NovemberThe Seattle 30, WTO 1999 Protests

One seventeen-year-old girl grabbed by an aging trucker for “mindlessly” smashing a GAP A memoir and analysis, with an eye to the future window subjected him to a thirty second diatribe: “Immigrant Asian women are lured to Saipan to work a seven-day week fenced in with barbed wire, they’re forbidden to even take a piss while they sew these fucking clothes!” she yelled.

“Teenage girls in Honduras work 14-hour shifts for 50 cents an hour and Chinese migrant women in Russia earn less than a quarter of that making this stuff. Chief Executive Millard Dexter earns $24,000 an hour—that’s $47 million a year—and GAP Chairman Donald Fisher is worth $8 billion. This company spends over $500 million a year advertising this shit while its workers starve. Don’t call me fucking mindless!”

He stood in stunned silence as glass rained down around him. “Pick up a brick, asshole!” someone shouted. For a minute he looked N30 like he was considering it. The People’s Republications of CrimethInc. November 30, 2006

Fourteen years ago, many of us didn’t even know we were anarchists. We made tentative steps to change our lives, without a clear idea of where we were going or why. We joined environmental organizations and formed punk rock bands. We experimented with cooperative living, confronta- tional unemployment, and politically motivated crime. We occupied trees; we traveled around the planet as witnesses and volunteers; we developed new traditions and codes of ethics. In the course of these adventures, we found each other, one by one; but we still felt isolated, still doubted our own strength, still wondered how to approach the revolu- tion some of us dreamed of.

Seven years ago, some of us participated in a demonstration in Seattle against the World Trade Organization. Seeing each other there, we discovered that we were part of a worldwide movement. This infused us with an incredible momentum and sense of purpose: suddenly, we knew we were going to change the world, and we had a model for how to do so. The fought amongst ourselves. We ran into walls, ran out of events of that one week in Seattle were more real to us than steam, ran around and around in circles. We renounced all the years that had led up to them—even for those of us our visions like jilted lovers, and along with them many who were not there. of the tactics and strategies they had taught us. We tried to From the Archives forget the whole thing ever happened. Some of us finally Over the years that followed, we rode that momentum like succeeded. This flier advertised the convergence point for a wild horse, pursuing the visions we had glimpsed in the the black bloc that carried out all that famous streets of Seattle. We tried again and again to recreate that Today, it has been seven years since the WTO protests in property destruction. Looking at it now, it moment, succeeding only in creating other moments. We Seattle. Rumor has it that every seven years, every cell in seems to support the thesis that the ones who redefined what had happened, revisiting that point of origin our bodies regenerates: every seven years, we are born anew again and again, finding that each time it had changed. We and begin a new phase of life. If this is true, then today triumphed in Seattle were not possessed of we should finally be able to reflect on the WTO protests any extraordinary skills or organization—that without nostalgia, glorification, or defensiveness and derive is, unless the designer deliberately made it lessons from them to apply to our current efforts. Today, we amateurish in order to fly under the radar. are finally free of this specter that has haunted us, and it can finally become our own.

Here we present for posterity two texts that stand out in the veritable ocean of material on the subject. They could not be more distinct: one is an impassioned personal account of participation in direct action, the other a dispassionate The People’s Republications of strategic analysis. It is our hope that together they will CrimethInc. provide a sense of what took place that week in 1999—and P.O. Box 2133 more importantly what is possible now, along with an Greensboro inkling of how to make it happen. To this purpose we also NC 27402 humbly append a brief afterword of our own. www.crimethinc.com – CrimethInc. World Tirade Organization www.infoshop.org

1 What Next? WTO protests were not an unrepeatable miracle, The presidential campaign of 2008 will be the but rather an example of how powerful we can next backdrop against which major mass actions be whenever we find ways to work together. can be expected to take place. Whatever misgiv- ings some of us currently have about them, for Suggested Reading The Power is anarchists not to have a powerful presence in We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global mass actions in 2008 would be tantamount to Anticapitalism—Through testimony, photos, our disappearance from the national arena of tactics, and history, this book provides an social struggle. excellent context for anticapitalist organizing in the years up to and immediately following Running The essential challenge of the mass action model is that its greatest strengths and weak- the WTO protests. nesses are identical. Working from the physics equation tension=force/area, this model brings “Five Years After WTO Protests” by Chuck together a great number of people in a small Munson—In this article, one of the adminis- space so their coordinated actions can have ex- trators of www.infoshop.org refutes corporate ponential effects—but with sufficient warning, media reports that the movement behind the the state can also concentrate its forces to neu- WTO protests had come to an end by 2004. tralize their efforts. Consequently, successful mass actions must either come as a surprise “N30 Black Bloc Communiqué” by the Acme themselves or employ an unexpected strategy. Collective—Some of the participants in the At the G8 protests in Scotland in 2005, for Black Bloc in Seattle released this excellent and example, participants outwitted the authori- nuanced defense of anarchist property destruc- ties by dispersing into the countryside to block tion at the WTO demonstrations immediately roads outside the areas where police forces were afterwards. concentrated. Effective mass action necessitates that “Demonstrating Resistance,” the feature article people from a broad range of perspectives in the first issue of Rolling Thunder—This work together without limiting each other. In extensive analysis follows the anarchist experi- that regard, mass actions are good practice for mentation with mass action and autonomous building the symbiotic relationships funda- action models that occurred between 2000 and mental to an anarchist society. The mobiliza- 2005, drawing conclusions about what factors tions that succeeded in Seattle, Quebec City, and must be present for each approach to succeed. elsewhere succeeded because a great number of people simultaneously engaged in a diverse A simple Google search should turn up online This account was originally array of complementary tactics. Regardless of versions of the last three of these texts. published in the thirteenth issue of Inside Front, a now- the success of a particular action, the ability to defunct anarchist magazine do this itself constitutes a victory over the seg- covering underground music, culture, and resistance. regation, isolation, and conflict promoted by the capitalist system. In that regard, the Seattle 61 I can’t do it. I can’t. I can’t tell you what it felt like any Seattle phase of struggle is not how to handle request. This enabled the police to concentrate more than a bird could tell me what it feels like to fly. repression, but how to sustain morale. on beating and pepper-spraying people before I can tell you my story, but it’s only my head talking. After anticapitalists lost the initiative, the union march, controlling the streets during My heart can’t write, and my guts don’t have lips. I it was inevitable that the partisans of willful it, and then viciously brutalizing and arresting cannot truly explain how it felt to taste ecstasy in every breath as the invincible forces of privilege and impotence would regain it. Proportionate everyone who remained in town after it. The coercive power finally lost control, how it felt to stare to the number of participants, the antiwar police tactics in Miami, which were significant- down the world’s most ruinous and abusive bullies movement of 2002 to 2003 was incredibly in- ly more aggressive than those of the police in and watch them blink, how it felt to fall in love with effectual, largely due to the machinations of Seattle, showed that the fluke in Seattle was not tens of thousands of people at once, to not know what liberals and communists who did their best to that the police were so aggressive but that the would happen next, to become dangerous. prevent anyone from taking effective action. corporate media were caught off guard and acci- And that is a tragedy that haunts me as I write every And once the legend of Seattle ceased to be the dentally reported on their violence.2 Finally, the one of these words. Because if somehow I could origin myth of an existing, vibrant movement, strategy of the demonstrators in Miami, which share with you what I felt for ten days in Seattle, it became a burden upon everyone who tried to consisted of a largely symbolic assault on the you would never settle for anything less again. You apply the mass action model. Even though many fence surrounding the meetings, had no hope of would kick in your TV, run outside buck naked, anarchist demonstrations between 2002 and actually interfering with them. The protests in tear up the freeway with your bare hands, flip tanks upside down, and dance with panda bears through 2005 put everything that happened in the mid- Miami only succeeded in disrupting business as the streets. The barbarians would emerge from exile 1990s to shame, they seemed stunted and disap- usual and giving the FTAA a bad name because to knock down heaven’s door and the dead would pointing compared with the Battle of Seattle. the authorities, still transfixed by the specter of rise up from their coffins and cubicles. And once you Past accomplishments always cast a shadow Seattle, went to such lengths to repress them. got a taste of the sublime joy of reclaiming control over the present, and shadows loom bigger the As of this writing, the Miami FTAA min- of your life and your world, of regaining your lost further the object casting them recedes. isterial is itself three years behind us, and there kinship in a human community of which you are an integral component, of realizing your wildest dreams The FTAA ministerial in Miami four years have been no major mass actions in the US and desires, you would do whatever it takes to make after the Seattle WTO protests showed how since Bush’s second inauguration almost two it happen again. much ground anticapitalists had lost and how years ago. Paradoxically, the good news is that Monday, November 22 through much their adversaries—both those in uniform enough time may now have elapsed since the Thursday, November 25 and those carrying protest signs—had learned. WTO protests that a mass mobilization with I can tell you On Monday I leave for Seattle from Columbus, While there were probably almost as many a clever strategy could catch the powers that Georgia on a Greyhound bus, alone, already committed anarchists in Miami as there were in be by surprise again—but the bad news is that my story, but hungry, with no money and nothing to eat. Six Seattle, far fewer other protesters showed up— anarchists, demoralized from so many years hours later in Atlanta my bag is whisked away to partly because Miami is so far from the rest of of trying to “repeat Seattle,” may not yet be it’s only my a different bus, leaving me with no warm clothes the US, partly because it has the most reaction- ready to stake everything on another attempt. head talking. and nothing to read, either. I stare blankly out the window at the bleak, diseased wasteland of ary Latino population of any US city, and partly My heart can’t concrete and smoke and cars, at the trees and because the ability of anticapitalist networks to write, and fields and hills and rivers, at all the cities I’ve bring out protesters had been sapped by demor- never seen before—Chattanooga, Nashville, alization and competition with antiwar organ- 2 Likewise, as the dramatically militarized police force in Miami Louisville, Indianapolis, Gary, Chicago. izing. The AFL-CIO duplicitously coordinated consisted of at least six times as many officers as protected the my guts don’t I scrounge what little food I can at bus WTO in Seattle, and they faced off against crowds perhaps a fifth with the police while asking demonstrators not the size of those that had gathered in 1999, they could not fall back stations, but by Tuesday night I am hungry on the excuse of being “overwhelmed” and forced into violence. have lips. to carry out direct action during their march, If anything, the police in Miami were more violent than those enough that I’m starting to get mean. In Chicago in Seattle, thoughtlessly attacking demonstrators, retired union a grizzled old man gives me a sandwich, which and the demonstrators—insanely—agreed to members, and corporate media reporters alike. 3 60 In addition to giving the WTO a public attention, the thrill of victory, and the effective- outside of the 420 Denny Space, a nerve center image makeover and successfully forcing con- ness of the new model were taken away, many of sorts where I find dozens of people bustling cessions from it, the militancy of the demon- anarchists felt they were back at square one. around with saws and paint and walkie-talkies, strators in Seattle pushed its supposed critics plotting and planning and building. This is a very good sign, but after seventy-eight hours to adopt a more uncompromising stance. A Complex Legacy of Greyhound time it’s also pretty jarring. I’m Organized labor and segments of the Democrat- In reflecting on the mobilization in Seattle, utterly exhausted, ravenously hungry, and ic Party have to present the illusion of being op- people often overlook the years of failure that in no condition to conspire yet. I catch a ride positional in order to justify their existence. As had preceded it. What happened in Seattle was south from downtown to the Roasted Filbert, was frankly acknowledged in the RAND report, possible precisely because it had been years, if a cavernous, dusty, unmarked warehouse with they hoped to maintain this illusion and simul- not decades, since so many people joined in dis- concrete floors, no windows, and a purple door: which is serving as a refuge for everyone who taneously absorb and neutralize any radical ruptive action against a capitalist institution in shows up at 420 with nowhere to stay. I find a tendencies by putting in an appearance at the the US. As noted in the RAND analysis, police space inside, curl up in my bag, and pass out Seattle WTO protests. Once they found them- expected symbolic arrests à la the anti-nuclear listening to warm bodies breathing all around selves caught up in a huge, obviously popular demonstrations of the 1980s, not the coordinat- me. demonstration against the WTO, they had to ed obstruction and rioting they got. Subsequent feign at least some sympathy or else reveal their mass actions were much more difficult to pull Friday, November 26 “opposition” to be a mere pretense. Thus we can off, as the authorities mobilized every resource At dawn I ride back up to Denny with four see that direct action is the most effective means to ensure that what happened in Seattle would others from Filbert. None of us know each other. Downtown the towers glitter in the distance both for putting pressure on adversaries and for not happen again. like decorated tombs, spectacular monuments exerting leverage on supposed allies. Even if Despite this, Seattle was followed by a to wealth and power that loom overhead just as you don’t want to overthrow the government, series of demonstrations unlike anything in the the institutions they embody loom over every forget about voting and petitioning—the only preceding decade: Washington, D.C. was shut aspect of our lives. I know that we are flying hope for change is in the streets. down the following April by protests against under their radar, and that we are not alone. For Finally, the successes in Seattle brought the International Monetary Fund, and a year the first time in my life those almighty towers, and all that they stand for, look vulnerable to US anarchists worldwide visibility, along with later the FTAA ministerial in Quebec City oc- eat, and a dollar, which I give to another grizzled me. a needed morale boost, and provided a format casioned the most intense street fighting since old man. I stare and think and try to sleep. Up at Denny the bustle and activity of for future actions. The “summit-hopping” the Los Angeles riots of 1992. All the teargas in Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire… Wednesday Thursday night has multiplied exponentially. model made a virtue of the transience that has the country was no match for the enthusiasm morning, Minneapolis. Haggard young women I help out with the kitchen and the dishwash- been such a stumbling block for anticapitalist of the anticapitalist movement once people with kids, disgruntled truckers, teenage ing, finally get some food, and spend most of the organizing in North America; like it or not, a had a model to work from and a structure to runaways. Fargo, Bismarck, Billings. The North day getting my bearings. Around dusk Critical Dakotan whose car broke down in Minnesota Mass issues out of 420. I ride with somebody movement must make the best of its weakness- plug into. It was not until after September 11, who can’t afford to fix it. Butte, Missoula, Coeur on the back of her bike since I don’t have one. es, and if many anarchists couldn’t be counted 2001 that the tide finally began to recede, and d’Alene, Spokane. The grizzled young man who Later I just run. We ride around and around the on to stay in one place long enough to do this occurred primarily as a result of the wide- buys me a waffle in Montana because he hasn’t upscale shopping districts downtown, taking effective local organizing at least that mobility spread self-fulfilling prophecy that the high seen me eat in a day and a half. I fall asleep a few over whatever streets we want, whenever we enabled them to come together occasionally at point of anticapitalist mass actions was over. hours past Spokane in the Cascades and wake want, without any authorization or permis- capitalist summits. The momentum that followed Seattle was not up, Thursday November 25, at about midnight, sion, singing, dancing, howling, and conversing in Seattle. with anyone who will listen. Someone begins The breakthroughs in Seattle that affected destroyed by the government response, it was I stagger off the bus, meet my mysterious chanting “We’re gonna win! We’re gonna win!” the anarchist community turned out in the long abandoned by those who had maintained it: liaison Ms. J, and am miraculously reunited and for the first time in my life I believe it. run to be dangerous gifts: as soon as the media the most significant question presented by the with my long lost bag. Fifteen minutes later I Much to my surprise and delight, I chance 59 4 upon Mr. X in the midst of Critical Mass. I have complete with giant puppets, street theater, only seen him once since I spent much of the radical cheerleading, and an anarchic marching summer of 1998 in a van with him. He is in band rolls out of Seattle Central Community Seattle with Ms. X and X-Dog. Our reunion is College (SCCC). The street party is a roaring cut short, however, when a psychopath in a success, reclaiming downtown for hours and fancy car tries to run us over. Mr. X screams like railing fiercely at all manifestations of corporate a banshee, jumps onto the hood, slips a piece dominance. Plagiarists’ Postscript of cardboard under the wipers and over the Unfortunately I miss it. I go back to Hitco entire windshield, pounds three big ass dents in around five to finish the lockboxes, unaware the hood with his fist, and disappears into the that the festival is still bumping. I get back to night. 