<nettime> Seattle (retrospective) 3x

["nettime's_WTO_repoter" <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>]

1.............Subject: WTO Seattle eyewitness report
2.............Subject: Statement by the chief delegate from India
3.............Subject: Seattle - Artis the Spoonman



From: "Alberto Gaitan" <alberto@null.net>
To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 11:43:18 -0500
Subject: WTO Seattle eyewitness report

By way of Tim Perkis and Atau Tanaka.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN SEATTLE
by Portland student/reporter Jim Desyllas Called-in from a pay phone outside
Seattle.

Wed., 7:30 pm Pacific time. (Posted at http://www.emperors-clothes.com
12-2-99.  Feel free to distribute in full including this note.)

I just spent 4 days in Seattle. The "information" people are getting from
the mass media is false. This was not, as Pres. Clinton claims, a peaceful
protest marred by the actions of violent protesters. This was a massive,
strong but peaceful demonstration which was attacked repeatedly by the
police with the express purpose of provoking a violent response to provide
photo opportunities for the Western media. I know because I watched it
happening. I'll tell you how they did it. As Michel Chossudovsky says in
his "Disarming the New World Order" (See Note # 1 at end for link to that
article) - the government put a lot of effort into making sure the
protesters in Seattle were a "loyal opposition" who wanted to reform the
WTO, not get rid of it. But the people in Seattle - American steel workers,
Canadian postal workers, college kids from all over, environmentalists from
Australia - you name it - were not for reforming the WTO. They were for
getting rid of it. And this wasn't just true of the protesters. I
interviewed delegates. None of them had anything favorable to say about the
WTO. Two delegates from the Caribbean were angry about job loss. One
delegate from Peru took a bullhorn and got up on a car and spoke to the
protestors against the World Trade Organization. He said it hurts the
workers and farmers. I interviewed a Norwegian guy from Greenpeace. Totally
against it. Even a delegate from Holland said it had hurt the farmers
there. He said though it is supposedly democratic, that's actually a lie:
the US, England and Canada and a few others get together and decide what
they want to do. Then they ask the rest of the countries to vote and if
they vote wrong they threaten, "You won't get loans," or whatever. They get
them to do what they want by blackmailing them. The Italians we interviewed
were upset too. I couldn't find any delegates who were in favor. So the
government instigated a "riot" to discredit the movement against the WTO
because they couldn't dilute it. I am not guessing about this. I was there.
I saw it happening. And I will tell you I am frankly shocked to see, close
up, just how little our leaders care what happens to ordinary people.
Clinton can pose and speak a lot of flowery stuff but the truth is - we are
nothing to them. I saw this with my own eyes.

Sunday and Monday, there was no violence. None. The people were
aggressively non-violent; they were self-policing. Up until Tuesday at 4pm
there was one window broken in the whole city - a McDonalds window. This
compares favorably to the typical rock concert, let alone a demonstration
of people who were non-violently barring entry to the World Trade Center!
At this point, a new group of police - tactical police - moved in and
started gassing people and shooting rubber bullets. Is it any surprise that
people got mad? Of course, the young kids hit back by breaking some windows
in retaliation for being gassed, sprayed with very painful pepper gas, and
shot with dangerous "rubber" bullets.

The police instigated these kids, plain and simple. Sunday and Monday they
had young cops, using them to block the streets. These were trainees. But
Tuesday they had the real cops; none of them were young. They were trained
to attack people. A small group, maybe 100 people total, struck back. Then
these cops herded that group around the city, making sure there were plenty
of photo ops of "violent protesters." A number of times they had these 100
or so protesters caught between buildings and walls of police. They could
easily have arrested and detained this small number of people and gotten it
over with. Instead they would gas them and let them go. Then trap them
again, gas them again, and again let them go.

