Protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999

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Protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in 1999
A police officer sprinkles the crowd with pepper spray
A police officer sprinkles the crowd with pepper spray
date November 30, 1999 to December 3, 1999
place Seattle , Washington , USA
root cause WTO policy, globalization
consequences Resignation of the Seattle Police Chief, Norm Stamper
increased coverage in the US media,
arrests of 157 people who were released for lack of evidence or reasonable suspicion and received US $ 250,000 from the City of Seattle,
establishment of the Independent Media Center
Parties to the conflict

Anti-globalization movement
Direct Action Network
Non-governmental organizations
Trade unions
Student and religious groups

King County Sheriff's Office
Seattle Police Department
Washington State Patrol
81st Brigade
Washington Army National Guard

Attendees
approx. 40,000

The 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization (WTO) protests , sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle , were a series of protests surrounding the World Trade Organization ( WTO ) ministerial conference at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle , Washington , on November 30, 1999. The conference was intended to mark the beginning of a new round of trade agreements in the new millennium.

The negotiations were quickly overshadowed by massive and controversial protests outside the hotels and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. The protests were nicknamed "N30", parallel to J18, the Carnival Against Capital on June 18, 1999, and similar protests. The scale of the demonstrations, in which an estimated at least 40,000 protesters took part, exceeded any previous demonstration in the USA against an international meeting of one of the organizations associated with economic globalization (such as the WTO, the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank ) Far.

Organizations and Planning

The planning of the actions started months in advance with the participation of local, national and international organizations. The most important participants included national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Global Exchange (especially those dealing with problems in the world of work, the environment and consumer protection), trade unions (including the AFL-CIO ), student groups, church groups ( Jubilee 2000 ) and anarchists (some of whom formed a black bloc ).

It was a loose alliance. Some protest groups focused on opposition to WTO policies (particularly those related to free trade ), while others focused on labor rights, environmental issues or anti-capitalist objectives. Many of the NGOs involved in the protests were accredited to take part in the official negotiations and were simultaneously planning various educational and press events. The AFL-CIO, in collaboration with its affiliates, organized a large approved rally and march from Seattle Center to downtown.

The "turtles": protesters in sea turtle costumes

However, other participants were more interested in direct action , including civil disobedience and acts of vandalism and damage to property , to disrupt the conference. Several groups had organized themselves loosely together as a Direct Action Network (DAN) and were planning to disrupt the conference by blocking streets and intersections so that the delegates could not get to the convention center where the conference was taking place. The Black Bloc was not affiliated with the DAN, but responded to the original call for autonomous resistance actions launched by the People's Global Action network on November 30th.

The "Teamsters and Turtles", an alliance of the Teamsters union and environmental activists , were among the various coalitions that had come together in protest .

Companies against which the protests were directed

Activists, including Seattle residents and a group of anarchists from Eugene, Oregon (who gathered there for a music festival this summer), promoted more confrontational tactics and vandalized corporate property in downtown Seattle. In a subsequent communiqué, they listed the companies that they had been the target of their actions because they believed they were guilty of corporate crime.

The months leading up to the conference

On July 12, the Financial Times reported that the United Nations’s most recent Human Development Report advocated “Principles for the Conduct of International Corporations on Labor Law, Free Trade, and Environmental Protection ... which are necessary to to offset the negative effects of globalization on the poorest countries ”. The article itself argued: "An essential aspect of global governance is responsibility towards people - for fairness, for justice, in order to improve everyone's choice".

On July 16, Helene Cooper from The Wall Street Journal warned of an imminent "massive mobilization against globalization" planned for the WTO conference in Seattle at the end of the year. The next day, the London daily Independent attacked the WTO and appeared to show solidarity with the organizers of the rapidly expanding protest storm.

“The way she has used [her] power leads to increasing suspicion that the initials were supposed to stand for World Take Over. With a series of decisions, it has cashed in measures to support the world's poorest, environmental protection and health protection in the interests of private, usually American, companies.
"The WTO appears to be on a crusade to increase private profit at the expense of everything else, including the well-being and quality of life of the majority of the world's population," said Ronnie Hall, trade activist at Friends of the Earth International . "She seems to have a relentless urge to expand her power."