420 around eight and run across Ms. C. We are Later we invade the Washington Trade and eating dinner when we hear that a mass public From this vantage point, it is possible to tactics that succeeded in Seattle be as effective Convention Center, where the WTO summit is squat is about to be opened on Virginia St. The interpret the WTO protests according to any today, or are they subject to a law of diminish- supposed to be held, and ride in circles through word is free shelter downtown for anyone who the foyer for quite some time before a security needs it during the protests, and for Seattle’s number of frameworks. They were a watershed ing returns? guard punches someone in the face and the homeless after. About forty of us steal through in the development of the contemporary anti- police finally manage to chase us away. the night to recover a fragment of the world that capitalist movement, at which thousands of What Happened in Seattle has been stolen from us. disparate groups discovered each other and the Immediately following the Seattle WTO Saturday, November 27 913 Virginia Street. The door opens, and power they could wield together. They were protests, some reformists moaned that the I spend all morning and early afternoon at two masked heads emerge from the darkness. the point at which, a decade after the fall of the confrontational tactics and far-reaching goals Denny. The 420 Space is serving as a welcome “GET IN!” I run through the door, up the stairs, mat, training grounds, mess hall, and nerve through a wooden hatch, onto the second floor. Berlin Wall and the end of the old “democracy of militant participants alienated people and center, and it is turning into a complete The door closes behind me. The building is versus communism” opposition, the funda- ruined any chance of concretely affecting madhouse. Countless meetings and workshops, enormous. This floor could harbor a horde of mental dichotomy of global politics was recast national policy. Yet by reformist standards, the endless training and skill sharing, and ceaseless barbarians. The power is running. Androgy- as corporate capitalism versus the common so-called anti-globalization movement1 associ- cooking, cleaning, eating, and welding all rage nous ninja elves scamper about everywhere people. They were, as the researchers of the ated with the Seattle protests achieved practi- perpetually and simultaneously under Denny’s around me, hammering away furiously on a RAND corporation self-servingly discovered, cally unprecedented triumphs, and the credit roof. More and more people pour in throughout the day, and it is beginning to get difficult to the substantiation of theories about how new for this must go at least in part to the militants. move around inside. communications technologies would shape The next WTO meeting had to be held in I leave late Saturday afternoon for the social conflict. They were simultaneously the Qatar, cementing the image of the WTO as an Hitco space to make lockboxes. Hitco is every beginning and the high point of a “movement anti-democratic, oppressive elite. Many of the bit as wild as Denny. While others hammer of movements” which ended when terrorists proposals that had most outraged activists were away at mammoth puppets and matching sea hijacked the global stage on September 11th, or immediately dropped; likewise, the Free Trade turtle suits we set up an assembly line and build hundreds of lockboxes out of PVC pipe, chicken when communist splinter groups hijacked the Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement is now wire, framing nails, tar, sand, yarn, and duct anti-war movement a year and a half later, or essentially dead in the water. Some analysts tape. We turn them out late into the night. I ride which continues so long as certain anthropol- have concluded that the mobilization against to 420, walk to Filbert, and sleep covered with tar. ogy professors require a subject for inquiry. corporate globalization peaked early because The only thing that matters for us an- its goals were not ambitious enough. Sunday, November 28 archists, of course, is what we can learn from Sunday morning Denny is an utterly unfathom- the past to act effectively in the present. Does 1 Ironically, the “anti-globalization movement” was perhaps the able zoo. I learn that Saturday night banners most globally interconnected movement in the history of protest it make sense to pursue “another Seattle,” or is movements. The corporate media christened it with that misnomer were dropped all over downtown, one from because identifying it for what it was—a movement opposing capi- that just a will-o’-the-wisp? Could any of the talist globalization—would acknowledge the existence of capital- the top of a crane over I-5. At noon a parade ism, and thus the possibility of other social and economic systems. 5 58 these weapons. The widespread use of “non- thousand different projects. I board up windows by dismantling the contraption that braces lethal” weapons increased the aggressiveness of at a breakneck pace with a tireless Danish it. The latter, where Mr. N has constructed a police and the increased combativeness eroded carpenter. Plywood, two-by-fours, chicken wire, virtually impregnable barricade out of toilets, black plastic, anything. Next room. concrete, rebar, plywood, and an iron fire door, strategic control. could only be opened by a tank. The doors The flexible and improvised communica- The cops are coming. They’re about to fire tear are adjacent to two stairwells, one in front tions infrastructure used by the Direct Action gas through all these windows. and one in back, which lead to either end of a Network was a significant feature in the protests. No they’re not. long winding hallway that connects about ten One of the dictums of netwar is that netwar More rooms. rooms. The rooms are vast and spacious, with actors have a much greater interest in keeping Yes they are. Cover all this up so they can’t tell 25’ ceilings, gigantic windows, and giant stages how many of us are in here. and lofts of various shapes and sizes. One has communications working, rather than shutting No they’re not. been furnished with an ample supply of food, them down. The dense and diversified commu- “WHO THE FUCK LET IN PHOTOGRAPHERS?” water, and medical supplies. Someone runs out nications used by the Direct Action Network “I’VE GOT FELONY WARRANTS IN WASHING- of another, arms raised in triumph, a crescent could not have been significantly harmed by TON STATE!” wrench in one fist and a plunger in the other. any action less than a total media and communi- The cops are coming. “THE TOILET WORKS!” In yet another Ms. I cations blackout in Seattle. Not only is such an Two rooms left. and Ms. S arm a security team with short wave No they’re not. radios. Every window on this floor is boarded action impossible for the economic and social “KEEP THOSE FUCKING PHOTOGRAPHERS IN up except for those in the front room—where costs which would result, but a blackout of the THAT FRONT ROOM!” earlier we gave a full fledged press conference required magnitude would be the information- “SOMEBODY GO TALK TO THEM!” before banishing the blow-dried talking heads al equivalent of unconditional surrender by the Yes they are. of the corporate media altogether—and nothing establishment. Because the ultimate prize in a We’re done. inside can be distinguished from below. The netwar conflict is understanding, not opinion, No they’re not… third floor is essentially identical to the second, except that none of the windows are boarded it is the quality of information, not the quantity, There are two doors, one in front and one in up and there is a ladder to the roof in the back which determines the final outcome. back. The former can be opened from inside stairwell. There is no way to approach the Netwar is nothing new as a form of conflict. building that is not visible from the roof, where It is a new concept, but the underlying reality of someone stands guard with a short-wave radio, it has been around for a long time. What is new waiting for the inevitable. Here come the cops, is the richer informational environment which this time for real… We assemble in The Spiral Room and send makes the organization of civil (and uncivil) Mr. G outside to negotiate, agreeing that he will society into networks easier and more efficient. not accept, refuse, offer, or request any proposal The essential conditions for victory in a before we have all consensed to do so. The netwar conflict are also the conditions which cops say we need to let in a fire inspector. They make waging netwar possible: the shared under- need to know if we are posing a fire hazard to standing of a situation which demands direct ourselves. After much discussion we consense that this is complete bullshit. They don’t know action. In many ways, the victory of the Direct the layout of the building, they or how many Action Network was implicit in the fact that so of us are inside, how sturdy our barricades are, many people understood the conflict and were or for that matter if we all have machine guns willing to act on that understanding. or not. They want to inspect the building to determine how difficult it will be to raid. When we refuse they cut the water, then the power.

57 6 By this time a bizarre circus has gathered and tactical openness. The three key phases of Implications below. Reporters, feds, and undercover agents the street actions were: the Tuesday morning The most profound outcome of the WTO film us, and our friends from 420 and- theIn “swarm” which blockaded strategic intersec- protests was the appearance of the netwar dependent Media Center film them. We hang tions; the collapse of the police strategy to construct in American politics. The “Battle in banners and signs from the roof and windows. suppress the Direct Action Network protests Seattle” was fought not only in the streets, but Mine says “RESISTANCE IS FERTILE.” Outside while allowing the AFL-CIO parade; and the also in the infosphere. The WTO protests were Mr. G wrangles with the cops. Inside we are embroiled in an absolutely endless meeting failure of the AFL-CIO parade to engulf the the first to take full advantage of the extremely regarding their ever-changing promises and Direct Action Network protests into a form ac- dense and wide-reaching alternative media threats. As it gets later and later we are left ceptable to the Clinton administration. network which uses the internet. The use of with less friends and more enemies, who make The failure of the police strategy was “media special forces” is one of the hallmarks less promises and more threats. The situation almost instantaneous with the success of the of netwar and informational conflicts. With becomes increasingly tense, but they never blockade. Non-violent civil disobedience usually the rise of the alternative media, the internet move in on us. Around four they finally leave, swearing that they will return at eight with the succeeds when the numbers of protesters is suf- and other unmediated mass communications, landlord to chase us out. I sleep with one eye ficiently large. The use of force to disperse such it is no longer possible for the establishment open, and wake up four different times to false demonstrations is a moral victory for the pro- to control the information reaching the public. alarms. testers if it succeeds and a double victory if it Attempts to distort the news for propaganda The cops are coming. fails. In Seattle, the attempts to forcibly disperse or public relations purposes will enhance No they’re not. the demonstrations not only failed, but also movement recruiting and create a “credibility Yes they are. No they’re not. set into motion a chain of events which under- gap” for establishment policies. mined the legitimacy of the police actions. The WTO protests were the Chiapas in- Monday, November 29 The critical instances in which the police surrection come to America. Like the Zapatista Throughout the morning a crowd from 420 and lost control of their own strategy began with netwar, the conflict was one of civil society everywhere else gathers outside, beating drums the initial use of tear gas. The circumstances networks versus markets. The role of insti- and singing. The cops return at eight with the surrounding the decision to use gas are still tutions, be they police or military forces, landlord, block the doors, and refuse to let unknown, as is where the decision originated. anyone in or out. Around noon we manage to our “last chance.” Nearly everyone opts out at NAFTA, WTO, or political administrations, was get a lawyer inside. He tries to cut us a deal. We this point, understandably having no desire to The pursuit of demonstrators up Capitol Hill secondary to the conflict. Institutions interme- will occupy the building until Friday, then hand spend the 30th in jail. They promise to tear ass on Tuesday and Wednesday nights accelerated diate netwar conflicts involving markets, but it over to Share/Wheel, a homeless advocacy up to Denny and return with as much backup as the collapsing strategy of forcible dispersion. they are not the primary actors. In Seattle, the group, who will convert it into a free shelter. they can scrape together. I know that whether On Wednesday night, the failure of civilian police could not decide the issue; they could The landlord claims he will get sued if someone this is our “last chance” or not, there are nowhere officials to control the police dramatically un- only determine the level of violence. gets hurt in his building. We write up a waiver near enough cops outside to actually raid the derscored the breakdown of political control. clearing him of any liability for anything that building, and I cannot fathom why. Later I learn As it turned out, the introduction of new happens inside. He refuses to sign it. This all that crowds have amassed all over downtown. On Thursday, the refusal of the City Council “non-lethal” armaments such as chemical takes hours. Some have surrounded The Gap, some the to ratify the mayor’s emergency declarations irritant sprays and pellets, guns firing a variety The negotiations break down complete- Westin Hotel so that the WTO delegates can’t began the process of regaining political control of rubber, wooden or “bean-bag” projectiles, ly by late afternoon. The landlord wants us get in to sleep, and some have attacked a Mc- of the police. And the January dismissal of “robocop” armor, and all the rest were not disposed of. The cops slaver in anticipation. Donald’s, breaking some windows. charges against demonstrators underscored the only ineffective but actually counter-produc- Around 5:30 they swear that in thirty minutes About fifteen of us remain inside. There tenuous legality of the city’s actions against the they will kick down the doors, beat ass, break a lot of people out front, but not enough. The tive in dealing with non-violent protesters. heads, and arrest everyone inside. They will let situation looks bleak. At 6 p.m. the riot cops protesters. In most cases, protesters were only infuriated anyone who is willing to leave out now. This is show up. We decide that there is no longer any and stiffened in their resistance by the use of 7 56 ments said that the decisions had been made protesters, an act that would normally be con- before the WTO protests. Chief Stamper stated sidered assault with a deadly weapon. As the that one purpose of announcing his resignation guard threatened the protesters, some tried to was to “de-politicize” the investigations into grab the guard’s gun arm. Coombs sprayed the police actions during the protests. The depar- protesters with pepper-spray and hustled the tures of the other polices officials were virtually delegation away from the protesters. His quick ignored in the media, though they represent thinking probably saved lives, said Lt. Neil Low, the departure of three out of seven of the chief’s who is writing the commendation letter. The highest-ranking assistants. actions by other officers deserving commenda- The Seattle police organizations launched tion have not been disclosed. a massive public-relations blitz. In one of the The American Civil Liberties Union, the more bizarre actions, police officers began National Lawyers Guild, and Amnesty Interna- shaking down local merchants through the tional announced that they were investigating sales of T-shirts—as if the police had won some the events in Seattle. Amnesty International sort of a major victory. Uniformed officers looked into “widespread police abuses” against delivered boxes of the shirts to Dutch Ned’s Bar protesters, including “indiscriminant use” of in Pioneer Square. The shirts show the Space chemical agents, rubber, and wooden projec- Needle engulfed in a tornado and say “Battle tiles, “flashbang” grenades, beatings of prisoners in Seattle WTO 99.” The Guild also organized a in jail, threats of rape during strip searches, rally to show support for the police. State Rep. and the use of “four-point restraint chairs” in Luke Esser, R-Bellevue, a conservative “law and the jail. The mayor’s office issued a statement order” advocate, issued a statement saying that saying, “At this time, we have no indication that he would attend the police rally “commend- any events such as those described by Amnesty ing those brave men and women for working International ever occurred.” The Seattle Weekly around the clock in treacherous conditions to published stories substantiating reports of way to defend the building, and that there is no to give us an order or command we just dance, maintain law and order during the WTO riots.” jail beatings and other charges by Amnesty point in making martyrs of ourselves—except but when they try to charge their van across the The Seattle Times ran a variety of pro-police International. for Mr. B, who says he will hide in the rafters block to disperse us we surround it and slow it articles, including one front-page headline an- and hold out alone if he has to. We dismantle down to a crawl, then beat and kick and rock it nouncing the retirement of a police dog. Aftermath the barricade at the front door and run outside. while the couple inside squirms. It is all they can We are greeted with a wondrous sight. The do to limp their wounded warhorse through to And the police department began writing The WTO protests in Seattle were the largest cavalry has arrived from 420. Somehow hordes the other side before all the little elves flip the letters of commendation for actions during left-wing demonstrations in America since the of people have slid in between the cops and damn thing over. The cops leave. the protests. “We’re hearing stories from [first] Gulf War. They were also the most suc- the door, and more stream in from all around. Pandemonium reigns. Up on the roof Mr. throughout the department of heroism and cessful American political demonstrations of Everyone goes berserk. We pound and bang on B roars in triumph, and the walls tremble at the courageousness,” said Lisa Ross, a spokeswom- the decade, if success for a demonstration is everything we can get our hands on, howling tops of the tombs. I suspect that the cops are not an for Chief Stamper. Seattle Post-Intelligencer measured by the degree of congruence between and dancing and taking up most of the block. prepared to start a riot on Virginia Street when Mr. B is up on the roof, roaring at the top of his so much of their force is downtown protecting reporter Kimberly Wilson described some of the protesters’ goals and the effect on public lungs with his arms raised to the sky as if all the the world’s most ruinous and abusive corpora- these stories as “surreal,” citing the case of Sgt. policy issues. indomitable power of the avenging squatter tions and the delegates who represent them. A Mike Coombs. Coombs saw a guard escorting The WTO protests succeeded in the demon is running through the marrow of his fragment of the world has been recovered, and a foreign dignitary draw a handgun when con- streets by a combination of strategic surprise bones. The cops are at a loss. Every time they it is safe for now. About forty people run inside, 55 8 and I run back up to Denny. A few hours later, concrete, dumpsters, cars. We begin to form a right before I leave 420 for the night, I run into human chain around the convention center. Ms. X and X-Dog. She tells me that Mr. X is in jail. In an amusing display of either arrogance She is trying desperately to bail him out before or stupidity the delegates all wear matching the state discovers exactly who he is and what beige suits and big ID tags that say “DELEGATE.” Jail Blockade & Release : Police officials resign he has done. I promise to keep in contact with Whenever they try to approach the building aftermath : Implications her and to do all I can to help. Before I fall asleep we stop them and chase them off. Without the back at the squat, beneath a window with the protection of their armed servants they are as glittering banks looming over me, I remember powerless as a brain without a body, and their the time Mr. X told me that there were only two expressions are priceless as they run away. things that he would never do. He would never Before long the chain is complete, and the only hurt anyone, and he would never take anyone’s ways in are through parking garages, hotels, Jail Blockade and Release protesters would now begin cooperating with food. His captors do both, and some day they will and underground tunnels. We cut these off one the courts and properly identify themselves. suffer the consequences. They