What strikes me about the Sierra Club note is that while they (yes in order to pacify more skittish members) did emphasize their own completely legal protest, they went out of their way to give credit to the Direct Action Network:
"Simultaneously, tens of thousands of protestors organized by the Direct Action Network linked arms and sat down in the streets surrounding the Washington Trade and Convention Center, site of the summit. Their peaceful civil disobedience stopped the WTO from meeting on its first day. "
So why the shitting on allies? This is a decent statement whose politics we don't have to agree with in every detail, but which shows respect for a broad range of allies at the Seattle protest, including those using tactics the Sierra Club itself admits it might not engage in on its own.
And it has the rather splendid section on the real reapproachment between labor and environmental concerns and organizations that a lot of people have been building for over decades:
"Meanwhile, the demonstrators helped forged a new populist coalition that could permanently shift the politics of trade policy in America and around the world. For instance, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. made frequent appeals to protect the world's environment in trade policy.
The Sierra Club's Executive Director Carl Pope reciprocated during the big Fair Trade rally on Tuesday, Nov. 30. Following Steelworkers President George Becker to the speakers' microphone, Pope gave a ringing endorsement to trade unionism, telling the crowd, "If America didn't have a steel industry, it would have to invent one just so we could have the United Steelworkers of America."
A great statement that shows respect for the diversity of methods and concerns of their allies at the Seattle protests.
-- Nathan Newman