Independent Media Centre Ireland     http://www.indymedia.ie

N30 + 10 years - Remembering and celebrating "The day the political landscape changed forever"

category international | environment | news report author Monday November 30, 2009 12:24author by dunkauthor email fuspey at yahoo dot co dot ukauthor address BCN > Geneva > Copenhagen

As we still fight WTO in Geneva today, as we prepare for COP15 in Copenhagen

“The day the political landscape changed forever“, was how Fritjof Capra referred to events of N30, Tuesday 30th of November 1999, in his book The Hidden Connections. He was referring to the day when 1000´s of global justice activists came together and succeeded in shutting down the first WTO (World Trade Organisation) talks in the US using (mostly) non violent direct actions (NVDA) in the north western US city of Seattle. This was the event which brought the “globalisation” debate to the mainstream. It has been misleadingly described as anti-globalisation, what it should be accurately described as is anti corporate globalisation.

10 years on and again there is rubber bullets, tear gas and flames in the streets. This time in Geneva, as people from all over the world converge in the lead up to COP15, the climate change talks in Copenhagen... amongst others, the Social and Climate justice caravan.
A thing born once in Seattle amidst tear gas and protest > happy birthday indymedia
A thing born once in Seattle amidst tear gas and protest > happy birthday indymedia

10 years ago today, The Battle in Seattle: yeah, didn't we - shut it down - didn't we

As a lookback to some of the events of those days, some of the things that grew out of that space, here's a few reminders. From what was then a radio streaming network on Pacifica radio, Democracy Now, was there on the streets reporting:

The Battle in Seattle: WTO Talks Inaugurated, As Thousands of Activists Demand Human Rights (N29)
http://www.democracynow.org/1999/11/29/the_battle_in_se...talks
Listen to the days audio show: http://www.archive.org/download/dn1999-1129/dn1999-1129...b.mp3

Today we are broadcasting from Seattle, Washington, where delegations from 130 countries are meeting this week for a historic round of trade talks at the World Trade Organization. Tens of thousands of activists from all over the world–from labor groups, to environmental activists, to farmers, to women’s groups, to many others representing a wide range of civil society–have also converged on Seattle for what the Wall Street Journal has said will be “the mother of all protests.”


The Battle in Seattle: French Farmer Jose Bove Leads Protest at Mcdonalds (N30)
http://www.democracynow.org/1999/11/30/the_battle_in_se...armer
“Shut McDonalds Mcglobalization” of agriculture around the world—a phenomenon they said has been brought about by the decisions and policies of the World Trade Organization.


Unions Take to the Streets in Seattle: A Conversation with United Steelworkers of America (N30)
http://www.democracynow.org/1999/11/30/unions_take_to_t...ts_in
Thousands of steelworkers marched yesterday in Seattle to protest the World Trade Organization’s trade policies. The steelworkers have been some of the most militant and vocal of all the unions that have converged on Seattle.


The Battle in Seattle - follow on audio stories from Democracy Now:

Wednesday, December 01, 1999 - The Battle in Seattle—Tens of Thousands of Protesters Shut Down the Inaugural Sessions of the World Trade Organization
http://www.democracynow.org/1999/12/1/the_battle_in_sea...ns_of
audio - http://www.archive.org/download/dn1999-1201/dn1999-1201...b.mp3

Thursday, December 02, 1999 - The Battle in Seattle: Hundreds Arrested and a Look at the WTO and the Environment
http://www.democracynow.org/1999/12/2/the_battle_in_sea...ested
audio - http://www.archive.org/download/dn1999-1202/dn1999-1202...b.mp3

Friday, December 03, 1999 - The Battle in Seattle: Demonstrators Block Jail Entrance, Demanding the Release of Hundreds of Protesters
http://www.democracynow.org/1999/12/3/the_battle_in_sea...block
http://www.archive.org/download/dn1999-1203/dn1999-1203...b.mp3

