By CHARLES DUHIGG Issue date: 12.20.99 Post date: 12.02.99
The extreme ideological gulfs among the estimated 10,000 protesters at the World Trade Organization Ministerial in Seattle could almost be ignored when the protesters gathered for a "People's Assembly" on the first day of the conference. Ignored, that is, until people got hungry.
"Gimme some raw, dead meat!" shouted the aptly named Mike Crudes as he warily eyed the long line of dreadlocked youths waiting to buy Green Life Smoothies and Tofu Scrambles from the Light of Love Gypsy Village tent. "Meat is dead," a much-pierced youth retorted under his breath as he and a companion compared tattoos.
Welcome to the Battle for Seattle, 1999. When organizers decided to locate the WTO's "millennium round" here, they pointed to the city's spirit of free trade: one out of every three jobs in Washington state is affected by foreign trade, and the percentage is even higher in Seattle and its surrounding communities, home to Microsoft and Boeing. What the organizers didn't take into account was the spirit of Kurt Cobain.
"Look, don't get me wrong. I think those guys who marched around dressed up like turtles are probably fairies," said Crudes, a member of the AFL-CIO. "But, as long as they're against the same thing as me, I got no problem. I think this shows how bad the WTO is, that so many different people can protest together." (Actually, the turtles were mostly family men. The "fairies" were gathered across the field, alongside a group of lesbians carrying DYKE PRIDE placards.)
Indeed, nothing represents the reality of globalization today better than the uncomfortable bedfellows from more than 130 organizations and groups who joined forces in Seattle to protest it--and, ironically, to partake of its bounty. As militia members milled with black-clad anarchists and topless environmentalists ("I painted my breasts with a mural of the tree I lived in for a year"), and trade unionists marched under "FREE MUMIA!" posters, it was clear that American protest had entered uncharted territory.
"I'll be honest--I don't really know many people like the ones here," said Butch Razey, commander of the Yakima County Militia, who attended the protest on orders from superiors in Montana. "We're willing to die for our Constitution, and the patriots are all coming out because they know this is the beginning of world government. But I'll be honest--this will be the first time I'll be holding hands with a bunch of tree-huggers."
But the hand-holding didn't last long. While many of the groups protesting the WTO on behalf of the world's oppressed showed a strong commitment to nonviolence, a handful of protesters--who smashed storefront windows and spray-painted graffiti--did not. And even less interested in nonviolent protest were the oppressed themselves. As temperatures dropped throughout the course of the day and middle-aged activists returned to their homes and hotels, a handful of local youths from the poorer areas of Seattle--a few impoverished urbanites in a vast sea of dreadlocked college students--stopped by to take in the activity. And to loot the empty stores sitting amid broken glass and deactivated alarm systems.
Suddenly, the underclasses needed to be, well, oppressed. "This is a nonviolent protest!" one intrepid activist shouted as he attempted to form a human shield across the recently removed door of a cellular-phone outlet. "We are here to fight against child labor! You are not invited to be a part of this!"
"Let's go hit Niketown!" a looter replied, embracing the globalization spirit.
Within an hour the chaos had provoked tear-gas attacks from police ringing the downtown area, culminating in a declaration of civil emergency, a curfew, a request for National Guard occupation--and an effective answer to the question of what happens when dissimilar elements unite.
Many commentators seemed genuinely surprised at the unwashed hordes that descended on this rainy city and turned it upside down. They shouldn't have been. Throughout the 1990s, the Pacific Northwest has been a hotbed of radical activism. President Reagan and President Bush both faced protests here (the latter dubbing Portland "the Beirut of North America" after one particularly rough reception). And Hillary Clinton was rumored to have been so shaken by the conservative activists who greeted her in Seattle in 1994 that she now visits the city only to attend tightly controlled fund-raisers. Although the Pacific Northwest is seen back East as a reservoir of laid-back good-naturedness, with its liberal enclaves of Portland and Eugene, Oregon, and its conservative bastions in eastern Oregon and Washington, this area is actually uniquely suited to generating large numbers of protesters, regardless of their ideological slant.