have locked Mr. by one. I dart around by myself, patching up By Thursday, the success of the Direct Action X in a cage, and tomorrow it’s time for payback. holes where blockades need help and trailing Network protests was undeniable. The WTO Many had refused to provide their names and delegates to their secret entrances. I dog one conference was prevented from holding its addresses, giving their names only as “Jane Tuesday, November 30 for blocks, grinning malevolently at him as he opening ceremonies on Tuesday. On Wednesday, WTO,” “John WTO,” or in one case “Emiliano I wake up before dawn and walk to SCCC, searches in vain for a way into the convention the conference began to come unraveled when Zapata.” As they were processed for arraign- center. He finally gives up and asks a cop for where the festivities begin. Before long I am sur- President Clinton made repeated statements ment, they would be released on personal rounded by thousands of friends, and at 7 a.m. advice, and I listen in, rubbing my hands with supporting the demonstrators—although recognizance. Nearly all of those jailed were we set out for the Washington Trade and Con- glee. “How do we get inside?” vention Center, where the summit is supposed “Well, sir… right now there is no way to get it appears he was referring only to the AFL- released by Sunday. After the jailed protesters to be held. As we near it we fan out, taking inside.” CIO—and announced a U.S. policy initiative were released Seattle City Attorney Mark Sidran over the surrounding streets and blockading The opening ceremonies of the summit which guaranteed that major consensus at issued a statement to the press denying that any entrances to the building. Everything you can are postponed, then canceled altogether. This the WTO conference would be impossible. On agreement had been reached and promising to is when the cops begin to riot. They have failed imagine turns into a barricade. Bodies, puppets, Wednesday night, police attacked local residents prosecute all cases. lockboxes, a fifty foot tripod, barrels full of their masters miserably and they are pissed. in the sort of breakdown of command and disci- In early January, Sidran moved to dismiss pline shown by defeated troops. Graffiti began over ninety percent of the cases, disclosing appearing around Seattle reading: “Remember, that virtually none of them could be pros- We Are Winning!” On Thursday afternoon, ecuted because police had not bothered to file police finally came to an accommodation with the necessary reports or identify the arresting Direct Action Network protesters and provided officers during the mass arrests. a police escort for a march. The focus of the Direct Action Network Police Officials Resign strategy now shifted from the WTO to support The final act of the WTO protests was the for those still in jail as a result of the mass announced departures of Seattle Police Chief arrests. For two days, vigils were held at the Norm Stamper, strategic commander Assistant Public Safety Building, at times completely sur- Chief Ed Joiner, Nancy McPherson, civilian rounding the building. director of the Community and Information On Friday evening, after meeting with Services, and Assistant Chief of Investigations, city officials, Direct Action Network legal staff Harve Fergusson. Those who made public state- announced an agreement with the city. Jailed ments regarding their resignations or retire 9 54 then immediately firing a shotgun within ‘Jingle Bells,’ and when they started singing I run up to the barricade at 5th and Seneca, pours water on my face and rubs life back into inches of the young man’s torso. Police officials ‘Silent Night,’ the tear gas started. Something which I hear is about to be attacked. The cops, my eyes. I am born again in their hands. We all initially described the officer’s conduct as “ap- hit me in the back, and there was pandemonium sporting Darth Vader suits and unmarked tear ass back up Seneca towards 5th to make out raincoats, have formed a line across Seneca. what the cops are doing and how to stop them. propriate.” At a parking lot near Broadway, there, and so we left the area,” Derdowski said. Behind them there are five or six more on horses I realize that my friends are not all just going to two journalism students were videotaping the and a couple with big ass guns. We push a line bail when things start to get ugly. action. A King County deputy went up to their of dumpsters in front of them so that they can’t And here come the cops, storming through car and motioned for the young women to roll trample us, and form an enormous immovable the sickly clouds, ejaculating toxic gas as fast as down a window. When they did, the deputy knot so that they can’t drag us away and arrest they can stroke their triggers. They open up on pepper-sprayed them both, shouting “Tape us. The cops flip on gas masks and begin to fire us with rubber bullets and concussion grenades, tear gas into the crowd. Others blast us with and we stampede back down Seneca and around this, bitch!” This footage has also been repeat- jumbo tanks of pepper spray. One throws a can the corner. The stampede becomes a fairly edly aired on national television. The deputy of gas into my lap. Ronald McDonald and his orderly retreat as we book down 4th Avenue, remained publicly unidentified and on duty band of merry devils run amok through my hurling everything we can get our hands on out while an internal investigation was conducted. organs, burning plastic bonfires in my windpipe into the street to protect ourselves from their These and other incidents resulted in civil suits and hacking at my lungs with chainsaws dipped cars and horses. Trash cans, newspaper stands, filed against the Seattle Police as the agency in in DDT. Vampire fangs sunk down to the gums concrete tree planters, dumpsters, construc- suck the soul from my skull, and all that remains tion barricades, anything that will stop them or charge, as well as the officers involved. in the hellish wasteland between my ears is fear slow them down. The gas is inescapable but we Around midnight, the disorder had drawn and hatred. grab the cans and throw them back. The rubber several local government officials, who tried to Everyone around me starts to run. While bullets are legitimately scary but we chuck get the police and demonstrators to disengage. I am getting up a cop bucks me in the face with sticks, stones, and bottles and hope for the best. They included King County Councilman Brian pepper spray. Tony the Tiger is scouring my I find myself on top of a newspaper stand in the Derdowski, City Councilmen Richard Conlin eyes with his chemical claws, my nostrils are middle of 4th Avenue, unleashing a psychotic searing, and I can’t see a damn thing. I scramble stream of invective at the interchangeable and Nick Licata, and Councilwoman-elect Judy down Seneca stone blind and finally collapse in bullies who are approaching through the smoke. Nicastro. the street, gasping and convulsing. Someone “FUCK YOU, COWARDS!, I’M INVINCIBLE!” “Those council members tried to work This is happening all over town. They can through the chain of command of the Police De- move us but they cannot disperse us. At 4th and partment and they were unable to get anybody,” Union the worm is beginning to turn. The cops, Derdowski said. For two hours, the civilian facing thousands and thousands of us now, are a little less gung ho than they were at 5th and officials tried to get the police to cease attacking Seneca. They form a line across 4th and we come the crowd. Finally, around 2 a.m., the crowd to another standoff. Only this time no one is began to leave. The police responded with going to sit down for them. I find myself on top volleys of gas and rubber projectiles. of another newspaper stand in the middle of 4th “I asked the police to be professional Avenue, roaring at the top of my lungs. “I can’t and just take one step back. That would be the TELL you how THRILLED I am to BE here right now. I LOVE every ONE of you, like a SISTER or a sign that these folks needed, and they would BROTHER. There is NOWHERE, in the WORLD, disperse,” Derdowski said. “The police said they EVER, that I would RATHER BE then WHERE couldn’t do that, so we went back and told the I AM right now. There is NOTHING I would people that they needed to leave the area. And RATHER BE DOING than WHAT I AM DOING a lot of them did, but a few persisted. And they right now. I would RATHER be OUT HERE than started singing Christmas carols. They sang spend another FUCKING SECOND in my CAR, 53 10 Lambrecht said. “One of the officers pulled him of celebration rather than protest. out of the car and not gingerly.” The crowd was predominantly residents of “I don’t want to aid the hooligans who are Capitol Hill, many of whom had been angered raising hell and I don’t want to take on specific by police the previous night when bystanders officers… But there are huge flaws with the and people on their way home from work had officers when it comes to people of color. I’m been indiscriminately attacked by the police 58 years old. I had on a $400 suit, but last night, who had pursued demonstrators up the hill. At I was just another nigger,” said Councilman about 9 p.m., police and National Guard forces McIver. A few days later, Councilman McIver began arriving in the area. By 9:30 p.m., police stated that he was not pursuing the matter and closed several blocks of Broadway between East wanted it dropped. Republican and East John. Tensions were high, due to the residents resentment of the police Street Battles for the Hell of It presence and police fears of violence. KIRO The final incident of Wednesday night dem- TV reported that the people opposing police onstrated the police strategy for clearing the that night consisted entirely of Capitol Hill streets was not only ineffective, but that civilian residents. Afterwards, police claimed there were control of law enforcement ceased to exist for a reports of agitators carrying gasoline bombs and time. The “Battle of Capitol Hill” degenerated throwing rocks and bottles. They said some pro- into a “police riot,” perhaps the only time during testers charged officers. No gasoline bombs were the WTO protests that police temporarily lost thrown that evening and news videos show only control of their forces on the street. police charging, not civilians attacking police. As the demonstrators withdrew from Police began using pepper spray, tear gas, downtown curfew area at around 7 p.m., a and concussion grenades shortly after 9:30 p.m., group of several hundred protesters moved first at John Street and Broadway to the south, or at my JOB, or WATCHING TV. I DON’T think the blockades, the wily and mobile Black Bloc north on Fourth Avenue, followed at a distance moving north, and near Harrison, moving these cops can say that. I DON’T think those dealt with their masters in kind. Masked little by police. The group withdrew in an orderly south. More police blocked side streets, prevent- delegates can say that. I would rather EAT MORE elves armed with slingshots, sledgehammers, manner, stopping several times along the ing the crowds from dispersing. TEAR GAS than any more of their FUCKING mallets chains, and crowbars attacked The way to vote on where they were going. They “The protesters looked completely calm to fast food. I would rather DRINK MORE PEPPER Gap, McDonald’s, Niketown, Bank of America, moved east on Denny Way into Capitol Hill me… They were not instigating this,” said Erin SPRAY than any more of their FUCKING soft Starbucks, Levi’s, Fidelity Investment, Old Navy, and reached Broadway and East Harrison Street Katz, a Capitol Hill resident who watched from drinks. I would rather DEAL WITH THAT than Key Bank, Washington Mutual, Nordstrom’s, US ACCEPT THIS SHIT for another FUCKING Bankcorp, Planet Hollywood, and other mani- at about 7:45 p.m., where they joined another behind police lines near Pine Street. “I heard SECOND. And I would rather DIE LIVING than festations of corporate dominance, smashing group which was already at the intersection. By absolutely no warning and they started to gas continue to LIVE DYING…” windows and redecorating facades. I am ecstatic. now the group numbered approximately 500. them.” Somebody hugs me. It has been so long Those glittering towers are not invincible after As they passed through the neighborhood, they For the next two and a half hours, police since anyone has touched me that I nearly melt all. The greatest trick the vampires ever played were greeted by cheering residents and honks rampaged along Broadway. It was during this in their arms. Someone else jumps up and roars, was convincing us that garlic did not exist. Let of support from motorists. The crowd marched period that some of the week’s worst instances and then someone else, and then someone else. their facade be torn to pieces, and may the walls I rest for a minute while a stout Chicano man come tumbling down. back and forth along Broadway for about an of police misconduct occurred. National tel- recounts some interesting news. While the The stout Chicano man tells me that hour, carrying banners and accompanied by a evision repeatedly aired footage of a Tukwila servants were busy terrorizing us and the rest during the L.A. riot he and his friends burned band playing music. The atmosphere was one officer kicking a young man in the groin and 11 52 P-I interview, they took it to mean that the US curfew and then withdraw to Capitol Hill. down police stations and nothing else. We always been designated as a barbarian, savage, proposal of a WTO body to consider worldwide As the curfew went into effect at 7 p.m., freestyle from the newspaper stand until my communist, jap, criminal, gook, subhuman, core labor standards was the first step toward es- the streets were mostly empty. As if to celebrate larynx is throbbing. Eventually the cops get drug dealer, terrorist, scum; less than human impatient and one of them bucks my man full and therefore legitimate prey. I try to make tablishing compulsory international sanctions their “control” of the streets, a column of a dozen in the face with pepper spray. I kiss him on the it impossible for him to label me as a faceless against ‘violators.’” police cars raced through the empty downtown head, they club me and everyone else they can protester, the enemy. I pull off my ski mask and On the streets, Wednesday afternoon was a core with emergency lights flashing and sirens reach, and back down 4th Avenue I go, a phalanx continue to stare into his eyes. I tell him that repeat of Tuesday. The police pulled back for the blaring. Police officials explained to reporters of crocodiles in ankylosaurus suits at my heels I am from the south, about fixing houses and four hours that President Clinton was in public that this “wild weasel” operation was a “show wreaking havoc and pain. laying floors and loading tractor trailer trucks, view, just as they had pulled back as the AFL-CIO of force to clear the streets.” The news videos of Yet another standoff at 4th and Pike. The about nearly getting killed in a car wreck in cops form a line across 4th Avenue. This is October, about carrying my dog around crying parade approached downtown. In the words of the stream of cars are one of the more surreal getting repetitive. I have inhaled so much tear to all the bushes that she loved to root around in one TV reporter, “The streets were strangely images from the entire week. Things would get gas, ingested so much pepper spray, and ducked the day she died of cancer. I tell him that we all quiet.” At 1 p.m., Washington Governor Gary even stranger that night. so many concussion grenades and rubber have our stories, that there are no faceless pro- Locke gave a live interview on local television. At about the same time as the “wild bullets that running the bulls on 4th Avenue testers here. Nothing. Locke stated that order was restored to Seattle weasels” were racing through the streets, police is no longer novel or fun. It’s just frustrating. “Can you look me in the eyes, O’Neil? I and told local shoppers to “come downtown”— assaulted Seattle City Councilman Richard We outnumber them almost immeasurably, yet am a human being, and I refuse to let you evade they still attack us with impunity. They hold that. I won’t let you label me as a protester, and I inside the perimeter of the “no protest” zone. McIver. McIver said city police officers yanked all the cards, they make all the rules, and they don’t want to have to label you as a cop. I refuse Unfortunately, the governor hadn’t heard about him from his car, pulled his arms behind his cheat all the time. I am terrified. We are in no to accept that they have broken you completely, police plans for a 4 p.m. crackdown to drive pro- back and started to cuff him as he drove to a way seriously prepared to defend ourselves. that there is not something left in you which is testers out of the downtown core, a time which World Trade Organization reception event at All it would take would be for one dumb ass still capable of empathizing with me. I want to coincided with the downtown rush hour. the nearby Westin Hotel. The council member aggro cop to decide to get his rocks off and open be able to treat you as an equal, but only if you had been stopped shortly before by police who fire for all the rest to follow suit. It would be a prove to me that you are willing to do the same. massacre. Kent State. Bonfires smolder behind And the only way you can do that is by joining Post-Presidential Disorder let him continue after identifying himself. The my eyes, and the smoke rises out of my mouth. us, or walking away.” As Clinton’s motorcade departed, the streets second time he was stopped and identified I choose one—at random, for they all I remain dead still, staring into his weak were once again blanketed in tear gas, and himself, a policeman threw McIvor’s city council look exactly the same. Every inch of his body is cow eyes. He is blinking excessively and is police fired pepper-spray at anyone who got business card on the ground and assaulted him. hidden under black cyborg armor. He is armed visibly uncomfortable. “Can you look me in in their way. At the Pike Place Market, tear gas The incident was witnessed by a U.S. Con- to the teeth. His face is hidden under a gas mask, the eyes, O’Neil? The difference between me was severe enough that produce merchants put gressman, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and face shield, and full helmet. “O’Neil” is embroi- and you is that I want to be here and you don’t. dered on his bulletproof vest. I plant myself I know why I am here. I am enjoying myself. I out signs the next day announcing they were Bill Lambrecht, Washington, D.C.