The cops made no arrests that I know of until late Tuesday night though the
skirmishing was going on from three till 9:30. The cops would blockade
three or five blocks of an area, give the angry kids room to operate, keep
gassing them - when you gas a person, let me tell you, it gets them
fighting mad. Tuesday night the police gassed all of downtown. This was
going on from 3 PM, till 6 PM.. Gas everywhere. The kids broke a few
windows - McD's, Starbucks - small stuff - burned a few garbage cans. The
police were using these people as extras. It was staged. I believe also the
police had their own people in there, encouraging people to break stuff -
if people think I may be exaggerating, I saw supposed protesters - they
were screaming and so on - and then later, when everything was over, the
same people tackled other protestors and put handcuffs on them.

At 6pm they issued a State of Emergency. At that point they had pushed the
100 people outside the city limits, so the police went outside the limits
too, and they started gassing that area too, gassing the neighborhoods
where the regular people live. I am not exaggerating. The police were
relentless. This was in an area from the city limits for about 10 blocks to
the Seattle Central Community College. If you were alive, the police gassed
you. People coming back from work, kids, women, everyone. People would go
out of their houses to see what was happening because these tear gas guns
sound like a cannon - and they would get gassed. A block away there was a
Texaco gas station - they threw tear gas at gas pumps, believe it or not -
they were like vandals. They gassed a bus. I saw it with my own eyes. A
bus. The driver, the riders, the people just abandoned it . I was sitting
in a little coffee shop called Rauhaus, [Jim did not spell this - the
spelling may be wrong.] They were shooting "rubber" bullets at the glass. I
picked up a dozen of the things in a few square feet. They were also
shooting this paint that you can only see with a florescent light. They
would paint anyone and everyone and then go hunting them. Anyway, because
they were gassing everybody, the local people got mad too and they joined
the 100 who had been herded out of the city. So soon there were 500
including the neighborhood people and all very angry. Naturally. Because
they had been gassed and hit with pepper spray, that stuff does a number on
you. And shot with these damn bullets. Then people set up barricades at
Seattle Central Community College. The cops organized themselves for about
an hour and then moved in and gassed that area. Today they started mass
arrests. That was because Clinton - the Greeks call him the Planitarchis,
Ruler of the World - was coming. Weeping crocodile tears about how he just
LOVES peaceful protest, which of course you'd have to be two years old to
believe he had nothing to do with the police action. This whole thing, this
police attack, this was US foreign policy, not some action decided by some
bureaucrat in Seattle. This was the State Department. They wanted to
discredit the people.

When things started on Sunday,  there was a protest rally of solidarity
involving people from different walks of life. Monday it got even bigger.
Tuesday there was a big sort of carnival where people were doing different
things, a band was playing music and people were blocking the World Trade
Center. And about 3 PM the cops started throwing tear gas. The thing that
drove Clinton crazy was that on Tuesday the protesters had succeeded in
making nonviolent human chains and had therefore stopped everyone from
going into the World Trade Center. Only maybe 27 delegates got through,
mostly US and British. There were what seemed like tens of thousands of
protesters involved. So the police did their gassing number against these
nonviolent people to break up the human chains and make the protesters look
violent.