Monday, December 06, 1999 - Battle in Seattle: Ralph Nader and Vandana Shiva Face Off with the Clinton Administration and Procter and Gamble
http://www.democracynow.org/1999/12/6/battle_in_seattle...r_and
http://www.archive.org/download/dn1999-1206/dn1999-1206...b.mp3

Jim Page - Didn't We (music song about the day, lyrics at end of article)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW6u75jBLec
http://www.jimpage.net/lyrics.htm#didntwe


A thing born once in Seattle amidst tear gas and protest… Indymedia

Many things grew out of those days in Seattle, one of them has grown from strength to strength and is perhaps the best metaphor like tool we can use to understand the new ways of doing things: Networking, building up and using efficient, open and honest tools of communication: Indymedia. (infos at http://www.indymedia.org/en/static/about.shtml )

The bi lingual film “i“ or ”Eye of the storm”, made by IMC-Argentina, is a beautiful film which shows the birth and growth and magic of “a global network” . It focuses on the rise of Indymedia and how participative media grew during the economic and social crisis in Argentina. (watch trailer at http://ithefilm.com/ )

Independent media films about Seattle N30:

This Is What Democracy Looks Like
This film, shot by 100 amateur camera operators, tells the story of the enormous street protests in Seattle, Washington in November 1999, against the World Trade Organization summit being held there. Vowing to oppose, among other faults, the WTO’s power to arbitrally overrule nations’ environmental, social and labour policies in favour of unbridled corporate greed, protestors from all around came out in force to make their views known and stop the summit. Against them is a brutal police force and a hostile media as well as the stain of a minority of destructively overzealous comrades. Against all odds, the protesters bravely faced fierce opposition to take back the rightful democratic power that the political and corporate elite of the world is determined to deny the little people.

watch film at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-20072061863625...1122#

Showdown in Seattle

The Seattle IMC made their own film after N30 entitled Showdown in Seattle and they should be watched to get a fuller picture. The film has been broken into 5 parts

Pt 1 – Seattle Prelude
Pt 2 – People Unite Police Riot
Pt 3 – Occuppied Seattle
Pt 4 – Unwilling Cautives
Pt 5 – What Democracy Looks Like

Full video is stored on Archive.org - http://www.archive.org/details/ddtv_186_a_showdown_in_s...attle

The Battle of Seattle - from indy street reporting to Hollywood blockbuster

Democracy Now - Battle in Seattle: With A-List Cast, New Film Re-Creates Historic Protest Against WTO (September 18, 2008)
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/18/battle_in_seattle..._list
In November 1999, tens of thousands of global justice activists, environmentalists, union members and anti-capitalist activists helped shut down the World Trade Organization in Seattle. It was a watershed moment for the movement against corporate globalization. The story of the Seattle protests has now been turned into a fictionalized film featuring some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. We speak to the film’s writer and director, Stuart Townsend, as well as David Solnit, one of the key organizers of the WTO protests and co-founder of the Seattle WTO People’s History Project.


film website: http://www.battleinseattlemovie.com/
watch film online (via chinese type youtube) - http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDUxMDg1MDg=.html

fuller report with links etc at - N30: The day the political landscape changed forever
http://itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/n30/

From WTO in Geneva to COP 15 in Copenhagen.... the Social and Climate justice caravan and the battle to change the world.

Two important summits take place at the end of 2009 in Europe: the 7th conference of ministers of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva and the UN climate summit in Copenhagen (COP15). With a week between them, 60 activists from the global South will travel across Europe through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and Denmark. They will draw attention to the consequences neoliberal globalization and climate change have on their lives and show how to fight against them. Together with local activists, they look for alternatives to free trade and the privatisation of resources, and unite the North and South in their fights for another world.


So outlines the Social & Climate Justice Caravan, which is already busy in Geneva... http://www.climatecaravan.org/

From rubber bullets, tear gas and flames in the streets of Seattle to the streets of Geneva today.

Thousands protest WTO in Geneva - Property Damage and Tear Gas (2 days ago)
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/11/442437.html
Up to 4-5000 people today marched in Geneva protesting ahead of the WTO meeting in an International Demonstration as part of a week of action and debate around the WTO Ministerial which runs from 30th November to 2nd December.

