To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
November 30, 2019
RE: The Battle of Seattle and the anti-globalization movement
A number of groups are organizing events to mark WTO+20, which is the 20th anniversary of mass protests against the World Trade Organization meeting of Nov. 30 - Dec. 1, 1999 in Seattle. This was the "Battle in Seattle"; with tens of thousands of demonstrators and militant resistance to the police, it marked a high point of the anti-globalization movement. For a list of events, see the website of the Community Alliance for Social Justice, https://cagj.org/wto20/. Below is a comment on these protests, adapted from a FB posting by Frank Arango, of the Seattle Workers' Voice:
The "battle of Seattle" occurred 20 years ago tomorrow. Many friends here participated in that elating struggle, and on its 20th anniversary it's being to some extent discussed in both the left and mainstream press. The following is my contribution to that discussion in the form of leaflets, letters, and articles written in late November and early December 1999.
* Communist Voice Organization leaflets distributed before, during and after the protests, where the reception was inspiring. - http://communistvoice.org/SeaWTO99Nov.html and http://communistvoice.org/SeaWTO99Dec.html
* Emails that were written to comrades in other cities describing the protests as they occurred. - http://communistvoice.org/23cWTOFrontLines.html
Overall summations -
* "The importance of the 'battle of Seattle' " http://communistvoice.org/23cWTOImportance.html and
* "The failure of the Seattle WTO meeting" http://communistvoice.org/23cWTOMeetingFails.html
How different trends saw the events -
* How the sectarian Spartacist League and the reformist CPUSA viewed the mass actions - http://communistvoice.org/23cWTOOpportunism.html
* Reply to an anarchist about the activities of the 'black bloc' at the anti-WTO demo - http://communistvoice.org/23cWTOAnarchism.html
Marxism and free trade -
* How Marx opposed both free traders and protectionists - http://communistvoice.org/23cWTOMarxFreeTrade.html
(All of the above are linked to at http://communistvoice.org/TOC23.html) <>
By Frank, Seattle (from Communist Voice #23, February 4, 2000)
The 20th century didn't end as scripted for the United States and other imperialist powers dominating the World Trade Organization. In fact it ended in somewhat of a fiasco. The Seattle WTO meeting of November 30 - December 3 could not agree to an agenda for negotiations, differences could not be papered over despite every effort to do just that, and several delegations from the poor countries went home publicly fuming about the arrogance of the delegations from the big imperialist powers. Moreover, this was supposed to be a meeting where the trade ministers of the member-states coldly took decisions affecting the lives of hundreds of millions of people without interference or protest. But everywhere they went they were met with denunciations of the effects of their neoliberal policies on the world's workers and environment. Everywhere they went slogans like, "hey hey! ho ho! WTO has got to go!", or "WTO! . . . Hell no!", rang in their ears. Being the representatives of the very biggest monopoly capitalists, that is, of the modern-day lords of the earth, they expected to be treated with reverence; but instead of this they received the public contempt of scores of thousands of protesters.
Who were these protesters, and where did they come from?
The Seattle members of the Communist Voice Organization vigorously participated in many of the street actions before and during the WTO ministerial sessions, both the legal and peaceful ones as well as those where fierce resistance to police assaults developed. We distributed about 1600 of the November 24 leaflet and had many discussions with other protesters -- before, during, and after WTO meeting. We also produced a second leaflet of December 6 to uphold the spirit of the "Battle of Seattle" in the face of bourgeois calumny. But like everyone else we can only offer partial or general answers to the above questions. Like that the protesters were of all ages, but mainly very young. They represented various social classes, but there was obviously a large working-class presence even in events not organized by the AFL-CIO or Steelworkers' Union big-wigs. Protesters came from everywhere in the world, but mainly from the western U.S.and Canada--with the largest numbers coming from the Seattle area itself. Politically, they represented a significant oppositional force which has been building beneath the market-worshipping atmosphere fanned up by the prevalent neoliberalism of the past two decades. This force has been represented in protests like those at the APEC meetings of the past two years (Vancouver and Jakarta), the June 18, 1999 "global day of action", the London anti-WTO protests which took place simultaneously with the Seattle protests, etc. And the activists at its base come from a variety of origins: labor activists, anti-imperialists, environmentalists, students, indigenous peoples, others--all seeing a common threat from the new institutions and policies of world capital.