And perhaps that's why the 1999 WTO Ministerial met here. The United States' recent push to include labor conditions as an explicit issue in trade agreements has been met with derision by developing nations. The U.S. insistence on workers' rights, they contend, is a form of protectionism thinly veiled in false altruism.
But the American public takes child-labor laws and minimum wages seriously, and it consistently makes trade an issue in national elections. Perhaps the U.S. government wanted to show other countries how much our electorate really cares about these issues, thus strengthening America's position at the bargaining table. So they chose a city where they could be sure that thousands would join forces to march through the streets in the largest united front of the decade. A brilliant strategy, when you think about it.
It's just too bad they didn't separate everyone first.
CHARLES DUHIGG is a writer in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Recently: In companion pieces to this story, Gregg Easterbrook explains why the chaos in Seattle is really a good thing, and John B. Judis argues that no alliance of dissenters will keep China out of the WTO . In TNR's last Seattle Dispatch, Bruce Gottlieb reported from the campus of Nintendo U..
Currently (12.20.99 issue): Race to the Bottom: The candidates scurry to dumb themselves down; our man Jonathan Chait is there. Party Animals: Andrew Sullivan asks, GWB=JFK? The Editors: The world betrays Rwanda, again. TRB: Alan Ehrenhalt mourns the House of Lords, sort of. Campaign Journal: Dana Milbank's short story about Gary Bauer and the shrinking stature of the Christian right. Stanley Kauffmann on Films: New reviews of Ang Lee's Ride With the Devil and Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. Parables and Prizes: James Wood reviews Disgrace, the Booker Prize-winning novel by J.M. Coetzee. The Price of an Idea: Michael Scammell reviews The Black Book of Communism and its explanation of where, when, and why 85 million people died.
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(Copyright 1999, The New Republic)
SEATTLE DISPATCH Means of Dissent
By CHARLES DUHIGG Issue date: 12.20.99 Post date: 12.02.99
The extreme ideological gulfs among the estimated 10,000 protesters at the World Trade Organization Ministerial in Seattle could almost be ignored when the protesters gathered for a "People's Assembly" on the first day of the conference. Ignored, that is, until people got hungry. "Gimme some raw, dead meat!" shouted the aptly named Mike Crudes as he warily eyed the long line of dreadlocked youths waiting to buy Green Life Smoothies and Tofu Scrambles from the Light of Love Gypsy Village tent. "Meat is dead," a much-pierced youth retorted under his breath as he and a companion compared tattoos. Welcome to the Battle for Seattle, 1999. When organizers decided to locate the WTO's "millennium round" here, they pointed to the city's spirit of free trade: one out of every three jobs in Washington state is affected by foreign trade, and the percentage is even higher in Seattle and its surrounding communities, home to Microsoft and Boeing. What the organizers didn't take into account was the spirit of Kurt Cobain. "Look, don't get me wrong. I think those guys who marched around dressed up like turtles are probably fairies," said Crudes, a member of the AFL-CIO. "But, as long as they're against the same thing as me, I got no problem. I think this shows how bad the WTO is, that so many different people can protest together." (Actually, the turtles were mostly family men. The "fairies" were gathered across the field, alongside a group of lesbians carrying DYKE PRIDE placards.) Indeed, nothing represents the reality of globalization today better than the uncomfortable bedfellows from more than 130 organizations and groups who joined forces in Seattle to protest it--and, ironically, to partake of its bounty. As militia members milled with black-clad anarchists and topless environmentalists ("I painted my breasts with a mural of the tree I lived in for a year"), and trade unionists marched under "FREE MUMIA!" posters, it was clear that American protest had entered uncharted territory. "I'll be honest--I don't really know many people like the ones here," said Butch Razey, commander of the Yakima County Militia, who attended the protest on orders from superiors in Montana. "We're willing to die for our Constitution, and the patriots are all coming out because they know this is the beginning of world