The mobilisation is seen very much in relation to the COP15 UN climate conference taking place in Copenhagen 7th - 18th December.

This afternoon clashes broke out as parts of the crowd attacked property smashing windows of banks and shops and setting a number of cars on fire. Police used tear gas, concussion greandes and water cannon. Further protests are scheduled with the WTO meeting starting on Monday 30th November, ten years exactly since the famous Seattle WTO protests.


Related links>

Euronews - They (Anti-capitalism protesters) accuse the WTO of not doing enough to tackle climate change, claiming it is a mouthpiece for the interests of multinational corporations.

http://www.euronews.net/2009/11/28/geneva-ravaged-by-an...tors/

http://vastminority.blogspot.com/2009/11/anti-wto-riots....html

Seattle Grows Up

In the lead up to the massive COP15 goings on in Denmark next month, a recent article "Seattle Grows Up" from Naomi Klein reported;

A decade ago, in a New York Times comment piece published after Seattle was shut down, I wrote that a new movement advocating a radically different form of globalisation "just had its coming-out party". What will be the significance of Copenhagen? I put that question to John Jordan, whose prediction of what eventually happened in Seattle I quoted in my book No Logo. He replied: "If Seattle was the movement of movements' coming-out party then maybe Copenhagen will be a celebration of our coming of age."

He cautions, however, that growing up doesn't mean playing it safe, eschewing civil disobedience in favour of staid meetings. "I hope we have grown up to become much more disobedient," Jordan said, "because life on this world of ours may well be terminated because of too many acts of obedience."


The Seattle activists' coming of age in Copenhagen will be very disobedient (klein article - alternative title)
The climate conference will witness a new maturity for the movement that ignited a decade ago. But that does not mean playing it safe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009...hagen

Related video from Democracy now:
Naomi Klein on Climate Debt: Why Rich Countries Should Pay Reparations To Poor Countries For The Climate Crisis.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/23/naomi_klein_on_c...t_why

Well, the latest column I wrote for “The Nation,” is about this line that you can draw from Seattle to Copenhagen. I call the column “Seattle Grows Up,” because I think we’re also seeing an evolution of a movement that can to world attention on the streets of Seattle. I think there has been a profound deepening of the coalition between groups that are primarily focused on poverty, on development, on debt, and environmental groups that have traditionally been focused on environmental issues. We saw that in Seattle, the beginnings of that coalition, with the famous “Teamsters and Turtles” coalition. Now we are seeing something much deeper.

It is this idea of climate debt that is bringing together groups, like I was saying, Jubilee South, like Action Aid, groups that have been mostly focused on anti-poverty and development and are now are seeing climate change as the single greatest barrier to human development around the world, but also seen the call for climate reparation as an opportunity for, to quote Angelica Navarro, Bolivia’s ambassador to the climate negotiations, who I was talking about earlier, when she talks about the need for the developing world- developed world to pay our climate debt, she says if this happened and we would have a Marshall Plan for planet earth, which is a very exciting prospect because it means you have the opportunity to tackle simultaneously two of humanities most intransigent challenges, most intransigent problems, climate debt on the one hand, and inequality on the other. So, the bringing together of these two forces. That is what’s going to be really, really exciting in Copenhagen. And a lot of the people, a lot of networks that grew out of Seattle are going to be activated in Copenhagen and have only grown stronger in recent years.


Ok, so thats a quick trip down memory lane, happy birthday INDYMEDIA...

Back to Jim Page to finish the story which has only begun...

