U.S. president William Clinton, however, salvaged something from the failure. He used his appearance at the event to increase support for the U.S. government and especially the Democratic Party among the tens of thousands who protested outside the meeting.

The talks foundered on divisions among participating governments, particularly those of the most powerful imperialist countries of North America, Europe, and Japan. Washington and its rivals find it more and more difficult to conduct such talks without exposing increasingly deep disagreements. Behind their quarrels lies the continuing crisis of capitalism worldwide. Capitalist families and the national governments that represent their interests are fighting over their share of the exploitation of the semicolonial world, and for access to each other's markets.

After three days of talks, the 5,000 trade ministers and officials from 135 member governments and 30 observer countries who attended the conference were unable to produce any joint statement. "We could have stayed all night, maybe for five more days, it wouldn't have mattered," said U.S. trade representative Charlene Barshefsky.

The large-scale protests that occurred in Seattle throughout the week, the violent police reaction, and the restrictions on movement in the central city added to the image of disarray. When WTO president Michael Moore said, "If only the world could be like Seattle," the delegates laughed derisively. Seattle mayor Paul Schell insisted that the delegates leave the convention center by midnight December 3 to make way for another booking.  
 

Washington, EU in conflict

Just before the Seattle talks Clinton declared his hope that "we'll get a new trade round launched that will slash tariffs and other trade barriers in agriculture and other areas." The U.S. rulers hoped to take advantage of the long-lasting boom in their economy, contrasted with the low rates of growth and high unemployment in Europe and Japan, to win concessions in the negotiations.

Washington, along with 18 other food-exporting countries in the "Cairns Group," particularly targeted European Union (EU) and Japanese subsidies on agriculture. The EU includes major agricultural exporters such as France, second only to the United States in the export of agricultural goods. The European powers and Tokyo refused to budge on this question, however.

Other disputes helped to shipwreck the summit. The Japanese representatives joined their south Korean and Brazilian counterparts in opposing Washington's so-called antidumping laws. The U.S. government has used this legislation to impose tariffs on steel from these countries and on imports from China and other nations, claiming that the goods are being sold below cost. This remains another unresolved conflict.

Delegates from a number of Third World countries took advantage of the divisions among the "great powers" to stage their own protests. A number, including representatives from Caribbean nations, threatened to walk out of the conference in protest at being shut out of small-group negotiations imposed by U.S. representatives. "They think they can meet in small gatherings and then announce that the two or three most important countries have already come to a consensus," said El Salvador trade representative Victor Manuel. "It is very hard for small countries to have any influence on the process."

These incidents partially and momentarily exposed the way in which the imperialist powers lord over the peoples of most of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Washington and the rulers of the European, Japanese, and other imperialist countries use their economic and military muscle to wrest superprofits from the working people and resources of these countries. They use the WTO and other international bodies to codify and reinforce that exploitation. These unequal relations are generated not by such bodies, however, but by the normal workings of the capitalist system.

The WTO also serves as a forum where the trade conflicts between Washington and its imperialist competitors are argued out.

The disputes between the U.S. rulers and their European allies, who are also rivals, are paralleled by growing divisions over diplomatic and military policy in Europe. London and Paris are heading a proposal to create a European military force of up to 60,000 troops independent of the U.S.-dominated NATO alliance. U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, speaking in Germany on December 1, argued that the European powers must contribute more to NATO, which "looks to German leadership to contribute" financially and militarily.

The French government has stated its concern about U.S. plans to construct a new missile system that would give the Pentagon a first-strike capacity. Washington is pressing the Russian rulers to modify the 1972 antiballistic missile treaty to allow this, but has met refusal so far. "We must avoid any questioning of the ABM treaty that could lead to disruption of strategic equilibria and a new nuclear arms race," said French president Jacques Chirac.  
 

