In December 1999, at
Seattle, unauthorized
protestors attempted to block the
World Trade Organization (
WTO) meetins taking place there.
Riots ensued, wrecking
downtown Seattle. The unprepared
police react with
brutality.
The Battle of Seattle resulted in over 400 arrests.
Move forward 5 months. Washington D.C. Protestors try again. The police, having trained for weeks, arrest them all. The meeting went on relatively peacefully.
Just a few thoughts on the whole deal. The protestors themselves were a diverse mix of (as far as I can tell or have read from the papers):
Alright, nice diversity (as we all know, today, diversity is always good, no matter what it is). But are they cohesive as a group? They all want different things. In fact, for many of these things, the WTO has nothing to do with it. Sounds to me like a bunch of people who just want to protest. A short list:
The WTO is NOT a political tool of Western nations, and hence, civil rights record should not be a factor in admissions. I recall the admission of Burma despite a pretty incriminating record of abuses. That was probably because they had oil. How is that for hypocrisy.
When civil rights is mentioned, China is the big villain. Even though there are plenty of countries so much worse than China, everyone must complain about China. God knows why.
Seattle was one of the cities in the USA that benefitted so much from free trade, but then again, most of these people came from lots of places to cause trouble. Choosing Seattle as a protesting ground puzzled many people because they seemed to ignore all the benefits of free trade and bitch about imagined negatives.
Are the environmentalists saying that WTO supports the wrecking of the environment? They don't have anything to do with it. In fact, by lowering barriers restricting trade, developing countries would have more capital to deal with the problem. And even if they don't, the WTO (or the IMF for that matter) is not the organization to bitch at for this. The WTO is not responsible for corporate actions.
Globalization is not a bad way to go. It encourages cooperation between nations, as far as I know. I don't know too much about this so I won't, but so far globolization isn't too bad from the looks of it.
America is a country of immigrants, so what makes an American? Incoming immigrants have just as much right to a job as anyone else. Getting hired depends on qualifications, not nationality. If you don't have the credentials, go get some.
I'm not going to bother talking about the anti-corporates, because there is no point. Corporations will always be there, and believe it or not, they are efficient business machines, IMHO.
Don't blame the police. If you start wrecking Starbucks and McDonalds and other stores in the middle of downtown Seattle, you would expect heavy police reaction. If you start harassing innocent delegates to the conference by physically abusing them and dragging them away from the meeting, I don't think the cops will be too happy about that either. Obey the law. See also Defamation of the police.
Washington was a similar case, but less publicized and less dramatic than Seattle, because the cops moved quickly. All in all, as far as I care, the riots were all a waste of time. They were demonstrating the wrong way, and to the wrong people.