Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon News

Everything you need to know about the WTO
While thousands of protesters gather outside, there's plenty of disagreement inside, too.
By David Moberg
[11/29/99]

The vice president's stiff comedy
Al Gore's problem is not that he lacks a sense of humor -- he's just not showing it.
By Daniel Kurtzman
[11/29/99]

Republicans lost in space
Polls suggest that the "Democrats' issues" will dominate next year's elections; if so, the GOP better learn how to fight more effectively in a hurry or it will be in for a bruising.
By David Horowitz
[11/29/99]

Smog alert
The Texas governor is trying to clear the air about his environmental record -- trouble is, the state's alarming pollution levels are getting in the way.
By Robert Bryce
[11/24/99]

Desperately seeking a legacy
President Clinton has little time left to improve his standing in history. Could foreign affairs, especially a negotiated peace in the Middle East, offer him a chance for salvation?
By Nina Donaghy
[11/24/99]

Complete archives for News

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

For a week now, a group called the Direct Action Network (DAN) has been training protesters in a sprawling warehouse just east of downtown. Activists are learning not only basic principles of nonviolent protest, which have been standard preparation for civil disobedience since the anti-nuclear campaigns of the mid-1970s. Many are also being trained in elaborate "lockdown" techniques pioneered by Earth First! and animal-rights groups, in which protesters use bicycle locks and other equipment to create immovable human barricades that are difficult and time-consuming to dismantle.

Also Today Everything you need to know about the WTO While thousands of protesters gather outside, there's plenty of disagreement inside, too. By David Moberg If you can't beat 'em... Why the WTO should be embraced, not feared. By Joe Conason

There will be plenty of peaceful demonstrations, ranging from the permitted labor march and rally to in-your-face -- but nonviolent -- road- and building blockades. And a sizable minority of self-described revolutionaries are planning to engage in property destruction. These are largely seasoned activists with experience in direct-action campaigns who now feel themselves to be part of a worldwide struggle to topple capitalism.

Expecting 50,000 delegates, journalists and activists, the city of Seattle has closed streets throughout the conference. Downtown malls have hired extra security guards and complained of slow business, despite the tens of thousands of extra people in the area. Hundreds of downtown office workers have been asked to work from home.

Though Monday's prelude resulted in no violence or mass arrests, several small incidents and individual arrests in various parts of the city set the tone for the week to come. Several hundred WTO delegates and journalists were kept waiting approximately four hours Monday morning while police and Secret Service agents investigated a possible attempted break-in at the Washington State Convention Center downtown, the site of the first official conference event.

Meanwhile, a mile north of there, five members of the Rainforest Action Network were arrested for criminal trespass and reckless endangerment after unfurling a banner on top of a construction crane next to Interstate 5. The banner read "WTO" with an arrow in one direction and "DEMOCRACY" with an arrow in the other.

Over at the DAN warehouse, which has become so packed you can hardly move, the workshops now spill over into several other nearby spaces. But the most crucial preparation is taking place elsewhere, in decentralized "affinity group" meetings all over town, in order to preserve an element of secrecy and surprise about Tuesday's events.

DAN has developed a sophisticated, decentralized system for covering different areas of town. Organizers have divided the area around the WTO meeting into 13 "pie slices," which scores of small tactical groups are planning to blockade. (And they won't just be sitting in -- many will be locking themselves together as described above.) The efforts of the blockaders will also be augmented by dozens of roving teams, both of protesters and "support people" -- medics, lawyers, communications squads, videographers and more.

Next page | "Civilization is collapsing -- let's give it a push"