Why did thirty thousand protesters shut down a world trade organization meeting in seattle in 1999?

Global Victory For Workers In Seattle:Workers Students, Activists Rout WTO

Steve Zeltzer16 Dec 99e-mail:

In the biggest global victory for workers in decades, thirty thousand unionists, and tens of thousands of students, environmentalists and human rights activists stopped the World Trade Organization in its tracks and sent its 133 Trade Ministers home in utter defeat. The Battle of Seattle has made it almost impossible for the WTO to take major new steps in the next few years to further drive down wages, working conditions and environmental standards throughout the world. Before the week of protests and demonstrations, most workers in the US and around the world had never even heard of the WTO, but now the capitalist governments that run it and their thieving corporate masters can no longer work quietly in the dark to undermine workers and farmers everywhere. Seattle may well be the first step in stopping and turning back a generation of losses for working people, a real turning of the tide.

First National Political Protest By Labor In Decades

This was the first major political protest by US workers in decades. Major unions such as the Steelworkers, ILWU and a host of others mobilized thousands of their members. Over three thousand workers from Canada and delegations from many countries around the world also joined together to make their voice heard. Over 50 buses were paid for the British Columbia labor movement for workers and protesters to the WTO. West coast ILWU longshoremen shut down the coast for 8 hours, Seattle Taxi drivers went on strike on Tuesday November 30 and tens of thousands of workers throughout Seattle and around the country took off work to attend the demonstrations and meetings.

Brian McWilliams, president of the ILWU challenged the multi-national bosses in a speech at the labor rally. “In closing the ports, the ILWU is demonstrating to the corporate CEOs and their agents here in Seattle that the global economy will not run without the consent of the workers everywhere in this country and around the world. ” This received a huge response from the crowd.

“When the ILWU boycotted cargo from El Salvador and apartheid South Africa, when we would not work scab grapes from the California valley or cross picket lines in support of the fired Liverpool dockers, these were concrete expressions of our understanding that the interests of working people transcend national and local boundaries, and the labor solidarity truly means that when necessary we will engage in concrete action. ” Williams continued.

Also for the first time at an AFL-CIO mass protest, Williams made clear where the wealth comes from. “Let’s not allow the free traders to paint us as isolationist anti-traders. We are for trade. Don’t ever forget – it is the labor of working people that produces all the wealth. ” These are new words for the AFL-CIO and the rank and file.

The protest was also the most important linking up of the environmental movement and human rights movement with labor since the 1960’s civil rights movement. It was the power of this alliance that brought the WTO down, uniting labor’s numbers and organization with the daring, civil disobedience and broad-based support of students,environmentalists and other activists, whose actions allowed workers to cut loose from the attempts of union bureaucrats to keep the protests “within bounds”.

Arrested protestors were now joined together in jail. “After he was arrested in Seattle, (UC Student) Vandaei found himself sitting alongside people who were involved in different causes than he was. They were gathered with their hands tied behind their backs, waiting for hours to be taken away by police wagons. ’It forced us to sit here together with union workers, with Teamsters, with environmentalists,’ Vandaei said. ’You get arrested together, you ask each other’s names. ’ said Vandaei. ” San Francisco Examiner December 5, 1999

It is this newly-forged alliance that will give workers the strength they need in every city in the country.

A Lightning Rod For World Mobilization

What brought this together as a lightning rod was the international meeting of the World Trade Organization. The WTO, is the organization where multi-national corporations and their servants in governments come together to secretly map out how they will increase their control of the world’s economy. The past round of trade negotiations and decisions organized by the WTO has led to massive privatization and deregulation of the banking, telecommunication and utility industries combined with massive cuts in education, housing and healthcare. The WTO order governments to eliminate environmental, health and safety regulations, and pressed them to cut back on any protection of workers in a race to cut the cost of labor to the bone. Collaborating with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank, the WTO pressured countries to go along with this economic agenda or face trade sanctions and huge fines.

Extending the “Liberalizaton”

The latest planned WTO meeting was an effort to extend the “liberalization’s” toward the total elimination of all food and agricultural tariffs, a move that would benefit the giant US agricultural and food conglomerates while wiping out small farmers and agricultural workers around the world. It would create a new flood of unemployed coming out of the countryside and drive wages down still further. The resistance of not only underdeveloped countries to this expansion of the WTO but even of major economic partners, who face their own protests back home, was evident even before the WTO met. A new round of trade negotiations would have inevitably led to more attacks on workers directly as well, more privatizations, more gutting of social services and more wage cuts.

