Prattle about Seattle

>> Montrealers return from the WTO protests with stories of gassing, trashing and activist in-fighting

by JOHN EDMONDS

Sketching a diagram like some kind of military strategist, Montrealer Philippe Duhamel draws a circle in the centre of the intersection of Pike Street and 6th Avenue in downtown Seattle, where he was on Tuesday, November 30.

"This was a ring of civil disobedience people," explains Duhamel, the man who marshaled the anarchist troops here for the 1998 anti-MAI protests at the Montreal Sheraton Centre. "They held hands, and their hands were inside specially made concrete blocks, so the police wouldn't be able to separate them by hitting their knuckles. They were supported by another ring of people, with lots of others all around. There was drumming, singing. This happened at a dozen intersections all around the site, locking out the delegates to the WTO meetings."

He then draws a handful of dark lines at strategic points near the rings. "These were the riot cops."

Police response was rather discreet at first, says Duhamel. WTO delegates were kept away, delaying the meetings; activists were not muscled out. Then, around 9:30 a.m., things got tense. "I think there were two police warnings," he said. "Then we saw that the police had put on their gas masks--and that made an impression. They used the weaker pepper gas at first, but it was bad enough."

The protesters held their ground, and were reinforced at around noon by a 30,000 strong labour-led "Peoples' March"--chanting, banner waving, equipped with an anarchist marching band, people dressed as butterflies on stilts and other festoonery--which had started at a stadium about a kilometre from the site. "Then it was really packed, and the cops just couldn't clear out that many people, so the conference was delayed. There was a clear sense of victory in the streets. We had won the day."

But not the night. "It was during the clean-up operation after dark that they used the CS tear gas," he said, showing a picture of a small group of young protesters with running eyes and noses, one fellow's face swollen and red as a beet.

Another Montrealer, Laure Waridel, a member of the eco-group Equiterre which spearheaded Montreal's fair-trade coffee distribution, was also in Seattle that day. She says the event was inspiring but surreal: "There were people dressed as turtles walking hand in hand with big trucker guys from the Teamster's Union," she said. "And then the gas and concussion grenades. It was like a movie."

Montreal's mini-Seattle

The Battle in Seattle did rattle--but not break--some windows here at home. Buoyed by the events on the west coast, Montreal activists held their own demo last Friday--a tiny sympathetic echo of the WTO mega-protests. At 2:30 p.m., about 400 protesters left Berri Square and marched about the downtown core for a few hours, shouting slogans like "No Justice, no peace! Fuck the police!"

Perhaps the most interesting moment came when a small group of protesters spontaneously entered the Bay on Ste-Catherine, sending a wave of motley colour and anti-Muzak energy through the glistening perfume and cosmetics department. Most workers and shoppers gaped in surprise, while a few snickered maliciously.

One woman, who was putting on make-up in front of a small mirror, completely ignored the entire event--twenty screaming youth two metres from her elbow--as she blandly did her lashes. The group chanted anti-corporate slogans, waved signs and stomped from one end of the store to the other, finally exiting the same way they came in. As they left, there was a brief vacuum in the centre aisle, and then the scene re-wove itself into what it had been before: Muzak tinkled, the crowd murmured and moved about semi-randomly, and the spell was broken as if it had never happened.

Peaceniks versus anarchists

Will Seattle's effects dissipate just as fast? Not likely, considering all the mayhem. It's a matter of record that police gassed, fired rubber-coated bullets and used concussion grenades against non-violent demonstrators--as is the vandalism and looting by some of the demonstrators. The vandalism helped get the story reported around the world, but it also earned disdain against the anti free-trade movement.

The relationship between the peaceful protesters and the anarchist "men in black" is quite complex. There were eyewitness accounts of violence by masked men against other peaceful protesters who were trying to dissuade them from vandalism; there were also stories of anarchists being cheered on as they trashed stores like Nike boutiques and The Gap.

The dominant consensus among activists about the vandalism in Seattle is echoed by Waridel: "I'm against the violence, but what's a few smashed windows compared to the violence of the WTO?"

Says Varidel, currently studying environmental law at the University of Victoria: "The more I study it, the more I can't believe what they are doing," she says. "They are building a global constitution, but it's only about economics. And the economy doesn't serve the people any more, just the multinational corporations. It's an attack on democracy."

Free-trade advocates shrieked in horror at the protests, asserting that, if people really understood free-trade, they would see how everybody benefits. But according to political pundits, the leftist muscle was not just in the streets, but also in a strengthened coalition of organized labour, environmental and human rights groups. As Jeffrey Garten, a former U.S. under-secretary of commerce, and now dean of the Yale School of Management, told the New York Times: "This movement's power and influence are going to grow steadily."

But many people remain oblivious--and the ignorance stretches far beyond the makeup counters at The Bay. Morag Simpson, trade campaigner for the Council of Canadians, was inside the conference centre when the protests caused the lock-down of the building. "The delegates were all glued to the TV, watching the live coverage of the demonstration and gassing outside," she told the Mirror. "And at one point, WTO head Mike Moore came in and said something like, 'While those people are outside demonstrating, we've all just had a lovely lunch, thank you very much, and many meetings are already in progress.'" Laughs Simpson: "He just didn't get it." :