Didn't We

November 30th, '99
history walkin' on a tightrope line
big money pullin' on invisible strings
gettin' into everything
so deep, it's hard to believe
it's in the food and the water and the air you breath
and the chemistry, the bio-tech
the banker with the bottomless check
the corporations and the CEO's
and the bottom line is the profit grows
the money talks, you don't talk back
they don't like it when you act like that

but didn't we
shut it down
didn't we

November 30th, '99
it was a Tuesday mornin' when we drew the line
it was the WTO comin' to town
and we swore we're gonna shut it down
and they stood there with their big police
they had the National Guard out to keep the peace
with the guns and the clubs and the chemical gas
but still we would not let them pass
and they raged and roared and their tempers flared
and there were bombs bursting in the daylight air
and they'd run us off, do us in
but we came right back again

yeah, didn't we
shut it down
didn't we

November 30th, '99
millennium passing as the numbers climb
and the people came from everywhere
there musta been 50 thousand out there
there were farmers, unions, rank and file
every grass roots has it's own style
there were great big puppets two stories tall
there were drummers drummin' in the shoppin' mall
there were so many people that you couldn't see
how that many people got into the city
and the WTO delegates too
but we were locked down, so they couldn't get through

yeah, didn't we
shut it down
didn't we

November 30th, '99
lockdown at the police line
and they're hittin' you with everything they got
but you ain't movin', like it or not
and they're tyin' your wrists with plastic cuffs
and they're loadin' you up on a great big bus
and they're takin' you down to the navy base
pepper sprayin' you right in the face
try to break you down, try to get you to kneel
but you got the unity and this is for real
and they can't break a spirit that's comin' alive
that's the kind of spirit that's bound survive

didn't we
shut it down
didn't we

the media loves on the glitter and flash
and the newspapers talkin' out a whole lot of trash
about the violence of the people in black
and how the cops were so tired they just had to attack
and the secrets hidden in that deep dark hole
that they call City Hall may never be told
the mayor's out doin' the spin
the police chief quit so you can't ask him
well they can swear to god and all human law
but I was there and I know what I saw
and the visible stains'll wash away in the rains
but this old town'll never be the same

'cause didn't we
shut it down
didn't we

it's the greatest story ever told
David and Goliath, how you be so bold
standin' up to the giant when the goin' gets hot
and all you got is a slingshot
well they tell me that the world's turned upside down
you gotta pick it up and shake it, gotta turn it around
you gotta take it apart to rearrange it
I don't want to save the world I want to change it
don't let 'em tell you that it can't be done
'cause they're gonna be the first ones to run
just take a little lesson from Seattle town
WTO and how we shut it down

yeah, didn't we
shut it down
didn't we

Shutdown in Seattle - 5 days in 1999 that shut down the WTO
Shutdown in Seattle - 5 days in 1999 that shut down the WTO

10 years later - attempts to shut down the WTO in Geneva
10 years later - attempts to shut down the WTO in Geneva

From rubber bullets, tear gas and flames in the streets of Seattle to the streets of Geneva today
From rubber bullets, tear gas and flames in the streets of Seattle to the streets of Geneva today

From WTO protests in Geneva to COP15 in Copenhagen - Social & Climate Justice Caravan
From WTO protests in Geneva to COP15 in Copenhagen - Social & Climate Justice Caravan

Comments (17 of 17)

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author by dunkpublication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 14:09author address author phone

(was unable to embed audio and vid in main article- so they appear here)


To stop your IP being automatically logged by the provider of the (Google video) video content, we have not loaded it automatically. If you wish to proceed to watch the video, then please Click here to load the embedded video player for video Id -2007206186362541122


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http://www.archive.org/download/dn1999-1129/dn1999-1129-1_64kb.mp3

The Battle in Seattle - the democracy now radio archive show

http://www.archive.org/download/dn1999-1201/dn1999-1201-1_64kb.mp3

Tens of Thousands of Protesters Shut Down the Inaugural WTO Sessions

Hundreds

http://www.archive.org/download/dn1999-1202/dn1999-1202-1_64kb.mp3

author by Dunkpublication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 14:37author address author phone

.

Caption: Video Id: jW6u75jBLec Type: Youtube Video
Jim Page - Didn


Caption: Video Id: vUQ_kguI49M Type: Youtube Video
Anti-WTO demonstration in Geneva (euronews- no comment)


author by dunkpublication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 15:06author address author phone

that go back 10 years to the birth of the indymedia network, cover its growth, its usefullness, it being attacked (Genoa) and its continued evolution:

"i" the prequel ( www.ithefilm.com )
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=783868934426854...4159#

This is the 14 minute prequel to the feature documentary film "i" .

