<nettime> Schnews Report on Seven Days that Shook the Corporate World

[schnews@gn.apc.org]

This week's SchNEWS: http://www.schnews.org.uk/thisweek.htm

BARE BREASTS & RUBBER BULLETS

SPECIAL SCHNEWS REPORT ON
SEVEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE CORPORATE WORLD

"They never knew what hit them. They had assumed it would be business
as usual, the way it had been for decades. Rich men gather, meet,
decide the fate of the world, then return home to amass more
wealth. It's the way it's always been. Until Seattle."
- Michael Moore, U.S comedian (not director general of the WTO)

"The very fact that the World Trade Organisation is global headline
news is a sign of our power, for the high priests of capital fully
expected their summit to be convened in the usual frat* boy
secrecy. We have done our part to help blow away both their cover and
their aura of invincibility. Never again will the economists and
technocrats be able to decide the fate of the world...in anonymous
tranquility."
- The Aggressive Panhandlers**

"They are worried about a few windows being smashed. They should come
and see the violence being done to our communities in the name of
liberalisation of trade." A Philippino leader As the gas cleared over
Seattle after another uneasy stand-off with the black clad robo-cops,
word on the street last Friday was that the talks had collapsed. There
would be no millennium round agreement by the World Trade Organisation
(WTO). The people on the streets had won a stunning victory.

And what a victory it was. Who would have thought, even a year ago,
that sixty thousand people would turn to greet delegates of the World
Trade Organisation. Who'd have thought that trade unionists would be
marching with environmentalists - people dressed as turtles marching
with sacked steelworkers, the topless lesbian avengers mingling with
farmers.  Churchgoers with the anarchist black-block. The mass
protests helped focus worldwide attention on what the WTO really
stands for - and it crumbled under the pressure. Forget all their talk
about 'free trade,' the WTO is nothing more than a nasty little
organisation fighting for the rights of multinational organisations to
dismantle every country's labour and environmental laws.

Groups like SchNEWS have been shouting from the rooftops for ages
about this, but no one seemed really bothered cos let's face it
economics is hardly the sexiest subject in the universe. But last
week's event changed all that, with seven days of protest that shook
the corporate world.

"It is important to acknowledge the fact that we made history this
week.  No amount of corporate spin doctoring or liberal hand wringing
can diminish this reality."
- The Aggressive Panhandlers

WHERE'S THE ORGANISATION?

"My mother's a member of the Women's Institute and they organise their
fetes better than this." U.K Trade Minister Steven Byers who went to
the WTO and got hit with pepper spray for his trouble.  It started
quietly enough on the Sunday with a few hundred people demonstrating
outside The Gap over the sweatshop conditions workers have to endure
to produce the company's clothes. Then on the Monday there was a
demonstration by the turtle posse pointing out how the WTO had ruled
America's Endangered Species Act illegal. Later, French national hero
Jose Bove, who recently demolished McDonalds, demonstrated outside his
favourite store as a protest against U.S sanctions on French
cheese. Things were hotting up. The last thing the U.S President must
have expected was to be flying into a city under a state of emergency
with the National Guard on the streets?

"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."
- Eyewitness account from Jim Desyllas

Tuesday morning and already thousands are on the streets blocking
roads and stopping delegates from getting into the WTO Conference
centre. The opening ceremony is abandoned and talks delayed for more
than five hours.  Around 10 a.m we have a taste of what's to come as
riot cops, with 3 foot clubs & dressed like Darth Vader, start
spraying CS gas into the faces of people peacefully blocking the
roads. One man commented, "When the gas masks came out we knew they
were planning to use pepper spray on the people sitting down. The
crowd was pleading with them. We locked legs and arms and I pulled a
bandana over my face, covering my mouth and eyes. People began
screaming in pain. I felt a blow from a club, the cops were beating
people as well. A police officer pulled my hand away from my face and
pepper-sprayed me in the eyes. The rest of the crowd pulled people to
safety and began washing their eyes with a solution of baking soda and
water to counter the effects of the blinding pepper spray."

