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Democracy in the Streets Versus Control from the Suites
Dec 15, 1999 -- While some people were thrilled about the new prestige hosting the WTO Ministerial Conference would bring to Seattle, I am thrilled about the new prestige brought to Seattle through hosting the largest peaceful protest demonstrations on global issues ever held in the United States.We got bruised a little in the process. But the bruise is not a black eye. It's a badge of courage.
Think of it: 40,000 people marched in a remarkable coalition of students, union members, environmentalists, and democracy lovers.
No single issue united protestors as much as the fact that the WTO is an undemocratic organization that makes decisions in secret with no voice for people affected by the decisions.
Thousands of ordinary Seattle citizens and thousands more from across the country took to the streets because that was the only place they could get a hearing for their views.
Protestors deplored the fact the the U.S. government was turning decision-making power over environmental, economic and human rights issues over to a group of finance ministers and trade negotiators from 130 different countries. While corporations have access to WTO councils, ordinary folk do not.
Despite the success and the general civility of the protests, there were some difficult moments. Some demonstrators came bent on violence. The police struck out at the wrong people, turning their backs on violence and lashing out at peaceful, non-violent protestors, passersby, and neighborhood residents.
At the seven-and-a-half-hour-long City Council hearings December 8, over a hundred witnesses gave compelling evidence that the police lost control of themselves as well as losing control of the streets.
Picture this: two young women sitting in their car with the windows rolled up. A uniformed policeman taps politely on the window. The driver rolls down the window, the police officer sprays her with mace or pepper gas. Reports are that the cop was from Tukwila.
Or this: a protestor is kicked in the groin by a policeman while writhing on the ground, disabled by tear gas or pepper spray.
Or this: with no protestors or demonstrations in sight, police on Capitol Hill lob dozens of tear gas bombs into residential streets, gas, chase and arrest neighborhood residents walking to and from their homes.
People were ordered to disperse, then arrested before they could move. Passive protestors posing no threat to the armored police were gassed and knocked around. Fortunately there were few reports of busted heads by club-swinging cops.
But while many of the demonstrators were trained in the techniques and philosopy of civil disobedience espoused by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, the police seemed totally unprepared and frustrated by the non-violent protest. This is hard to understand, since protest organizers made it clear to City officials months in advance that some protestors planned to commit civil disobedience and would try to disrupt the WTO conference with sit-ins and passive resistance. The city also knew months in advance that there would be a group of protestors numbering in the hundreds that were committed to violent protest. The police were unprepared for the civil disobedients as well as the window smashers.
Those who sat down in the streets and linked arms wanted to get arrested but were not violent and for the most part did not resist arrest. Many innocent people whose only crime was being in the vicinity were swept up in the police tear gas attacks and mass arrests. If there had been better training for the police and clearer direction from the city, much of the violence of WTO week could have been avoided.
I hope that Seattle, WTO and the American political landscape are all permanently changed by WTO week.
-that Congress finds new courage to require human rights, fair labor standards and environmental protection among the benefits that must flow from increased world trade;
-that the City of Seattle learn how to deal with a big, unruly political demonstration with diverse elements, motives and tactics;
-and that the WTO open its deliberations to public view with input not just from those who profit from international trade, but also from those who suffer from it.
T.H.
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