THE WIND-DOWN
Thursday, December 1 – Sunday, December 5
PATRICIA DAVIS
Washington Council on International Trade
Thursday there was a smaller march down by the harbor. Thursday is the day the ships start coming in. It was kind of amusing to see the longshoremen peel away to go to work.
LAURIE BROWN
Mayor’s Office
Thursday night police were saying they were going to clear the streets if people weren’t off by curfew. There were I don’t know how many hundreds of people in the jail, and hundreds more camped outside, with vegan food all over the place and dancing and pot—a mini Woodstock.
There were all kinds of wild rumors that the people inside were being tortured. And there was a lot of joking about, Yeah, they’re being made to eat baloney sandwiches.
At that point people were getting tired of all this idealism from these young people. For god’s sake, they’re in jail. They’re not going to get a catered meal.
It was fascinating to watch how they made decisions as a group. They did not recognize leaders—if you said, “Your leader Han Shan says,” they’d say, “Han Shan’s not our leader.” They decided by consensus. Ten people would stand to speak, and they would keep talking till some consensus formed or didn’t form.
These intense negotiations went on for hours. Their one demand was to get their attorney inside the jail to verify that nobody was being hurt. They were debating whether, even if they did, they would leave. People were saying the police are going to do this and do that, and by god we need to stand our ground, and others said no, our negotiators are working hard and we need to honor our agreements. On and on and on.
I was on the phone with Ron Sims and—if this was a movie nobody would believe it—just as he was on verge of telling me he had gotten an agreement from the jailers and the sheriff so the attorney could go in, my cellphone went dead. All these people started thrusting their phones at me so I could get the deal done, but I didn’t have his number.
Finally we got the deal. The attorney would go to a certain window and wave and that meant everyone was okay, you can all leave. Then she came back and said, “We need something else, we need a second person to go in.” I said, I can’t start over getting everyone to agree, but amazingly they did.
The big moment came. She was up there on the catwalk. She waved and gave the high sign. And everybody did what they said they would. They cleaned up everything—the place was spotless. Everything calmed down after that. It was the night peace broke out in Seattle.
KATE JONCAS
Downtown Seattle Association
We knew we were going to survive on Friday when Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus came back to Nordstrom’s Santaland. Of course they had to be escorted by the SWAT team.
Pages:123456789101112131415161718192021
Published: November 2009
Lots of insight in this entertaining story. Good job Eric and team!
You captured the inside story better than most other story I’ve seen. Pretty good ten years after the fact!
Maybe readers will be moved to learn more about how corporate dominated globalism is negatively affecting all of our lives. The corporate dominated WTO is still promoting its agenda of profits over people. These policies are largely responsible for the current global economic crisis that is still unfolding.
Fortunately, a growing world-wide grassroots movement is still at work promoting sustainable economics, democracy, and justice. That movement expressed itself in Seattle ten years ago, however imperfectly. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are all in debt to a relatively small group of people who worked together to change the trajectory of history.
Great work, thanks.
600 people were arrested and jailed during WTO; how many were convicted?
zbz
“we are all in debt to a relatively small group of people”
yes, yes you are — to the same globalist financiers who funded the protestors through foundations only so they could be hung out to dry afterwards as the globalization juggernaut became further insulated. See Soros, George: Open Society.
Good reporting!
I was in the streets that entire week, and the only violence I personally witnessed was from the police. I encourage everyone who cares about what really happened in Seattle that week to read David and Rebecca Solnit’s book which is just days from being released: “The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle”. David was one of many early visionaries in making this event such a huge success.
I’m also thrilled that the ex-police-chief ended up working for the reform of marijuana laws. The existing laws are a disgrace in this so-called democratic society.
Thanks again, Eric Scigliano!
I was in the streets that entire week, and the only violence I personally witnessed was from the police. I encourage everyone who cares about what really happened in Seattle that week to read David and Rebecca Solnit’s book which is just days from being released: “The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle”. David was one of many early visionaries in making this event such a huge success.
the great post sharing information jocuri ben 10
I read the articles and all the things here inside this blog .,I got many information that
I really need .,Thanks for sharing.,
http://www.articlealley.com/article_1772952_18.html
Got some great information here. I think that if more people thought about it that way, theyd have a better time understanding the issue. Your view is definitely something Id like to see more of. Thanks for this blog. Its fantastic and so is what youve got to say.You make a great point.
More than 20 years and we are in the same point, maybe worst in term of unequality of tradings between reach & poors. The crisis haven’t changed the rules…
I’ve seen. Pretty good ten years after the fact!