By mid-day 30,000 trade unionists joined the demonstrations, "I'm not
a trade barrier" reads the marching turtles' banner ; giant puppets
weave their way down the streets, superheroes slide round corners,
cloaks flying, a group of Father Christmases march along waving at the
crowd, doubling over with laughter, "WTO? Ho, ho, ho." A Reclaim The
Streets sound system blasts out funk, rappers rhyming "WTO, it's gotta
go". SchNEWS meet Mexican, Indian and French farmers, Tibetan
refugees, steelworkers, striking cabbies, anti logging and
deforestation protesters, all experts on the WTO, its power and its
direct repercussions on their lives. These people are no random mob,
they have gathered from all over the world to be heard and no matter
how many issues are at stake here they speak with one voice, united in
their opposition to an institution which has no respect for the
ordinary people of the world. They are calling for an end to
sweatshops, to child labour and the erosion of environmental laws and
the third world debt. These people are well informed, well organised
and determined.

As one Labour correspondent put it, "Ten years ago, who would have
thought that Teamsters and kids in dreadlocks would be marching
together, let alone under the banner of "fair trade"? "I never got on
with environmentalists until I realised we were all fighting for the
same thing," said Dan Petrowski, a Michigan steelworker who was made
redundant four months ago. Still, what did that matter to the police
who lost patience with the crowd spraying them with jets of gas like
water cannons again and again?

..................................................
SCHNEWS US-UK VOCAB WATCH
* Frat - fraternity, secret student society.
** Panhandlers - beggars.
..................................................

Meanwhile, groups of anarchists went shopping. McDonalds, Niketown,
Gap, Starbucks and the American Bank all had their windows
smashed. One man from the U.K. told SchNEWS, "Even as a pacifist I was
pleased. No-one was hurt. It seemed trivial in comparison to the
scenes I had witnessed earlier. This wasn't violence against people it
was violence against the property of some of the world's most hated
multinationals."

As early evening approached with the crowds remaining on the streets,
and the Clinton adminsistration leaning on the mayor to do something
quick, the National Guard were called out for the first time in
Seattle in modern times. A no-protest zone and a 12 hour curfew placed
in the downtown area - the first time since the second world war. This
seemed to be the signal for the robo-cops to unleash an arsenal of
weapons against anyone who got in their way for the next 24
hours. SchNEWS is used to a bit of argy-bargy with the police but this
was something else.

BUTT-PLUGGIN' IN THE USA

"Hey! Check it out - these motherfuckers are firing butt-plugs at us,"
called out one grinning member of the crowd brandishing a two by four
inch rubber bullet.

As night drew in the forces of darkness began pushing people into the
the city's bohemian/gay district, the Capitol Hill residential
area. This was way out of the no-protest zone, and it infuriated
locals who came out of the streets in their hundreds. Seattle Gay News
takes up the story.  "Numerous accounts from witnesses all describe
excessive force by police who appeared to have no real reason to be on
Capitol Hill. The area is outside of the curfew and no-protest
zones. One resident told us, "I haven't been marching, but when the
cops turn your neighbourhood into a war zone, it's time to get
involved."

WEDNESDAY

"The intolerance of democratic dissent, which is a hallmark of
dictatorship was unleashed in full force."
- Vandana Shiva, director of Research Foundation New Delhi.

Early morning and the mass arrests begin. If yesterday's show of force
by the authorities was meant to scare people from demonstrating then
they were mistaken. Thousands of people are regrouping at a
steelworkers rally.  People grow restless at the speeches and start
leaving for the no-protest zone. "Whose streets? Our streets" everyone
chants. One man explained to SchNEWS what happened next, "Eventually
we were pushed onto the main road with shoppers, protesters, cars,
buses. They're not going to gas us here, are they? I thought. A second
later an explosion followed by a barrage of plastic bullets, gas,
pepper spray, concussion grenades. Mental.  People sitting in their
cars were gassed, people leaving work. Everyone."

The police say they are using non-lethal weapons but one man reports
listening to a local radion station when a man calls in weeping - his
wife had been attacked by the police while leaving work and she lost
their child - she was 4 months pregnant. A doctor blamed this on the
gas.

It's getting scary, the town centre is emptying of people as the
curfew approaches. The police are roaming around everywhere,
kitted-out in the most bizzare Stormtroopper meets Ninja Turtle
outfits and riding everything from bicycles to a huge tank-like thing,
inappropriately named the 'Peacekeeper'. If you aren't falling head
over heels with laughter, your legs are being shot out from under you
by rubber bullets!

Still, if it's scary for the demonstrators at least the WTO delegates
aren't having much fun. One New Zealand delegate confides in us that
there is confusion inside the conference, and in the evening everyone
is holed up in their hotels unable to leave.