“Don’t Blame Us” Says Clinton

The WTO is in reality controlled by the United States government with help from its major allies, Japan and the European Union. For small countries, it is part of an American-run world government. Because the WTO makes its decisions in secret, far from any possible democratic control, it has functioned as a way for corporations to win wildly unpopular policies that hurt workers in the United States as well. “Don’t blame us”, say American politicians like Bill Clinton, “The WTO forced us to do it!”

Growing opposition to the expansion the WTO rules to agricultural subsidies was also significant in major capitalist allies of the United States like Europe and Japan.

The Japanese LDP government and Prime Minister Obuchi’s base of support is in the countryside. After the war the capitalists with the support of the US gerrymandered the country to favor the more conservative countryside. An elimination of tariffs in Japan would eliminate the rice farmers and drive the LDP out of power. Clinton and proponents of expanding the WTO coverage were aware of this and realized that they had nothing to lose by “talking” about including labor rights.

International Labor Bureaucrats Welcome WTO’s Mike Moore

The Director-General of the WTO, Mike Moore was a true example of the kind of collaborator the WTO looked to in its effort to expand.

WTO Chair Mike Moore had in fact won the job for helping to lead the biggest assault on New Zealand’s working class and poor in history. While leader of the New Zealand Labor Party, Moore launched a massive privatization of whole sections of the economy from the ports to health and safety. These actions split the New Zealand labor movement and created a dangerous division between the public workers and private industry workers.

Leading up to the massive protest of the WTO convention was also a meeting of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). This was it’s first meeting in the United States. This organization which was set up by the AFL-CIO and the CIA to help be a counterweight to the Russian controlled Word Federation of Trade Unions has now become the largest international trade union federation with the membership or affiliation of most unions around the world.

Bill Jordan, chair of the ICFTU is also the former rightwing leader of the AUE in the United Kingdom. He had invited none other than Mike Moore to have an exchange at the ICFTU conference. Moore was clearly uncomfortable but did his best. He accused the ICFTU and other opponents of the WTO of being against “internationalism”. He said that their opposition to free trade would hurt workers around the world.

Bob White of the Canadian Labor Congress was the sharpest critic. He called Moore’s view 180 degrees wrong. White said the problem was that multi-nationals and other corporations were seeking to violate laws and protections of workers in order to continue their child labor and other labor violations. White and others at the meeting called for Moore and the WTO to integrate the ILO and UN resolutions on labor into all trade agreements.

The focus however of the ICFTU meeting besides getting a seat at the table for the union officials was to push the WTO to set up “working group” that would discuss labor and environmental conditions that according to their plan, would eventually be included in the text of the WTO agreements. This was hardly radical. In fact, the US head of the Chamber of Commerce agreed with this perspective and Clinton in a private meeting with John Sweeney and others said he would continue to push this “reform” of the WTO.

While raising the issue of labor rights and environmental clauses, very little was said by both the ICFTU leaders and the AFL-CIO leadership about the actual economic program of the WTO. This so called “liberalization” and “structural reform program” of the WTO went mostly unchallenged at the ICFTU meeting and in most speeches of the AFL-CIO leadership. One women unionists demanded to know of Moore whether he supported continued “privatization” of education and turning it over to the “market economy”. Moore refused to address this and many of the other questions.

When media critic and journalist Norman Soloman asked Sweeney at an ICFTU press conference on December 29 if the reason that he was only asking for a “working group” was so that he would not embarrass AFL-CIO supported presidential candidate Vice President Al Gore, Sweeney was livid. He declared that this was not tokenism and that they wanted their “whole agenda”.

He was also asked how the AFL-CIO, the German trade union (DGB) could call for more transparency of the WTO when these organizations themselves were undemocratic. Sweeney and Dieter Schulte of the DGB denied that they were undemocratic and said the questioner was only really representing the interests of the corporations.

“WTO Must Go” Or “fix it”?

Most of the coalition that came to protest the WTO had a clear demand – get rid of it. As the demonstrators chanted, “The WTO must go!” The very least protestors aimed at was preventing the new round of negotiations from starting.

But John Sweeney and the other top labor leaders had other ideas. They wanted a “partnership” like those they have been pushing in the US – for “a seat at the table” for union officials to push the WTO to set up a “working group” that would discuss labor and environmental conditions that, according to their plan, would eventually be included in the text of the WTO agreements. This was hardly radical. In fact the US head of the Chamber of Commerce agreed with this perspective and Clinton in a private meeting with John Sweeney and others said he would continue to push this “reform” of the WTO. Like in any labor-management partnership the idea was to let management do what it wants, while labor leaders pretend that they are standing up for workers.