Clinton poses as friend of labor

Clinton did not return from the talks empty-handed. In the 30 hours he spent in Seattle, he presented himself as a friend of labor and the environment. "Clinton Echoes the Protesters' Cries" ran a headline in the International Herald Tribune. "The sooner the WTO opens up the process and lets people representing those who are outside in, the sooner we will see fewer demonstrations," Clinton said in his December 1 speech to the trade ministers.

"The WTO must make sure that open trade ... respects core labor standards that are essential not only to worker rights, but to human rights," he continued in the same demagogic vein. This lifetime servant of capital signed an International Labor Organization treaty "banning the worst forms of child labor" in the words of a statement by the AFL-CIO union federation.

In an interview conducted during his visit Clinton said, "We ought to... adopt the United States' position on having a working group on labor within the WTO, and then that working group should develop these core labor standards, and then they ought to be a part of every trade agreement, and ultimately I would favor a system in which sanctions would come for violating any provision of a trade agreement."

Clinton's performance opened the way for top union officials to campaign more vigorously for the Democratic Party in the 2000 presidential race, claiming that the Seattle protests and their other protectionist aims are getting a hearing in the White House. The AFL-CIO leadership has endorsed Democratic Party vice-president Albert Gore in the race for the presidency.

Top environmental figures who helped organize the protests also shifted towards declaring support for the Democratic Party campaign. Daniel Seligman, "trade expert" for the Sierra Club, one of the "traditional political allies" of the Democratic Party according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said, "They're really good at intoning the principles of the high road on various standards. We haven't see much rubber on the road, [however]," he added, and then denounced two prominent Republican opponents of Gore, George Bush and John McCain, as "free traders." The Seattle Post-Intelligencer article succinctly summarized Clinton's success in winning backing for the party with the headline "Out of the WTO ashes, the winner is... Gore."

After meeting with Clinton in Seattle, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said he had "reiterated... how important it was to get [labor rights] in our trade agreements. The president says he's all for it. But he said he's having a tough time with the developing countries."

Representatives of "developing countries" in Seattle, including officials from Brazil, India, and Egypt, recognized that Clinton's professed concern for labor standards provides cover for Washington to impose tariffs and other restrictions on goods produced by competitors in the semicolonial world. Egyptian trade minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali asked, "Why do industrial countries start feeling concerned about our workers? [I]t is suspicious."

The pro-Washington and pro-company stance of the U.S. union officials opens the way for such capitalist politicians to pose as friends of workers in their own countries. "I think they should ask how the steelworkers in Brazil feel," said Celso Amorim, Brazil's ambassador to the WTO, after United Steelworkers of America (USWA) led union members and others in dumping symbolic beams representing steel produced outside the United States in the Seattle harbor. The protest called for the defense of "American jobs." Steel produced in Brazil is penalized under U.S. "antidumping" laws.  
 

Reactionary campaign against China

Chinese Trade Minister Shi Gyuangsheng said that labor standards should not be part of the WTO negotiations. Washington has used Beijing's "abuses of human rights"—real and alleged—as a pressure point in trade negotiations. Two weeks before the WTO summit convened, representatives of the two countries signed a trade agreement that opened China's markets to U.S. capital in several areas. In exchange, Washington agreed to support China's application for WTO membership. On November 26 the Canadian government reached a deal with Beijing on terms for its application, clearing another major obstacle to the workers state's admission. The Chinese representatives attended the WTO meeting as observers.

Top union officials in the United States are aligning themselves with right-wing capitalist politicians by campaigning against this agreement. An AFL-CIO statement reports that President John Sweeney has "reiterated his opposition to admitting China, the world's most populous human rights abuser, into the WTO.... [and] has promised an all-out effort ... to block congressional approval of permanent normal trade relations status with China."

"WTO: People First Not China First" read a placard carried by a union marshal at the large march led by union officials in Seattle on November 30, the day the summit was originally due to start.

That day up to 40,000 people demonstrated in this city against the WTO. The event was part of a week-long series of protests against the trade body. Other anti-China signs were evident here and there in the crowd, demanding "WTO say no to China" and "China out of Tibet." "For the basic human rights in Vietnam. Kill the red evil" read a banner carried by a group of right-wingers.