THURSDAY

Residents and students march, chanting, from Capitol Hill to join a
farmers rally, "Ain't no power like the power of the people 'cos the
power of the people don't stop". Thousands then march towards the
County Jail where hundreds of protestors are being held, most not
giving even their names. The jail is surrounded by people holding
hands. A temporary autonomous zone is established as people keep
vigil, sleeping, eating, making music and speeches demanding the
release of our brothers and sistas.  A party evolves outside the jail
as people drum, sing, juggle and dance, chanting "This is what
democracy looks like". At the windows we can see the silhouettes of
prisoners arms waving as they dance in solidarity.

FRIDAY EVENING

These people just don't give up. A couple of hundred have gathered at
the Westin Hotel to support some people who have d-locked themselves
to the hotel's entrance.

It's here that SchNEWS hears the news - the talks have
collapsed. There will be no millennium round. It doesn't quite sink
in.  Inside the Conference centre, the delegates from the poorer
countries complained that they were being sidelined, while the world's
elite held secret 'green room discussions'. Most of the world's
poorest countries have neither the capacity nor the means to implement
even the previous round of talks which finished five years ago, let
alone take on board a whole new round of negotiations, and couldn't
even afford to have a permanent representative in Geneva where the
rolling talks are held. (30 countries couldn't even afford to send
delegates to Seattle!).

One high-level U.S. journalist said, "The talks failed because of the
protests. They failed because of the chaos. They failed because
Clinton pushed the labour working group. And they failed because the
Southern hemisphere rebelled." The U.S. labour movement forced the
Clinton Administration to ensure a working group on labour, which
would, in particular, seek to eliminate all global child labour and
encourage unionisation. Clinton's speech served to enhance the irony
when the Mayor of Seattle declared a "no protest zone" around the
Niketown and Nordstrom department stores but encouraged people to keep
shopping there.  The citizens of Seattle were free to shop for
merchandise made in sweatshops, they just couldn't complain about it.

WE WON YOU BASTARDS

"We want a new millennium based on economic democracry, not economic
totalitarianism. The future is possible for humans and other species
only if the principles of competition, organised greed,
commodification of all life, monocultures, monopolies and centralised
global corporate control of our daily lives enshrined in the WTO are
replaced by the principles of protection of people and nature, the
obligation of giving and sharing diversity, and the decentralisation
and self-organisation enshrined in our diverse cultures and national
constitutions."
- Vandana Shiva

What SchNEWS did see last week was how the thin veil of democracy so
easily falls away when those in power are really threatened. That the
Chief of Police has since resigned gives some indication of how out of
control the robo-cops were.

But what was far more important was that ordinary people made history
last week. The thousands of diverse groups that had come together to
challenge the corporate power that is taking over our world. And for a
week at least, we won.

ACTS OF SOLIDARITY

   * The Longshore and Warehouse Union shut down the Port of Seattle
     and dozens of ports along the West Coast.

   * Seattle taxi-drivers chose November 30th to strike over worsening
     pay and conditions.. When SchNEWS asked one taxi-driver about
     Starbucks he told us us, "I don't drink there - they're
     capatalist bastards." And what if other taxi-drivers break the
     strike?  "They'll get shot buddy!" Just like English cabbies eh?

   * The Firebrigade Union refused to turn their fire hoses upon the
     protesters despite repeated requests from the police.

   * One delivery boy handed over his pizzas to the demonstrators
     outside the Westin Hotel, rather than give them to the right-wing
     talk radio station presenters who had ordered them.

SOME OF THE BEST BANNERS

'If you think the WTO is bad you should hear about capitalism';
'Eat pussy, not cows' (that one courtesy of the Lesbian Avengers).
'WTO - practice safe trade' (on a massive green condom made of 30 foods)

WTO LUCKY DIP

After riots in Geneva and Seattle SchNEWS asks what city will be the
lucky winners for the next round of talks!

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

'THE BATTLE OF SEATTLE'

Wednesday 15th December 8pm

Film and talk by the SchNEWS crew at the Cultures of Resistance squat
168 Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1.

Opens daily 2pm-9pm. During the evening a programme of events.
Squat opens Mon 13th - till 18th
Tue - Expose Cinema
Wed - Experimental music
Fri - Cabaret and Sat?

