WTO Day 4: Dark Side Vanquished; Ewoks Victorious

[published/posted Dec 3, 1999 in Raptorial 'zine]

FRIDAY (Dec 3):

Labor leaders were frustrated by how things went on Tuesday so they organized a peaceful march through town today. It started at the Union Temple in Belltown, wound through town to the docks and, once again, ended up at the King County Jailhouse where several hundred of the protestors dug in and demanded the release of their jailed comrades. The "Seattle 600" is what those arrested are now being referred to as (in reference to the "Chicago 7" -actually 8- arrested at the 1968 Democratic Convention).

A splinter group of about one hundred people conducted a second protest across town at the Hilton, where several protestors chained themselves to the door just outside of the "no protest" zone.

Elsewhere, the Seattle City Council was scheduled to vote on whether or not to support Mayor Schell's decision to invoke a "state of emergency" in the city of Seattle. They opted instead to postpone this controversial decision (a definite Catch 22 kind of call) until Monday, Dec 6th. Way to dodge the bullet, gang!

I spent several hours at the jailhouse this evening. I was surprised by how well organized and democratic everything was. There were lots of announcements with information and updates on the prisoners' legal status. There was lots of food and drink for everyone (some of it donated by kind union folk). There were port-a-potties put in down the street from the building's entrance. Volunteers from the group were broken up into small planning groups and given specific tasks. I listened to announcements from several of these task groups.. about things such as figuring out what the exact wording of "our" demands should be and developing ideas for how to get the media more involved positively with "our" efforts. There was even a task group that put together a hilarious sketch about corporate slavery (with Mickey Mouse cracking the whip!). In between announcements, sketches and food arrivals the crowd drummed, chanted and bounced a beachball to and fro.

Around 10pm, we were delighted to hear the official announcement about the WTO leaving Seattle... and how WTO officials had completely given up on reaching any kind of agreements here. The crowd erupted into sustained celebration. With all the drumming, singing and cheering, I swear I was on Endor and the Empire had just been defeated by the Rebel Alliance.

After the announcement, Tom Hayden, one of the Chicago 7 -actually 8-, stepped to the stage to say a few words. He said he had been waiting over 30 years for the youth of America to wake up and, in a positive unified effort, take hold of their own futures as his generation had done in the '60s. He was genuinely proud of what he was seeing in Seattle. Later, I had a chance to talk with him briefly. I asked him why other notable "celebrity" types weren't lending their faces to more of the protests that had been going on. I knew TV Nation's Michael Moore was in town for the WTO, as was Ralph Nader, Jim Hightower and, rumor has it, author Gore Vidal. I never saw any of these cats in person (or on TV) and wondered what was going on with that. Mr. Hayden didn't know either but did say to me,

"I wouldn't have missed any of this for the world."

The ever-present Brian Derdowski (an outgoing republican King County Councilmember) addressed the jailfront protestors, thanking them for their efforts. He received a standing ovation and catcalls of "run for Mayor of Seattle!"

As I was leaving, a half dozen prisoners were released. They were mobbed by people who wanted to hear how they'd been treated. This was around 2am.

from Seattle,
Mattro