The port city is the focus for a planned festival of resistance against the latest round of trade talks, with activists arguing the World Trade Organization is unelected and unaccountable.

The Financial Times
September 20, 1999
By Mark Suzman

The goal, plastered on thousands of leaflets, faxes, and e-mail messages winging their way across the US and the wider world, is simple but ambitious: "Shutdown Sea-Town on November 30."

That is the day the World Trade Organisation opens its ministerial summit in the Pacific north-west port city of Seattle. It has also now become the focal point for an unprecedented worldwide, anti-trade campaign that threatens to disrupt the talks and to overshadow the formal agenda.

The "mobilisation against globalisation" is being spearheaded by an unwieldy mix of consumer groups, labour unions, environmentalists and other activists who have joined forces to try to mount the largest anti-trade demonstration in modern history. In the process, they hope to spark a backlash against the WTO from the US public and to derail proposals, to be discussed at the summit, to launch a new "millennium" round of trade liberalisation talks covering agriculture, services and other issues.

Although the WTO has heard such threats before - and shrugged off attempts to mount similar protests at previous meetings - Seattle already looks likely to be bigger in size and scope.

The build-up informally kicked off last week when more than 1,100 public interest groups from 87 countries released a petition on Capitol Hill calling for a halt to plans for the new round. Now the emphasis is shifting to direct action and efforts to ensure the campaign puts across a serious message.

"We may be seeking creative and dramatic ways to do it, but the aim of all this is to put forward a real critique of the WTO," says Mike Dolan, field director of the Citizens Trade Campaign and a driving force behind the preparations. "We are putting the case for fair trade," he says - and demanding that rather than expand the WTO's powers, the organisation should conduct a comprehensive internal review of the impact its activities to date.

The problem with the WTO, activists argue, is that it is unelected, unaccountable and has the power to undermine local laws that protect labour and the environment from exploitation. However the WTO insists that it merely carries out the will of its member states.

The activists' message appears to have found fertile ground in Seattle. The city was selected to host the talks because of its long- standing commitment to trade - it is home to Boeing and Microsoft, two of the US's biggest exporters, and sells a wide range of farm products abroad. But it is also the base of a highly developed social activist movement that has been skilfully exploiting the internet and other resources to set in motion a "festival of resistance".

A coalition of anti-trade groups has taken over a large office space close to the convention centre where the ministerial meetings will be held. From there, it is reaching out to groups from churches to Aids activists.

The planned highlight is the large rally and march scheduled for November 30. But many of the non-governmental groups have managed to gain accreditation for the main event. This will allow their representatives some direct access to the 5,000 official visitors expected. A series of parallel meetings, teach-ins and lectures will be held alongside the formal ones to allow the thousands of other activists expected to gather from around the world to share tactics and ideas.

A small group of self-described "top flight hell-raisers" from across the country spent last weekend at a special "Globalize This!" action camp at a forest farm north of the city. Organised by the Ruckus society, a non-profit organisation based in Berkeley, California, the aim was to fine-tune their skills in non-violent action techniques and civil disobedience so they can return home and train others.

Participants were required to "articulate a powerful critique of capital" while displaying a "sense of excellence, rhythm and humour." In exchange, they were given training in activities ranging from attaching themselves to fixed objects with hardened steel locks to climbing up and down buildings to hang giant banners and - most perilous of all - "working with the media."

Other groups will try to generate public interest through street- theatre, giant puppets and music events. An anti-WTO "Caravan across America" is being arranged as a counterpoint to a sporadic tour undertaken by William Daley, US commerce secretary, to promote the benefits of trade. That will be followed by a "People's Assembly" before the meetings, bringing together speakers and delegates from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

But while such radical organisations may prove adept at generating media attention, in practice most are small and marginal groups that have long been critical of the WTO. The distinctive aspect of the plans to protest against the Seattle meetings is that they are supported by much bigger grassroots organisations, including mainstream consumer and environmental groups and the highly-organised US labour movement.

Last Friday, about 60 labour leaders met in Seattle to discuss logistics for their own campaigns. The AFL-CIO, the main national union federation, has suggested as many as 15,000 members may attend the rallies. Several big unions that have long been engaged in trade issues have booked hundreds of hotel rooms.

"We want to send a strong message," says Chuck Harple, a senior Teamsters executive, "The behaviour of this administration [on trade] is just horrible. They don't listen to us and call us a bunch of buffoons or protectionists and we need to make them pay attention."

One risk is that too much attention may be paid for the wrong reasons. There are worries that anarchist fringe elements may attempt to hijack proceedings and resort to violence, as happened in the City of London last June when a planned "carnival against capitalism" turned ugly.

However, Ruckus and other groups insist that they condemn any technique that "will destroy property or harm any being," and police have promised to show restraint. And while both sides are making contingency plans, Mr Dolan is confident they will not be needed.

"The way things are going, I think we will really be able to send a strong and positive message to the political elites," he says.