Cheap cafe every evening.
Space available for workshops/groups call 0958 765151

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

SO THIS IS FREE TRADE?

Many western multi-nationals hop and skip between the North and South,
relocating to discourage unionisation or to keep wages low. Nike first
started to manufacture its trainers in Taiwan and South Korea. When
workers attempted to organise for better wages in the 1970's, Nike
pulled out and started production in the Peoples Republic of China and
Vietnam, where the workers can be paid 19 cents or less an hour to
produce $100 trainers.

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

WORLD TYRANNY ORDER

"The rules set by the secretive WTO violate principles of human rights
and ecological survival. They violate rules of justice and
sustainability.  They are rules of warfare against the people and the
planet. Changing these rules is the most important democratic and
human rights struggle of our times. It is a matter of survival."
- Vandana Shiva, Director of the Research Foundation for Science and
  Ecology

The World Trade Organisation isn't familiar to most people, but it
should be. It is, essentially, our unelected global government. Again
and again we hear homage to the 'free market'. 'Liberalisation' is the
mantra of global decision making. Reduce government rules and the free
market will bring about economic growth which benefits us all, we are
promised.  But reality is very different. For most of the world, we
are anything but free. The giant multinationals are concentrating
power and wealth at an alarming rate. Just one man, Bill Gates, has as
much money as 450 million of the world's poorest people. The WTO has
become the vehicle for liberalisation, with the multinationals at the
wheel. It has the power to punish governments who 'interfere' with
free trade, leaving the field wide open for multinationals in pursuit
of profit.

WHAT'S THE SCORE, CORPORATE WHORE?

The WTO came into existence on the 1st January 1995 promising the
world enormous economic gains. Instead its rulings have produced a
"race to the bottom" in labour, social and environmental laws. Since
it was created, every environmental, health or safety policy it has
had to rule on, has been deemed an illegal trade barrier.

In fact the very threat of being taken to the WTO court has made
countries water down legislation.

And who makes these rulings? The majority of the tribunals are made up
of men that meet in secret in Geneva, relying on documents never made
public and on anonymous "experts" to make decisions and issue reports
that the public cannot see until the hearing. There is no appeal
procedure. Once a tribunal has declared a country's law WTO illegal,
the country must change its law or facetradesanctions.

Developing countries generally do not have the money and expertise
either to bring cases to the WTO or defend themselves before the WTO,
thus enabling powerful companies and countries to flex their muscles,
make threats and generally act like bully boys.

"In its short five years of existence, the WTO has had wide-ranging
impacts on jobs, wages and livelihoods and on international and
domestic environmental, health and food safety laws as well as
economic development, human rights, global trade and investment. These
impacts have not been systematically studied nor have they been well
covered in the press. As a consequence, most people around the globe
lack an awareness that their lives, livelihoods, food and environment
- indeed, their very futures - are being shaped by a powerful new
institution."
- Vandana Shiva, Public Citizen

DON'T BELIEVE US?

"Free trade is not leading to freedom; it is leading to
slavery. Diverse life forms are being enslaved through patents on
life, farmers are being enslaved into hi-tech slavery, and countries
are being enslaved into debt and dependence and destruction of their
domestic economies."
- Vandana Shiva

Here are just some of the lesser known examples in the WTO's 'Race To
The Bottom'

U.S. Weakens Clean Air Act

The first attack on environmental laws came just a few months after
the WTO was introduced. Venezuela challenged a US Clean Air Act
regulation that required gas refiners to produce cleaner
petrol. Venuzuela claimed it was biased against foreign refiners who
could not meet the high standards.  Despite getting no-where by
lobbying Congress or by appealing through the state courts, the usual
democratic and judicial systems, they finally went to the newly
established, unelected, unaccountable WTO.

A WTO panel ruled against the US law as it was a barrier to Venuzuelan
trade, allowing countries to now export dirty petrol which results in
ozone depletion, smog, health problems, etc.

Child labour

In WTO rulings, there is no discrimination (good so far..) between
products on the basis of where or how they are produced ( Oh..) It is
the final product to be traded that counts, at the minimum possible
cost, rather than the conditions under which the product is
made. Child labour, forced labour and sweat-shops all help to bring
the cost of trading down and keep the WTO bully-boys happy.

