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Elimination of the exploitation of man by man!
Yours in solidarity
Per Rasmussen
Denmark
A Brief Comment-What's Happening in Seattle and Why
By Michael Albert
Ballpark 50-100,000 demonstrators assembled in Seattle. They are farmers
and
industrial workers, unionists and environmentalists, young and old, men and
women, from the U.S. and from the third world, and they are angry and their
target is the WTO, and thus also oppressive world trade, and thus also,
just
a minor step beyond, the market system and capitalism itself. They are
there
to raise social costs to elites by their actions on the scene and by the
repercussions for continuing organizing around the world (75,000 today
demonstrated in France, for example) to curtail or better to close down the
WTO agenda.
So what do you do if you are in charge of the City and have Clinton due in
town imminently and the whole world, literally, watching? What's the elite
strategy?
(1) You can sit back and be nice and allow the demonstrators to move freely
and make their points and develop confidence and grow in number and size
and, most important, in their mutual solidarity, with more people arriving
every hour, and education and outreach blossoming each day.
Or (2) you can try and break the thing up, quickly, even if at great risk
should you fail.
From early reports it seems that the powers that be decided that to leave
hands off was a recipe for sure disaster. They likely envisioned the
specter of growing numbers, growing willingness to do civil disobedience,
and worst of all, growing
solidarity between diverse sectors and outreach to new constituencies, and
realized that throughout the country and world this would send a message
that dissent can restrain the state. They didn't like that picture.
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Their other option - the usual favorite choice of U.S. elites - is to try
to
bust up opposition by using as much force as they can get away with. The
idea in this case is to send an immediate message that being in Seattle as
a demonstrator means braving gas, truncheons, and rubber bullets, at least.
The police and media try to together get the less mobile and less militant
demonstrators to leave, depressed or angry. Then the thinned ranks can be
herded away from the WTO buildings and arrested or banished.
Judging by early reports I'm guessing that's the elite plan. The tactics
are very typical - intimidating costumes, quick and eager but still for the
moment limited violence, curfews, provocations to get demonstrator (or town
citizen) actions that one can complain are the source of the repression.
Provoke a little violence, repress it, in due course, with a lot...
The demonstrator reaction will hopefully be not to fracture but
instead to generate more and more organization, discipline, and steadfast
solidarity and militance in marching, and, when need be, in committing
non-violent civil disobedience.
What will happen?
No one can possibly know, of course. But if you are in Seattle I think the
thing to try to affect is whether Seattle's citizens -- its cab drivers,
its
bus drivers, its small shop keepers, its folks on the street -- become
sympathetic to the demonstrators or even outright supportive of them, and
whether the union and other more mainstream demonstrators
align with the street demonstrations and continuing marches and rallies,
telling the Seattle police that their opposition is workers like
themselves, and angry ones at that. This is already an important event. If
alliance and solidarity can be forged, it will be historic.
Here are some sites where you can get excellent up to the minute
information to pass along to others to build support for the demonstrators
and opposition fo the WTO:
ZNet's Global/WTO Watch -- Direct from the scene reports and analysis--plus
contextual reports and in depth materials from Z Magazine's writers and
beyond--and you can post your own reports, as well:
http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Globalism/GlobalEcon.htm
The Seattle Indy News Center -- on the ground, on the scene, with audio,
video, and print reports: http://www.indymedia.org/
Democracy Now -- Amy Goodman reports with noted guests on the scene on
events in Seattle and their meaning:
http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow.html
World Trade Watch Radio -- Live reports from Seattle with Julie Light and
Norman Solomon and their guests:
http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow.html
Global Exchange's Democratize the Global Economy -- Analysis and context:
http://www.globalexchange.org/
Corporate Watch's WTO Coverage -- Analysis of corporations and their role
in
society focused on the WTO:
http://www.corpwatch.org/feature/index.html
Food First -- Food politics in general and regarding the WTO:
http://www.foodfirst.org/
The Preamble Center: A research project into the U.S. economy...with
special
coverage of the WTO: http://www.preamble.org/
Legal Help for Seattle Demonstrators: Information and connections:
http://www.nlg.org/wto/
Michael Albert
Z Magazine / ZNet
www.zmag.org
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