Protesters Claim WTO Failure as Victory
12/4/99
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Title: Protesters claim WTO failure as victory
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 4, 1999
Byline: Michael Fitzpatrick
Thousands of protesters vowed from the start to shut down world trade
talks here, fought running battles with police during the meeting,
and finally claimed victory over the World Trade Organization.
"The WTO must go," the demonstrators chanted as the meeting got under
way this week.
In the end, the delegates were glad to go and even the city was happy
to see them leave after three days of violent protests that left
downtown Seattle shrouded in teargas and strewn with broken glass and
rubber bullets.
The four-day meeting of global trade ministers ended Friday with the
group failing to achieve its goal of launching a new round of trade
liberalization talks.
"I think that it's exactly what we were hoping for," said Susanna
Lea, of Chapel Hill, N.C., who was one of several hundred protesters
camped out in front of a downtown Seattle jail Friday night to demand
the release of the more than 500 demonstrators arrested by Seattle
police during the meeting.
Inside the heavily guarded convention center where the meeting was
being held, critics of the WTO were crying and laughing with joy at
the news and said the street protests against the meeting had brought
victory.
"History has been made in Seattle as the allegedly irresistible
forces of corporate economic globalization were stopped in their
tracks," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizens Global Trade
Watch.
Environmental groups hailed the failure, saying a deal would have
boosted deforestation and led to greater trade in genetically altered
foods.
"The collapse in Seattle affords the WTO the opportunity to take a
new direction toward trade policies that work for the environment,"
said David Schorr of World Wildlife Fund.
Protesters take spotlight from first day
The WTO's opponents took the upper hand from the opening day as tens
of thousands of people - protesting everything from the killing of
sea turtles to the concentration of economic power - surrounded the
conference center, forcing the cancellation of opening ceremonies.
While the demonstrations started peacefully, violence soon erupted on
Tuesday as a small group of protesters smashed windows and set trash
fires, and police fired teargas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to
clear the streets.
The mayhem led Seattle's mayor to set an overnight curfew and ask the
governor to send in National Guard and state police reinforcements.
But a police crackdown the next day, when at least 450 protesters
were arrested sparked deep criticism of the mayor and the police
tactics and forced them to take a low-key approach for the last two
days.
The pictures of trash-strewn streets and police attacking protesters
not only damaged Seattle's image worldwide, but also embarrassed the
mayor, the police chief and even President Clinton, who had come to
town to help spur on the talks.
Demonstrations deepened divisions in WTO
Protesters credited their actions with deepening divisions within the
135 members of the WTO, and so helping to lead to the failure of the
talks.
Among those divisions was a conflict between powerful, industrialized
nations and developing countries, which threatened not to sign a deal
because they said rich countries had shut them out of talks.
"The failure in Seattle to a large extent reflects the developing
countries' unhappiness over how the system has not benefited them and
how they have not been able to participate fully," said Martin Khor,
director of Third World Network.
As the trade talks foundered Friday, protesters at the downtown jail
had chanted, "Africa don't sign. Africa don't sign." Protester Sheila
Richard said the WTO needed to make sure in the future that it
considered a broad range of issues and not just economics.
"What I hoped is that the consciousness has been raised a little (by
the protests)," Richard said.