Pursuing this strategy of not breaking with Clinton and Gore, but being pushed by tens of thousand of rank and filers to protest the WTO, Sweeney and company planned a tame protest, keeping the tens of thousands of labor marchers away from the WTO meeting- place and the militant protest of students, environmentalists and others. But the rank and file had other ideas.

Exploding In The Streets

On Tuesday, November 30th the mobilization exploded in the streets. Besides the trade union rally and march, thousands of protesters blockaded the intersections and WTO delegates from around the world were unable to get to and from their hotels. When the WTO has met in other countries, whole sections of the inner city are blocked off to prevent protesters from getting close. The mayor of Seattle thought that he could continue to have the WTO meeting by simply blocking off the convention center. The police at first did not charge the demonstrators but when it became clear that the whole convention could not even convene without clearing the streets, the order was given to blast away. CS gas was shot into the crowds, concussion bombs were exploded and large cans of pepper spray were used on the protesters as well as any tourist who might happen to be around. The police also began to beat the demonstrators and anybody else they could get their hands on. This led to a angry crowd and the trashing of the windows of The Gap, Starbucks, McDonalds and a host of other chain stores. Prior to the march, the police were using gas but when the labor march began, the tear gas stopped as thousands of unionist left the stadium and were headed downtown. The IAM march marshals sought to prevent the unionists from reaching downtone to join the mostly young protesters. They physically blocked two intersections and sought to divert the marchers toward another hotel where they said a sit-in would take place. They were primarily interested in preventing the linking up of the thousands of youth with the unionists in battle against the police and the WTO. Many workers marched right past the march marshals. The ILWU and many other unionists went downtown to join the youth who were protesting. In one instance, police were chasing some youth and saw a delegation of ILWU longshoremen. They quickly turned around and went back. The Steelworkers had brought hundreds of striking workers from Oregon Steel and Kaiser Aluminum to Seattle for the whole week and they got a view of American justice that will never go away. This “education” signals a very important change in the thinking not just of the steelworkers but hundreds of thousands of workers throughout the United States. The beginning of the week was just the start of a tumultuous 4 day police riot. The police also attacked a steelworkers march a few days later with tear gas and marauded through not only the downtown but neighborhoods like Capital Hill to terrorize the population. The mayor brought in the National Guard and also declared a state of emergency and curfew after 7 PM on Tuesday and this was used by the police to make further arrests and encouraged their rampage against the protesters. Over 600 were arrested and dozens were injured from beatings and plastic bullets.

The Rout of the WTO

The result of this battle was a complete rout not of the protesters but of Clinton and his cronies. Not only could the WTO not open on time, with the center of Seattle tied up by pretests and turned into a military camp by police in Star-Wars gear, it was impossible for them to accomplish anything. The trade talks collapsed without even a final statement – there is to be no new WTO round of negotiations. Clinton was scared to ram through a new agreement because he knew that his buddy Sweeney could not control the labor troops. His signature on a new WTO agreement would mean that millions would bolt the labor-Democrat alliance.

“Mr. Clinton’s advisers worried that the agenda emerging from the talks would so outrage American labor unions that they would denounce both the administration and Vice President Al Gore, who needs the unions’ energetic support in his bid for the presidential nomination. Some feared that this agenda could further jeopardize chances of winning Congressional approval for China’s entry into the trade organization, which was negotiated in Beijing just two and a half weeks ago. ” New York Times December 5, 1999.

We Lost At Seattle?

The most overt anger from the union bureaucracy over the collapse of the talks was International Metal Workers General Secretary Marcelllo Malentacchi. On December 7, 1999 in a pulblic statement, Malentacchi complained about the protests.

“The march was a success until a few hundred started the riots and managed to attract all the mass media’s attention. And now these people are claiming victory. Maybe they are the winners. But then what? The trade unions have lost two years of hard work. We will have to start all over again and organise our action even better, to make sure that at the next meeting, in two years’ time, our demands are met by the ministers of trade. ” Maybe Malentacchi is pitching himself for the job that Mike Moore will soon be leaving and wants to set the proper tone.

