In the Streets of Seattle, Echoes of Turbulent ‘60s

“Mad river of people floods the streets of Seattle. Once in a lifetime experience. Send it to your friends,” newspaper vendor Paula Rozner called out, announcing both the afternoon headline and, it seemed, a new landmark in the rocky history of American political protest.

Not since the days of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement has the entire downtown core of a major American city been seized by popular political uprising; rarely has so diverse an array of groups linked elbows against a common enemy, in this case the faceless forces of globalization.

Tens of thousands of marchers paralyzed much of downtown Seattle from dawn until dusk on Tuesday, forcing a postponement in opening ceremonies for the summit meeting of the World Trade Organization and bolting the doors on the bulk of the city’s downtown retail district just as the Christmas shopping season was getting underway.

“I’m 51. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Rozner said. “But people are moved about the fact that big business seems to put profit above the value of life, and as long as we allow profit to be our motivation, we ultimately will destroy our planet.”

Major street demonstrations in recent years have tended toward the spiritual and the personal: The Million Man March in 1995 called on black men to heal themselves spiritually and reconnect with their families; rallies for gay rights and the religiously oriented Promise Keepers have been likewise introspective and focused on a single issue.

Seattle on Tuesday evoked the days of massive civil disobedience of the 1960s, when demands for social justice sent citizens from a wide range of races, religions and economic backgrounds into the streets. It was designed to be, as the ponchos distributed at the event proclaimed, the “Protest of the Century.”

Rarely if ever have such unlikely groups joined forces in protest. Marching along Seattle’s streets, in addition to legions of students, were representatives of labor unions, rain-forest protection networks, animal rights groups, patriot militias, communists, CEOs, teachers and social workers.

While conservative presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan spoke out in support of the protests, a group calling itself “Vegan Dykes” marched topless next to electrical workers from San Jose, farmers from the Midwest and nursing students from British Columbia.

There were contingents from South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Mexico and Tibet. Longshoremen briefly shut down much port activity all along the West Coast, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, in solidarity.

There were defenders of imprisoned black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal and the late folk singer Paul Robeson. “Bomb the Mall,” said some of the fliers handed out, along with pleas to save the Headwaters Forest of Northern California and an end to genetic engineering and poisonous vaccines.

Organizers credited the Internet with mustering widespread support, both in Seattle and in numerous smaller protests in cities around the world.

“People of privilege are still the ones who have access to the Internet,” said Denis Moynihan of the Direct Action Media Collective, which helped coordinate some of the protests, “but it has allowed people to communicate at least as regularly as corporations do.”

If there was a unifying symbol in Tuesday’s roiling events, it may have been the long, black limousine that was rapidly surrounded by street protesters in the middle of a blocked intersection. With bodies hurling themselves at its hood, the driver--who had no passengers aboard and seemed in no hurry--could only roll down his window and chuckle.

And some protesters had little familiarity with the issues at hand, evidence of the sense of powerlessness that the WTO has engendered even in an era of great prosperity in the United States.

On a nearby shop window, someone had scrawled a message in red paint. “I don’t know what a WTO is,” it said. “But I . . . hate rich people.”

Jean Rosner, 82, caught a plane with another resident of Concord, Mass. to attend Tuesday’s protest.

“I don’t believe we should have the corporations ruining the world,” Rosner said simply. “We work so hard to get environmental laws, labor laws, human rights laws. I just don’t believe corporations should rise above government rules.”

Near the head of a massive labor parade sponsored by the AFL-CIO, representatives of the American Federation of Teachers cruised by on Harley-Davidson motorcycles, followed by chanting Tibetans demanding liberation from China. A large delegation of California union representatives followed not far behind.

“I’m blown away,” said Bill Guthrie, a 28-year-old pipe fitter from San Jose.

“I’ve been in protests before, but this is the biggest I’ve ever been involved in in my life. It’s incredible that one issue can unite so many people. But it’s not an issue of left or right. It’s an issue of top and bottom.”