-correspond- squarely in front of his face and I stare dead into am reveling in this. I am rejoicing. I have been closed because their fruits and vegetables were ent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. his eyes. He won’t look at me. He blinks con- waiting for this to happen since I was a little contaminated. “What he [McIver] describes is what I saw,” stantly, looks down, left, up, right; anywhere kid. There is nowhere, in the world that I would As on Tuesday, the police failed to move Kucinich said. “Four to five policemen converged but at me. It infuriates me almost beyond words rather be than where I am right now. There is the crowds of protesters and the main axis of on him and kind of spun him around. I thought that this coward has the impudence to attack nothing I would rather be doing than what I am protest movement once again became Pike and the people who handled it were overly aggres- me when I am unarmed but lacks the courage doing right now. It has never been so magnifi- to even look me in the eyes. “Can you look me cent to feel the sublime power of life running Pine Streets. After two hours, police were only sive. I’m sure given the tension that existed in in the eyes? CAN YOU LOOK ME IN THE EYES? through the marrow of my bones. I know that able to move two blocks, up to Second Avenue. the city, there might be many cases where in LOOK ME IN THE EYES, O’NEIL.” Nothing. you don’t want to be here. I know that you don’t A protester blockade at Third and Pine stayed in hindsight they might do things differently but I know why he won’t look at me. When know why you are here. I know that you are not place until voluntarily dispersed at 6:45 p.m. It that seemed excessive.” he was halter-broken he joined his trainers in enjoying yourself. I know that you don’t want appears likely that the Direct Action Network “It was clear that he was telling them a companionship stimulated not by love, but to be doing this. And no one is holding a gun had decided to hold the streets until the 7 p.m. who he was. They seemed unpersuadable,” by hatred—hatred for the “enemy” who has to your head and forcing you to. Wherever you 51 12 want to be, go there, now. Whatever you want Brigade appears. For the first time since I began Secret Service in Seattle, Special Agent Ronald a working group on labor within the WTO, and to be doing, do it, now. Go home and get out this surreal monologue I look behind me. A Legan, estimated that the parade numbered then that working group should develop these my way. Go make love with your girlfriend or small man wearing a gas mask and fatigues is 20,000 and the total number of demonstrators core labor standards, and then they ought to be boyfriend, go snuggle with your kids or dog, go prancing about in front, dancing lustily with two was 50,000. As the excerpts from Clinton’s state- a part of every trade agreement, and ultimately I watch TV if that’s what you want, but stay out oversized black and green flags. Behind him two of my way because this is a lot more important women wearing gas masks and fatigues march ments clearly show, some understanding that would favor a system in which sanctions would to me than it is to you.” side by side, each bearing an oversized black the AFL-CIO would control the protests existed come for violating any provision of a trade I have not moved my feet or my eyeballs at and green mock wooden rifle. Two columns of between the President and the labor leaders: agreement, but we’ve got to do this in steps. all. I have been trying to blink as little as possible. about fifteen march behind the women with “I think certainly if we’d had it [the protests] “I do think it is worth noting that the O’Neil’s eyes are quivering and squirming to the guns. They are all wearing gas masks and any place in the continental United States we strongest opposition to this position, however, avoid me beneath the mask. fatigues, and they are all playing drums and would have had the same thing and even if comes from the leaders of developing countries, “O’NEIL! CAN YOU LOOK ME IN THE horns and all sorts of other noisemakers. They EYES? CAN YOU DO THAT FOR ME, O’NEIL? are making the most glorious uproar that I have we’d gone to Honolulu there might have been including a lot of developing countries who CAN YOU LOOK ME IN THE EYES. Basically ever heard. thousands of people there. What I regret is not have left-wing governments, not right-wing this whole ‘Battle of Seattle’ boils down to the The Infernal Noise Brigade marches all the that there are protesters there… What I regret is governments, who believe that this is a strategy relationship between you and me. And really, way to the front where we are standing. When that a small number of people have done non- by the American labor movement to keep them there are only two kinds of relationships that they reach the line the columns transform into peaceful things and have tried to block access down and keep them poor and keep them from we can have anymore. If you can either join us a whirling circle. We form more circles around and prevent meetings. That’s wrong. It’s not selling products that they’d otherwise be highly or walk away then you will be my brother, and them, holding hands and leaping through the I will embrace you. If you cannot then you will air, dancing around and around in concen- only illegal, it’s just wrong. competitive in the American market. It certainly be my enemy, and I will fight you. The relation- tric rings like a tribe of elves. We dance with “I regret very much that a few people could be used that way. ship that we are not going to have is the one absolute abandon, in possibly the most unre- have given the protesters a bad name, because I “…Again, if we can just get by the few people where you are dominant and I am subservient. strained explosion of sheer fury and joy I have think the fact that the protesters are there, were that aren’t being peaceful and the people that That is no longer an option. That will never be ever seen. On one side of the line across 4th it not for those stopping meetings, stopping are trying to stop people from meeting, I think an option again. Avenue there is a pulsating festival of resistance movements and not being peaceful, would be a the presence of others with legitimate questions “Which kind of relationship do you want and life. On the other side there is a blank wall to have with me, O’Neil? Look around you. Look of obedience and death. The comparison is im- positive. about the WTO process, the environment and at all of these people singing and dancing and possible to miss. It hits you over the head with a “…And then I think finally there are labor and how poor countries are treated, I making music. Don’t you see how beautiful hammer. people who question whether these trading think this can be a net positive, because we’re this is? Don’t you see how much more healthy When the dance is over I return to my rules are benefiting lower income countries, going to have to build a much deeper consensus and strong and fulfilling and desirable and fun post up in O’Neil’s face. I stare into his eyes poor countries, and question whether there for global trade to carry it forward.” relationships that rest on mutual respect and and invoke all the love and rage I can muster is damage to the environment from certain This interview had a very direct effect on consent and understanding and solidarity and to fashion an auger to bore through his mask love are than ones that rest on force and fear and into his brain. And Cow Eyes cries crocodile trading arrangements that wouldn’t otherwise the WTO negotiations. The Post-Intelligencer and coercion and violence and hatred? Don’t tears. His eyes are brimming, with red veins be there, and who question whether this is interview was read by many WTO delegates on you see that the life and the world that we are throbbing. His cheeks are moist. He won’t look a race to the bottom or the top. So that labor Wednesday morning. Roger Downey captured beginning to create out here is superior to the at me. “O’Neil, I don’t care if you cry or not. I unions and wealthier countries want to have the impact of Clinton’s statements in a Seattle one that you have been trained to accept? Don’t don’t care what you’re thinking right now. I certain basic core labor standards observed in Weekly article titled “Clinton Throws Brick”: you see that we are going to win? Don’t you only care about what you do. Before long you poorer countries because they think it will be “When Clinton got up in Seattle and told want to be a part of this? I know you do because will get orders to attack us, or one of you will get you still can’t look me in eyes. If you want to impatient and provoke another confrontation. better for average people so that the trading the ministers that WTO had to clean up its act remain my enemy then so be it. But if you want What are you going to do? When that happens I system actually benefits. So I think that’s what if it wanted American support, home folks may to be my brother all you have to do is join us or am going to be standing right here. If you choose is bringing all those people out. have nodded sagely in agreement; the delegates walk away.” to remain our enemy then you are going to have “…I think that what we ought to do first could only goggle speechlessly at his hypocrisy. At this exact moment the Infernal Noise to hit me first. You are going to have to hurt me of all to adopt the United States’ position on When he dropped the sanctions brick in his 13 50 of arrests was around sixty. On Wednesday did not end with the arrest of protesters. The first. I dare you to look me in the eyes when you morning, somewhere around three hundred target simply shifted from the streets to the jails do it. You may be able to hurt me and not look at arrests were made at two locations. Wednesday and then the courts. The second reason for the me. You may be able to look at me and not hurt me. But you won’t be able to look me in the eyes evening, two hundred more arrests were made police withdrawal was the demand by the Secret while you hurt me, because you are afraid you at First Avenue and Clay Street, near the Seattle Service that the presidential motorcade route will lose your nerve. You are afraid of me, and Center. Another dozen or fewer people, mostly and speaking locations be given top priority by you should be. residents of Capitol Hill, would be arrested police. “O’Neil, you all have been terrorizing us all during the night. Approximately five hundred The preceding day, as police and federal day. If this goes on all night we will have to start and forty of the arrests were for misdemean- security officials had milled around in an fighting back. And you and I will be standing right here in the middle of it. I have no illusions ors and eleven were for felony charges such as atmosphere of panic at the Multi-Agency about what that means. Neither should you. vandalism or looting. One of the felony arrests Command Center in the Public Safety Building, We may get killed. But I would rather deal with occurred in the Greenwood district, miles from Ronald Legan, the special agent in charge of the that than accept this one second longer. I would the downtown area. Seattle office of the Secret Service, laid down an rather die than give in to you. I don’t think you The arrests ended for two reasons. First ultimatum to Seattle officials about the presi- can say that, can you, O’Neil? Would you rather and most importantly, the police were running dential visit. “I remember saying that unless die than be my brother? Who are you dying for? Where are they? Whoever gives you orders out of transportation to remove those arrested we could get control of the streets, we would is standing behind you, man. Whoever gives from downtown. As the city busses arrived at recommend that he not come,” Legan said. “Now them orders is relaxing down at the station, Sand Point, protesters refused to leave some the problem there is that, with this president, he and whoever gives them orders is safe in some of the busses. Others obstructed the booking sets his own agenda and goes where he wants. high rise somewhere, laughing at your foolish procedures by refusing to identify themselves. And we did not want to have to battle a 30-car ass! Why isn’t your boss, and their boss, out here Many of the “arrest” affinity groups carried no motorcade in and out of Seattle.” with you, O’Neil, risking their lives and crying in the middle of 4th Avenue? Why should they? identification for this very purpose. Seattle Assistant Chief Ed Joiner said he You do it all for them! What are you thinking? Kelly Quirke, executive director of the would not characterize the discussion as “threat- I just don’t get it. They don’t care about you, Rainforest Action Network, was arrested at ening… but it was clear that if the situation was hell, I care about you more than they do. You’re Westlake center. “They drove us to a converted going to be the following day what it was then, getting used, hustled, played, man, and you will naval base, where we spent the next 15 hours on there was no way you could bring the president be discarded the minute you become expend- the bus, eating and drinking only the food and of the United States into Seattle.” able. Please look me in the eyes. I’m serious, O’Neil, come dance with me…” water we had on hand (they gave us none), doing Someone whispers in my ear that another interviews and organizing the next morning’s Presidential Appearance cop is crying down the line to my right. For a press conference until our cell phones went President Clinton admitted the coordinated fleeting moment I can feel it coming, the fiery dead (we were quite adept at getting out of the strategy between the AFL-CIO and the White dragon breath of the day that will come when plastic cuffs), singing, meeting (of course), and House in an interview with Seattle Post-Intelli- the servants turn their backs on their masters demanding to see our lawyers,” he said. gencer reporter Michael Paulson. The interview and dance… …And then it’s gone. Because O’Neil is not Police arrest procedures were so chaotic occurred on Tuesday evening, as the President dancing. He is completely beaten. His lifeless and slipshod that over 400 cases were dropped was between Washington D.C. and San eyes don’t even quiver or squirm. And he won’t by City Attorney Mark Sidran due to the Francisco. It is clear that Clinton was either not look at me. I could whisper in his nightmares absence of arrest reports and the failure of aware or chose to deny that the Direct Action for a thousand years, I could burn my face onto arresting officers to identify themselves. The Network protests were nearly equal in size the backs of his eyelids, I could stare at him Direct Action Network strategy of blockade to the AFL-CIO parade. Clinton’s chief of the every morning from the bathroom mirror, but 49 14 he would never look me in the eyes. He is too away. well-trained, too completely broken, too weak There are no words that are poisonous to feel compassion for the enemy. His eyes are enough to convey the venom that I hold for dead. There is nothing left. The magic words O’Neil and all of the rest of his kind. These that could pierce his armor and resurrect him wretched scabs, these Uncle Toms, these despi- Mass Arrests a day late : Presidential Appearance elude me, if they exist at all. cable bullies, these hellish machines, these dead post-presidential disorder : street battles for the hell of it “O’Neil, I know that you have been broken bodies are utterly beneath contempt. I look at and trained. So have I. I know that you are just their faces and I feel nothing but hatred. I run following orders and just doing your job. I have down 4th Avenue, ducking gas and grenades, done the same. But we are ultimately respon- my eyes brimming with red veins throbbing. sible for our actions, and their consequences. Training has dehumanized me in O’Neil’s eyes, There is a life and a world and a community and O’Neil in mine. Mass Arrests A Day Late apparent that Westlake Center, rather than waiting for you on this side of the line that can the WTO conference location, was the focus make you wild and whole again, if you want At 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the police them. But if you prefer to lay it all to waste, if began mass arrests. Direct Action Network of Wednesday’s blockade. The Direct Action you prefer death and despair to love and life, protesters began assembling at a few locations Network had correctly identified the shopping if all of these words bounce off of your armor and others made their way into the downtown and business district as being the vulner- and you still choose to hurt me then FUCK you, core. Some of the arrests occurred at Denny able point in the new police strategy. By 9 a.m. because the Nuremberg defense doesn’t fly.” Park, well to the north of the downtown. Police Westlake Center was clogged by a peaceful sit- I have nothing left to say. I sing the last down protest as protesters patiently waited for verse of my beaten heroes’ song, softly, over and handcuffed some demonstrators and put them over and over again, staring into O’Neil’s eyes on city busses which moved the arrestees to the police to arrest them. The crowds, consisting and waiting for the inevitable. “…In our hands is temporary jail at the former Sand Point Naval of demonstrators waiting to join the sit in and placed a power greater than their hoarded gold, Air Station. Other demonstrators had their signs spectators from business district, continued to greater than the might of armies magnified taken away from them, but were not arrested. swell. As one protester was arrested more would a thousand fold—we can bring to birth a new These proceeded downtown. leave the crowd and sit down. Once again, the world from the ashes of the old…” netwar tactic of “swarming” the target by Eventually a cop down to my right either According to Kelly Quirke, Executive gets impatient or gets orders. He grabs a guy, Director of the Rainforest Action Network, the stealthy approach succeeded. completely randomly, pulls him across the line, police mass arrest strategy included targeting By 10 a.m. it was becoming evident that and starts beating him. The crowd surges to protest leaders. “At the police chief’s and the police tactics were not going to halt the sit- rescue our friend, and O’Neil makes his choice. mayor’s press conference we had watched on in and that the police were creating a situation “LOOK ME IN THE EYES, O’NEIL!” He clubs the TV late the night before, they announced that which they could not control. At 10:30 a.m., the person standing next to me, and the cop standing police commander stepped between his men next to him clubs me. “LOOK ME IN THE EYES, they were going to go after the ringleaders,” MOTHERFUCKER!” But he never does. I ram Quirke said. The counter-leadership targeting and the protesters. He walked to the seated into him as hard as I can, praying that the sea was as ineffective as other police tactics, due protesters, leaned down and said, “We’re outta behind me will finally break through the wall, to the Direct Action Network’s decentralized here.” He then motioned to his men to leave drown the both of us, and carry my friend away decision-making process, which operated by the area and the police withdrew in an orderly to safety. But I am not strong enough, and the group consensus. In effect, a network has no manner. The protesters, both seated and among wall of death beats us back once more. Over the crowd, were jubilant. They had prevailed. my shoulder I watch one cop walk up to a very “ringleaders.” small older woman and unload a tank of pepper Protesters converged on the Westlake The disengagement of the police at spray into her eyes. Her indomitable and bitter Center and arrests there began at approximate- Westlake Center marked the failure of mass face is the last thing I see before I have to run ly 8 a.m. As the morning wore on, it became arrests as a police tactic. On Tuesday, the total 15 48 who rode to town on union busses were gone. The conditions on Wednesday were far more favorable to the police than anything which could possibly have been arranged on Tuesday. Assistant Chief Ed Joiner said Seattle police and their law enforcement partners initially looked hard at a plan based on prepara- tions for the NATO conference in Washington, D.C. This plan was similar to the strategy which was put in place after the declaration of civil emergency: “We considered it and basically rejected it as something that, in a perfect world, we’d like to do, but in a real world is a less viable option. Can you imagine me going to the mayor and the governor, before the conference even happened, and saying ‘I need to create this security perimeter from Seneca to Lenora Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the freeway, and I need to shut all the businesses down for five days the week after Thanksgiving?’ Can you imagine the kind of response I’d get, besides them asking me for my resignation then?” “It was impossible,” Joiner said. “Politically it was impossible. The damage to the downtown business core would have been substantial.” Netwar in the Once again, the Direct Action Network prevailed. The victory on Tuesday was re- affirmed Wednesday, and Chief Stamper’s concerns about bringing outside law enforce- ment into the city were realized in full that Emerald City: night when police rioted on Capitol Hill. Strategy and Tactics in the WTO Protests