“i” is a meditation on the relationship between media and power as it is manifested by the worlds largest all volunteer network of media activists — Indymedia. The feature-length documentary follows the first year of a small collective in Buenos Aires as it struggles amidst assassinations, a collapsing economy, and a whirlwind of political upheaval. look forward to i the film.

"i" - In the eye of the storm (Indymedia Argentina prequel)
"i" - In the eye of the storm (Indymedia Argentina prequel)


To stop your IP being automatically logged by the provider of the (Google video) video content, we have not loaded it automatically. If you wish to proceed to watch the video, then please Click here to load the embedded video player for video Id 7838689344268544159#


This setting can be controlled by your User Preference settings.


Related Link: http://ithefilm.com/
author by dunkpublication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 15:14author address author phone

24 minute video to accompany "i" about the birth, growth, usefullness of and attack on the INDYMEDIA network in Genoa from Undercurrents:

Globalisation and the Media (Undercurrents vid - 24 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6HRt1bH_dw

A documentary exploring how the mass media shape public opinion on the 'War on Terror' and economic Globalisation. Offers a wide range of viewpoints from broadcasters, journalists, alternative media activists, and news editors. We investigate the bias of Television news during the protest blockades of the IMF and the G8 summits.

Includes a shocking report on state suppression of alternative media in Europe. Discover how new technology, such as the internet and camcorders, is challenging the role of the traditional news gatherer.

Director, Paul O' Connor said
"The various United States administrations has spent the last 50 years constructing the present New World Order. Aided by its powerful military resources, alongside the IMF, World Bank and the World Trade Organisation, the rules of global trade have been largely imposed to serve its own interests. This documentary explores the role of the media in this corporate led take over of the Planets natural resources."

Globalisation and the Media (Undercurrents vid about Indymedia)
Globalisation and the Media (Undercurrents vid about Indymedia)

Caption: Video Id: A6HRt1bH_dw Type: Youtube Video
Globalisation and the Media


author by dunkpublication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 16:21author address author phone

Meanwhile today in the US, to mark N30:

Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis.

On November 30, major demonstrations, teach-ins and civil disobedience actions will take place in nine cities around the U.S.—in Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Burlington, VT, two cities in Maine, and Washington DC, as well as several other countries—one week before the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen open, and on the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protest in Seattle in 1999. The Mobilization for Climate Justice, a broad and diverse coalition of organizations working for social, environmental, economic and racial justice is calling for urgent action on the global climate crisis, based on equitable, democratic and science-based solutions...

Specific Times and Locations:

* 11 a.m. CST Chicago: Rally at Federal Plaza, marches to the Chicago Climate Exchange, the first and largest carbon trading institution in North America
* 8:00 a.m. EST Washington DC: March from US Chamber of Commerce (H St. NW & Connecticut St. NW) to other corporate polluters and their lobbyists.
* Nov. 29-Nov. 30 Boston: “Sleepout” on Boston Commons in front of the State House, followed by morning lobbying and 12 noon rally at City Hall Plaza, followed by march to offices of Sen. John Kerry
* 12 noon EST New York: Rally at Bank of America (16th and 5th Ave. nr Union Sq.); colorful procession with marching band to offices of US CAP member Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for Speak Out with climate scientist Dr. James Hansen and others. Street theatric to follow.
* Maine: Rally in downtown Portland; rally and march in Bangor
* 12 noon PST Seattle, Washington: Climate! Justice! Assembly, Westlake Park, 401 Pine
* 3 pm EST Burlington, VT: Davis Student Center at UVM rally, followed by a march to the federal building.
* 11:30 am PST San Francisco: Justin Herman Plaza rally, followed by 12 noon march to Bank of America, 345 Montgomery St. where non-violent civil disobedience will take place