On November 16, two weeks before the conference, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13141, Environmental Review of Trade Agreements, in which the United States committed itself to a policy of "examining and considering the environmental impact of trade agreements," proclaiming: " Trade deals should contribute to the broader goal of sustainable development. "

Activists ran a forgery campaign with Seattle's daily newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer , on November 24th . They stuck a fake four-page cover page in piles of newspapers that were about to be distributed in hundreds of newspaper boxes and from newspaper vendors. On the fake front page were the articles "Boing moves overseas" ("Boing goes abroad"; to Indonesia) and "Clinton pledges help for poorest nations" ("Clinton pledges help for the poorest nations"). The Boing article named Joe Hill (a union activist executed by firing squad in Utah in 1915) as the author of the Boing article . On the same day, the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development reported:

“Developing countries have stood firm in their demands that developed countries honor the Uruguay Round commitments before entering into full force negotiations on trade deals.
Developing countries are particularly concerned about compliance with agreements on market access for textiles, about the use of anti-dumping measures against exports from developing countries and about the excessive implementation of the WTO agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS agreement). on the part of the industrialized countries. "

This already indicated the impending North-South conflict , which resulted in the fruitless end of the upcoming WTO talks.

Earlier mass protests against the APEC Summit in Vancouver, Canada and Manila, Philippines also spread information on globalization policies, free trade and the situation in developing countries, which likely fueled further protests at international business forums. The APEC Canada meeting took place on November 24th and 25th, 1997 on the campus of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. Protesters on campus and in the city center were threatened by repressive measures by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police , while at the same time divided over tactics and the boundaries of civil disobedience. In the mass protests with several thousand participants, the leaders of the protests in Manila at the 1996 APEC meeting were also present. At the time, tens of thousands of workers and peasants, as well as groups fighting for social justice, demonstrated against free trade. UBC may have approved the filming of the Seattle film Battle in light of these previous events.

N30

Seattle police officers during the protests on Union Street

On the morning of Tuesday 30. November 1999, the DAN plan was put into practice. Hundreds of activists gathered in the deserted streets near the convention center and began occupying the major intersections. In the hours that followed, more and more protesters moved into the area from different directions, including a student demonstration from northern Seattle and a march of citizens from developing countries coming from the south of the city. Around 9:00 a.m., militant anarchists, a so-called Black Block, began to march down Pike Street from 6th Avenue; on the way they built barricades from newspaper boxes and smashed windows. Some protesters held rallies, others held teach-ins , and at least one group held a morning street party. At the same time, numerous demonstrators controlled street crossings by means of targeted blockade formations.

The blockade of the intersections and the large number of protesters in the area prevented WTO delegates from getting to the convention center from their hotels. At the same time, the police force was divided: the police officers 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 ranks of protesters in the south.

Flag used by some protesters

That morning, the King County Sheriff's Office and the Seattle Police Department used pepper spray , tear gas and stun grenades against the protesters at several intersections to clear the blocked streets and allow as many WTO delegates as possible to pass through the blockade. At the 6th Avenue and Union Street intersection, the crowd threw objects at the police.

By late morning, the Black Bloc had grown to 200 people and destroyed dozens of shops and police vehicles. This apparently triggered a chain reaction: until then, peaceful protesters began to throw bottles at police officers shortly before 12 noon and to participate in the vandalism. Some protesters tried to violently obstruct the black bloc's activities. The Seattle Police Department (led by Police Commissioner Norm Stamper) did not respond immediately. The organizers of the protests had convinced the Seattle police, during the previous approval process, that peaceful organizers would suppress such activities.

The police were ultimately overwhelmed by the crowd of protesters, many of whom had chained each other and blocked the intersections. At the same time, tens of thousands of participants came to the union-led rally and demonstration in the late morning. The demonstration route only led to just before the Convention Center and back again, but some demonstrators ignored the stewards and joined the now chaotic events in the city center.

National Guard soldiers march on their next mission

At 12 noon, the opening ceremony in the Convention Center was officially canceled. It took the police much of the afternoon and evening to clear the streets. The Mayor of Seattle, Paul Schell , declared a state of emergency , issued a curfew and declared a “protest-free zone” that comprised 50 blocks.

December 1

Overnight governor asked Gary Locke two battalions of the National Guard on, other law enforcement authorities sent support, and lined before dawn on Wednesday troops and police the border of the territory, which had been declared a protest-free zone. The police circled several groups of potential protesters (and several bystanders) and arrested them. At 9 p.m. there was a major altercation on Broadway near Denny Way, with stones, bottles and hand grenades being thrown by police. The Black Block was not involved, but apparently local residents. It is known, however, that the police treated many residents like protest participants, even though they did not take part in the protests. Police from other cities who had been summoned confused people with protesters on the normally busy streets of Capitol Hill. More than 500 people were arrested on Wednesday. The police used tear gas all day to break up the crowd around the city center. On the bank, however, there was an authorized demonstration organized by the steel workers' union.

December 2nd and 3rd

The protests continued in the following days. Thousands of people demonstrated in front of the Seattle Police Department against police tactics and the arrest of peaceful protesters. President Bill Clinton arrived and attended the conference. On December 3, the conference ended as delegates were unable to reach agreements, partly in response to the protests.