government. But I'll be honest--this will be the first time I'll be holding hands with a bunch of tree-huggers." But the hand-holding didn't last long. While many of the groups protesting the WTO on behalf of the world's oppressed showed a strong commitment to nonviolence, a handful of protesters--who smashed storefront windows and spray-painted graffiti--did not. And even less interested in nonviolent protest were the oppressed themselves. As temperatures dropped throughout the course of the day and middle-aged activists returned to their homes and hotels, a handful of local youths from the poorer areas of Seattle--a few impoverished urbanites in a vast sea of dreadlocked college students--stopped by to take in the activity. And to loot the empty stores sitting amid broken glass and deactivated alarm systems. Suddenly, the underclasses needed to be, well, oppressed. "This is a nonviolent protest!" one intrepid activist shouted as he attempted to form a human shield across the recently removed door of a cellular-phone outlet. "We are here to fight against child labor! You are not invited to be a part of this!" "Let's go hit Niketown!" a looter replied, embracing the globalization spirit. Within an hour the chaos had provoked tear-gas attacks from police ringing the downtown area, culminating in a declaration of civil emergency, a curfew, a request for National Guard occupation--and an effective answer to the question of what happens when dissimilar elements unite. Many commentators seemed genuinely surprised at the unwashed hordes that descended on this rainy city and turned it upside down. They shouldn't have been. Throughout the 1990s, the Pacific Northwest has been a hotbed of radical activism. President Reagan and President Bush both faced protests here (the latter dubbing Portland "the Beirut of North America" after one particularly rough reception). And Hillary Clinton was rumored to have been so shaken by the conservative activists who greeted her in Seattle in 1994 that she now visits the city only to attend tightly controlled fund-raisers. Although the Pacific Northwest is seen back East as a reservoir of laid-back good-naturedness, with its liberal enclaves of Portland and Eugene, Oregon, and its conservative bastions in eastern Oregon and Washington, this area is actually uniquely suited to generating large numbers of protesters, regardless of their ideological slant. And perhaps that's why the 1999 WTO Ministerial met here. The United States' recent push to include labor conditions as an explicit issue in trade agreements has been met with derision by developing nations. The U.S. insistence on workers' rights, they contend, is a form of protectionism thinly veiled in false altruism. But the American public takes child-labor laws and minimum wages seriously, and it consistently makes trade an issue in national elections. Perhaps the U.S. government wanted to show other countries how much our electorate really cares about these issues, thus strengthening America's position at the bargaining table. So they chose a city where they could be sure that thousands would join forces to march through the streets in the largest united front of the decade. A brilliant strategy, when you think about it. It's just too bad they didn't separate everyone first.
CHARLES DUHIGG is a writer in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Recently: In companion pieces to this story, Gregg Easterbrook explains why the chaos in Seattle is really a good thing, and John B. Judis argues that no alliance of dissenters will keep China out of the WTO . In TNR's last Seattle Dispatch, Bruce Gottlieb reported from the campus of Nintendo U..
Currently (12.20.99 issue): Race to the Bottom: The candidates scurry to dumb themselves down; our man Jonathan Chait is there. Party Animals: Andrew Sullivan asks, GWB=JFK? The Editors: The world betrays Rwanda, again. TRB: Alan Ehrenhalt mourns the House of Lords, sort of. Campaign Journal: Dana Milbank's short story about Gary Bauer and the shrinking stature of the Christian right. Stanley Kauffmann on Films: New reviews of Ang Lee's Ride With the Devil and Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown. Parables and Prizes: James Wood reviews Disgrace, the Booker Prize-winning novel by J.M. Coetzee. The Price of an Idea: Michael Scammell reviews The Black Book of Communism and its explanation of where, when, and why 85 million people died.
HOME | ARCHIVE | SUBSCRIBE | CONTACT | ADVERTISE
(Copyright 1999, The New Republic)