Today (Wednesday) I followed the union protest put together by the
Longshoremen's Union. They went down to the docks and had a rally then
marched to Third Avenue. As soon as they got there the cops started gassing
them. There was an old lady there. She had gone downtown by bus to buy
something. This lady was in her 70's and I saw her trying to run, but she
couldn't breathe. She was in shock. I carried her to a building entryway.
She was gasping, terrified. She had been in Germany, and it was like she
was having flashbacks. The tear gas sounds like gunfire and there were
helicopters overhead, sirens, cops on horses, everything. They had clearly
made a decision to destroy this movement. So anyway there I was with her in
this building and she wanted to go to the hospital but there was tear gas
everywhere and I was afraid if I tried to move her she'd be gassed again. I
went to this line of cops and begged - I mean begged - these riot police to
help her. They ignored me. A girl told me later that a one year old had
been gassed. And I myself saw a girl no more than 18 - a cop had busted her
lip wide open - she was bleeding - and then they gassed everyone including
her. After that she was kneeling on the ground crying like a baby and
praying for 15 minutes, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. Over and over. She was in a
state of shock. They just gassed these people who were sitting down
non-violently and doing nothing. Nothing. At one point the Seattle Mayor
said his boys were not using rubber bullets. Miraculously, by then I had
ten in my pocket. I could open a little market, sell the things. They are
everywhere. I and other people started giving them to delegates and stuff.
"See what they're doing? They're shooting "rubber" bullets and lying about
it." We showed them to the media. I guess enough people and the media got
the information because the Mayor made a new statement then that they were
using them. As if he hadn't known. They shot rubber bullets from four feet
away into the face of a guy next to me, broke all his front teeth. When
that happened I lost it. I forgot I was supposed to be getting the news for
all of you and I started yelling at the cops, "What the hell is wrong with
you? Are you sick, man?" So this cop aimed his gun right at me. That was
his answer. So I first put my hands in front of my face because I didn't
want to lose my teeth. And then I thought, to hell with it. I was wearing
my target shirt that said "Collateral Damage", you know? With a bullseye
target, like they wore during the bombing in Yugoslavia. And I told this
guy, "Go ahead, shoot! Here! Here's the target!" He didn't shoot me. I want
to emphasize, these protesters were NOT violent people. They were the most
non-violent people I have ever seen. Even when I was screaming at the cop,
this girl came up to me and said, "Do not scream. This is non-violent."
These people were too much to believe. They must meditate all the time, I
don't know. Clinton said he supports nonviolent protest. That is baloney.

Today (Wed.) the protesters were causing absolutely no "trouble". In
downtown the cops had people running who weren't even protesters - like
that old lady or just people going to work or shopping - everyone was
getting gassed. The busses weren't running because of the gas. I was lucky
to catch one with a driver who could still see. I begged him to drive the
old lady home - the driver changed his route especially for her. If you
want to find human decency, stay away from the Planitarchis. Go to the to
regular people. They have some. The Planitarchis lost all his years ago.
Now he wouldn't know human decency if it came up and bit him. So now I have
made personal acquaintance with the people who run this country, and they
are quite simply scum. There were people at work, people with babies, they
were all getting gassed because the government would not allow an assembly
of people speaking their minds. It is the same as what happened in Athens.
Clinton's requirements on the Greek government created the riot and he did
the same thing here. And then he says he supports nonviolent protest? How?
By shooting rubber bullets? And today they outlawed gas masks. They want to
make sure everyone gets his money's worth. Today, just like yesterday
night, the police were in the residential neighborhoods. People in cafes
were getting gassed and shot at, you could hear it on the windows, bang,
bang, bang. A guy trying to cross the street to go to his house got gassed.
First a drunk guy outside a bar yelled at the cops "Get out of here!" so
they gassed him. And then this other guys was just crossing the street to
go home so the cops figured, might as well gas him too. People got gassed
for coming out of restaurants and bars and coffee shops. I'm amazed that
nobody died who had asthma or something. Or maybe somebody did die and they
didn't talk about it. I mean after all, it's just collateral damage.

 *** Note # 1 - For a critical look at the World Trade Organization, click on
SEATTLE AND BEYOND: DISARMING THE NEW WORLD ORDER or go to:

http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/seattle.htm

If you would like to browse articles from Emperors-Clothes.com, click here
Or go to:

http://www.emperors-clothes.com


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Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 18:06:57 -050o
To: Nettime <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>
Subject: Statement by the chief delegate from India


Statement by H.E. Mr. Murasoli Maran, Minister of Commerce and Industry,
Republic of India

..Our assessment has all along been that the Uruguay Round Agreements have
not served all the membership well. There are critical gaps that need to be
urgently addressed.

Asymmetries and inequities in several of the agreements including those
relating to anti-dumping, subsidies, intellectual property, TRIMs and the
non-realization of expected benefits from agreements such as textiles and
agriculture during implementation have been a matter of great concern. The
special and differential treatment clauses have remained virtually
inoperative. The textile sector has thus far witnessed a mere 4 per cent of
integration of the restrained items by the developed countries. Even in
areas, where developing countries began to acquire trade competitiveness,
anti-dumping or subsidy investigations have been initiated in increasing
numbers. The TRIPS Agreement places the rights of a patent holder on a
higher pedestal than obligations. However, it does not confer corresponding
rights to countries or indigenous communities whose bio-resources or
traditional knowledge are put to use...