Patrick Buchanan was among the rightist political figures who came to Seattle. A former Republican, Buchanan is running a high-profile campaign for the presidential candidacy of the Reform Party. Buchanan made several media appearances in the city. The WTO is "an embryonic institution of world government, which asserts the right to veto laws democratically passed by the United States," he told Diane Sawyer on her talk show. "If we Americans want to defend sea turtles and porpoises, that is our business," he said, referring to WTO rulings that have allegedly undermined U.S. environmental legislation. Buchanan also attacked the trade deal with China.

These right-wingers were drawn to the essentially nationalist character of the protests. Buchanan, who is deeply hostile to the international interests of working people, very deliberately pitches his "America First" message to unionists, and courts labor officials such as James Hoffa of the Teamsters Union. Placards demanding the preservation of "American" jobs predominated among the ranks organized in Seattle by the union officialdom.

One placard carried by a Longshore Union member listed the evils that many accused the WTO of perpetrating: "WTO — —Child labor, Forced Labor, Environmental Destruction." These and similar themes were very common in the protests.  
 

Protests divert fire from Washington

In the different marches many carried signs calling for the abolition of the trade body, like "No to WTO" and "WTO Go To Hell." Others protested against "multinational companies" that allegedly violate national sovereignty through the medium of the WTO. Radical as these demands sometimes sounded, they diverted the fire from the number one enemy of working people in this country — —the U.S. government, headed at this time by the liberal Democratic Party president Clinton. "In Seattle, few protesters bothered to denounce President Clinton," wrote Michael Kazin on December 5. "Nike, Starbucks and the producers of genetically engineered crops were seen as far more potent enemies."

Militant reporters can attest that the protests vilified WTO head Moore far more than Clinton. Moore, formerly a Labour Party politician from the very minor imperialist power of New Zealand, is serving as chief bureaucrat in the trade body. He was evidently stung by the protesters' accusations against the WTO and by Clinton's grandstanding calls for "accountability."

"The WTO is member driven," he said in his major speech to the delegates, "thus driven by governments, congresses, and parliaments." Speaking as the head of the organization that allegedly has the power to "[render] our national sovereignty meaningless" in the words of a USWA leaflet, Moore asked, "Is the nation state surrendering its legitimate rights and prerogatives to global institutions?... Our member states direct our progress.... The World Wildlife Fund has a budget three times ours.... I am, I guess, a navigator, a facilitator, and a public servant."

The domination of the WTO's proceedings by Washington and the other imperialist powers was highlighted by the protests mounted by representatives of Third World governments during the summit.

The large-scale peaceful protest led by union officials, environmentalists and others formed the prelude to the events that dominated politics in Seattle during the WTO meeting. While up to 40,000 joined the main procession through the city, a smaller group gathered around the WTO meeting venue.

Starting mid-morning, police used tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets in their attempts to clear the streets for the conference opening. They stepped up their violence throughout the day, but the protesters held their ground long enough to force an effective one-day postponement of the opening of the summit. The evening of November 30 Mayor Schell declared a civil emergency, a curfew from 7 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. in most of the downtown area, and closed down the 50 blocks of downtown Seattle to protests. The National Guard was called in.

Much of the worst police violence, and by far the most arrests, occurred on December 1. That evening, the cops rampaged through the city's most populous suburb of Capitol Hill, advancing up streets behind a cloud of tear gas, firing concussion grenades, and arbitrarily brutalizing and arresting pedestrians and drivers.

Solomon, a student in his 20s, told the Militant that in dodging cops on horseback, he and other protesters had ended up in a park. One of the cops pursuing on foot approached him and asked if he wanted to leave. "Yes," he replied. "It's too late," said the cop, and arrested him. In the cells Solomon heard of cops spraying pepper gas into the faces of some prisoners bound to chairs.