47 themselves leaderless when the dust settled, window, enabling others to enter and destroy After This report was published shortly after the WTO and Seattle Mayor Paul Schell, who was left the inside of the Starbucks,” according to a With the departure of the AFL-CIO parade par- protests by the RAND Corporation, a think tank standing alone amidst the political wreckage in police report. “Babcock entered the store and ticipants, the Direct Action Network assumed that touts its “objectivity” and purports to “improve was arrested as he emerged from the crowd policy and decision-making through research and the aftermath. total control of the protests in Seattle. With their analysis.” Any perspective advanced by such a The central fact of the protests is the utter carrying several bags of coffee from the display one brief appearance, the Black Bloc presence dubious entity should obviously be taken with a surprise and confusion that occurred during inside of the store,” the report said. The criminal in the streets subsided. The media, however, grain of salt. That said, this analysis is noteworthy the initial confrontation on Tuesday morning. complaint against Babcock states that he handed directed considerable attention to the Eugene for its comprehensive scope. Aspiring revolutionar- “It was a classic example of two armies coming a one-pound bag of coffee to a police detective contingent. The media coup for the Black Bloc ies will be hard-pressed to find a better summary of into contact and immediately experiencing the outside the store. Of the four people arrested created an unprecedented amount of attention what took place on the other side of the barricades at the coffee shop and charged with felonies, that week. The text can be found online at http:// total collapse their battle plans,” said Daniel for the philosophy of “autonomist” anarchism. www.nwcitizen.us/publicgood/reports/wto/. Junas, a Seattle political researcher. none were “Anarchists from Eugene.” One was The Direct Action Network strategy of What exactly happened during the from Seattle, two appeared to be from Portland non-violent civil disobedience clearly had crucial hours of the Battle in Seattle is shrouded (although they gave the address of a Seattle succeeded against the AFL-CIO’s strategy of Seattle, like many American cities, has in confusion and controversy, but the broad homeless shelter), and Babcock’s residence was controlling and marginalizing protests in favor self-appointed nicknames. One of Seattle’s outlines can be discerned. The street action falls not disclosed in news reports. of a symbolic parade, the attempts of the Seattle nicknames is “The Emerald City,” a reference to into three distinct phases: first, the Direct Action The process of the protesters’ withdrawal police to clear the streets with tear gas, and its perpetually soggy evergreen vegetation and Network (DAN) protesters seized and held a from downtown coincided with the arrival of the media effort to frame the issue in terms of to the mythical Land of Oz. On November 30, handful of strategic intersections, immobilizing additional police reinforcements, the declara- “violent protesters.” The DAN plan remained 1999, Seattle awoke to the reality of an emerging the police. Second, the police strategy tion of a 7 p.m. curfew, and the fall of darkness. one of direct action by civil disobedience and global protest movement. This movement fragmented over two contradictory goals: The WTO had announced the cancellation of deep, multi-layered support for autonomous was not created in Seattle. Other protests with suppressing the DAN protests and allowing the activities around 1 p.m., although word of the affinity groups. The DAN strategy to emphasize similar motives, participants, and strategies had labor parade. Third, the labor parade failed in cancellation did not become widespread until the failure of the WTO to allow democratic par- been happening in the United States and around its goal of controlling and diverting the DAN late afternoon. Based on the videos and photo- ticipation in international trade discussions the world for a considerable time. What made protesters away from the Convention Center. graphs of the move up Pine Street, the protest- would now be tested against the hard-line strat- the “N30” protests remarkable was the shock The influx of reinforcements who abandoned ers appear to have decided to leave downtown egies advocated by federal security officials. that we, like Dorothy and Toto, were no longer the labor parade and joined the DAN protests and were followed, not “swept,” by police. The Mayor Paul Schell’s declaration of civil in Kansas. left the streets more firmly in control of the police decision to follow up the hill, firing tear emergency dramatically altered the police The World Trade Organization protests in protesters, despite the use of tear gas by police gas and rubber bullets, is inexplicable in terms strategy for suppressing the protests. As the Seattle marked a turning point in national and since around 10 a.m.. By approximately 3 p.m. of clearing downtown. Of all the police actions hard-liners inside and outside the Seattle Police international trade policy. The biggest outcome Tuesday, the battle was decided and the Direct during Tuesday, only the initial deployment of Department had wished, law enforcement of the protests was the resurgence of the Action Network had prevailed in their goal of tear gas at 6th and University and the pursuit up was now “prepared.” For the entire month of American Left’s influence on the international shutting down the conference. Capitol Hill suggest a breakdown in command. December, the wail went up from law enforce- trade issue. All in all, it was a stunning surprise After that time, the outcome was The police decision not to disengage continued ment “we weren’t prepared.” On Wednesday, to many of the parties involved: the Direct certain. The battle continued for several the disturbance late into the night. The clashes the police were prepared with more troops, Action Network coordinating the protests, the days, spreading into other areas of the city. By with police at the top of Capitol Hill were more gas, more barricades, a declaration of civil AFL-CIO’s new foray into grass-roots politics, Thursday, the World Trade Organization had simply echoes of the earlier police defeat in the emergency complete with a “no protest zone” the federal administration trying to steer a capitulated and the police ceased attacking day-long “Battle in Seattle.” enclosing downtown, a curfew, and the sus- new course in national and multinational civilians, thereby recognizing a conclusion pension of civil liberties. The AFL-CIO parade trade policies, the Seattle Police who found reached before darkness fell on Tuesday. was over and done with and the “day-trip” 17 46 blockade was still intact, immobilizing the projectiles, and accompanied in some instances police and preventing movement through the by vehicles. The police did not maintain close strategic triangle northeast of the AFL-CIO contact with the crowds and followed—not parade route and the downtown shopping drove—them into Capitol Hill. The turning district. As a result, most of the police action movement of the police—from a northern took place south and west of the Convention push to an eastern one—was not according to The Players Center. Starting from the south along Union the plan outlined by Assistant Chief Ed Joiner. and University Streets, the police moved north According to political researcher Daniel Junas, along Third to Seventh Avenue to sweep the the Direct Action Network overheard police demonstrators north into the route along which radio messages in which units in the East WTO Opponents the parade had retreated. Precinct on Capitol Hill frantically demanded The Direct Action Network (DAN) represented distinction between offensive and defensive. The police sweep northwards compressed that the police downtown cease pushing dem- an emerging species of political organization The overall strategic goal of the Direct Action the crowds into the east-west corridor running onstrators up the hill. The central command based on networks rather than institutions. The Network was to “shut down” the World Trade Or- along Pike and Pine Streets. Here, the police replied that they were pushing the crowds north primary networked organizations in the Direct ganization meeting in Seattle. The “shut down” again stalled against the large size of the crowds. (i.e., along the route of the AFL-CIO retreat from Action Network were a coalition of groups such was accomplished by a variety of independent The compression halted the police movement downtown), not east. as the Rainforest Action Network, Art & Revolu- but strategically congruent actions summing for several hours, as dumpsters which had been The loose contact between police and tion, and the Ruckus Society. Through the Direct up to a street blockade in the immediate vicinity pushed into the streets to block the center of demonstrators permitted the last act of serious Action Network, these groups coordinated non- of the WTO conference. Once the blockade intersections began to burn. These bonfires vandalism of the day. Police were not con- violent protest training, communications, and came into being, the emphasis would shift to slowly spread in an irregular way as the crowds trolling the intersection at Sixth Avenue and collective strategy and tactics through a de- defending the blockade for as long as possible in withdrew west, not north as the police wished, Stewart Street, near the Westin Hotel. Protest- centralized process of consultation/consensus the streets. In the spotlight of media attention and moved up into Capitol Hill in the early ers had built a bonfire in the center of the inter- decision-making. created by the blockade, DAN hoped to launch evening. section. At approximately 7:15 p.m., a group of The strategy and tactics of these new— a variety of informational operations emphasiz- The Mayor’s declaration of civil emergency vandals smashed the window of the Starbucks and primarily information-based—networks of ing the anti-democratic, neo-colonial, and anti- at 3:25 p.m. set in motion the reinforcements coffee shop. This was the same coffee shop from non-governmental organizations evolved from environmental tendencies of trans-national from the King County Sheriff’s Department, the which Washington State Patrol Chief Annette trends represented by the ad hoc mobilization trade agreements. Washington State Patrol, and local police de- Sandberg saw the Direct Action Network committees of the Viet Nam protest era, the The Direct Action Network’s goal was suf- partments from surrounding cities and towns. affinity groups at 5:30 a.m., as they moved into “alternative summits” at recent world environ- ficiently broad to join together two major WTO The arrival of the reinforcements in the streets position and seized the strategic intersections mental and human rights conferences, and the opponents. The DAN factions can be distin- occurred relatively slowly over the next three surrounding the WTO conference site. Events loose coalitions which formed in opposition guished by their varying focus on environmen- hours, impeded by the discord which dominated had come full circle. to U.S. policy during the Gulf War. Networks, tal or human rights issues. the relations between the Seattle Police and the As in the morning, the police presence as opposed to institutions, are shaped by de- The second major WTO opponent was King County Sheriff Dave Reichert. was not visible to the protesters, although the centralized command and control structures, American organized labor, the AFL-CIO. The By 5:30 p.m., the police lines—now evening response was quicker. Prosecutors are resistant to “decapitation” attacks targeting AFL-CIO represents a hierarchical institu- increased by the arrival of Sheriff’s deputies— alleged that Danny Babcock and an uniden- leaders, and are amorphous enough to weld tion which emphasizes unitary, top-down had reached the corner of Fourth and Pike. The tified accomplice took a USA Today vending together coalitions with significantly different command. There is little participation by rank protesters began withdrawing west along Pike machine and hurled it through a window of agendas while concentrating forces on a single and file in union decision-making, though and Pine Streets, towards Capitol Hill, followed the Starbucks store. “Defendant Babcock then symbolic target. ceremonial elections are sometimes held to by police firing tear gas and rubber and wooden kicked and pulled away the glass from the Conflicts involving networks blur the legitimize leadership decisions. Essentially na- 45 18 tionalist in outlook, the AFL-CIO policy goals ized nations. To a lesser extent, the WTO deliber- meeting until Thursday, by which time the The mayor immediately agreed and authorized are directed more at American politics and less ations would broaden the scope of existing trade street protests had ceased to disrupt the city [the emergency declaration],” said Joiner. “There at international issues. Simply stated, the AFL- agreements to include developing countries. and protest marches were being escorted by was never any hesitation.” The period between CIO’s strategic target was supporting and legiti- Prior to the Seattle conference, the WTO was police instead of being attacked by them. Even the mayor’s arrival at the MACC and issuing the mizing President Clinton’s actions at the con- dominated by the three major trading blocs: the so, the council meeting was canceled because proclamation of civil emergency was less than ference through purely symbolic displays by a western hemisphere block organized around of “security” concerns. The press reports are half an hour. At 3:24 p.m., the mayor issued the loyal opposition. the NAFTA treaties, the European Economic not clear, but suggest that the council never emergency declaration. As will be seen, Clinton indicated in an Community (EEC), and the Asian industrialized ratified the emergency ordinance before it was What the declaration of civil emergency interview on Tuesday afternoon that there was nations. The Seattle talks were the first which rescinded by the mayor. meant became a source of constant confusion strategic coordination between his administra- included developing countries. The complex Mayor Schell spent most of the day at the during the period it was in effect. The mayor tion and the AFL-CIO in regards to the parade tensions inside the WTO were reflected in its WTO conference site, waiting for the opening banned the possession of gas masks, but it and protests. In his remarks, President Clinton structure: on one side, the “green room” discus- ceremonies to begin. He did not arrive at the continues to be unclear what law was violated reinforced and repeated the false distinction sions dominated by the more powerful WTO Multi-Agency Command Center in the Public by their possession. The “no protest” zone between the AFL-CIO parade as “legitimate” members; on the other, and the general meeting Safety Building until about 3 p.m., two hours was open to some people and closed to others. and the DAN protests as “criminal dissent.” This where the entire body—including developing after the ceremonies had been canceled. Police took to enforcing an informal dress code, false distinction underscores the very reason for nations—would attempt to ratify the “green Beginning around 1 p.m., Governor Gary arresting people based on their appearance. In the protests in the first place: the exclusion of room” decisions. Locke had set in motion a series of unilateral one case, an arrest was made for possession of an dissenting opinion from trade policy decisions. The tensions surrounding this meeting actions including starting the call-up of the anti-WTO button. Conflicting statements were Overall, the advantage went to the Direct were considerably greater than previous. The National Guard and authorizing the movement made by police officials about what was or was Action Network, since their informational trade disagreements between the NAFTA of Washington State Patrol units from around not allowed in the downtown area. Protesters strategy effectively enclosed the coordinated nations (led by the U.S.), the EEC (led by France) the state to Seattle. He arrived at the MACC had signs taken away from them in areas outside strategy of the AFL-CIO and the federal govern- and the Asian nations (led by Japan) promised at 2:50 p.m., about ten minutes ahead of the the “no protest” zone, but were not arrested. ment. As will be seen, at the critical moment to be major stumbling blocks. At the same time, mayor. “Almost immediately upon arriving at Others were arrested both inside and outside the in the street actions, the balance shifted to the the failure of the WTO consensus process would the command center, there was no doubt in my zone. On Wednesday afternoon, the governor Direct Action Network as non-union protesters maintain and extend the dominance of the in- mind that we needed to call up the National made a statement on television that order had and a dissenting union members left the AFL- dustrialized nations over the newer members. Guard,” Locke said. been restored to downtown and invited people CIO parade and joined the street protests, effec- Even in the absence of protests outside the Upon Schell’s arrival, officials from the to come shopping, implying that the downtown tively sealing the success of the Direct Action meeting, the tensions inside made it very likely SPD, Secret Service, FBI, State Patrol, Depart- was open and the curfew was lifted. Wednesday Network’s day-long blockade. that the Seattle round of negotiations would ment of Justice, State Department, King County, night, residents of Capitol Hill were arrested on be off to a rocky start. All in all, the American the governor’s office, and the White House their doorsteps when they asked police what The World Trade Organization posture consisted of blocking agreements while moved into a back room and engaged in a heated was going on. The ACLU went to federal court and Allies giving the appearance of support. discussion. While the argument continued, U.S. and was turned down on the first of several legal On the other side of the conflict, the World Trade President Clinton’s strategy was concen- Attorney General Janet Reno called the governor challenges to the emergency ordinance. Organization and its allies composed a much trated around his appearance at the conference, and insisted that the National Guard be called more divided picture. The purpose of the WTO rather than the success of the conference itself. up. Battle Resumes conference was to produce a new framework If the talks failed to produce a new framework, After speaking with Reno, Locke met with By 3 p.m., the belated attempt by police to push for the next round of negotiations on interna- then the existing agreements (which heavily the mayor. Schell then spoke with Assistant the protesters away from the triangle of key in- tional trade. If successful, the “Seattle round” favored the shared interests of industrialized Police Chiefs Joiner and Pirak. “By that time, we tersections surrounding the Convention Center would resolve some of the disputes between countries) would continue to provide the basis had a chance to look at what was happening. was in full motion. The Direct Action Network 19 44 police tactical team would break through the area looked like the three blocks in which the for international negotiations. In terms of ability organization which reported separate- crowd and violently assault the Black Bloc.” vandalism occurred. the protests, the federal strategy and national ly to the Chief and the City Council through This same source was very clear that the Later, news reports echoed police claims prestige hinged simply on getting Clinton into two separate boards. The road to community “Anarchists from Eugene” were only one faction that the tear gas and subsequent disorder the conference. policing had been rough and rocky, particular- among the Black Blocs: “While I know they were followed, rather than preceded, the Black Bloc Next on the list of WTO allies is the City ly in light of the resistance from rank and file there, the black bloc had a few hundred people attack. The “Anarchists from Eugene” became a of Seattle and Mayor Paul Schell. The City of cops. These frictions heightened the tensions in it. I know there were people there from all convenient, if totally misleading, media hook Seattle, as host of the conference and lead ju- surrounding the contract negotiations between over the country. The Eugene people have just on which to hang the distinction between the risdiction, was the center of responsibility for the City and the police union. been very open about violent demo tactics. “peaceful parade” and the “violent protests.” In containing the demonstrations. Aside from The total size of the Seattle Police Depart- The 60 Minutes episode really does disfavor to fact, the media’s distinction between the two this hospitality, Schell’s political concerns ment was roughly 1,800 officers, of whom about revolutionary anarchism, in that it portrays all hinged entirely on whom the police attacked, were complex. First of all, the primary reason 850 were available for street duty throughout anarchists through the eyes and mouths of the not who attacked the police. for Seattle hosting the WTO conference was to the city. Of these, 400 were assigned to the WTO primitivists—who in my mind make up a small promote regional trade interests: principally demonstrations. Seattle had about the same ratio minority of anarchist activists. The primitivists Declaration of Emergency timber and forest products, wheat, and a variety of police to population as Chicago, but Seattle’s put anti-technology and environmentalism at Before noon, security officials had been- re of high tech industries, of which Microsoft smaller size limited in the number of officers the forefront of their politics, and downplay, in questing the mayor issue a declaration of civil and Boeing were the best known examples. it could field against the protesters—unless, of my opinion, the real social and class struggle emergency. Seattle’s civil emergency ordinance, Secondly, Schell was a liberal Democrat and had course, the SPD entered into some sort of joint that has to take place.” officially titled Seattle Municipal Code 10.02, strong ties to the Democratic Party and its main WTO operation with other police agencies in Much has been made of the connection dates from 1973, when it was passed in response source of