We believe that trade negotiations should concentrate on core issues of
market access ensuring smooth flow of trade based on the principle of
equity. Similarly, given the emerging prospects, we should examine the
constructive role that the e-commerce and information technology can play
in our development process. Regarding agriculture sector, the developed
countries should eliminate export subsidies and other trade distortive
support. At the same time, future negotiations in agriculture must not in
any way limit the flexibility of large rural agrarian economies to support
and protect their domestic production as well as achieve the objectives of
food security and rural employment.

I would like to also add that we are opening up our economy to foreign
investment in a transparent manner and we are committed to progressive
economic reforms and liberalization in our own interest and according to
our own judgement and pace. We do not, however, subscribe to the view that
a multilateral framework on investment is either necessary or desirable.

Much has been said about inclusion of non-trade issues such as environment
and labour standards on the WTO agenda. India is second to none in its
commitment towards environmental protection and sustainable development.
The very ethos of India's culture and history is not only to respect but
also to worship nature. The issue here, however, is different. The
multilateral trading system has been designed to deal with issues involving
trade and trade alone. India in good faith had agreed at Marrakesh to the
establishment of a WTO Committee on Trade and Environment. We would,
however, strongly oppose any attempt to either change the Committee's
structure or mandate which can be used for legitimizing unilateral trade
restrictive measures. Attempts aimed at inclusion of environmental issues
in future negotiations go beyond the competence of the multilateral trading
system and have the potential to open the floodgates of protectionism.

On the issue of labour, India is fully committed to observance of labour
standards and has ratified most ILO conventions. We also cherish all the
values of democracy, workers' rights and good governance. These issues
however are not under the purview of the WTO. At Singapore, we decided once
and for all, that labour-related issues rightly belong to the ILO. India
resolutely rejects renewed attempts to introduce these in the WTO in one
form or another. Any further move will cause deep divisions and distrust
that can only harm the formation of a consensus on our future work
programme...

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

Statement Circulated by H.E. Mr. Mohammed Benaissa, Minister for Foreign
Affairs and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Morocco, on behalf of the Ninth
Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77 and China


The Ninth Ministerial Meeting of the Group of 77 and China, which was held
in Marrakesh from 13 to 16 September, was an historic occasion that allowed
the Members of the Group of 77 to come together in a spirit of solidarity,
cooperation, and shared perceptions of development. The meeting also
represented the culmination of a long period of reflection conducted in
Geneva. The Ministers of the G-77 countries set out their positions on a
whole range of issues in the field of trade, finance and development. In
doing so, the Group was constantly aware that the international community
is about to embark on a series of vital meetings, which could and should
result in a new vision of the global economy and a new approach to
development as a whole. And of course one of the most important of these
meetings is the WTO Seattle Ministerial Meeting, and in fact a significant
part of the Marrakesh Declaration was designed as a self-contained "message
to Seattle"...

A major concern of the developing countries is that the benefits of the
existing multilateral trading system continue to elude developing
countries, and that progress towards full liberalization in sectors of
particular interest to developing countries is lagging behind. The danger
the Ministers see here is that the confidence of developing countries in
the multilateral trading system could be eroded and the temptation to
retreat into misguided protectionist policies could grow. For the G-77
Ministers, the non-realization of benefits by many developing countries in
areas of interest to them has resulted from the failure of major trading
partners to fully and faithfully meet their obligations, particularly in
respect of textiles and clothing. They therefore urge that the question of
the implementation of Marrakesh Agreements and Decisions be addressed and
resolved at Seattle by the Third Ministerial Conference of the WTO. In
particular, the special and differential provisions in the WTO multilateral
trade agreements, many of a "best endeavour" nature, which have largely
remained unimplemented, must be operationalized if the developing countries
are to derive the expected benefits...

