Protest

Peaceless in Seattle

by Jason Gay

SEATTLE, NOVEMBER 30 -- So that's what tear gas feels like.

This was one of the many things learned by tens of thousands of people (including this reporter) Tuesday at the opening of the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle -- the site of one of the most spirited, raucous, and ultimately chaotic protests in recent US history.

When the smoke finally clears, it will be interesting to see how the Battle in Seattle, as it's now being called, is remembered. No doubt those images of riot-gear-clad police officers lobbing tear-gas canisters at mostly peaceful protesters will be tough to shake. So will the vandalism spree in downtown Seattle perpetrated by a small minority of young rebels, who smashed, tagged, and looted Gaps, Starbucks, and other stores with abandon.

But other images deserve to persist, too: thousands of peaceful activists congregating at the WTO opening ceremonies, effectively shutting the event down by locking arms and barring delegates from entering; a massive organized-labor presence from across the country, showing anti-WTO solidarity with an array of progressive organizations; and finally, a creative, theatrical approach to political protest (including puppets, street theater, and raves) that put those old stage-and-a-bullhorn routines to shame.

As midnight approached Tuesday, police were still battling a small band of protesters on Seattle's Capitol Hill, many blocks from downtown. But already, activists were talking about their place in history. Will the Seattle protests persuade the WTO to answer its critics, who call the organization too secretive, and too reluctant to address human-rights and environmental violations among its members? Too soon to tell. Could Seattle be the genesis of a new American fair-trade movement? Not sure. But at the very least, the protests have pushed the five-year-old organization into the public spotlight. Last week, of course, many Americans didn't know what the WTO was. Today, they do.