financial support, the AFL-CIO. Third the region. By Wednesday, the second day of between the Black Bloc and Eugene, Oregon. Of to Viet Nam war protests. After the Gulf War and last, Schell was deeply beholden to the pro- the protests, more than 500 state and regional the eleven people charged with felony crimes in protests in 1992, some sections were revised. It gressive Democrats and environmentalists who police, plus some 200 National Guard would be connection with the protests, only one is from is a sweepingly broad ordinance, which author- were a key political constituency in Seattle, deployed. Eugene. Five are from Seattle, one from Olympia, izes “extraordinary measures,” including decla- though mostly excluded from the Democratic The largest two outside police forces Washington, one from Portland, Oregon, one ration of curfew, commandeering of property, Party by the labor interests. Schell’s attempts to available to Seattle were the King County from Maryland, and two places of residence are closure of businesses, prohibition of alcoholic satisfy all of these interests were so riddled with Sheriff’s department and the Washington not reported. All of the five people charged with beverages, bans on the carrying or posses- contradictions that he became unable to control State Patrol. Sheriff Dave Reichert was a con- looting are from Seattle. sion of firearms, and “any other measures” the events and was ultimately left to twist slowly in servative Republican and political foe of Mayor The vandalism and looting occurred in mayor deems necessary. Under the ordinance, the wind, abandoned by nearly everyone. Schell. This reflected the long-standing division the area evacuated by police to create a buffer the mayor may issue orders “requesting federal The direct point of contact between the between Seattle and the King County govern- zone between the Direct Action Network pro- and/or state assistance in combating such civil Direct Action Network and the WTO was the ment. The suburban fringe surrounding Seattle testers and the AFL-CIO parade. The center of emergency” and “closing to the public any or Seattle Police Department (SPD). Under the was the traditional political battleground in the vandalized area coincides with the turning all public places including streets, alleys, public leadership of Chief Norm Stamper, the SPD which statewide elections were fought. The point of the parade, the corner of 5th and Pike. ways, schools, parks, beaches, amusement areas, had become a national laboratory for a progres- outlying areas went to the Republicans and the As the parade entered downtown, the protest- and public buildings.” sive philosophy of law enforcement known as heavily urbanized areas went to the Democrats. ers who left the march for the street protest The power of declaring a civil emergency “community policing.” Recently, the relations The suburbs swung back and forth between the were immediately confronted by the results of rests entirely with the mayor. The City Council between the police and Mayor Schell’s adminis- two. The State Patrol chief was responsible to anarchist property destruction. This led some is directed to meet at the “earliest practicable tration had not been good. One of the outcomes Gov. Gary Locke, a nominal Democrat who rose of the participants in the parade who joined the time” for “ratification and confirmation, modi- of Chief Stamper’s community policing initia- to the governorship through the King County protests downtown to assume that the entire fication, or rejection.” The council avoided tive had been the formation of a police account Council. The governor also controlled the 43 20 National Guard, although these forces couldn’t control of the informational conflict in which of the Black Bloc only at the beginning and end. which dominates the picture, are “tagging” sig- be committed without the declaration of a state the media was both the battleground and the The majority of the vandalism occurred around natures, the incomprehensible glyphs common of emergency by the governor and the request of prize. 4th and Pike, a corner that the Black Bloc throughout urban areas. The other photo shows the mayor. Neither the King County police nor The first of these groups were the so- avoided while being videotaped by KIRO TV. It two teenagers and the right foot of a third, as the State Patrol were supporters of community called “Anarchists from Eugene,” more correctly is possible that the TV news crews missed the one breaks off the “T” in the Nike Town sign. policing policies, which meant that outside as- known as the “Black Blocs.” The total number early stages of the vandalism and erroneously None of the teenagers are masked and all three sistance would entail Chief Stamper presiding of Black Bloc participants numbered between reported the vandalism as beginning later than wear light-colored clothing. over a joint command divided by fundamental one and two hundred people. The appearance of was actually the case. The discrepancy between The Black Bloc engaged in property de- policy differences. Black Blocs at protests is a relatively recent phe- reports is partly due to the chaos which gripped struction numbered no more than thirty to forty Mayor Schell decided that he and Chief nomenon. The purpose of Black Blocs is to show the downtown, but is also due to the fact that people, all dressed similarly in black and hooded Stamper would deal with the demonstrations a visible presence of the more radical anarchist large numbers of teenagers who were not part or masked to prevent their identification. They without the direct support of other law en- factions. A Black Bloc consists of protesters who of the Black Bloc took advantage of the situation moved at a brisk pace, occasionally stopping in forcement agencies. Most critics have claimed wear black, carry anarchist flags and banners, and likewise engaged in vandalism. small groups to break windows or spray-paint that this decision was the reason the protests and take a more confrontational approach to It was this second group, estimated to anarchist and anti-corporate slogans. Early in succeeded. There are strong reasons to believe protest. number at least one hundred or more, who the raid, they twice attacked KIRO TV news that this is not so. The Tuesday protests would In an interview in Active Transformation, an engaged in looting some of the broken store crews, spraying the camera lenses with paint have succeeded in attaining their goals (though anarchist journal, one participant in the Seattle windows, as well as occupying the awning to stop the crews from taking pictures. After in a less spectacular fashion) even if the police Black Blocs explained it this way: “…Anarchists over the Nike store. In addition to the damage these attacks, news crews withdrew half a block presence had included the outside agencies. were not isolated in the black bloc. There were to commercial property, police cars and limou- to avoid further attacks. The Black Bloc main- One of the considerations which weighed anarchists involved in every possible way. There sines were vandalized with spray paint and by tained cohesion and moved along their route against the employment of outside police were anarchist labor activists, puppeteers, having their tires slashed. in a determined manner, several times scuffling on Tuesday was the strong possibility that non-violent lockdown blockaders, marching Jeff Boscole, an eyewitness who was on with the non-violent protesters from the Direct they would attack the union parade and city musicians, medics, communication people, Sixth Avenue, described how the two groups Action Network. A handful of plainclothes residents. The deployment of outside police media people, whatever—as well as a group of could be distinguished by their dress and the police and FBI shadowed the group, reporting reinforcements was delayed long enough to about two hundred in black masks who had different slogans which they spray-painted on their movements. Police made no effort to halt protect the union parade. But the police attacks prepared, also in affinity groups, to do as much buildings and windows. According to Boscole, the vandalism, but in several instances Direct on city residents occurred on Capitol Hill, on symbolic physical damage to multi-national the Black Bloc graffiti consisted of legible Action Network protesters stopped or interfered Tuesday and Wednesday night. This was an capitalism as possible. I have seen black blocs political slogans, while the “wilding teenagers” with members of the Black Bloc, while others area in which Schell’s political support was used in protests in the U.S. a lot but never so suc- were “tagging” with illegible individualized chanted “no violence” to little avail. strongest and also where many of the protesters cessfully. It is important to note that the black symbols which were not slogans. One anarchist described the action in the were staying while in Seattle. bloc was not the result of some conspiracy. It Three of the “wilding teenagers” are following terms: “When the large-scale window too happened quite spontaneously, with people clearly shown in two photographs published in breaking began it was quite awe-inspiring. All Wild Cards who came from all over the country—with the December 1 Seattle Times. One picture shows of a sudden people we were walking with pulled Two more players deserve examination, es- similar desires.” a lone teenager, standing on a deserted sidewalk out all sorts of tools: nail pullers, hammers, pecially since one ended up dominating the The media’s tag-line of “Anarchists from and reaching through a broken window. Under crowbars. They then proceeded to very quickly national media coverage. Neither of these two Eugene” was one of those lazy half-truths which one arm, he is holding a skateboard. The knock windows out of every bank, upper class, groups was numerous nor strategically signifi- sums up to a conscious lie. The half-truth was windows and front of the store are defaced with or multi-national clothing store. I even saw cant in terms of the overall outcome of the WTO that people from Eugene participated in the graffiti, some of which are anarchist slogans a woman smashing an ATM machine with a protests. However, both ended up effectively in Black Blocs. The other unreported half of the and others, particularly the one center-left sledge hammer. I was afraid at any moment a 21 42 truth was that people from Seattle and the sought to disrupt the chain of command and surrounding region committed much of the force the initial confrontation with demonstra- vandalism and nearly all of the looting. These tors into chaos. To put it bluntly, these officers people were not part of the Black Blocs, nor were comprised the faction within the police depart- the black bloc : Declaration of emergency their actions politically inspired. The lie was ment that had been most threatened by Chief battle resumes : after that the Black Bloc faction engaged in property Stamper’s reforms—the criminal element. destruction—which numbered perhaps 40 “Organized crime is the continuation of busi- people at most—caused the police violence in ness by criminal means,” says Dr. Phil Williams, the streets. The violence began hours before the international expert on organized crime. And window-breaking spree. criminal business, just like legitimate business, The Black Bloc closely monitored by the police and FBI since When literature captures a concise image requires the active support and participation of While the police were regrouping and preparing the preceding day. Early Tuesday morning, the which accurately portrays a larger whole, it is law enforcement. to force the Direct Action Network protesters to FBI had briefed Seattle Police on the Black Bloc’s known as an archetype. When that process fails In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Seattle join the AFL-CIO parade, several groups took whereabouts and activities. The close observa- and the dominant image obscures the truth, it went through a series of scandals involving advantage of the lull in the battle. They’ve all tion of the Black Bloc included undercover FBI is stereotyping. In the middle of December, the organized crime and police corruption. The been lumped together into a nameless anarchist agents dressed to blend in with the anarchists, Seattle Weekly and KPLU Radio sponsored a panel popular view of organized crime as an “under- horde, but the fact remains there were two right down to wearing masks to hide their faces. on media coverage of the WTO. The consensus world” operation, totally divorced from everyday distinct groups acting out different agendas, Also present in the streets were members of emerged that both local and national media had business and politics was seriously challenged not one “organized” anarchist conspiracy as the the Army’s Delta Force, a paramilitary counter- succumbed to “lazy media shorthand” and failed by the work of William J. Chamblis, a sociolo- myth would have it. terrorist group, also dressed to blend in with the to report the overall story in either a balanced gist at the University of Washington. Chamblis’ At approximately 1 p.m., the police tempo- protesters. or accurate way. The message which still hasn’t study of organized crime in Seattle, On the Take: rarily stopped trying to push corridors through According to KIRO TV, The Black Bloc penetrated the media is that the Black Blocs ac- From Petty Crooks to Presidents, showed that “crime the protest area. The “Black Bloc” anarchists rampage started on 6th Avenue between Pine complished an international coup of “culture is not a by-product of an otherwise effectively had entered into an understanding with the Street and Olive Way. Vandals smashed the jamming” by selectively targeting a handful working political economy, it a main product Direct Action Network that they would refrain windows of a Starbucks coffee shop in the of retailers and banks for broken windows. In of that economy. Crime is in fact a cornerstone from vandalism at least as long as the protests middle of the block, then moved north towards committing this vandalism, they conformed to on which the political and economic relations remained peaceful. This is another way of Olive Way. Turning west on Olive Way, they pre-established media stereotypes of “violent of societies are constructed.” Rather than a “few saying that they were loosely following the lead attacked the SeaFirst bank, then turned south anarchists” and effectively hijacked several bad apples,” corruption is the normal state of the DAN organizers. How loosely is shown by on 5th Avenue. Two or three stores along this weeks of coverage in a manner that served their of affairs. Chamblis’ work and other research the fact the Black Bloc arrived downtown armed block were vandalized. Emerging onto Pine propaganda goals admirably. shows that “organized crime really consists with hammers, crowbars, spray paint, M-80 Street, the Black Bloc turned again, moving west The primary target of the Black Blocs was of a coalition of politicians, law-enforcement firecrackers, and paint bombs. Their goal was a and attacking three or four more stores in the neither the WTO nor the businesses whose people, businessmen, union leaders and (in “propaganda of the deed” centering around van- next two blocks. Reaching Third Avenue, the windows were broken. The Black Blocs were in some ways least important of all) racketeers.” dalizing chosen stores—Nike, Starbucks, the Black Bloc turned south and dispersed. Seattle to radicalize the WTO opponents. And Seattle’s police history has been as color- Gap, Old Navy and others—which they saw as The Seattle Times reported that the that is precisely what they did—with the sig- fully sordid as any other American city’s. fitting targets. vandalism centered mainly along Pike Street, nificant assistance of the media and second wild The criminal economy of drugs, prostitu- The Black Bloc were simply biding their between Third and Sixth Avenue. A map card group. tion, gambling, and the financial apparatus time and waiting for an opportunity to vandalize showing the location of vandalized and looted The other wild card group was that which such large-scale businesses require is these stores and then get away. They had been stores published in the Times overlaps the route segment of the Seattle Police Department which no different in Seattle than elsewhere. From 41 22 Seattle’s beginnings around the “Skid Road” If the mayor and police chief could be maneu- own hands” to obtain new supplies of gas and at the Denny sawmill to the current flap over vered into declaring a civil emergency, then pepper spray. Later reports suggest that the “police misconduct,” police morale has been the regional, state and federal agencies would new supplies were part of Joiner’s “messy” post- a reliable indicator of the level of corruption. be able to enter the conflict and the hard-liners parade attack plans. Recently, morale had been low, which meant strategy would prevail for a while. Things quieted down while the police that the crooked cops were on the defensive. organized new supplies of gas and pepper spray. The focus of the criminal element’s displeasure Officers sped to Auburn, Renton, and Tukwila had been Chief Stamper and his Senior Leader- police departments, as well as the King County ship Team—or, as the department’s rank and Jail and Department of Corrections, emptying file pronounced it, the “sluts.” The criminal munitions stores and ferrying the supplies back element among the Seattle Police Department to downtown. Other officers bought additional had only one goal: embarrass Mayor Schell and chemical agents from a local law enforcement Chief Stamper. supply business. Meanwhile, a police captain The initial approach by the opponents flew to Casper, Wyoming to pick up a large of police accountability was the circulation quantity of gas, “stinger shells,” and other para- of mutinous talk regarding the “softness” of phernalia from Defense Technology Corp., a sub- the official strategy for dealing with the dem- sidiary of Armor Holdings. The locally-obtained onstrators. During an October crowd control gas and pepper spray were driven as close to the training session, Assistant Chief Ed Joiner street action as possible. The munitions were answered questions about protester violence transferred into gym bags and knapsacks which by saying that there was nothing to worry were then run through the streets by plain- about and the protests would be non-violent. clothes detectives. SPD Officer Brett Smith and others claim the Other preparations did not go as well as FBI and Secret Service had briefed King County the deliveries of tear gas and pepper spray. The Sheriff’s officers to “fully anticipate that five to declaration of civil emergency was delayed until six officers would be lost during the protests, 3:24 p.m., preventing police reinforcements either seriously injured or killed,” as Smith told from other law enforcement agencies and the the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Dan Raley. National Guard from being legally deployed When Officer Smith and others spoke with until long after the AFL-CIO march had their commander about the stories coming withdrawn. Assistant Chief Ed Joiner’s “messy” from the King County police, they were told not plan was also thwarted by the flat refusal of the to spread rumors. It appears likely that state- Seattle Fire Department to turn fire hoses on ments predicting violent attacks were part of demonstrators, a detail which was not reported the Sheriff’s training and it is certain that the in the press until long after the protests were predictions were hysterical and provocative. over. The success in undermining Chief Stamper’s command depended on the breakdown of law and order in the streets. Whose law and what order was the question. 40 a perimeter connecting the hotels, the Conven- up the National Guard. An hour earlier, State tion Center and the Paramount Theatre were Patrol Chief Annette Sandberg had ordered blocked all day by the size of the protest. The State Patrol troopers in Eastern Washington on police command retained strategic cohesion, higher alert and dispatched a 22-member Civil despite the discord at the top and the chaos in Disturbance Team from Spokane to drive the the streets. Tactical orders from the command 400 miles to Seattle. Traveling at top speed, they downtown seattle continued to be executed by the officers in the would not arrive before dark. front line—they charged when ordered and Shortly after Locke set the National Guard Capitol Hill reformed after each charge. Much attention in motion, his office in Olympia received a has been given to excessive violence by officers, telephone call from a furious Secretary of State including repeated attacks on reporters. These Madeline Albright. Albright demanded the incidents were relatively commonplace, but Governor immediately take action to release did not involve loss of control by the upper her from her hotel where she was trapped by command. Seattle political researcher Dan Junas the demonstrators. The Governor would later

