Jaajef G-L, Following is another e-mail from seattle: Yeenduleen ak jaama Tony ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From: "Joshua Miner" <[log in to unmask]> Yesterday (Tuesday) was a day of overwhelmingly successful protest, direct action and marches, almost entirely non-violent. The day began with a mass direct action to prevent the meeting from getting started and from taking place at all. 15,000 or so formed a giant human chain that completely surrounded the Seattle convention center (site of the meetings) and the Paramount theater (site of the opening ceremonies). Both had to be canceled (I heard figures that essentially no one got into the meeting, and only about 5-10% got into the opening ceremony). The direct action protesters notified the Seattle Police Department (SPD) that our intentions were to 1) shut down the meeting, and 2) to symbolically demand entrance to the meetings by committing acts of civil disobedience. SPD informed us (I should mention here that I was on the front lines from the beginning with the rest of the protesters) that they were not deployed in such a way to allow us to risk arrest safely (basically, there were so many of us and so few of them that we would have overwhelmed them, even in our planned groups of 3-5, and would have risked being assaulted). We collectively agreed not to commit civil disobedience (something that I haven't seen reported anywhere) and concentrated in preventing access to the official meeting. All was going very well and non-violently and amazingly successfully until SPD made the decision to attempt to disrupt our action to allow delegates access to the meeting. SPD tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed and shot (with rubber bullets) non-violent protesters who had taken over intersections in an orderly manner. This caused most of the protesters to either fall back (many of us just couldn't handle the violent police behavior) or to sit down in the middle of intersections in resistance. SPD, having "secured" some areas, fell back and left a large number of confused, hurt and sacred protesters unsure of what to do. During this first gassing, the 50,000-plus strong AFL-CIO/Sierra Club/student/indigenous people/small farmer/radical feminist/vegan/human rights/free mumia/etc., etc. march was going on (there were many union members, but the march was very at the same time, with strong support from all arenas; something that seems left out of mainstream coverage). As a result, the downtown area filled up with many bystanders out to see the march, including shoppers and delegates who had been locked out. It was these circumstances (initial and unprovoked police violence, followed by SPD retreat and relative disorderly confusion, bordering on chaos) that led to the property destruction, looting and vandalism. The rest I'm sure everyone saw on CBS, including the martial law and curfew declared by the mayor of Seattle. Today (Wednesday) began early again, with far fewer people. Some began by trying to clean up the downtown area; scrubbing grafitti and sweeping. But, it quickly became obvious that where yesterday SPD began with a policy of containment and then resorted to violence, today they were beginning with mass arrests and a violent crack-down on any protests. Many small groups walking downtown on their way to protest were arrested for "illegal assembly" (protesters right to assemble and free-speech were violated consistently throughout the day). Once a critical mass of people found each other and began marching, we were immediately confronted by SPD and hearded into a downtown square, where we were surrounded and where the day's first act of civil disobedience took place. About 100 protesters were arrested. They resisted non- violently and sang songs. Interestingly, SPD initially excluded the ss to the arrest area. Things continued in this vain for the next few hours; spontaneous bursts of protest, met by immediate police response. At one point, in front of me, an International Forum on Globalization researcher (Victor Manati) who works specifically on forest trade issues and was inside the trade meeting as an NGO observer, came out to the street to inform the crowd of what was going on inside and was attacked by plainclothes officers and SPD riot police, arrested and charged with inciting a riot. The steelworkers had scheduled a march and rally for the early afternoon (rumor has it that they were the only group whose march was allowed to go on as planned), and the rally was attended by almost every protester. The Seattle docks, where the rally took place, was the only place in Seattle where I didn't see or feel a massive police presence. As the rally broke up, a large number of students and other non-union protesters (along with a number of steelworkers) began marching to downtown. Along the way, in an amazing celebration and convergence (probably the single most exciting occurance thus far for me), the body of the union rally met and joined the younger direct-action protesters and we all headed for downtown. Almost immediately, SPD, in full riot gear headed us off and began firing gas, pepper spray bombs and concussion grenades directly into the group of people (easily 2-5,000). I cannot stress enough that we were absolutely non-violent, that SPD was unprovoked, and that there were no warnings. I felt like we were under attack. I was also shocked at how much the gas and pepper spray and concussion grenades totally incapacitated me and everyone else at the front of the march. While SPD was firing, they also began to move in on us, dividing the group up and chasing us down the streets. It was all we could do to avoid panic and to try and walk away, through the gas and utter confusion. SPD chased us for 8 blocks or so, gassing and bombing us the entire way. Many of us finally took refuge in the Pike Street Public Market, but most just fled (justifiably). Since that time (around 4pm), SPD has continued to attack peaceful protesters, many of whom have sit down and taken over intersections and who intend to break the curfew tonight that we all feel is repressive and unconstitutional. Yesterday's protests were massive, coordinated, successful and, by and large, non-violent. Today's protests were less massive (still quite large), sporadically and spontaneously coordinated, totally repressed and attacked by SPD, and of undetermined success. The violence both days was absolutely instigated by an out of control and horribly repressive police force. Wednesday's activities were marred by huge amounts of police violence against non-violent protesters. Even the vandalism and property destruction that occurred yesterday, and that many denounced, was not violence against other people. The only violence of significance that has occurred here in Seattle, in my opinion human-rights violations, has been committed by the Seattle Police Department against non- violent protesters. I find myself frustrated tonight that we are now faced with an unfortunate choice: we can discontinue our protests in the streets and concentrate on alternatives - seminars and teach-ins that are well-attended by those in the movement against corporate- dominated global capitalism but that are ignored by everyone else - or, we can attempt to fight the Seattle Police Department for our right to voice dissent. Not only are we unlikely to win against SPD, and not only is continuing and perhaps increasing violence likely, but it isn't even the right fight. We are here to demand that the discussion over global trade be broadened in a meaningful way, to allow democratic control of economic policy-making structures - the true and participatory kind - that will hopefully allow each of us to be directly involved in creating a global economic system (more likely systems) that is equitable, sus Power to the People. from Seattle, -Josh Miner ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------