"Free trade's" footprint a decade after Seattle.

AuthorMorris, Jane Anne

On this Tenth Anniversary of the "Battle for Seattle," we could celebrate, we should commemorate, but we must evaluate. Right, then. What seemed so important at the time? It is difficult to even see back to 1999 without becoming lost among other landmark events soon to bask in their own tenth anniversaries. The last decade's memory palace hosts the Y2K kerfuffle, a muffed Bush election, the burst of the Dot-Com bubble, Nine-Eleven, war, another muffed Bush election, war, the Obama election, war, a world - wide economic meltdown, war, and a "jobless recovery" fueled by a "New Deal"-style rescue plan for banks, investors, hedge fund managers, and insurance and automobile corporation executives. Oh, and more war. Even for those who were embattled in Seattle, who trotted with the Teamsters or tacked with the Turtles, or watched it on television, or read the book, saw the movie, or got the T-shirt, that's a lot of water over the dam. Yet, the Battle for Seattle was iconic.

What happened in Seattle?

At the World Trade Organization's 1999 Ministerial meeting in Seattle, the incumbent A and B Team elites--from the US and the European Union--though not themselves seeing eye-to-eye, assumed that as usual they would be calling the shots on world trade. Ministers from the rest of the world (expected to play the supporting cast of lesser elites) begged to differ, and declined the privilege of carrying water yet again for the usual overlords.

Meanwhile, outside on the streets, and representing the 99.99% of humanity who do not make the world's trade rules, thousands of protesters besieged trade envoys already embarrassed by their own disarray. The opening ceremony for the WTO Ministerial was canceled. The mayor of Seattle declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew. The National Guard and Washington State Patrol were called in to "maintain order" (i.e., protect property and intimidate demonstrators). The meetings collapsed, trade ministers slunk away. Cleanup, recriminations, firings, finger-pointing, bragging, spinmeistering, and trials went on for years. For all the crowing, one might have thought that "free trade" had bit the dust.

"Thousands of people teaching the masters of the universe that they could no longer conduct business as usual." [1] That's how a flagship of the left described the outcome of the days-long fracas around the WTO meetings. What grade would we give those "masters" after a decade has passed? Did they "get" it? Did we...

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