In the field of agriculture, the Ministers' objective is to incorporate the
sector within normal WTO rules, while addressing the particular problems of
predominantly agrarian and small island developing economies and net
food-importing developing countries. And it cannot be emphasized enough
that the crucial question here is access. In the real world, integration
means access. The Ministers therefore call upon developed countries to
demonstrate a firm and unequivocal commitment to opening their markets to
the exports of developing countries, and to provide duty free and quota
free access for the exports of the least developed countries. This should
be done without affecting WTO Members' existing commitments relating to
preferential schemes. Any future negotiations should address the
elimination of tariff peaks and tariff escalation and should introduce
further disciplines to prevent the abuse of measures such as anti-dumping,
countervailing duties and safeguard actions, sanitary and phytosanitary
regulations and technical barriers to trade, as well as to prevent the
apparent revival of the use of voluntary export restraints. The work
programme on the harmonization of non-preferential rules of origin should
be achieved rapidly, to attain simplified, harmonized and more transparent
rules...

As you know, the developing countries have played a proactive role in the
preparations for Seattle, and this is no accident. At Marrakesh, the
Ministers declared that they will collectively pursue a positive agenda for
future multilateral trade negotiations and that such negotiations should
also pay particular attention to such issues as transfer of technology,
appropriate safeguards for developing countries, credit for autonomous
liberalization, export finance, commodity markets and the integration of
the developing countries into the multilateral trading system on equitable
terms.

The Ministers further declared that negotiations should make operational
the provisions under the TRIPS Agreement relating to the transfer of
technology, to the mutual advantage of producers and users of technological
knowledge, and seek mechanisms for a balanced protection of biological
resources and disciplines to protect traditional knowledge; they should
enable developing countries under the TRIMs Agreement and the Agreement on
Subsidies and Countervailing Measures to use measures necessary to
implement their policies for development and export diversification and
upgrading...

Let me make clear at the outset that the Members of the Group of 77 and
China are unanimous in recognizing the importance of labour standards and
the welfare of workers in general throughout the world. This is clearly an
important feature of development. The Group of 77 is therefore ready and
willing to discuss these issues. However, two things must be emphasized.

Firstly, and as explicitly stated at Marrakesh by the Ministers of the G-77
and China, the developing countries are firmly opposed to any linkage
between labour standards and trade. And secondly - and this follows on
logically from the first point - the question of labour standards should be
dealt with by the competent international organizations and not by the WTO.
And in this we are simply endorsing the position established in the
Singapore Ministerial Declaration. Let me just recall that, on the question
of core labour standards, the Declaration stated unequivocally that the
International Labour Organization is the competent body to set and deal
with these standards. This is the position of the Group of 77 and China.

And of course, when we do discuss labour standards in the ILO, we will base
ourselves on the principle, also agreed upon at Singapore, that the
comparative advantage of countries, particularly low-wage developing
countries, must in no way be put into question...

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

No to the WTO, No New Round - Turn Around

Statement of Southern and East African popular organisations, Harare 6 - 8
October 1999


Popular organisations of civil society from Southern and East African
countries met in Harare, Zimbabwe from 6 - 8 October 1999 to analyse the
impact of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on our regions and to develop
common strategies in the context of the coming Seattle Ministerial Meeting
of the WTO. Our delegations come from South Africa, Swaziland, Namibia,
Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Mauritius Uganda, Kenya and Ghana.

We observed that since the launch of the WTO in 1994 there has been, as a
result of economic liberalisation and privatisation in the South, a process
of deindustrialisation, destruction of social services leading to huge job
losses and mass impoverishment of our people. The WTO has facilitated the
further concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few
transnational corporations and finance capital based in the highly
industrialised countries of the North and tiny elites in the South.

The WTO is illegitimate because it serves as an instrument for the
acceleration of globalisation in the interests of capital and represents a
new form of colonisation. We must put a halt to this. In this context our
people are faced with the challenge of launching a new struggle for
"independence" based on alternative values and development strategies. This
requires the development of a new emancipatory project based on people to
people solidarity and co-operation. Relevant and democratic international
and regional institutions must emerge that promote this alternative.

