25 Years Later: WTO Shut Down in Seattle

The Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) looks back on the mass protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in 1999.

Twenty-five years ago this week, anarchists, members of organized labor, forest defenders, NGOs, artists, farmers, and environmental and social justice activists from all corners of the globe descended on Seattle, Washington. The world watched in wonder as a defiant group of more than 50,000 activists banded together with a common vision to shut down the 1999 World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference.

Getting the word out across the U.S. and around the world was achieved through months of careful planning and preparation, with the use of new technology-based tools like cell phones, email, and listservs. Over 50,000 people poured into downtown Seattle. They filled roadside motels, squatted in abandoned buildings, rented warehouses for trainings, and above all, found a way to build a strong enough coalition to operate as a massive, decentralized, many-headed creature that was impossible to kill.

The story of the WTO protests and subsequent police response is a testament to what is possible when intersectional movements with different visions and strategies unite through decentralized organizing, with a common goal for global justice. And, although the reasons for coming were as varied as the locations, movements, and industries represented, the WTO protests of 1999 rewrote the story of not only mass movement organizing, but the policing of movements in the U.S., as well.

Over the next two weeks we’ll join Kim Marks, CLDC Board Member and long-time movement organizer, as we look back 25 years to this watershed event.

The formation of the WTO in 1995 marked a dramatic shift in the global economic landscape. The promise that the WTO would bring improved market access and trade equality to developing countries gave way to the reality that wealthy countries from the global north continued the centuries-old practice of bleeding the global south and perpetuating vast human rights abuses in the name of capitalist profits. Farmers – then as now — are driven from their land because multinational agribusiness emboldened by WTO agreements dump government-subsidized crops below market value, thereby crashing prices in developing countries while the locals starve. Native ecosystems are stripped to grow palm oil or harvest old-growth lumber, enriching corporate masters, while their workers and the environment weaken and grow sick. Any corner of the WTO, when illuminated, shows the massive transference of wealth and raw materials from the earth and its people to colossal multinational corporations, extractive governments, and the partnerships between the two.

In the wake of these stark realities, the anti-globalization movement was born around the world. Whether black-clad anarchists or Salvadoran nuns, “the people” recognized that the future was bleak unless they stood up against the profiteers.

The plan of the WTO delegates, politicians, and industry lobbyists was to gather behind barricades and closed doors in Seattle to divide up the spoils of economic dominance while militarized police had their back.

Activists began organizing against this circus of capital from the moment the Seattle venue was chosen over San Diego and Honolulu. The planned use of some creative organizing tactics, like the spokes-council model, proved instrumental in bringing together a wide array of activists with a broad spectrum of skillsets. There was an agreed-upon goal that everyone could work towards, which was owning the streets and stopping the Ministerial.

Kim Marks: “It had been a really long time since we had been able to get that many people to show up in one place and do an action of that scale. It was successful in that we were able to get different affinity groups from many different places to suspend disbelief, and trust that through the spokes-council process everyone was gonna do what they said they were gonna do and shut down their respective intersections. The key reasons it worked were because of the radical organizing that had been happening in the forest defense movement in the Northwest for so long, and the roadshows and extensive direct action trainings we did along the way allowed us to build trust in person.”

As dawn broke on November 30, 1999 (“N.30”), the first day of the street battles between activists and police began to unfold. WTO delegates were unwilling and/or unable to make their way into the convention center. Police were unprepared for the level of coordination that had been successful in splitting up the city into wedges controlled by different groups. This level of coordination choked the WTO Ministerial and effectively kept members and delegates locked in their rooms. It also panicked the cops and city officials.

Kim Marks: “Every intersection had a different scenario playing out — in our intersection cops were randomly pepper-spraying adults and kids. We were in the process of negotiating with police to move people out of downtown and back towards the convergence site when cops attacked. We were told by the police that they’d rather have us figure out how to move humans than have the police figure it out. And we were like, great! That gives us at least another day to do actions. But then they started hitting us with flash grenades and rubber bullets and it turned into a war zone.”

Around 10 AM on N.30, police lost control of the situation in the streets. They began to deploy chemical weapons, rubber bullets, police batons, and mass arrests against peaceful protestors as well as bystanders. Extensive use of chemical and “non-lethal” weapons on protestors was relatively new at this time. Many people were injured by police and several police misconduct cases arose in the aftermath of unchecked police abuse.

Norm Stamper, then police chief for the Seattle Police Department, later called the police actions he oversaw an “over-reaction” as well as the “worst mistake” of his career. Despite the fact that over 1,000 arrests were made that day, and charges were filed against 600+ activists, only six people were ever brought to trial. Of those, five ended with an acquittal and one with a very minor conviction. Everyone else had their charges dismissed.

Without the incredible behind-the-scenes coalition-building that took place between organized labor and other activist organizations, the legal fallout of such a chaotic day could have been so much worse. Organized labor demanded the release of all arrestees that day, whether they were labor activists or not.

Kim Marks: “From what I remember, the meeting between the Longshoreman and the Mayor (Paul Schell) went like this.

Longshoreman: You need to release everybody from jail.

Mayor Schell: You mean the labor people?

Longshoreman: No, anybody that’s protesting the WTO are our brothers and sisters and we want them all out.

Mayor Schell: Ok well, not the people on felony charges?

Longshoreman: No, them too. This is too complicated, we’re not the judge and jury. Everyone in jail released now! If they don’t get released, you can get on the phone and explain to Europe why they’re not gonna get their goods.”

The fact that Mayor Schell did end up releasing everyone from jail is a profound testament to what solidarity in action can look like.

The city also spent over $9 million on police and other costs. Years later, Seattle paid a total sum of $275,000 to the victims of police brutality and $1 million to 175 protestors who were unlawfully arrested (NBC News). To this day, the litigation precedent created by civil rights lawyers in Seattle continues to be used to uphold the rights of street protestors around the country. For example, in Menotti v. City of Seattle, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of two protestors, charging that the city’s establishment and enforcement of a “No Protest Zone” during the WTO conference violated their First Amendment rights. In 2005, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government may have violated the rights of WTO protesters, sending the case back to the trial court to determine whether the city’s policy was to restrict free speech based on its content. The case was ultimately settled in the protestors’ favor.

From that first day of police-initiated violence there were profound media blunders and lessons to glean. Television media amplified acts such as window smashing ad nauseum — in a way that portrayed the acts of property destruction as more widespread than they actually were. The New York Times incorrectly reported that protestors were throwing Molotov cocktails at police, a report that was repeated many times despite their printed correction. But the media was also forced to report on the protestors’ anti-globalization message and pulled back the curtain on the grave harms and deceptions perpetrated by multinational corporations. Even Eugene, Oregon (where CLDC is based) rose to fame as the “informal capital of anarchy in America” after running the streets in early-west coast black bloc (Chicago Tribune)!

Next week we’ll look a bit more in depth on some of the lessons learned as well as the path forward.