The activists, representing organizations like Students for Fair Trade and Reform Network, wanted to let the media know about November events relating to the WTO's meeting on November 9 in Qatar, and the two-year anniversary of Seattle's monumental WTO protests. But the journalists who showed up were confused--besides global trade issues, the activists discussed racial profiling, criminal justice reform, militarism, and terrorism.
In the middle of the chaotic press conference held in a noisy cafeteria, a cameraman from KING 5 asked the panel if the anti-WTO movement had lost momentum since November '99. Dan Merkle, a lawyer and activist with Reform Network, responded by directing a rant at the KING and KIRO TV reporters about corporate media's failure to cover the movement.
"[KING and KIRO] are all part of the same," Merkle said later. "They all live in a state of fear [in terms of allowing these voices to be heard] that they will be criticized by their bosses, their advertisers, their government officials."
While Merkle and other activists are evidently frustrated with the media, much of the problem obviously lies with the activists' tactics. In addition to a lack of smarts (ripping into the media outlets that actually showed up at the press conference), many of Seattle's activists are caught in an ironic cycle: In an effort to create solidarity, they merge different issues, but those issues get diluted and lost in the process. The connections between causes are complicated and can't be fleshed out in the sound bites thrown out at press conferences or protests.
The sprawling press conference, with its kaleidoscope of issues ultimately calling for an anti-WTO solidarity march focusing on the criminal justice system, was just a sign of things to come.
Indeed, those broad connections, which were lost on the journalists at the press conference, didn't make it through to the protesters either. Those who assembled at SCCC three days later, on Friday, November 9, itching to march against the WTO, literally didn't know which direction to head in. Several people started to make their way downtown, until someone told them the first stop was the nearby police station, located in the opposite direction.
The march started humbly enough. Two hundred people gathered in front of SCCC, expecting a march in solidarity with the opening of the WTO's meeting in Qatar. The march's organizer, Emily Reilly of SCCC's Students for Fair Trade, opened the event by reciting a list of cities around the world hosting protests against the WTO. Obviously, she failed to adequately explain the march's route, which would take protesters around the city from SCCC's Capitol Hill campus, past the Seattle Police Department East Precinct a few blocks away, to the Central Area King County Juvenile Detention facility, and downtown to the King County Courthouse. Oh, and for crying out loud, on the day of the protest, organizers added another destination--the Immigration and Naturalization Service building in the International District--connecting their protest with yet another issue (the FBI raid on Islamic businesses in Rainier Valley).
The people who showed for the march apparently didn't hear about the WTO/criminal justice reform connection. There were the usual "NO WTO," "Save the Turtles," and "NO WAR" signs, many drums, a few kids decked out in black anarchist garb, and endless reams of socialist literature on the college's sunny brick plaza. Only one criminal justice reform sign stood out: a small float objecting to the amount of money spent on prisons in the U.S.
It wasn't a surprise that many at the protest were confused about their march route, especially after hearing two hours of rhetoric about fair trade, workers' rights, and the war with just a passing reference to the "unjust" criminal justice system. When folks lined up to march toward downtown's protest mecca, facing west toward Westlake Center, event organizers were forced to steer the crowd east, toward the East Precinct. After a few minutes, the sign-toting protesters made a U-turn toward the police station to speak out about issues from global trade to sea turtles.
A dozen motorbike cops looked on, waiting for the protesters to pick a direction. "I think they're going to crisscross the intersection," one cop said, finally firing up his bike to escort the crowd.