Battle of Seattle Retrospective

A decade ago, tens of thousands of people converged in Seattle, many from Portland and Jobs with Justice, to protest the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization.  Directly confronting some of the planet’s most powerful corporations, governments and security forces, those activists made history by successfully derailing the WTO’s expansionist agenda.

Today, we find ourselves in the midst of the worst economic and environmental crises in generations. The same corporate interests activists confronted in Seattle are attempting to exploit these crises in order to concentrate their own power. Amazingly, they even have the gall to have scheduled a new WTO ministerial meeting in Geneva in late November and early December—the exact 10-year anniversary of the Seattle protests.  At this meeting, government officials will undoubtedly promote market fundamentalism as a solution to, rather than a cause of, the global economic crisis.

We need to fight back.  It is time to reclaim the “Spirit of Seattle,” come together as affected communities and take control over the policy decisions that affect our economic and ecological well-being.  We need good jobs, single-payer health care, clean energy, robust banking regulations, comprehensive immigration reform, a strong social safety net and local democracy. The model of corporate globalization being pushed by our government within the WTO stands in the way of all of that.  The Seattle WTO protests were called "a movement of movements."  We need a movement of movements