WTO: A Perspective From Seattle
by Bob
Russell
The WTO, World Trade Organization, had its moment in the spotlight of the corporate media during its December meeting in Seattle. Unfortunately, too much of the media coverage focused on the protest, but not about who the protesters were and why they were there. A 50 block area in Seattle became a police state after Tuesday's mostly peaceful demonstration was declared a riot and a state of civil emergency was proclaimed by the city's mayor.
I think Walden Bello, a professor at a university in the Philippines who spoke at several NGO programs, said it best when he was asked by the press from the Philippines what was going on in Seattle: "It is an organized police riot against peaceful protesters in service of the WTO".
I was in Seattle during the WTO Ministerial, December 1999, meeting to attend meetings and teach-ins about the WTO, sponsored by various non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Even with all the turmoil in Seattle, I was still able to attend various meetings about what the WTO is and some of the damage it has caused in its short four year history, but not without being gassed while in downtown after attending a peaceful protest march sponsored by the AFL-CIO.
One of the most important aspects of the events in Seattle was the diversity of the organizations that were among the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) protesting and strategizing against the WTO--teamsters, steelworkers, AFL-CIO, environmentalists, small farmers, farm workers, human rights activist, all major religions, elected officials, consumer protection advocates and concerned citizens from many countries. It was truly the global civil society raising its collective voice against the tyranny of economic globalization that is being created by the WTO.
For me the other major positive aspect was the work done by the Direct Action Network and the Ruckus Society to help train and organize nonviolent protestors for their actions in Seattle. The protestors were predominantly young people, with some seasoned nonviolent protestors like Starhawk (read her article on her website). Without the protestors the media would never have given so much coverage to the events in Seattle and WTO would still be an unknown entity to most citizens.
There was success in Seattle. The WTO delegates left Seattle in disarray with no new rounds for more liberalization of trade rules, a powerful coalition of global civil society united for the first time and the WTO was held in the light for people to see.
To keep the WTO and other neo-liberal economic issues in the light for people to see we need to work on media issues. We need to take action to regain control of the publics right for access to the media landscape that is almost totally control by the corporate media. See article and resources in this issue of Gathers.
There has been many articles written about the events in Seattle and about the WTO in general. So instead of me writing yet another perspective of Seattle and the WTO I will provide you with some print resources about the WTO and Internet resources about the WTO meeting in Seattle and the WTO in general. If you don't have access to the Internet, in Traverse City as in many other communities, the public library has access to the Internet for free. Most of these public places also allow you to print out articles from the Internet for a small printing fee.