Moreover, our experiences in the protests revealed that the relatively scattered banners and picket signs explicitly attacking the capitalist system as being the root cause of the infamies being so widely denounced actually represented the view of thousands. We saw the existence of this anti-capitalist trend as significant and heartening, and it accounts for the positive reception our leaflets received from many demonstrators, but at the same time we think the real ideological situation of this trend must be soberly appraised. One large section wants to leap over the many thorny political questions the movement faces today by taking up anarchism and denouncing organization itself, or even technology itself, as the evil essence of capitalism. Another large section is led by groups or individuals who in one way or another paint up minor modifications in capitalism as "socialism" and who tie the movement to the pro-capitalist labor bureaucrats or liberal politicians. The "alternative" to capitalism they propose is either simply more state regulation or is state capitalism--as in the former Soviet Union, or China (of Mao's time, but also even today!), or as in Cuba today. ...
When masses of people come together in protests like those in Seattle against the WTO they can see better than before that they're not struggling alone. They learn about many other battles which are being fought against the common enemy. Political outlooks are broadened and there's an inspiration to organize. But organize along what lines? ... Was the WTO a symbol of the evil or the evil itself? They couldn't agree on any of these questions. This is why the leaflets we distributed at the demonstration didn't only denounce the evils of the WTO, but dwelt on clarifying the path forward for developing a revolutionary movement against these evils. ...
One of the most valuable and exciting aspects of the demonstration in Seattle was the fact that it wasn't simply a parade behind the reformist big-shots, but there was mass initiative, defiance of the authorities, and mass active resistance to police suppression. This upset the capitalists no end, and it is also responsible for the debates about tactics being waged right among the activists themselves.
For many months the establishment had been working out its plan for dealing with anti-WTO protests. All the federal and local intelligence and police forces of the most powerful country in the world were involved, and they even at one point publicly discussed using the Kingdome and/or its fenced parking lots as a place to detain protesters. But being terrorists themselves, they were fascinated with the possibility of terrorist attacks on the WTO confab and under-rated the role firmly held political convictions might play among the masses of protesters. Nevertheless, as it became clear that the protests were going to be big, and that large numbers were committed to defying the authorities, the bourgeoisie arrogantly thought that a little sweet-talking would turn the tide and it therefore threw a party for protesters at Key Arena the night before the WTO meeting was to open. ... By late the next afternoon, however, it was clear that this ploy had failed miserably. Those who had come to the protests committed to civil disobedience stuck to their guns. And when the police launched their tear gas and rubber bullet assaults on the crowds they were met with massive resistance from both those involved in the civil disobedience actions as well as those involved in other forms of street protest. Thus, caught in a dilemma of their own arrogant making, the bourgeois liberals could only bare their fascist fangs by calling out the National Guard and ordering police-state measures in order to ensure that the WTO meeting finally get underway.
This was a real fiasco for the bourgeoisie--not simply because they lost one day of negotiating, but mainly because the mass anger at their plans was vividly demonstrated. ...
Now that the protests are over, those who were involved are summing up their experiences and pondering the issue of what to do next. We face the need to defend our mass actions against the propaganda of the establishment, whose main concern is creating public opinion for the suppression of future demonstrations. But we also need to use the energy we gained from the Seattle protests to push forward discussion of where the movement should go next, and of what old ideas and practices must be discarded.
(Full text at http://communistvoice.org/23cWTOImportance.html.) <>
by Phil, Seattle (from Communist Voice #23, February 4, 2000)
It would be tempting to ascribe the failure of the Third WTO Ministerial Meeting wholly to the efforts of the activists who crowded the streets of Seattle on November 30, and to the sacrifices of those who risked arrest because of their opposition to the police during the curfew clampdown over the next few days, but a sober analysis of this event reveals a much more complex set of reasons. In truth, the staff of the WTO had been unable to decide on an agenda before the meeting, and they had come to Seattle with only a vague idea of the script they were to follow. ... Because of the failure to decide on an agenda, many key matters were to be decided on at the ministerial level, in green rooms attended by key ministers from the great powers and the developed countries. Because of the atmosphere of crisis stemming from the activities on November 30, these negotiations were impeded and the glare of publicity fell on the undemocratic character of the negotiations. ...