At the WTO Seattle meeting a few countries in the North propose to initiate
a new round, the so-called "Millennium Round". They want to establish a
series of new "agreements" on investment, government procurement,
competition policy and accelerated tariff reduction to ensure that they are
able to gain even greater control over our resources and markets as well as
the further exploitation of our people.

The "Millennium Round" represents a great danger to the future of our
region and the people of Africa. We are united in the belief that the
Seattle WTO meeting should not agree to the opening of a NEW ROUND. It is
not an inevitability. Instead we echo the call made by more than 1300 civil
society organisations internationally to say "NO NEW ROUND, TURN AROUND".

We call on the people of our region and our social movements, the trade
unions, women's youth movements, civic and religious organisations,
consumer groups and others to mobilise against the WTO and the new
"Millennium Round". This campaign must be part of the on-going struggles
against unemployment, poverty and social inequality.

We call on our heads of states:

*To firmly say no to the proposed Millennium Round; *To use their voting
rights in the WTO to block any new issues coming on to the WTO agenda; *To
ensure a thorough review and transformation of the existing WTO agreements;

We resolve to:

*Raise awareness of citizens on the damaging effects of the policies of the
WTO, IMF and the World Bank;
*Mobilise our people and our organisations in Africa in a day of action on
the 17 November against the WTO and a new "Millennium Round";
*Send a strong delegation to Seattle to be part of the global mass campaign
to stop the new round and to ensure that our governments resist the
pressure for further economic liberalisation;
*Develop further co-operation between popular organisations in the Southern
African region as part of our efforts to oppose the neoliberal assault and
promote alternative strategies.

Participants: Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union, Afrodad, IRED, MWENGO
(Southern and East Africa), Ecumenical Support Services, Ecumenical
Documentation and Information Centre in Southern Africa; - Zimbabwe;
Mozambican Coalition for Economic Justice - Mozambique; Lalit; Ledikasyon
Pu Travayer - Mauritius; Third World Network (Africa), Africa Trade Network
- Ghana; Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit, - Namibia; Dept Political
Studies University of Swaziland - Swaziland; Ugandan Human Rights
Commission, Consumers International, Uganda consumers Protection
Association - - Uganda; Food and Allied Workers Union Motheho Integrity
Consultants, Oxfam GB, Centre for Southern African Studies, University of
the Western Cape, Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) -
South Africa

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From: "Chris Drew" <cdrew#@orion.it.luc.edu>
To: <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>
Subject: Seattle - Artis the Spoonman
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 00:18:55 -0600

Dear Artis the Spoonman, Thank you for your report from Seattle. The next
decade, I predict will be a shift of the pendulum to an aware time as were
the 1960's and 70's. The Internet will make our ability to network to
multiply our effect and spread it hydra-like with many heads.

I could not be in Seattle, but we have built a community art base in
Chicago that is actively preparing to participate in true empowerment.
These will be difficult heady times that try our survival skills and excite
our imaginations. The conditions for a ground swell are present. Let it
come!

We built the "Art of the T-shirt" as a community exhibit in Public
Libraries with only volunteers - without any paid staff. We maintained a
Screen Print Workshop for Artists for six years with volunteer artists
teaching many artists from around Chicago how to screen print their black &
white art. Why black & white? Because we could not afford to teach or
promote color and we knew in the hands of an artist - black & white is a
powerful - high impact - medium. Check out ART-ACT, the Anti-Racist T-shirt
Art Contest Tour. It is also an exhibit. We allow artists to show color
work in under 100Kb GIF or JPG files. Presently, only line copy black &
white work is allowed in the contest. This is an unfunded artist
elbow-greased initiative.

Chris Drew       <mailto:umcac@art-teez.org>
Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center
http://www.art-teez.org   We dress Chicago and the
Internet in t-shirt art.  Come get some! 773/561-7676


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