To read “25 Years Later: WTO Shut Down in Seattle Pt. 1” click here!

Without self-reflection, mass movements risk losing their relevancy. This week we’ll be wrapping up our 25^th anniversary remembrance of the 1999 protests that took place at the Third WTO Ministerial in Seattle with a few lessons learned from this pivotal moment in the United States anti-globalization movement.

One of the primary lessons learned from the Seattle WTO is the power of mass movement organizing. The cross-movement and intersectional organizing that occurred in Seattle created a watershed event within the modern U.S. anti-globalization movement, and still stands as a glimpse of what can be done when people stand together. As workers and environmentalists joined forces to fight the global race to the bottom for worker and environmental protections, a common goal united a mass movement. Without a doubt, the ability to “own the streets” and shut down the WTO ministerial would not have been possible without organized labor joining forces with the multitude of environmental and social justice organizations and people that flooded Seattle between Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, 1999.

Perhaps a noteworthy example of how this solidarity was earned pertains to the collaboration of the Steelworkers and the west coast forest defenders. Charles Hurwitz, Houston financier and owner of Maxxim, Inc., inadvertently aided this alliance when he enraged steelworkers by breaking Kaiser Aluminum during labor negotiations, and became the primary target of environmentalists because of Pacific Lumber’s wholesale clearcut logging of old growth forests — including revered Redwoods. Pacific Lumber and Kaiser were both owned by Maxxim and Hurwitz—giving both movements a common enemy to fight.

Additionally, as a result of the powerful successes of the 1999 WTO ministerial, workers and environmental activists launched the BlueGreen Alliance in 2006—which continues to this day. We’d add that participating in a mass protest that was in many respects a major victory, was incredibly empowering to many younger protestors and resulted in countless lifelong activists, organizers, movement lawyers, and troublemakers.

Additionally, Seattle WTO served to further educate and expose the reality that “the State,” which we have come to define as “government” as well as multinational/ global corporations, are one and the same. There is a revolving door that exists between corporate CEO offices and government positions (i.e. cabinet members; heads of federal agencies like the FBI), and then back to their much more lucrative CEO positions, blurring the lines between accountable public servant and rich profit-driven megalomaniac. That revolving door also creates blatant collusion that results in the police and military being used to prop up and serve their corporate masters as they perpetuate grave harms to all living things. Hence, militarized police or literal military are deployed to put down protests at corporate headquarters and pipelines across the U.S. and around the world in order to protect their profits. We still witness the U.S. military invading foreign shores to protect our “national interests,” which is just spin for corporate profit. In the case of Iraqi citizens, the 2003 U.S. invasion that resulted from protecting those “interests” ended in over one million deaths. Unsurprisingly, the revolving door between the corporate boardroom and positions of power within the federal government has only become more brazen and sleezy in the last twenty-five years.

Those who witnessed the Seattle police response in 1999 learned: If you target multinational corporations’ profits, be ready for an oversized response from their armed goons—not necessarily a successful one, because we are many and nimble and they are not—but chemical weapons, brute force, jails, prosecutions, and the other tools of state repression will be deployed against anyone who challenges unfettered capitalism.

The tireless organizing behind the scenes is what made the shut-down of the WTO ministerial in Seattle successful. In 1999, organizers also looked back to their history for inspiration. The spokes council model, which greatly aided in the functionality and efficiency in bringing so many disparate groups together, was borrowed from the Spanish Revolution (1936). Affinity groups were also utilized to help keep people coordinated and safe. Like many historic social justice actions, movement participants were asked to leave their egos at home and instead bring their passion and determination to achieve a unified goal in the larger global campaign against rampant and destructive globalization. Young people today do not know a world without extreme globalization and its harms, but at the time of the WTO, there was still hope that a mass movement could demand people and the planet over profits.

Finally, a few parting lessons: First, vary tactics from one protest to the next regardless of how successful they may have been in one instance. What won the day in Seattle was copied at FTAA, NAFTA, etc. with decreasing impact. Some would argue that treesitting was a very successful tactic in stopping irreparable deforestation—until logging companies began responding by hiring climbers and using machinery and violence to rapidly overcome resistance created by occupying the trees. The cops learned how to quickly thwart the intended tactic and brutally surveil, injure, and/or arrest activists.

Second, don’t wait for corporate media to cover your story, make your own media. “Indymedia” was a pretty new concept at this point—an amazing affinity group that came to the WTO and tirelessly created and distributed movement-aligned media, and made sure the world knew what was going on. Pirate Radio was also in full swing in many communities during this time (including Free Cascadia Radio in Eugene, OR). People showed up and powered a movement radio broadcast that cops couldn’t find, despite many attempts to try and shut it down. Scores of different organizers and guests were interviewed on the streets by pirate radio volunteers, which kept protestors informed and provided an unparalleled recorded history of what transpired throughout those days and nights. And third, Seattle was known as the “punk city on the rise,” and at the time, music, art, and culture were important factors encouraging the passion and energy on the streets with marching bands like the Infernal Noise Brigade.

Moving forward in these chilling times, it will become essential to remember some of the strongest lessons learned in Seattle, in Chiapas, in Geneva, anywhere people have banded together and used creative resistance to not only win the moment, but to capture the attention of the world. The will of the people remains stronger than mechanisms that have been created to aid in the transfer of wealth from the planet to the elite. We don’t know what or where the next spark that sets the imagination of the world on fire, but we do know that television-worthy scenes of resistance are but the smallest sliver of the bigger organizing picture.

In Seattle, 50,000 activists shutting down the streets did not happen by some miracle or coincidence. Months and months of preparation, national roadshows, tons of trainings and workshops, as well as the incredible coalition building that took place long before N30 occurred were and are fundamental to the strong resistance we witnessed twenty-five years ago. It will continue to be the cornerstone of strength moving forward.

To read “25 Years Later: WTO Shut Down in Seattle Pt. 1” click here!