Biafra & Franti: Live from the Occupied Zone
Spearhead and the No-WTO Combo defy Seattle's Police State bringing music to the masses

concert review by Mattro
[published/posted Dec 1, 1999, in Raptorial 'zine]

------------------------------
Spearhead
(with)
No-WTO Combo
Wednesday, Dec 1st
Showbox Theater
Seattle
------------------------------

WTO Day Two: The Empire Strikes Back

[published/posted Dec 1, 1999 in Raptorial 'zine]

WEDNESDAY (12/1):

Early Tuesday the world watched as Seattle police under-reacted to massive peaceful crowds. Wednesday we saw the same police department (with help from other police departments and the National Guard) over-react to the property damage of the day before.

WTO Day One: Additional Thoughts

[published/posted Nov 30, 1999 in Raptorial 'zine]

Hello again,
Some of you have been requesting updates, so here they are.
I've started breaking them up into day-by-day chunks.

First, a bit more on what happened TUESDAY 11/30:

Seattle City police were TOTALLY unprepared for the volumes of people that came to protest the WTO. This despite two months of prior negotiating with the Direct Action Network (DAN), and various union leaders who had all been quite open about what it was they hoped to achieve: Peacefully shutting down the WTO.

WTO Day One: A New Hope

by Mattro

[published/posted Nov 30, 1999 in Raptorial 'zine]

I had pepper spray for breakfast and tear gas with concussion bombs for dinner today. 10 hours of activism and I am sore.

The (No Longer) Phantom Menace

[published/posted Nov 29, 1999 in Raptorial 'zine]

As you know by now, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a broad-based, extremely powerful institution that wants to influence and/or trump the rules sovereign governments have created to run their nations. The WTO favors wealth and profit over things such as the environment, human rights, and unionized labor. The WTO has operated behind closed doors since its inception five years ago and, unfortunately for all of us, it has never developed anything resembling a conscience.

A Phoenix Will Rise and Vanquish the WTO
Former members of Dead Kennedys, Nirvana, and Soundgarden will once again take up arms (aka instruments) as the "No-WTO Combo"

concert preview by Mattro

[published/posted Nov 25, 1999, in Raptorial 'zine]

-------------------------------------
No-WTO Combo
(opening for)
Spearhead
Tuesday, November 30th
8pm $12-
Showbox Theater
1426 First, Seattle
(206) 628-3151
-------------------------------------

The Battle of Seattle
Hey protestors: Have your soundbites ready!

by Mattro

[published Nov 20, 1999 in Raptorial 'zine]

An old tradition is coming to the United States. Publicly demonstrating against the periodic World Trade Organization meeting of fat cat billionaires (and the politicos who enable them) who seek to make the world a safer place to become rich beyond reason or sanity. The WTO gathering (a spin-off of the GATT) will take place Nov 30 - Dec 3 in Seattle, WA, USA. This is the first time the meeting has taken place in North America.

Over the course of the year leading up to the Seattle WTO Protests in November/December 1999, I was involved in five different groups, each of which had its own founding principles, strategic guidelines and organizational narratives assisting the writing of their respective members into the common story of the unfolding events: mine were the Industrial Workers of the World, Direct Action Network, Workers and Students For a Walkout Network, Seattle Tenant's Union and Seattle Anarchist Response.

There are those moments in life that stay imprinted upon the mind like a photograph, refusing to fade with time, invoking the emotions of a past scene as if it were still on center stage. They are the memories that can add a swash of joy and a dab of relentless hope to life any time the mind’s eye stops to linger on them.

11/30/99
Tuesday, November 30 -- termed N30 by anti-WTO activists -- dawned gray and cloudy as I made my way up Pike Street to Victor Steinbrueck Park on the Seattle waterfront. By the time I arrived at 7:00 a.m., over 1,000 demonstrators had gathered, ranging from environmentalists to union members to advocates for human rights for the people of Tibet.