Salt of the Earth: December 1999 social justice news

Social justice news
December 1999

The School of the Americas—revisited
WTO's uninvited guests stir up Seattle
The Third Way or the highway?
A new call to end the death penalty

WTO's uninvited guests stir up Seattle
December 2, 1999 (Seattle, Washington)—Seattle was stunned this week by an occasionally unruly but for the most part peaceful onslaught of environmentalists, labor organizers, food safety activists, and youthful anarchists that descended on the city of mellow roast and soggy sunsets during the triannual meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Though city and police officials say they had made preparations for large demonstrations, the sheer scale of the protests—and the outbreaks of vandalism that occurred particularly during day two of the WTO meeting—appeared at times to overwhelm police. As many as 50,000 people participated in the numerous marches, demonstrations, street corner teach-ins, and civil disobedience actions organized to protest the WTO's goals, which critics say are hopelessly dedicated to corporate interests, defy national sovereignty and environmental concerns, and promote worker exploitation and child labor.

Scott Nova, the director of the Citizen's Trade Campaign, said he expects efforts in resistance to the WTO, like the global effort that united this varied group of activists in Seattle, will continue and only become larger in the future. "I think [what happened in Seattle] is representative of the maturation of what is rapidly becoming a global movement of an enormously diverse and politically deep organization. I think we're going to see stronger activism against the WTO's agenda."

Despite the more than 500 arrests and damage to private property which took place during the last three days of protest, Nova argues that the organizers' efforts have already been rewarded simply by focusing public attention of this usually low-profile world body. "The centerpiece of their political agenda is to avoid public scrutiny. Bringing the WTO out into public view is a success in itself because they rely on obscurity." Nova adds that the Seattle protests have put the WTO and other trade and economic issues on the political voting map in the United States, where he's convinced they will remain.

For more information, visit:
International Forum on Globalization

AFL-CIO

The Citizen's Trade Campaign

Peoples Global Action

The Ruckus Society

www.seattlewto.org

People for Fair Trade

Among those critical of police were many of the organizers of the WTO demonstrations, who complain that when a handful of black clad, self-described anarchists began breaking windows, spray painting walls, and otherwise generating mayhem in and around downtown Seattle's most fashionable shopping boutiques, police responded—not by specifically targeting the small number of vandals for arrest—but by pepper spraying, shoving, and tear gassing otherwise peaceful demonstrators who were within their reach. Police even drove back some protestors by firing rubber projectiles into the crowd. The "Star Wars" style uniform of Seattle police added to the oddness of the street spectacle in the world's wealthiest democracy.

After Tuesday's chaos prevented many WTO members from reaching their meeting, city officials declared a state of emergency and closed off a 40-block radius around the WTO conference from protesters. Anyone stopped in the prohibited zone without WTO credentials was arrested or removed by police and unarmed National Guardsman called in yesterday to help contain the protests.

"Police have essentially passed a ban on political protest and public expression," Nova said. "There's still substantial protest taking place, but it's hard to protest when the police declare it illegal."

Nova was displeased not only with the police clampdown but also with the unruly elements within the demonstration who, he believes, have distracted attention from the larger messages in Seattle. Trade unionists from across the country came to Seattle to conduct a series of marches and to proclaim their resistance to what they describe as the WTO's pro-business, anti-labor agenda. They called for an international ban on child labor and for the WTO to be reformed or shut down as a trade-governing body. The WTO, headquartered in Geneva, is an international body empowered by GATT (The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) to set world trade rules and arbitrate trade disputes.

Environmentalists for their part argue that the WTO's ideological commitment to expanding global trade mean it never gives ecological concerns serious consideration in its decisionmaking. Other demonstrators voiced their resistance to the growing trade in genetically modified (GM) food products. GM food has faced increasing resistance in Europe, and activists worry that WTO arbitration may attempt to force feed genetically modified commodities and products on global consumers.

Much of the protesters' message in Seattle received support from a perhaps unlikely source when President Clinton urged that worker rights and environmental safeguards be included in global trade talks. Clinton previously has been a powerful supporter of free trade initiatives, signing the GATT which created the WTO and the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

In a luncheon address Wednesday to trade ministers from the 135 member countries, Clinton said a new trade deal should contain provisions on worker rights, and countries that don't go along should face sanctions, and he pressed the U.S. case that the new trade talks should work to eliminate the secrecy that shrouds WTO deliberations and search for ways to tie trade agreements to worker rights and environmental protection.

"I implore you," Clinton said. "Let's continue to find ways to prove that the quality of life of ordinary citizens in every country can be lifted, including basic labor standards and an advance on the environmental front."

Supachai Panitchpakdi, the commerce minister of Thailand who takes over the top WTO post in 2002, said Wednesday that Clinton's tough stance on worker rights could jeopardize efforts to launch a new round of trade talks. He told reporters it could even prompt some trade ministers from developing countries "to walk away from any agreement on a new round."

The worker rights issue is an enormous sticking point among the 135 members of the WTO. Wealthy nations want their poorer trading partners to adopt more stringent regulations protecting workers and the environment, saying standards that lag behind those in the West amount to an unfair trade tactic that steals business from nations where workers get a better deal. Developing nations in Asia and Latin America are upset, saying they can't afford such proposals. More than 100 of the WTO members are developing nations.

The WTO members are grappling with other big issues, such as US insistence on elimination of tariffs on agricultural exports. That faces major opposition from the European Union and Japan. The Japanese, meanwhile, want to reform anti-dumping laws that Washington imposes on goods it says are imported below cost. Japan and other critics call the rules a disguised form of protectionism.—Kevin Clarke

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