dead: Norm's Resignation Ain't Gonna Save Schell's Butt Archived August 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, The Stranger, issue of December 9–15, 1999. Accessed online May 19, 2008.
  37. ↑ Rick Anderson, Whatever Happened to 'Hippie Bitch' Forman? Archived August 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Seattle Weekly, November 24, 2004. Accessed online May 19, 2008.
  38. ↑ WTO protests hit Seattle in the pocketbook Archived December 14, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, CBC News, January 6, 2000
  39. ↑ City to pay protesters $250,000 to settle WTO suit Archived August 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Seattle Times, January 17, 2004
  40. ↑ "MyWay". apnews.myway.com. Archived from the original on February 24, 2007. Retrieved January 31, 2007.
  41. ↑ Colin McDonald (January 30, 2007). "Jury says Seattle violated WTO protesters' rights". Seattle Post Intelligencer. Archived from the original on February 21, 2022. Retrieved December 27, 2007.
  42. ↑ "BBC News | EUROPE | Prague IMF summit ends early". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
  43. ↑ ČTK (December 10, 2000). "Anarchisté demonstrovali proti zásahu policie při MMF". iDNES.cz (in Czech). Retrieved September 18, 2023.

Bibliography

DeLuca, Kevin Michael; Peeples, Jennifer (June 2002). "From Public Sphere to Public Screen: Democracy, Activism, and the 'Violence' of Seattle". Critical Studies in Media Communication. 19 (2): 125–151. doi:10.1080/07393180216559. ISSN 1529-5036. S2CID 19438793.

Further reading

  • Sunil Yapa's debut novel, 'Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist (2016) is a fictional account of a young man who gets involved in Seattle WTO protests.
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