cites the police ability to regulate the tempo of get strong pressure from Attorney General Janet st y pine wa the street battles as strong evidence that the Reno to crack down on the protests. ve oli P political leadership remained in control. “As the Governor Locke was able to claim that labor marchers approached, the police got off he was taking action—preparing to call up the H the gas,” said Junas. National Guard, moving State Patrol troops over W From about noon on, the Multi-Agency long distances, and pressuring Mayor Schell Command Center in the Public Safety Building to declare a civil emergency—but all of these H began filling with top-ranking officials from things would take time. What he did not do was pi k e place st government and law enforcement. Federal accept full responsibility and declare a state of e k pi officials were speaking loudly about the conse- emergency. That was reserved for Mayor Schell. mar k st et nion quences of not regaining control of the streets. Locke’s staff counsel, Everett Billingslea, began u State Patrol Chief Annette Sandberg described compiling a chronology of the Governor’s the federal officials as in a “kind of panicky actions for the now-inevitable inquest. mode.” SPD Assistant Chief Joiner prepared more The decision—never seriously questioned immediate action. The police attacks on the pro- by those in charge—to guarantee the AFL-CIO testers reached a peak shortly before the parade parade took place had several requirements departed from the Seattle Center. According to attached to it. First of all, the declaration of civil police sources, nearly all of the available tear emergency was already in motion. There wasn’t gas was expended before the parade approached PARADE ROUTE W WESTLAKE really a question of whether it was going to downtown. In the preparations for the protest, CENTER happen, but only if the crackdown would catch Mayor Schell and Chief Stamper had laid in BLOCKADES the AFL-CIO parade before it withdrew from stocks of about $20,000 worth of gas. This was P PARAMOUNT downtown. one-fifth the amount recommended by federal VANDALISM THEATRE At 12:45 p.m., Governor Gary Locke au- officials. According to the Seattle Post-Intelli- thorized his chief of staff to begin preparing to gencer, police officers “took matters into their CONVENTION H HOTELS 39 N CENTER 24 Center—due to both political and logistical carried several blocks beyond the parade’s pivot reasons. If the police tried and failed to prevent at 5th and Pike. Gaard and her friends found the march, things would clearly take a turn for themselves at 6th and Pike, one of the most the worse. Third, if the parade was canceled, fiercely contested intersections of the battle, but the AFL-CIO would be denied any credit for the temporarily an island of relative calm due to the terrain of the battlefield outcome of the protests. Finally, whoever was absence of police. Behind them, the labor parade going to be gassed or pepper-sprayed in Seattle, moved away from downtown and back towards it wasn’t going to be the labor leaders. the Seattle Center, unmolested by police. Greta Gaard had ridden to the rally on a Though Gaard didn’t know it, the unsuc- labor bus from Bellingham, one hundred miles cessful police push was timed to herd people The geography of the WTO conference site northeast/southwest through the downtown. to the north of Seattle. She reports in Belling- into the parade. However, as had been the case played a central role in determining the success The Market is built on a steep bluff which ham’s Every Other Weekly that the “rainbow all day, the size of the crowds blocked movement of the protests. The accompanying illustra- formed Seattle’s original shoreline. The bluff flag” (non-union) participants at the rally and the police ceased advancing when the now- tions show the field of battle and its significant forms a geographic barrier which stops all decided around noon that they were going expanded and enlarged crowd could not fall back features. movement towards the waterfront. Capitol to leave the stadium and march downtown. any further. As shown by Gaard’s relatively easy First and most importantly, the Washing- Hill is a dense residential neighborhood—the The word of the street battles had reached the progress to within a block of the Convention ton Trade and Convention Center is located on densest in the city. Broadway, the main street stadium only minutes after the first gas was Center, the reinforcements strengthened the the edge of downtown. It is built over the I-5 which forms the backbone of the Capitol Hill released at 10 a.m.. It took an hour before the moving blockade ringing the WTO conference. freeway and is accessible from only two sides. commercial district, runs north/south along the crowd was lined up in the streets, chanting “We The AFL-CIO parade delivered crucial As a site for a blockade, it is perfect. The area is crest. There is a steep change in elevation along want to march!” The walk towards downtown reinforcements to the protesters instead of triangular, with the freeway side inaccessible. Seattle’s east-west axis running from the crest of was oddly quiet. “There were no police, media, sweeping them out of downtown. As marchers The Direct Action Network blockaded the area Capital hill to the waterfront. or crowd-watchers in sight,” wrote Gaard. “Then left the parade, this completely crushed any along the north and west streets. The blockade The area immediately to the north of the answer hit me: we weren’t a threat.” police fantasies that the demonstrators would was several blocks deep and concentrated on a the convention center is predominantly open A sheet-metal union member, Mike abandon the downtown and return control of dozen intersections. parking lots and small buildings, compared to Ottoloino, got into a confrontation with the the streets to the police. Secondly, the sites of two major skirmish- the more densely built-up downtown. To the AFL-CIO marshals, saying, “This isn’t a march, es which dominated media attention, Capitol west, the long blocks of the downtown avenues this is a parade!” Pause to Regroup Hill and the Pike Place Market, had nothing to (7th, 6th, 5th, ending in 1st Ave) form a barrier As the parade arrived at 5th Avenue and The police plan to reorganize for an attempt to do with conducting the conference or moving which channels movement into a few streets Pike Street, AFL-CIO marshals began blocking force the Direct Action Network protesters out delegates between the Convention Center, the (Pike, Pine, Union, and University). Blockades progress towards the convention center, saying of the downtown area and into the AFL-CIO Paramount Theatre or the downtown hotels. on these streets effectively shut off the area. The “The route has been changed. Circle around parade set in motion several different actions Likewise, the area in which the Black Bloc east and south sides of the Convention Center here.” Police were massing several blocks away, which had a dramatic effect on perceptions of vandalism occurred is outside the blockade area are cut off by the freeway. but were not visible to the people arriving from the Battle in Seattle. In order to understand how and not part of the streets directly connecting To maintain effective control of the area, the Seattle Center. Gaard and several thousand these actions converged it is necessary to step the Convention Center with the Westin Hotel the police would have needed a perimeter others turned away from the march, just in time back in time to around noon, when Assistant or the Paramount Theatre. roughly on the order of Thursday’s “no protest to run into the renewed police push to move Chief Joiner was turning down requests to Capitol Hill and the Pike Place Market zone.” Given the decision to rely on the Seattle people away from the convention center. The declare a civil emergency and cancel the AFL- form two poles along the major axis of crowd Police alone, this lengthy perimeter was impossi- momentum of the thousands leaving the march CIO parade. mobility, the named streets which run ble to control with 400 officers. The additional and moving towards the Convention Center The repeated attempts by police to 25 38 able guess that much of the mayor and chief’s strategy, he said, was for the peaceful march to resources of county, state, and federal forces time between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. was devoted to sweep the other demonstrators into its ranks would have been hard pressed to maintain negotiations with the labor leaders. and deposit them several blocks away. such a perimeter in the face of the approxi- The final decision was to allow the AFL-CIO The march was supposed to wheel away mately 40,000 protesters, demonstrators, and parade from the Seattle Center to downtown. from the Washington State Convention and parade participants present on Tuesday. On This sealed the fate of the street actions as a Trade Center at Fourth Avenue and Pine Street Wednesday, these additional police forces were victory for the Direct Action Network. If the [several blocks from the Convention Center] available and the number of protesters was ap- march had been canceled and the additional and turn north and west toward a “dispersal proximately halved. Even with this sizable shift protesters had been prevented from joining in point” near Republican Avenue [back near the in the numbers on opposing sides, the police the chaos downtown, the city stood a better Memorial Stadium]. The police intended to were unable to control downtown effectively. chance of restoring order. Instead, the strategy of move in behind the demonstrators and expand Amidst all the criticism—mostly coming using the AFL-CIO to contain and neutralize the the perimeter around the hotels and conven- from law enforcement agencies which failed Direct Action Network protests was drastically tion center. even more disastrously than the Seattle Police modified. The city’s capitulation to the protests Instead, thousands of the demonstrators Department in maintaining order—about the was underscored at 1 p.m. by the announce- turned into town and chaos ensued. police’s “lack of preparedness” for the demon- ment from the WTO that it was canceling the “I still believe we could have controlled strations, the larger perimeter, increased security opening ceremonies. what we were dealing with at that time had the troops, and suspension of civil liberties which The decision by Mayor Schell and Chief march turned,” Joiner said. “It was not going to accompanied the mayor’s declaration of civil Stamper to allow the march was so bizarre that be clean. It would have been messy. But I think emergency failed miserably in the face of much it is worth quoting the December 16 story by we would have been able to open a corridor to smaller numbers of protesters on Wednesday. Seattle Times reporters Mike Carter and David get delegates in and out.” The geography of Seattle’s downtown Postman: In other words, the Direct Action Network favors protesters. In the last decade, two major About 11 a.m., SPD Assistant Chief protesters were expected to abandon the streets civil disturbances—accompanying first the Pirak—watching events unfold from the city’s and leave downtown when they saw their re- Gulf War protests and the “Rodney King” riots— emergency operation center—called Joiner at inforcements arrive. Assistant Chief Joiner’s followed much the same path over the same the MACC [Multi-Agency Command Center] explanation is simply not credible, as the streets, as did the numerous protests during the and “asked whether we wanted to ask the mayor WTO ceremonies had been canceled before the Vietnam War. Given sufficient numbers and if we wanted to declare a state of emergency,” parade began. Whatever the level of chaos and even the most hare-brained strategy, protest- Joiner said. unreality at the command center, it is unlikely ers have the ability to dominate the streets of Despite the fact “we were getting hit with that anyone thought a column of twenty Seattle. much larger numbers of protesters than we had thousand people would march downtown and anticipated,” Joiner refused. then “sweep the other demonstrators into its Instead, he opted to let the AFL-CIO march ranks.” proceed, a move that aimed as many as 20,000 Several factors affected the decision to more people toward downtown as skirmishes allow the AFL-CIO parade to proceed. First of between police, demonstrators and anarchist all, the police were running short of tear gas vandals were escalating. and needed time to obtain new supplies and Joiner believed the march would actually deliver them downtown. Second, they were work in favor of his stretched police lines. The not prepared to arrest marchers at the Seattle 37 26 Society’s WTO action coordinator, his organiza- Meanwhile, back at the police command center, tion and other protest groups that formed the Assistant Chief Ed Joiner was turning down Direct Action Network used the Nextel system demands from his field commanders to declare to create a cellular grid over the city. They broke a state of civil emergency which would cancel into talk groups of eight people each. One of the parade. Strategies the eight overlapped with another talk group, Joiner said he overruled a recommendation helping to quickly communicate through the by Assistant Chief John Pirak to declare a state ranks. of emergency Tuesday about 11 a.m. The veto, In addition to the organizers’ all-points Joiner said, was made in consideration of plans network, protest communications were for the AFL-CIO march towards downtown. “I None of the strategies employed by the three controlled movement in the protest target, leavened with individual protesters using cell felt declaring a state of emergency at that time, major players in Tuesday’s conflict was -par and hang on until reinforcements arrived. The phones, direct transmissions from roving in- before the march ever got under way, was going ticularly hare-brained, but the most unrealistic second wave comprised protesters who had dependent media feeding directly onto the to send a very strong public message that we belonged to the AFL-CIO, at least in the sense opted for non-violent demonstration and not internet, personal computers with wireless already had major difficulties as a city,” Joiner of the battle for control of the streets. The AFL- being arrested. Their task was to protect the modems broadcasting live video, and a variety said. CIO strategy was to hold a rally at the Seattle first wave from police violence and plug up the of other networked communications. Floating Joiner’s statement underscores the wide- Center and then march downtown—but not streets by sheer numbers and passive resistance. above the tear gas was a pulsing infosphere of spread fantasy on the part of city officials that too far. Central to the AFL-CIO strategy was the The third wave was a march by the People’s enormous bandwidth, reaching around the the uproar which followed the 10 a.m. deploy- notion that if they could contain the majority Assembly, composed mostly of environmental planet via the internet. ment of tear gas was somehow a secret which of the demonstrators and keep them out of and human rights groups who elected to par- they could keep. This air of unreality was dem- the downtown area, when Clinton announced ticipated in the street protests instead of the Labor’s U-turn onstrated by Seattle’s KOMO TV, which tried to his pro-labor and protectionist policies, the labor parade. This group entered downtown By 11 a.m., the rally at Memorial Stadium had implement a censorship policy by not covering AFL-CIO would be able to claim credit. All the from the south at about 1 p.m. and marched been under way for an hour. Roughly 20,000 the news as it unfolded in the streets. KOMO AFL-CIO had to do was prevent any effective to the Paramount Theatre inside the protest people half-filled the stadium. The union has received richly deserved ridicule for their protests by groups not under their control and zone. The first and second waves were loosely numbers were swelled by the anti-WTO organi- censorship of “illegal demonstrations,” but the allow the media to spin the tale of how labor organized into a dozen simultaneously con- zations that had accepted the labor invitation to attitude was not theirs alone. Anyone with an caused a “sudden change” in national policy. verging affinity groups, swarming the protest protest the WTO. These groups were a mixture internet connection could plug into live video The AFL-CIO proved to be unequal to the task target from all directions. Each affinity group of environmental, social justice, and human and audio feeds from the street battles from of rounding up all the protesters and keeping blockaded a specific intersection. The blockade rights groups. Over the next two hours, the the alternative media. The commercial media them muzzled. would be maintained as long as possible until joint planning by the labor leaders and police struggled to keep up, but was continuously The Direct Action Network planned more police had arrested sufficient demonstrators to to break the DAN blockade would irretrievably hampered by their inability to understand what effectively, and in the end more realistically, regain control of the streets. split the brief alliance between labor and the was going on. Editorial attempts to reframe the with a “People’s Convergence” consisting of The Direct Action Network’s strategy is a progressive left. protests as illegitimate and marginal confused three waves of blockaders enclosing the WTO classic example of “netwar” conflict. Netwar is The disorder spreading through the streets the issue further. conference site. The first wave consisted of a concept introduced in the early 1990s by two downtown was instantly communicated to the The whereabouts and activities of Mayor “affinity groups” who had opted for non-violent researchers at the RAND corporation, a govern- crowd at the rally through cell phones, radios, Schell and Chief Stamper during this period civil disobedience and arrest. Their job was to ment-funded think tank which began under the and the rest of the infosphere. Behind the scenes, remain somewhat mysterious. Given the intense penetrate the area close to the conference site, auspices of the U.S. Air Force. In a now-seminal furious activity was taking place to prevent the concern centering on the AFL-CIO parade on the seize the dozen strategic intersections which paper titled “Cyberwar is Coming!”, RAND parade from being canceled by city authorities. part of law enforcement officials, it is a reason 27 36 confrontational are equally untrue. The more who saw their main mission as the protection of analysts David Ronfeldt and John Arquilla like organisms than machines. They approach aggressive demonstrators had moved towards these groups. The crowds were now frightened proposed a new framework for viewing conflict stealthily and from many directions in offense. the police positions and videotapes clearly and angry, but determined to maintain control in the information age. The essence of netwar In defense, they can react like anti-bodies moving show that there was no buffer space between of the streets. is the emerging forms of conflict in which one towards points of attack. Netwar’s line between the opposing sides in many areas. One segment The overall strategic situation remained or more of the major participants consist of offense and defense can be blurred, leaving aired on KIRO TV shows members of the Black unchanged, despite the tactical chaos. The networks, rather than institutions. The central opponents unclear about what is occurring and Bloc confronting police and being extremely protesters numbers were sufficient to keep the feature of informational conflicts is the struggle how to respond. Throughout the protests, the provocative, but not attacking anyone or com- blockade intact, though it was now a blockade for understanding and knowledge, as opposed Direct Action Network were able to offensively mitting vandalism. The police view of the of continuous movement. The police remained to more traditional conflicts which focus on swarm their opponents repeatedly, as shown by crowd was framed by these more aggressive isolated inside the protest area without an open controlling territories or resources. the seizure of key intersections on Tuesday and demonstrators, while the vast majority of the avenue to the outside through which arrestees Netwar is inherently less violent than other the easy penetration of the “no-protest” zone on crowd was unable to see the police and was in a could be removed. Both sides remained under forms of conflict, particularly when it involves Wednesday. The anti-body defense was shown giddy, triumphant mood. the overall command