Chinese Bureaucrats Worried

Other governments saw well enough what would happen back home if they struck a new rotten deal. “All these post-Seattle maneuvers are being carefully monitored in Beijing. ’The Seattle meeting has poured some cold water on WTO’ prospects, says Hai Wen, deputy director of the China Center for Economic Research at Beijing University. Already conservatives are counseling Beijing to go slow on economic reform and privatization. ” Business Week December 20, 1999

Rank And File Alliance Brought Victory

Only the alliance of rank and file workers with students, environmentalists and other activists made this victory possible. As many workers themselves noted, without the civil disobedience that tied the conference in knots, a polite labor rally would have just resulted in a few editorials. And without the presence and active participation of thousands of trade unionists in the militant demonstration in the center of Seattle, the police would have used mass arrests from the start to sweep “a few crazies” away from the convention center. But with this alliance, the protesters could not be dismissed or repressed. We won this round. The WTO and the capitalists lost.

Millions of Americans now began to learn about the real role of the WTO and workers and people throughout the world were uplifted that finally the US people were going on the offensive against this world corporate dictatorship. Reality is beginning to sink in that the few democratic rights we have are quickly being usurped by the needs of the corporations. This was clearly illuminated by the militarization of the police and their tactics of torture and beatings. Many of the demonstrators were stunned that for their peaceful picket they would be met with such tactics. These tactics of course are common practice in many parts of the world. The failure of the talks are absolutely due to this massive protest . The confidence of the Clinton and the cooperate controlled politicians has been shaken. This fear of this massive demonstration of anger against the system is a threat to both political parties and corporate America.

“The victory in Seattle has emboldened labor, environmental, and other anti-WTO forces to redouble their efforts. On Dec. 8, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and the labor leaders joined an anti-sweatshop vigil in Manhattan-the first time they have joined the annual rally. ” Business Week 12/20/99

Gerry Fernandez director of International Relations for the United Steel Workers of America, at an international USWA educational in Seattle on November 29 gave a international perspective in fighting the WTO.

“We need international labor solidarity. The fact of the matter is that international solidarity works. The WTO talks about core labor standards. They say we should support the incorporation of the ILO core conventions into the WTO. They talk about social clauses, social mandates, labor standards.

Let me tell you about the ILO: Unions have won only two cases in the ILO over the past 18 years. We can’t count on these folks, just as we can’t count on the WTO. The WTO is run by the corporations. The only thing we can count on is ourselves.

With the global corporate economy, we can no longer win on the picket line. We have corporations - and politicians - who close down factories and move overseas if we strike. These same folks push for striker replacement. These are the people who run the WTO. Are they really going to give us a seat at the WTO table? I say they aren’t.

When we have a strike here, we need to have actions in 20 countries or more. We have to internationalize our labor movement. ”

While Fernandez is wrong about the power of a real strike he is absolutely correct about the need for internationalizing the labor movement with global contracts and joint action worldwide.

Poliltical Danger

For the working class, this was an important and historic political action against the multi-nationals and the US government. John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO as well as Hoffa Jr. and most of the leadership will seek to keep this mobilization contained.

The political danger for the AFL-CIO bureaucrats is that once millions of workers become engaged in this fight, they will undoubtedly begin to question how the trade unions can continue to support the very politicians that support global robber barons. They will also begin to question how they can seriously fight for their rights, when in most unions they have little control over their own structure. The next mobilization may come in the third week of April 2000 when the World Bank and the IMF are holding their international conferences in Washington DC. Already discussions are going on about a national march in Washington against these organizations and against the entry of China into the WTO.

Some unionists are also seeking to push for a national one day strike to demand that the US pulls out of the WTO. This would clearly put Sweeney and the others who want to reform the WTO on the spot.

Labor Use Of Communication Technology Spreads Message

The need to use the internet and communication technology to begin this discussion, debate and organization is crucial. Workers from Korea to South Africa to the US can now really build a new internationalism with no borders and with complete democratic communication and simultaneous international workers action.

In an important example of this work to break the corporate media blockade, an Independent Media Center www.indymedia.org was set up in Seattle that sent information electronically by the hour and audio/video streaming on the internet as well as broadcasting by satellite 1 hour a day throughout the country. One of the videos broadcast was the Korean Labor News Production “Crisis Of Capital, Hope of Labor”.

Only a week following the protests, a video on the labor struggle at Seattle and interviews with dozens of workers was streamed on the web at www.brightpathvideo.com/default_labor_video.html. It was captured by labor communication activists in Turkey and used to show the role of labor in the battle against the WTO.

This use of communication technology by workers around the world is a historic and profound development for all working people of the world. For the first time since the 1930’s, the US working class is going into a new confrontation with capital that is immediately international in its character. This new alliance with other sections of the population can be a powerful vehicle to begin to not only throw back the WTO and other anti-working class attacks but to lead to a real working class political alternative. We will be taking this alliance back home to form similar city wide alliances all over the country. The battle of Seattle is an exciting indication of things to come.

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