WTO Protest

From: Bruce Podobnik
Re: Eyewitness Account of WTO Protest

I was also at the WTO protest all Tuesday and part of Wednesday,
and would like to present to WSN readers the following observations.

1) Media coverage has dramatically over-emphasized the violence, and
generally (with some exceptions) neglected to report on the overwhelming

number of protesters who engaged in non-violent actions.  Tuesday in
particular was a day of amazing, peaceful marches.  Downtown Seattle
was turned into a pedestrian city, with delegates from the WTO often
conversing with activists in a generally respectful manner.  I
personally
witnessed many regular shoppers, who were in the downtown area for
other reasons, talking with protesters and expressing interest at the
critiques of the WTO.

2) The first acts of violence were carried out by the police.  Long
before
a small number of anarchists began breaking windows (more on this
below),
riot police tear gassed peaceful protesters.  This first occurred at
about
11am on Tuesday -- and at that point only a few dumpsters had been over-

turned in one road and one window in a different locale had been broken.

After this first tear gas incident, the situation returned to calm.
Then, at
about 3:30 pm, police were given an order to clear one key intersection.

Although demonstrators had been non-violently holding the intersection
for
hours, and no property damage had yet occurred, the police fired off an
intense wave of gas and also shot rubber bullets at the crowd.  They
managed
to take that intersection, and then again the situation returned to some
kind
of equilibrium.  At 5 pm, the peaceful protestors decided to disperse --
since
the goal of disrupting the WTO meeting had been accomplished.  It was
after
the majority of the protestors were already leaving that a small group
of
anarchists began breaking windows.  Throughout the day, the approx.
15,000
protestors linked to the Direct Action Network engaged in peaceful
actions --
even in the face of at least two unprovoked police attacks.

3) A small group of anarchists continually attempted to escalate
situations
throughout Tuesday's protests.  I was part of a group of non-violent
protesters
who saw two anarchists with slingshots approaching a police/demonstrator

line.  We approached the anarchists and requested that they not shoot at
the
police from behind the peaceful line, and they withdrew.  This effort by
non-
violent activists to contain the actions of the anarchists has not been
reported
in the mainstream press, but was repeated throughout most of the day
(6am to
5pm on Tuesday).  Again, it was only after the main body of the
protesters
chose to leave the downtown area that serious property damage began to
occur.

4) Wednesday was a very different scene from Tuesday.  The police and
national
guard arbitrarily arrested many people dressed in black (the type of
clothing that
the anarchists had been wearing), and prohibited any protesting in a
large part
of the downtown area.  Reporters from independent media outlets were
prevented
from entering the restricted area, even though many of them had approved
press
passes.  Civil liberties, the right to assemble peacefully, and the
freedom of certain
members of the press were seriously curtailed throughout the day (and
today
as well).

Anyway, I hope this is interesting to some of you.
Bruce Podobnik
podobnik@lclark.edu