Voluntary eco-labelling could be illegal

Eco-labelling is a hot and sweaty subject in the WTO, with many far
reaching consequences if they ever reach a final verdict. Labelling
gives a consumer choice between ethical and non ethical products. It
doesn't mean that companies must abide by certain ecologically sound
standards, rather it is an incentive for certain companies to make
their products more appealing to the ethical consumer. The WTO is
pushing to forbid such distinctions as it discriminates products on
the basis of where and how particular goods are made (see 'child
labour example'), which is WTO illegal. The choice for ethical
consumption therefore becomes a barrier to trade. In the case of
"dolphin safe" labelling on tuna in the US, despite much publicity
over the issue, fisherfolk are still allowed to use the large nets
that kill dolphins, and use the dolphin safe labels, as long as they
return to shore claiming that no dolphins were caught in their net.

GMO labelling is WTO-illegal

Likewise, potentially damaging foodstuffs are not allowed to be
distinguished from definitely safe alternatives. Hazards such as
allergies to hidden ingredients, and the ethical choices of
vegetarians and religious believers are entirely overlooked . US
delegates are hell bent on protecting industry at any costs. This is
despite polls showing 93% of Americans favour labelling of gmo
products.

WTO limits access to medicines in poor nations

Patents are the ultimate in corporate ownership, giving pharmaceutical
companies exclusive rights on particular medication, taking control of
local markets and resources. After 7 years of US pressure and threats,
Thailand finally gave in and amended its 1992 Patent law by disbanding
their Pharmaceutical Review Board (PRB), which controlled medical
prices in the country, as it went against WTO rules.

Infant Formula Law weakened

Guatamala passed a law, based on the World Health Organisation (WHO)
code, restricting the promotion of infant baby milk formula over
breast milk for infants. This included banning packaging and
advertising that may mislead illiterate parents into associating the
formula with the good health of their child. This infuriated Gerber
Foods, multi-national baby food manufacturers, whose trademark depicts
a fat healthy baby. Gerber threatened Guatamala with WTO action under
its Trademark Protection laws.  The mere threat of WTO action was
taken seriously by the Guatemalan Government who subsequently changed
their law in favour of Gerber! Milk substitutes have been responsible
for the deaths of 1.5 million infants a year according to UNICEF.

Small business over megastores

The WTO pampers to the needs of multinational companies rather than
small localised businesses. Many of the trading rules implemented
actually work adversely for smaller companies; chartering banks in
foreign countries, relocating factories, acquiring foreign firms and
global marketing campaigns.

Burmese dictatorship law challenged

Massachusetts stopped contracts with companies that have links with
Burma, a nation renowned for human rights abuses through its military
regime. This action protects the tax-payer from supporting the
dictatorship. Yet by considering human rights issues, the WTO claims
that Burma is at a disadvantage. Military dictatorship is, after all,
irrelevant to trade (Hmmm..).

CANADA GROVELLING TO WTO

Canada has been one of the leading advocates in asking other nations
to rethink their environmental laws in accordance with WTO
standards. Canada is intent on selling off its old growth forests and
natural resources, reducing their own environmental protection budgets
by more than 40%, in the drive for economic profit. Canada is
concerned over the EU's decision to restrict both the consumption of
seal pelts and the purchases of furs from animals trapped in inhumane
ways. Canada wants to continue and expand the sales of seal skins and
wild animal furs trapped in the north.  Canadian lumber industries are
also concerned at some European countries' decisions to restrict
purchases of wood and paper products that are clear cut or come from
old growth forests. Canadian industries are challenging these
environmental decisions using the under WTO to try to force the
countries to buy Canada's wood and paper clear cut from their last old
growth forests.

Canadian agricultural officials are also using the WTO to challenge
the US food and school lunch vouchers system. If the vouchers are
defined as "domestic agricultural subsidies" then the whole welfare
system may be come under the tyrannical boot of the WTO.

And don't forget Asbestos-the French have banned the substance. So
Canada, one of the world's largest exporters of the lovely substance
cried out for their trade chums in the WTO to sort out the
French. Canada has claimed that even if the ban doesn't violate any
WTO rules, then they are at least eligible for compensation as it
impairs the expected trade benefits promised to them in the last Round
of WTO negotiations.