Media reaction

The New York Times published an erroneous article alleging that participants in the protests against the WTO conference in Seattle had thrown Molotov cocktails at the police. Two days later, the New York Times printed a corrigendum stating that the protesters were largely peaceful and did not accuse protesters of pelting objects at delegates or police officers. However, the original erroneous article continued to circulate in the mass media.

The Seattle City Council (City Council of Seattle) also dispelled these rumors through its own investigation results:

“The police radio traffic and their inflated estimates of the number of participants that exceed the figures shown in new video recordings make it clear how strong the panic is among the police. ARC investigators found that rumors of “Molotov cocktails” and the sale of flammable liquids in a supermarket were unfounded. However, rumors played an important role because they contributed to the police feeling under siege and in considerable danger. "

An article in The Nation magazine denied that Molotov cocktails had ever been thrown during anti-globalization protests in the United States. Videos made by anarchists in Seattle show protesters throwing objects at police.

Although the media condemned the violence of many participants in its coverage of the protests, the nature of that violence, particularly the fact that it was symbolic violence, "acts against things, not against people" served some individuals to justify them. Many still denounced the violent tactics used by protesters at the 1999 WTO conference in Seattle, but they clearly resulted in increased coverage of the WTO conference. Airtime of coverage of the WTO conference on the evening news increased from 10 minutes 40 seconds on the first day of the conference to 17 minutes on the first day of violent protests. In addition, the contributions from the WTO conference ran on CNN , ABC , CBS and NBC as the lead story or as a second contribution after violence was reported. Two days after the violence broke out, the WTO conference was still the main topic on three of these four television channels.

These figures are telling, but the media coverage of the demonstration that followed, which did not result in violence on the part of the demonstrators, shows the influence of violence on the reporting even more clearly. For example, the World Bank-IMF meeting in the spring of 2000 "exhibited a pattern of reporting that was almost the opposite of that in Seattle", and this "speaks to the crucial role of violence in getting airtime on television". An even more striking example of the impact of violence on media coverage was the 2001 World Trade Organization conference in Doha , Qatar, which saw no reports of violence. As a result, "there was not the slightest coverage on the evening news of the four major television stations."

The reporting did not focus exclusively on the violence, but also dealt in detail with the message of the demonstrators and the anti-globalization campaign in addition to the discussion of the symbolic violence that had occurred. DeLuca believes that the violence acted as a projection screen that opened the awareness of television viewers and readers to a whole new way of thinking about globalization and business activities. This means that not only was the violence experienced in the familiar television situation and dramatic enough to get airtime, but it also served to break down existing perceptions of globalization and the way companies operate that are so important drivers of the American economy , were shaken.

consequences

Many people in the anarchist and radical circles in North America saw the riots, protests and demonstrations against the WTO in Seattle as a success. While “anti-globalization” was hardly mentioned at all in the US media prior to the “Battle of Seattle”, the protests, according to this view, now forced the media to cover “why” anyone is turning against the World Trade Organization.

Previously, there had been mass protests in Australia in December 1997, during which newly formed grassroots organizations blocked the city centers of Melbourne , Perth , Sydney and Darwin .

The controversy over Seattle's response to the protests led to the resignation of Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper , and may also have contributed to Seattle's Mayor Paul Schell losing to Gregory J. Nickels in the 2001 mayoral election. The massive scale of the protests cost the city an additional US $ 3 million in addition to the planned budget for the conference of US $ 6 million, mainly for cleaning and cleaning up the city and for overtime with the police. Added to this is the damage to the private sector from vandalism and lost sales, which is estimated at US $ 20 million.