The Mobilization for Climate Justice is calling for

* Drastic emissions reductions guided by science, without carbon trading, offsetting or other corporate-driven false solutions like nuclear power”, biofuels, clean coal” and incinerators.
* Protection for the rights of those most impacted by polluting industries, climate change impacts and the transition to a clean energy economy.
* Re-localization of production and consumption, favoring local markets, cooperative economies and community-controlled, renewable energy systems.
* Rights-based resource conservation that enforces Indigenous land rights and ends corporate control over energy, forests, seeds, land and water.
* An end to forest and biodiversity destruction, and international sanctions and tariffs supported by Indigenous peoples, peasants, fisher-folk and other frontline communities.


more info: http://www.actforclimatejustice.org/n30-day-of-action/n...rces/
+ http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/11/30/november-30gl...isis/

Most recent TWITTER updates : http://twitter.com/climate_justice + http://twitter.com/RisingTideNA

N30 - mobilise for climate justice
N30 - mobilise for climate justice

N30 - day of action for climate justice
N30 - day of action for climate justice

author by Dunkpublication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 16:34author address author phone

The Battle of Seattle 10 Years Later: Organizers Reflect on 1999 Shutdown of WTO Talks and the Birth of a Movement
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/30/the_battle_of_se...years

Ten years ago, on November 30, 1999, tens of thousands of people from across the country and the world shut down the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle. Police responded by firing teargas and rubber bullets. Hundreds were arrested. On this 10th anniversary, we speak with two organizers of the protests: David Solnit, co-author of “The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle” and Ananda Tan, of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.

It’s been 10 years since the infamous Battle of Seattle. On November 30, 1999 tens of thousands of activists from across the country and around the world prevented delegates from attending the global trade talks by forming a human chain around the Seattle convention center and shutting down the city’s downtown. Police responded by firing teargas and rubber bullets into the mostly peaceful crowd. The protests resulted in 600 arrests and in the eventual collapse of the talks, as well as the resignation of Seattle’s police chief. It was a watershed moment for the movement against corporate globalization.

Today, on this 10th anniversary of the historic protests in Seattle we’re joined by three guests. Joining us on the telephone, Norm Stamper the former police chief of Seattle and author of “Breaking Rank: A Top Cop’s Exposé of the Dark Side of American Policing”.
Longtime activist David Solnit joins us from San Francisco, California. He was one of the Direct Action Network organizers in Seattle 10 years ago and is the co-author with his sister Rebecca Solnit of “The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle” published by AK press last week.

Also in San Francisco is Ananda Tan, the North America coordinator for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. He led a group of 4000 Canadian workers to the protests in Seattle in 1999.

Both David Solnit and Ananda Tan are part of the Mobilization for Climate Justice Coalition that is organizing demonstrations and civil disobedience in nine cities across the country today.


WTO Chief Pascal Lamay: Free Trade and Interdependence Help Promote Freedom, Human Rights and Civil Liberties
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/30/wto_chief_pascal...trade

The World Trade Organization convenes today in Geneva for its seventh ministerial. Investigative journalist Greg Palast files a report from Geneva where he interviews WTO Director General Pascal Lamy to see how much the organization and its priorities have changed over the past 10 years.


Democracy now celebrates the anniversary and keeps on investigating
Democracy now celebrates the anniversary and keeps on investigating

author by dunkpublication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 17:25author address author phone

The Seattle Times - Five days that jolted Seattle (
The city's WTO riots marked a turning point from a decade of expansive ideals to an era of just hoping we get by.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010379....html
article with embedded vids and many sub groupings

To police and other authorities watching us from near and far, Seattle virtually overnight became the "how-not-to" model for pulling off a world-class event.