According to the United Nations, in almost all developing countries
that have undertaken rapid trade liberalisation, wage inequality has
increased, most often in the context of declining industrial
employment of unskilled workers and large absolute falls in their real
wages, in the order of 20-30% in Latin American countries.

http://www.citizen.org/

WHAT HAPPENED IN JAIL

Up to 600 people were arrested herded onto buses and taken to a nearby
naval base. Most refused to get off the buses after being denied
solicitors and went for over 13 hours without food or water. The next
day people were taken to the County jail where many were tortured. One
man Bistro said he was denied phone calls for 50 hours and had his
glasses removed which were never returned to him. He was in leg irons
and handcuffs for fourteen hours. During the tear gassing session
downtown (the day before he was arrested), he decided to lie down
until the police had run past him. When he thought they had run past,
he lifted his hat off his face, and at that moment two officers held
him down, took out canisters of tear gas, unscrewed the tops, and then
poured the tear gas directly into his eyes.  The medics who treated
him were afraid that he would suffer permanent eye damage and poured
water into his eyes for two hours. But this was nothing compared to
what he and 47 other prisoners experienced in the downtown
jail. Prisoners were attacked by "henchmen" who locked the protesters
together in a circle with handcuffs and leg irons. The prisoners were
then separated. Bistro witnessed guards spinning men with dreadlocks
around in circles above the ground by their hair. "The guards
continued to assert that [they had developed] a new science and that
there will never be a wound." Then he related this 'new science',
which was a form of torture that involved bending the arm back and
twisting the fingers.

EYE WITNESS REPORT

"The local news stations were reporting on the broken windows of
businesses and not the broken bones of protesters. They reported on
things like 'police fatigue.' Which I assume is when your arms get
tired after you beat people for hours. They talked - and continue to
talk about - the extreme 'restraint, open mindedness, and gentleness'
displayed by police."

VIOLENCE BY THE NUMBERS

Estimated number of people shot with rubber bullets by police: 500 +
Estimated number of people shot with rubber bullets by protesters: 0
Estimated number of people gassed and pepper-sprayed by police: 1,000-3,000
Estimated number of people gassed and pepper-sprayed by protestors: 0

ESSENTIAL WEBSITE

http://www.indymedia.org/

AND IT WASN'T JUST SEATTLE

UK

London: Euston station: Readers probably know the score. 2000 demonstrators
turned up to protest against the privatisation of the underground. An
unmarked cop van was overturned who then took over half an hour and
several attempts to set the van on fire! Finally the van caught and
was surrounded by around 30 photographers, at which moment police
decided to clear the station . Lots of good media-riot shots, and -
well SchNEWS is not one to get all conspiratorial and paranoid but the
very next day the papers are full of stuff about the new Prevention of
Terrorism Act (if you're interested in this campaign email
news@bigissue.com )

The Construction Safety Campaign held a demonstration outside the
Canadian Embassy, because Canada are presently trying to get the WTO
to overturn a decision to ban asbestos.

The Lewisham branch of Citibank was picketed by students. The bank is
one of the major holders of student loan debt. This follows the global
trend to underfund and privatise services, such as education, as part
of the expansion of free trade with student grants being scrapped in
favour of personal loans.

Covent Garden magistrates court: The President of Nigeria, and Shell
were put on trial by Nigerian exiles and British environmental
activists. President Obasanjo, and Mark Moody-Stuart (of
Royal-Dutch/Shell) faced a people's court to answer a number of
charges relating to human rights abuses and environmental devastation
in the Niger Delta.  Unfortunately this was only street theatre and
not the real thing.

In Leeds city centre, around 50 protesters were faced by over 300
while they handed leaflets outside scummy companies.

In Halifax a Nestle factory was occupied and a banner dropped
outside. A procession marched through the centre of Cardiff calling
for the WTO to be scrapped. A disused garage and an old toll house,
soon to be "luxury flats" were squatted in Totnes, South Devon.

Holland: Amsterdam: Wot no plane ticket? No problem, 100 cheeky Dutch
activists turned up at Schipol Airport where official WTO sponsors
Lufthansa, Northwest Airways and United Airlines had planes going to
Seattle. Unable to blag tickets for this year's party in Seattle the
protesters held a sit down in the check-in hall.

Italy: Padua: A peaceful demo in front of the genetics Exhibition
"Bionova" attended by the top managers of GMO companies was attacked
by the police. Milan: A group of 'White Coveralls' occupied a
McDonald's, locking themselves on the building front and hanging
enormous banners denouncing neo-liberism and its effects. Rome:
Another group of White Coveralls occupied the HQ of the "National
Committee for Biosafety", hanging banners against GMOs and the WTO.

