The recent WTO ruling brings back memories ...

I never tire of telling this story:

It was the weekend prior to the WTO meetings in Seattle in 1999. I had to go down to the Westin to pick up my Seattle Marathon race materials and the protesters were already out in force. There were a lot of them and yet I was able to get through pretty easy. If memory serves, inventor of “The Internets” Al Gore was in town that day and so the protesters had someone to focus on early. There had been a prank pulled on the local papers by protestors that week.

The morning of the race we ran down Fifth Avenue and passed a large group of protesters. These protestors were not blocking us, they were cheering us on. I remember seeing some women holding their signs, sipping coffee, and waiving politely. It occurred to me at that moment that maybe things would not get out of hand.

The next night all Hell broke loose. The city went into lockdown. I drove past the protests on I5 and the Viaduct and saw the lights and smoke from the ongoing rioting. Students from classes I was subbing were covering the protests and I heard some really interesting first hand accounts. Now, a movie is being made about it. People were arrested. The city and local politicians handled this poorly, incredibly so.

But, when I would hear how the protestors had succeeded I had to laugh. The following year, with so much hype and so many claims of success, both parties were so afraid of the fallout that they both nominated pro-free trade candidates. In the age of instant communications not being able to get to meetings doesn’t stop anything. Free trade agreements have gone into effect. Market Fundamentalism (as described in Tom Paine dot com) has continued to plow forward.

Recently, the City of Seattle was ruled to have violated the civil rights of the protesters. Duh. The leaders of the time have mostly been tossed out of office. The new ones can’t get anything done about the Viaduct six years after an earthquake. But, when I look back on what I remember of the coverage of the riots one image really stands out. I remember the protesters coming out of the jail to hero’s welcome, a couple of them looking smug, like they had actually accomplished something.

I still agree with what I wrote in December 1999.

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From the original Shotgun Prose December 1999
WTO Protests
If you're on the street, you're not at the table.
The one thing I've learned in my studies of politics and society is that change rarely comes from protests any more. The WTO might have been disrupted, the City of Seattle might have received a black eye, but nothing changed in regards to policy. The ONLY way US policy regarding the WTO will ever change is if it becomes an election issue for federal offices.
The protestors claimed to have "changed the world" on the news. Nothing changed because you did what the WTO wanted, which was to stay out on the street where you can't actually influence policy.