Just say no to the WTO!!!

An injury to one is an injury to all

On December 1st, the United Steelworkers of America held a rally in conjunction with environmentalists at Seattle's Pier 63. About 5:00 p.m. police cornered a group of 150 demonstrators marching down First Avenue, more than a mile from the designated no-protest zone and just a block from the Labor Temple where the King County Labor Council, ILWU Locals 9 and 52 and many other union locals have their offices. Ron Judd, Secretary-Treasurer of the King County Labor Council, came down from his office when he heard the police sirens and approached the commanding officer, demanding that these law-abiding demonstrators be released rather than arrested and taken to jail. Grabbing his cell phone Judd called Mayor Schell and asked the demonstrators be released into his custody and allowed to take refuge in the Labor Temple. But Schell, under pressure from the Secret Service and under the microscope of international media, refused to budge. The protesters, including many unionists, were handcuffed and hauled off to the county jail. Complete story of the weeks happenings

"An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere"
Martin Luther King

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the supporter of capital, and deserves the Higher Consideration."

From Abraham Lincoln's Presidential Message to Congress, 1861

The WTO is truly the most powerful organization in a New World economic order - run by a conglomeration of similarly undemocratic, pro-corporate institutions such as NAFTA, APEC, IMF and the World Bank. These institutions are pitting workers against each other by regions within nations, women against men, black against white, first world against third world; and are forcing us to fight over the scraps left by a global system that continues to enrich the already rich while making workers underbid each other in terms of wages and working conditions. The WTO is undermining National sovereignty and can override laws made by the United States and any other nation. If we lose our sovereignty to the WTO. Then we will lose what freedoms we have left and have a much greater problem that will be harder if not impossible to correct.

FTAA Protest Page

The China Syndrome - or, how to hijack a movement: By Jim Smith, editor of L.A. Labor News, www.LAlabor.org

The ABC's of the Peoples Republic of China the WTO and the ILWU: written by Dave Chaddock Local 52 Seattle

The DEF's of the ABC's : Also written by Dave Chaddock Local 52 Seattle

Citizens demand that Seattle City Attorney Mark Sidran
"Drop all unjust charges!"

The Ruckus Society (one of the student activist groups involved in the Seattle protests)

Global Exchange  

People for Fair Trade (Seattle’s home-grown anti-WTO group):

Jubilee 2000 Northwest Coalition! Individuals and organizations calling for the complete cancellation of debts of the poorest countries by the end of the year 2000.

City of Seattle WTO Site (This includes Mayor Paul Schell’s declaration of martial law!):