Two women students reported that they were sitting in a parked car videotaping the police attack on the protests. When the driver complied with a police request to roll down the window, she received a face full of pepper gas. Many other stories are now being publicized.  
 

Cops employed crowd control methods

Many people got a taste of the kind of police brutality that young workers in face routinely in Seattle and throughout the nation — —especially those who are Black, Latino, or from other oppressed nationalities. On the night of December 1 Richard McIver, a city councilor who is Black, was roughed up by cops and almost arrested. "All they were interested in was that I was a Black man who wasn't doing what they wanted," he said.

Throughout the week, the police employed standard "crowd control" methods. Around 600 people were arrested November 30 and December 1. Opponents of the police action gathered outside Seattle's King County prison for several demonstrations over the following days, chanting and listening to speeches and songs. On December 4 the remaining 300 prisoners began walking out of the jail that evening, released on their own recognizance under an agreement with city lawyers.

Initially the mayor and police won some support for their violent methods. A small group of demonstrators identifying themselves as anarchists handed them a political justification on a plate. Starting in the morning November 30, they broke from other demonstrators and went on a spree of vandalism, targeting shop windows and setting fires in trash cans. Looting took place. Many other protesters tried to stop the incidents, and often faced retaliation from the police, who targeted any protesters as the black-clad perpetrators kept on the move. Businesses are claiming that $1.5 million worth of damage was done.

One anarchist who supported those who carried out the vandalism told the media, "We came here to protest the WTO, and to protest homelessness and the neglect of people." Some claimed to target companies like Starbucks for their exploitation of labor. No one, however, claimed that they talked to the workers inside these stores.

Scott Breen, a member of the Machinists union who works at Boeing, reported that on December 1 during discussions in the morning with his co-workers, a number of them tended to support the police actions. The anarchists' actions had provided the police with an opening to crack down, argued Breen, but the cops were looking for such a pretext to step up their repression.

After the police riot on later that night, the mood shifted significantly. As details of the cop actions accumulated, workers started to discuss their own experiences of police brutality. The violence had backfired on its authors, and the cops used more restraint in the days that followed.

Fallout for the rulers in the city continues. On December 7 police chief Norman Stamper announced his resignation. Mayor Schell, asked by reporters whether he would follow suit, said, "I am not going to step down."  
 

Socialists: Drop the charges!

Speakers at a Militant Labor Forum December 4 condemned the police violence. "All those who have been imprisoned should be released, and the charges dropped," said Chris Rayson, who campaigned earlier this year as the Socialist Workers candidate for the office of Port Commissioner in Seattle. Elena Tate from the Young Socialists joined Rayson on the speakers' platform. In her remarks she described incidents of police violence.

The meeting drew around 50 people. Many of them participated in sales of Pathfinder books and the socialist periodicals the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. Around 40 volunteers joined sales teams at one time or other during the week.

Working out of the offices of the Socialist Workers Party in Seattle, they carried out a highly successful propaganda offensive. Discussing and selling Pathfinder's newest titles, Capitalism's World Disorder and Making History, they explained why working people and young fighters need to reject the economic nationalism that characterized the protests. The socialist campaigners promoted a working-class, internationalist course. They explained that capitalism, in its normal workings, gives birth to the crimes of unemployment, homelessness, and environmental degradation.

Working people should call for the abolition of bodies like the WTO, the socialists explained, as part of targeting the imperialist powers, their governments, and their military forces that defend the borders on which they are based.

Tate and Rayson took up these themes during the lively discussion at the forum. One young participant expressed sympathy for the energy of those who had battled it out with the cops. Tate responded by referring to sections of Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium in explaining why class conscious workers never take irresponsible individual action that endangers their co-fighters.

Rayson recommended the Pathfinder pamphlet the Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis, which puts forward concrete demands to combat unemployment and to cancel the Third World debt. Such demands, he said, "can be fought for equally no matter what country you happen to be in. And they help to direct the fire of working people at the capitalist class and its government."  
 
 
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