of their respective strat- non-governmental organizations dedicated to when crowds moved towards police attacks After the first canisters were fired, the egies, regardless of the excitement. The area human rights and peace causes. One of the first or mass arrests. The swarming action was also use of tear gas and pepper spray spread rapidly involved in the disorder—as it clearly was after full-blown manifestations of netwar was the apparent when numerous groups within the throughout the protest area. an hour of tear gas and chaos—spread down Zapatista conflict in Chiapas. The networked in- AFL-CIO rally and parade successfully resisted With the release of the gas, mood in the Pike and Pine Streets. The protests remained tervention of international groups placed very efforts by the union leadership to keep them streets rapidly changed. The police were suc- centered on the Convention Center. Although real limits on the use of violence by the Mexican from supporting the DAN blockade of the WTO cessful in advancing against the crowd. There the crowds expanded into the surrounding government in suppressing the insurrection. convention site. were no instances where police charges were blocks under the police attacks, they kept In the case of the Direct Action Network, The network form of organization is repulsed, or where the crowds counter-attacked surging back to protect the “lock-down” affinity the central prize consisted of the understanding particularly robust and resilient in the face of and cut off police. One major effort to re-open groups holding the key intersections. that the WTO multi-lateral trade agreements are adversity. The decentralized command and the street connecting the Paramount Theatre to The cohesion of the Direct Action Network intensely corrosive to democracy, at least that control structure allows rapid shifts of strategic the hotels moved the crowds back until running was partly due to their improvised communi- form of democracy which entails a knowledge- targeting. It is highly resistant to “decapitation” out of steam. In short, the police tactics were of cations network assembled out of cell phones, able public participating in policy formation in (attacks which target leadership) and the dis- limited success and ineffective. radios, police scanners, and portable computers. meaningful ways. ruption of communication channels. All three The net effect of the use of gas and the Protesters in the street with wireless Palm Pilots Netwars are fought by networks; collec- of these features were present during the WTO police charges was to cause the crowds to surge were able to link into continuously updated tions of groups and organizations guided by protests. The diffuse communications network from one point to another without allowing web pages giving reports from the streets. Police non-hierarchical command structures which allowed protesters to continuously adapt to police to gain control of the streets. In the midst scanners monitored transmissions and provided communicate through “all-points” communi- changing conditions. The consultative form of of the melee, the “lock-down” affinity groups some warning of changing police tactics. Cell cations channels of considerable bandwidth decision-making enhanced the ability to coor- remained in place, blocking intersections and phones were widely used. and complexity. The DAN communications dinate large-scale actions. The police attempts anchoring the protest to the area around the Kelly Quirke, Executive Director of the channels blanketed the Seattle area and had to arrest “ringleaders” on Wednesday were convention center. Police gassed and pepper- Rainforest Action Network, reports that early global reach via the internet. Institutions, such fruitless, since leadership was widely shared sprayed the immobile groups, but could not Tuesday, “the authorities had successfully as corporate media, police and the AFL-CIO, tend throughout the network of protest groups. The arrest them and remove them from the area due squashed DAN’s communications system.” to depend on narrow communications channels communications network was continuously to the continued blockade. These tactics were The solution to the infrastructure attack was which are highly centralized and hierarchical. being expanded and modified. On Tuesday, both ineffective in getting the blockaders to quickly resolved by purchasing new Nextel cell Networks operate by “swarming” police cut off many of the Direct Action Network move and successful in infuriating the crowds phones. According to Han Shan, the Ruckus their opponents like bees or white blood communications channels, but in a few hours a 35 28 new and larger network based on cell phones or a parade. The police put their money on and visiting government officials, discov- the ability to move police and delegates through was functioning. the parade and lost. The labor parade as the ered that the streets between the Convention the streets—had been lost. The competing strategies of the Direct dominant factor of the protests was the least Center, the adjacent hotels and the Paramount The divisions between the rival com- Action Network and the AFL-CIO put the police likely of all outcomes, but the only one which Theater—a distance of up to five blocks along manders began to widen as the morning wore in the classically disastrous position of dividing the police had a chance of controlling. some routes—were closed by protesters. “It on. “This was not an integrated command their forces and inviting defeat in detail. The The current theory of controlling protests hadn’t taken long for things not to be working structure,” King County Sheriff Dave Reichert AFL-CIO rally and parade was planned in con- usually revolves around the willingness of pro- very well.” said Ronald Legan, the special agent said. “While everybody was at the table, it was junction with the police. Although it would not testers to be steered into some venue in which in charge of the Seattle office of the Secret made clear that the rest of us were relegated require much more in the way of security than the protest can be neutralized, marginalized, and Service. to supporting roles. Seattle was running the any other parade, it still demanded adequate trivialized. When this agreement doesn’t exist, Though the police didn’t realize it, the show.” coverage at the rally and along the parade route. the older police strategy is to treat a protest as a Direct Action Network plan had achieved its The security requirements at the WTO confer- riot—gas, baton charges, assault, and occasion- goal. They had blockaded the streets and shut Police Go on the Offensive ence site were subject to considerably more un- ally arrests. On Tuesday, the first strategy failed down the WTO. According to the agreed-upon Shortly after 10 a.m., the Seattle Police Depart- certainty. The DAN organizers had participated and on Wednesday the second strategy failed. script, the police would now arrest the protest- ment got their show on the road. The Seattle in lengthy negotiations with the police and had ers. Unfortunately, the protesters had been so Police began using tear gas to clear the streets. made their blockade strategy known, at least successful at blockading the area around the It’s still not clear if the order was issued in general outline. DAN had repeatedly and convention center that police couldn’t move. It by Assistant Chief Ed Joiner—Chief Stamper publicly stated that their goal was to “shut down makes no sense to arrest someone if you can’t had delegated control of the WTO operation the WTO.” Mayor Schell and Chief Stamper remove them from the area. The next phase of to him and did not arrive at the commanders’ were faced with the difficult decision of allo- the protest plan was to hang on to the streets meeting until late that afternoon—or if was a cating forces against two different opponents as long as possible. Since the police remained spontaneous decision made by officers in the using markedly different strategies. stationary for the most part, other than slowly street. The use of gas may have been an effort The ultimate police decision was to rely moving single vehicles through the crowds, to open a pathway into the protest area from on a “tripwire” outer perimeter which would there was little for the protesters to do but outside, as the gas was fired at on Sixth Avenue, trigger the arrests at the Convention Center, enjoy themselves with chants, singing, and between University and Union Streets. This is backed up with an inner perimeter to prevent drumming. The overall mood was festive rather the extreme southern end of the triangular area the Direct Action Network protesters from than hostile. The protesters had won, though it blockaded by the Direct Action Network. The entering the WTO conference. Working with was too early for anyone to know that for sure. Seattle Times said “police used gas to disperse the labor leaders, the police would use the AFL- Until several hours after dark, the Direct Action demonstrators massing.” Police officials later CIO rally as a means of containing the crowds Network would control all movement in the explained that the gas was an attempt to expand and keeping the majority of them away from triangle of streets under blockade. and re-connect their now isolated perimeters the Convention Center. Much has been made of Strategic surprise doesn’t occur in the inside the crowds. None of these explanations the decision to rely on a close perimeter defense field so much as in the mind of the opponent. makes much sense. of the Convention Center, but a larger perimeter The longer it’s delayed, the more complete its The events surrounding the decision to and more police would have simply moved effects. In the case of Mayor Schell, the surprise use gas continue to be cloaked in confusion and the line of battle and dispersed the police, as and disbelief would dominate his actions until controversy. Later claims that the police resorted occurred on Wednesday. late afternoon. By 9:30 a.m., the police command to gas in response to widespread violent attacks The real question facing the police was post was being inundated by reports from the and vandalism are now known to be absolutely whether they would be confronting a protest streets that control of the situation—meaning untrue. The counter-claims that police were un- 29 34 Seizing the Emerald City their second wave. Meanwhile, at the Memorial At 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, Washington State Stadium at the Seattle Center, the gates were Patrol Chief Annette Sandberg had coffee at the opening for the AFL-CIO rally scheduled to Starbucks near the Convention Center. Nobody begin at 10 a.m. Chartered busses from around would be having coffee there that evening, as the region have been on the road for some time, it would be smashed and looted. Sandberg saw carrying a mixture of union members and pro- Intelligence failure demonstrators moving into strategic positions testers to Seattle. The AFL-CIO had done a mass before any police had arrived. The converging mailing throughout Washington State, sending columns of the Direct Action Network began to tasteful green postcards to non-union support- shut down Seattle. ers of a variety of liberal and progressive organi- Underlying the failure of the police strategy has had decades of experience being sold down The first Direct Action Network “arrest” zations. “Join the March of the Century,” the for controlling the demonstrations was a the river by organized labor and has learned that affinity groups moved in on the strategic- in cards read. The AFL-CIO strategy of parading fundamental failure of intelligence. The lesson well. If there was going to be an alliance tersections in the vicinity of the Convention without protesting dovetailed neatly with the picture which law enforcement built of the between protesters and paraders, it was going to Center. Afterwards, these protesters said that city plans for a minuscule protest and a media- developing protests was a catastrophe of be on the protesters’ terms or not at all. The city they were surprised by the absence of any police genic parade. wishful thinking, breathing their own exhaust, officials chose to believe the labor assurances of presence on the streets. In many locations, the As the number of protesters increased, and the most classic of all blunders—mistaking controlling the protesters. This led the police “arrest” groups arrived earlier than the “non- the 400 police remained in their lines around tactics for strategy. The Seattle police and all to drastically underestimate the number of arrest” groups which were supposed to protect the Convention Center or at their positions at of the responsible federal law enforcement protesters, who were at least as numerous as them from removal by the police. The news the Memorial Stadium. The slow infiltration of agencies had the information necessary to the paraders. Neither the police nor the unions photographs of these initial “lock-down” groups demonstrators made it difficult for the police appraise the situation. What was lacking was foresaw the Direct Action Network being have a surrealistic air to them. In the empty to gauge the intentions of the crowd. Though a comprehensive understanding of the strategy able to mount a successful protest. Once that streets after dawn, groups of protesters lock the police didn’t realize it, the Direct Action of the protests. Without that, all of the pieces of assumption became the basis for planning, any themselves together with bicycle locks or tubes Network had already swarmed them and now the intelligence puzzle were not going to fit into evidence to the contrary was disregarded or covering their linked arms to prevent police shifting to a defensive strategy of holding on to an accurate assessment and strategic plan. misinterpreted. from removing them individually. the streets that they now controlled. The flimsy The wishful thinking centered on the The intelligence picture was further King County Sheriff Dave Reichert says rope and netting barriers, the “tripwire” at the alliance between the police and the AFL-CIO. confused by the claims of federal law he got a telephone call at 8 a.m. from a county Paramount Theatre, went down as protesters The plan for the labor parade to engulf the enforcement officials that the protests would detective. “He said, ‘Sheriff, we’re trapped… walked towards the line of city busses next to protests and steer them into a marginal venue be violent. The publicly released text of one FBI We have no backup,’” Reichert claimed. “I had the theater. The busses were a second line of was never a real possibility. The Direct Action forecast was replete with hysterical predictions: officers barricaded in the hotel with a mob defense, separating the police from the crowd. Network and their allies had no intention of “…elements within the protest community literally pounding on the glass, and there was turning the protest organizing over to the are planning to disrupt the conference… nobody to help them. Nobody.” Reichert wasn’t Protesters Own the Streets unions. On Sunday, November 28, Teamsters environmental or animal rights extremists or on the scene, but already he was seeing “mobs.” By 9:10 a.m., “crowd-control efforts were en- president Hoffa was trumpeting Pat Buchanan anarchist-induced violence… computer-based KIRO-7 television crews were at the same countering difficulty,” according to Washington as “the only presidential candidate who attacks on WTO-related web sites, as well as location and show lines of grinning demonstra- State Patrol Chief Sandberg. She placed troopers understands the trade issue.” This was hardly key corporate and financial sites… Corporate tors holding hands and blocking the street—no throughout Western Washington on alert. The the sort of analysis which would convince sponsors… may be subject to surveillance efforts “mob literally pounding on the glass.” day was barely started and the police plan was progressive activists to submit to the unions’ from these groups… to identify the residences of By 8 a.m., most of the key intersections had already beginning to break down. The Secret nationalist and protectionist agenda. The Left key employees of sponsoring corporations… been seized by the protesters, now reinforced Service, responsible for the security of federal 33 30 These employees should remain alert for fantasies of violent terrorists directing the individuals who may be targeting them in protests blinded and disabled the police. The furtherance of anti-WTO activities… Recipients more inaccurate the assessment of opposing should remain sensitive to threats made by anti- forces, the greater the advantage to the side corellation of forces WTO groups.” which possesses “topview”—comprehensive Seizing the city : protesters own the streets Buried within this froth was, “The FBI and realistic understanding. police go on the offensive : labor’s u-turn : pause to regroup assesses the potential threat of violence, to include criminal acts of civil disturbance, as low to medium for the Seattle area during the time frame of the WTO Meeting.” Asked by reporters what “low to medium” meant, FBI spokesman Correlation of forces battle survives contact with the opposition. Ray Lauer refused to answer, citing the “law- By Monday evening, November 30, the forces had This is exactly what happened on the morning enforcement sensitive” nature of the report aligned themselves. The Direct Action Network of November 30, 1999 in Seattle. and the “controversy concerning planning planned to shut down the WTO conference by The Direct Action Network protesters over WTO.” An anonymous law enforcement swarming the streets. The AFL-CIO planned to expected to show up, cross the “tripwires” of the source cited by the Seattle Times stated that hold a rally and parade in an effort to influence flimsy police barriers and be arrested, probably “low to medium” covered anything from simple national trade policy—and the upcoming presi- with a light seasoning of pepper spray. The civil disobedience to an Oklahoma City-style dential elections. Police Chief Norm Stamper police on the streets expected to disperse the terrorist bombing. had decided the protests could be peacefully protesters before noon and maybe have a little Nowhere in the FBI “Terrorist Threat controlled by his own forces without outside tussle doing it. In the meantime, they were going Advisory” was the slightest inkling of what was assistance, knowing that the price of assistance to maintain discipline, show restraint, and “not going to be happening in the streets beyond could be the peace. The mayor had decided to be the spark.” The mayor and the chief of police expected a paltry handful of demonstrators to the fact that the conference was going to be let the AFL-CIO control his actions on Tuesday, show up downtown and get arrested in a mutual “disrupted.” The Direct Action Network and hoping against all evidence that the unions display of civility. The AFL-CIO expected to AFL-CIO plans had been trumpeted loudly, would swallow and control the protesters. The dominate the media coverage with a colorful widely, and in considerable detail in the Seattle Police Department was tasked with pre- parade from the Seattle Center towards—but press by the organizers, summing up to non- venting the protests while allowing the labor not too close to—downtown. The Black Bloc violent civil disobedience shutting down the parade. The outside law enforcement agencies expected to do a little graffiti and smash some conference and an ineffectual parade designed were champing at the bit to enter into the fray, carefully selected windows just as soon as the to keep protesters away from the Convention but as long as the SPD maintained order, they police got too preoccupied with the demonstra- Center. The city officials at the top elected to had to sit on the sidelines. The FBI and Secret tors. The FBI, if their “Terrorist Threat Advisory” pick and choose among information to support Service cried doom and gloom—while signing can be believed, were preparing to counter their plans. The front-line officers did the same, off on Mayor Schell and Chief Stamper’s plan. a terrorist onslaught in cyberspace while if with opposite results. The rumors within the The Black Blocs were milling around the edges, fondling their crowbars and dreaming of chaos. combating terrorist home invasions or kidnap- police department (fantasy or otherwise) about What would happen next was anybody’s guess, pings. Actually, some of the FBI were dressing federal expectations of dead and wounded but the best guessers would win and the others up in black protester disguises, complete with police added to the unreality. would lose. masks, and getting ready to join in the street Netwar conflicts are struggles for It’s a hackneyed truism that no plan of party with the Black Bloc as close observers. understanding and information. The FBI 31 32