Ten years ago tonight, I was sitting in a spokescouncil in a warehouse in downtown Seattle, surrounded by a sea of dreadlocked youth, preparing to rise at dawn and hit the streets the next morning. Was it that night or the next I went with my friends Margo Adair and Bill Aall with whom I was staying, to the late-night grocery store for some emergency vinegar to soak our bandannas in case of tear gas?

An article written for the Project South Fall Newsletter

It was still pitch dark outside and a thin, cold mist was in the air when the affinity groups charged with blockading Sixth Avenue and Union Street met for the last time. Scouts reported that the coast was clear. Sitting in the wooden pews of an old downtown Seattle church we reviewed our target once more. After days of nervewracking preparation, we were ready to do our part to shut down the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Below is an account of the N30 protests I wrote shortly after the tear gas cleared and the WTO left Seattle in disarray. I had come to Seattle a week before the protests to write about it for my website.

November 30, 2008

What lessons can we learn from the shutdown of the 1999 WTO
Ministerial in Seattle 9 years ago today and from the last decade and
a half of global justice organizing as we face today's major crises
under an Obama Administration? This was the question a group of
organizers from different parts of the last decades of global justice
organizing responded to last week at a forum in New York City put
together by Deep Dish TV, an independent video/media pioneer. Here are
my thoughts.

Nine years ago today:

Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 22:53:26 -0500 (EST)
From: ****
Subject: Re: The end of the story from Seattle..

Warning -- this is possibly the longest email I have ever written.

I've been in Seattle since Friday before the big day, leaving tonight... Here are some more parts of the story. I haven't had much chance to follow the media outside Seattle and I would love to know what came across and what didn't. I'm going to get on the internet and check it all out soon.
lw

--

Here is a quick image to get started... I'l post more snippets later.

Roaming the streets on N30. It has been so long I can't remember the name of the intersections anymore.

One of the environmental groups (Greenpeace, perhaps? Or the Humane Society?) brought a giant inflatable killer whale. Huge, perhaps 30' long.

(This article was originally published in the December 1999 issue of UltraViolet, newsletter of LAGAI Queer Insurrection. More recent issues of UV are online at www.lagai.org.)

This article was originally published in the December 1999 issue of UltraViolet, the newsletter of LAGAI - Queer Insurrection (more recent issues are online at www.lagai.org).

Between the protests of the WTO in Seattle (Winter 99) and the protests of the World Bank and IMF that following Spring - Whispered Media produced this short, informative, recruitment piece - SHUT EM DOWN! Enjoy

Shut Em Down - on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq9YFfLof4w