On January 16, 2004, an out-of-court settlement was reached between the city of Seattle and 157 people arrested outside the protest-free zone during the events surrounding the WTO conference; the city paid a grand total of US $ 250,000. On January 30, 2007, a federal jury ruled that the city had violated the rights of protesters under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution by arresting them without sufficient suspicion or evidence.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WTO riots in Seattle: 15 years ago . November 29, 2014.
  2. ↑ Seattle Police Department: The Seattle Police Department After Action Report: World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference Seattle, Washington November 29–3. December, 1999 . P. 41.
    "The police estimated the number of participants in this demonstration [the union demonstration] at over 40,000."
  3. ↑ Kevin Bogardus: Venezuela Head Polishes Image With Oil Dollars: President Hugo Chavez takes his case to America's streets. Center for Public Integrity , October 4, 2011, archived from the original October 4, 2011 ; accessed on August 10, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ Anarchism: Two Kinds , Wendy McElroy . About market, violence, and anarchist reject to WTO.
  5. ^ People's Global Action "November 30th, 1999-A Global Day of Action, Resistance, and Carnival Against the Capitalist System" .
  6. ↑ Berg, John C. 2003, Teamsters and turtles ?: US progressive political movements in the 21st century, Rowman & Littlefield.
  7. ↑ Archived copy . Dead link.
  8. ↑ findarticles.com - CBSI .
  9. ^ Margot Roosevelt: In Oregon, Anarchists Act Locally . In: TIME , July 23, 2001. Retrieved February 28, 2008. 
  10. ^ Bill Bishop: Local unrest followed cycle of social movements . The Register Guard. July 1, 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  11. ↑ Who were those masked anarchists in Seattle? (en-US) . In: Salon , December 10, 1999. 
  12. ↑ Globalization with a Human Face UNHDR, 1999
  13. ↑ Globalization Foe's Plan to Protest WTO's Seattle Round Trade Talks . Globalexchange.org. Retrieved July 17, 2009. Dead link.
  14. ↑ THE HIDDEN TENTACLES OF THE WORLD'S MOST SECRET BODY Sunday Independent, July 17, 1999
  15. ↑ Presidential Executive Order 13141 . Presidency.ucsb.edu. November 16, 1999. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
  16. ↑ Parvaz D PI executives not amused by protesters' parody Seattle Post-Intelligencer , November 25, 1999 demand regionally limited.
  17. ↑ No New Issues Without Redress Of Uruguay Round Imbalances ICTSD Bridges Weekly Seattle 99, Volume 3 No. 46, November 24, 1999, dead link.
  18. ↑ a b c Day 2: November 30, 1999 .
  19. ^ Eyewitness: The Battle of Seattle , BBC News. December 2, 1999. Retrieved April 4, 2017. 
  20. ↑ 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, November 30th: 9.09am & 10am.
    A recording of the Seattle Police Department's command-5 radio channel is also available, with a gap of 8:36 to 8:40.
    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 , p. 216-217.
  21. ↑ Kit Oldham, David Wilma: Essay 2142 . October 20, 2009. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  22. ↑ Alex Tizon, "Monday, Nov. 29 - Saturday, Dec. 4: WTO Week," Seattle Times , December 5, 1999 ;
  23. ↑ Day 3: December 1, 1999 .
  24. ^ WTO Meeting and Protests in Seattle (1999) - Part 2 - HistoryLink.org .
  25. ^ Four Days in Seattle The 1999 WTO Riots plus news stories one week later. KIRO7, accessed December 7, 2019 .
  26. ↑ BBC News | BATTLE FOR FREE TRADE | Seattle trade talks timeline .
  27. ↑ Origins of the Molotov Myth . De-Fact-o.com. Retrieved July 17, 2009.
  28. ↑ Seattle City Council findings . Accessed in 2009-07.17.
  29. ↑ The Myth of Protest Violence , David Graeber . The Nation.
  30. ↑ Breaking the Spell (film, 1999 )
  31. ↑ CBS 60 Minutes report on Seattle WTO protests
  32. ↑ a b c d e f g h i DeLuca, K., & Peeples, J. (2002). From public sphere to public screen: democracy, activism, and the "violence" of Seattle. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 19 (2), 125-151.
  33. ↑ (DeLuca & Peeples, 2002).
  34. ↑ Seattle WTO Shutdown '99 to Occupy: Organizing to Win 12 Years Later , DAVID SOLNIT, The Indypendant , July 26–4 . September 2012.
  35. ↑ Owens, Lynn, and Palmer, L. Kendall: Making the News: Anarchist Counter Public Relations on the World Wide Web , p. 9.
    They state that “The Seattle protests did not just focus attention on the WTO and its policies but also on the broad organized opposition to this policy. "
  36. ↑ Seattle Explosion: 2 Years Too Late , Rhoderick Gates, Our Time , Nov. 31, 1999.
  37. ↑ Kimberly AC Wilson, Embattled police chief resigns , Seattle Post-Intelligencer , December 7, 1999. Accessed online May 19, 2008. Accessed regionally limited.
  38. ^ Dan Savage , Paul is Dead: Norm's Resignation Ain't Gonna Save Schell's Butt , The Stranger , Issue 9-15. December 1999. Accessed online May 19, 2008.
  39. ↑ Rick Anderson: Whatever Happened to 'Hippie Bitch' Forman? Seattle Weekly, August 4, 2009, archived from the original on August 4, 2009 ; accessed on August 10, 2020 (English).
  40. ^ WTO protests hit Seattle in the pocketbook , CBC News , January 6, 2000
  41. ↑ City to pay protesters $ 250,000 to settle WTO suit Seattle Times, January 17, 2004
  42. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070224044322/http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070130/D8MVTIIG0.html
  43. ↑ Colin McDonald: Jury says Seattle violated WTO protesters' rights , Seattle Post Intelligencer. January 30, 2007. Retrieved December 27, 2007. 

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Commons : Protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle 1999  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files