Germany: Berlin: A parade was held in the city with demonstrators carrying
banners with mock slogans and banners demanding more order, more security
and 'wealth for eels' (a pun on 'wealth for all') confusing the
local police who busied themselves protecting luxurious restaurants and
expensive shops.

France: Altogether 80,000 people joined protests across the
country. Paris: 20,000 gathered to express a range of complaints, for
example some made the link between the WTO and Mumia Abu Jamal, the
black activist currently facing the death sentence in the U.S. The
week before 5,000 French farmers with their sheep, ducks and goats
feasted on regional products under the Eiffel Tower. Toulouse: Small
groups invaded the main commercial street of the town with a
sound-system and hung big anti-WTO signs on Christmas decorations with
long sticks as subversive Father Christmases were busy giving
capitalist rotten fruits to passer-by. Dijon: 40 activists occupied
the Dijon Industry and Business Institute and a bank agency in the
financial district. While 10 of them wearing D.I.Y "Enslaved By
Money?" shirts where blocking off the entrances of the two buildings
using D-locks and arm-tubes, other groups threw fake blood and money
on the pavements, glued posters on the walls and shops around, put up
banners, played loud metallic drums, screamed in megaphones, gave out
free tea, coffee and flyers about capitalism, anarchism and
sustainable D.I.Y alternatives.800 miners clashed with cops,
ransacking a tax office and burning cars in 2 towns in eastern France.

Iceland: Anti-american protests targeted a military base and the U.S
embassy demanding "Yanks out" (a promise still unkept since WWII).

Czech Republic: Prague: Food Not Bombs served up, and supermarkets
were leafleted.

Turkey: The Working Group of Turkey Against the MAI (that's the
ill-fated Multinational Agreement On Investment, folks) and
Globalisation held a nine day 3,500 km march from Nov. 22nd-30th
against the WTO and global capitalism. In Bergama, there were protests
against the Eurogold Corporation, which plans to operate a gold mine
there using cyanide-based extraction methods and against seplanned
thermal and nuclear power plants.

Switzerland: Geneva: At the home of the WTO, 5,000 people
demonstrated, farmers gathered at the UN building and city folk
marching on the international banking district. Meanwhile, electricity
was cut at the WTO HQ for 2 hours.

India: Bangalore: Several thousand farmers from the district of
Karnataka gathered to protest at the central train station before
heading towards Mahatma Gandhi's statue. At the end of the demo they
issued a 'Quit India' notice to Monsanto, telling them to leave the
country or face direct action. Another notice was issued to the Indian
Institute of Science, which has permitted Monsanto to do its research
work in its premises. Anjar (Narmada Valley): A demonstration with
bullock-carts took place, with more than 1000 people from around 60
villages participating in a colourful procession. New Delhi: 500
participated in a 3-day Dharna (sit-in) at Raj Ghat, where Mahatma
Gandhi's ashes are buried, to protest against a proposed dam in
Maheshwar. The following day 11,000 protest postcards were delivered
to the German embassy while a demo took place outside asking them to
pull out of the project. Later a statue symbolising the WTO was burned
at Raj Ghat, and the 500 activists committed themselves to Gandhi's
vision of a self-reliant, sustainable, solidarity-based India composed
of village republics. The week before, 300 scaled the fence of the
World Bank building, covering it with posters, graffiti, cow shit and
mud, while others sang slogans and traditional songs at the gate. The

Philippines: Manila: 8,000 union members and activists attended
rallies in front of the U.S Embassy and near the Presidential palace
to protest Philippine membership of the WTO. Central Philippines:
Thousands attended rallies against the 1995 Mining Act, which allows
100 percent foreign equity in local projects but has been challenged
by tribespeople who say natural resources are a heritage that should
not be exploited by overseas companies. There were actions in loads
more countries but we don't know what they were. So there!

   * There's a meeting to discuss further tactics in the light of the
     failure of the Seattle WTO Ministerial meeting on Sat 15 Jan, 2pm
     Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1.

AND FINALLY

After the protests comes a shopping plea. "Downtown merchants say the
best way to help now is to shop" reports the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer. "Boy, it they want to help us, come down and
shop."



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