A federal jury later ruled the city was liable for arresting protesters without probable cause, and the city settled lawsuits.ĭodson first became concerned about the WTO because she feared it might consider public funding of education to be an unfair trade practice. Nearly 600 people were arrested, some of whom had nothing to do with the protests. ![]() The next day, police began making mass arrests. With then-President Clinton due to arrive, the mayor declared a downtown curfew and no-protest zone - restrictions not seen in Seattle since World War II. Understaffed police stood by at first, but by midmorning began using tear gas to try to disperse the protesters. The start of the conference was delayed, leaving the assembled nations less time to reach agreement on key issues. To the dismay of many activists, a small number of black-clad anarchists rampaged, breaking windows, vandalizing stores with graffiti and looting a Starbucks. Many of the union members’ jobs depended on trade, but they worried reducing trade barriers without requiring labor standards would allow companies to ship their jobs to developing countries. Tens of thousands of drumming and chanting steelworkers, machinists, teachers and other union members marched. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, from entering. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and U.N. They locked arms outside a convention center, preventing dignitaries, including U.S. ![]() 30, 1999, thousands of demonstrators chained themselves together in downtown intersections. The day before the conference, Mayor Paul Schell insisted he wanted to honor the right to protest and pleaded with the demonstrators: “Be firm in your message but be gentle with my city.”Īs the conference opened on Nov. A WTO meeting in Geneva the year before had drawn protests, and protesters surrounded and rocked a bus carrying the WTO’s new director general during an October 1999 appearance at the University of Washington.
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