Was this "the beginning of the end" of the WTO, as some have said? Although this is a tempting evaluation, the importance of this event lies more in the lessons which a new generation of activists draw from it, in the course of an eventual struggle against modern-day imperialist monopoly capitalism. Were it not for the role of the activists in this event, it would be simply the failure of one session of trade negotiations. But because of the peculiar circumstances of this failure, it revealed that all the capitalist governments, both of the developed and of the developing countries are the enemies of the working class movement. ... The demonstrations in Seattle become one more event in a growing chain -- against APEC in Vancouver, the MAI agreement in Montreal, the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland and now Seattle -- which has been frustrating the imperialist free-trade agenda of the US and the other major industrial powers.
(The full text is at http://communistvoice.org/23cWTOMeetingFails.html.) <>
Jim Page, a left-wing folksinger and social activist, wrote a song about the battle of Seattle several years ago:
November 30th, ‘99 history walkin’ on a tightrope line big money
pullin’ on invisible strings gettin’ into everything so deep, it’s hard
to believe it’s in the food and the water and the air you breath and
the chemistry, the bio-tech the banker with the bottomless check the
corporations and the CEO’s and the bottom line is the profit grows the
money talks, you don’t talk back they don’t like it when you act like
that
but didn’t we shut it down didn’t we
November 30th, ‘99 it was a Tuesday mornin’ when we drew the line it
was the WTO comin’ to town and we swore we’re gonna shut it down and
they stood there with their big police they had the National Guard out
to keep the peace with the guns and the clubs and the chemical gas but
still we would not let them pass and they raged and roared and their
tempers flared and there were bombs bursting in the daylight air and
they’d run us off, do us in but we came right back again
yeah, didn’t we shut it down didn’t we
November 30th, ‘99 millennium passing as the numbers climb and the
people came from everywhere there musta been 50 thousand out there
there were farmers, unions, rank and file every grass roots has it’s
own style there were great big puppets two stories tall there were
drummers drummin’ in the shoppin’ mall there were so many people that
you couldn’t see how that many people got into the city and the WTO
delegates too but we were locked down, so they couldn’t get through
yeah, didn’t we shut it down didn’t we
November 30th, ‘99 lockdown at the police line and they’re hittin’ you
with everything they got but you ain’t movin’, like it or not and
they’re tyin’ your wrists with plastic cuffs and they’re loadin’ you up
on a great big bus and they’re takin’ you down to the navy base pepper
sprayin’ you right in the face try to break you down, try to get you to
kneel but you got the unity and this is for real and they can’t break a
spirit that’s comin’ alive that’s the kind of spirit that’s bound
survive
didn’t we shut it down didn’t we
the media loves on the glitter and flash and the newspapers talkin’ out
a whole lot of trash about the violence of the people in black and how
the cops were so tired they just had to attack and the secrets hidden
in that deep dark hole that they call City Hall may never be told the
mayor’s out doin’ the spin the police chief quit so you can’t ask him
well they can swear to god and all human law but I was there and I know
what I saw and the visible stains’ll wash away in the rains but this
old town’ll never be the same
‘cause didn’t we shut it down didn’t we
it’s the greatest story ever told David and Goliath, how you be so bold
standin’ up to the giant when the goin’ gets hot and all you got is a
slingshot well they tell me that the world’s turned upside down you
gotta pick it up and shake it, gotta turn it around you gotta take it
apart to rearrange it I don’t want to save the world I want to change
it don’t let ‘em tell you that it can’t be done ‘cause they’re gonna be
the first ones to run just take a little lesson from Seattle town WTO
and how we shut it down
yeah, didn’t we shut it down didn’t we
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW6u75jBLec <>
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Posted December 2,
2019
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