The Seattle Times - Photos captured from the events surrounding
the conference in Seattle Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 1999.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/wto/gallery/in....html

Guardian - Todays fanatic, tomorrow's saint
It's popular to think that the world gets changed by nice people, but the lives of activists past and present tell us otherwise
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov...brown

I'm writing this the evening before the global day of climate action, on the 10th anniversary of the Seattle WTO uprisings. I was in Seattle when the mainstream considered us nuts to think corporate globalisation was a bad idea; that perspective is mainstream now; and I can see the world waking up and shifting its sense of what we need to do about climate change. A quick online search reveals quite a lot of people have been called "climate-change fanatics," mostly for believing the change is real and it requires some fairly profound responses. But the baseline of belief is shifting, thanks to the dedicated and unreasonable among us.

author by dunkpublication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 17:40author address author phone

Good article about from Seattle to today from activist. Found in LEFT TURN, notes from a global intifada;
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1356
found via: http://twitter.com/ussf/status/6207202119 (US social forum tweet)
find related stuff at the SEATTLE + 10 channel on TWITTER - http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23seattleplus10

From Seattle to Detroit: 10 Lessons for Movement Building on the 10th Anniversary of the WTO Shutdown
By Stephanie Guilloud

An article written for the Project South Fall Newsletter
http://www.projectsouth.org/

For five days in 1999, 80,000 people from Seattle and from all over the country stopped the World Trade Organization from meeting. Despite extreme police and state violence, students, organizers, workers, and community members participated in a public uprising using direct actions, marches, rallies, and mass convergences. Longshoremen shut down every port on the West Coast. Global actions of solidarity happened from India to Italy. Trade ministers, heads of state, and corporate hosts were forced to abandon their agenda and declare the Millenium Ministerial a complete failure. We said we would shut it down, and we did.

“The fact is that the Social Forum and Peoples Movement Assembly process actually started in Seattle. The Social Forum took off from the experience of the 'Battle of Seattle' when the Brazilian organizing committee formed in 2000 and held the first World Social Forum in 2001. Ten years later, we come back to where this started. What has been accomplished in the last 10 years? How have our social movements developed to build the power towards real social systemic change in the US? How do we map the new forces and what is the power of the social movement assembly?”
– Ruben Solis, Southwest Workers Union, participant in the Seattle shutdown, and one of the founders of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

As one of the founders and leaders of the Direct Action Network and a resident of Olympia, Washington, I offer personal and political reflections on the WTO shutdown as a major turning point in my life as an organizer and in our lives working to build movements in the US. As an organizer with the US Social Forum process and a co-lead to develop the People’s Movement Assembly, I carry these lessons with me on a daily basis. I offer these stories with humility and a sense of responsibility. When I refer to “we” in this brief article, I refer to my community of young people in their early twenties, living in Seattle, Olympia, Portland, and the Bay Area, who, with many others, mobilized, organized, and implemented the direct action strategies we had planned for months. ...

1)Know your history: Seattle was a turning point
2)Claim your victories and evaluate your mistakes.
3)Make your enemy known: Mass demonstrations are not spontaneous
4)They came out of the bars: Infrastructure and preparation allows for spontaneous action
5)Surprise only works once: Evolve our tactics and strategies
6)It’s not about a leader. It is about leadership.
7)Strategy, please: Action-hopping is not movement building
8)Leadership development, thank you.
9)Guilt slowed us down: Solidarity is action
10)Know your vision: Learn lessons in order to move forward.

author by dunk - Climate and social justice caravan (getting there...)publication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 18:24author address author phone

Economic Crisis, Climate Crisis, Social Crisis: It’s Time to Change Course!
http://www.anti-omc2009.org/spip.php?article8

From 30th November through 2nd December, a WTO ministerial conference will be held in Geneva, a week before the climate summit in Copenhagen. Concerning both trade and the climate, policies that have been pursued in the past have failed catastrophically. Yet our leaders have not questioned them!

The WTO and “free” trade: two big failures

Thirty years of neoliberal globalisation policies and fifteen years of the WTO have done nothing but increase poverty in the South and inequality, unemployment and job instability in the North. In the end, these policies have plunged us into the worst capitalist crisis since 1929. The WTO promises to get us out of it… by beating the same drum: “liberalise” trade. This would benefit no one except transnational capital; it would impose fierce competition that would further accentuate pressure on jobs, working conditions, social security and public services.

Trade versus the environment

Those same policies have also had disastrous consequences on the climate. They have bankrupted millions of small farmers by promoting industrialised agriculture, even though the latter – highly dependent upon fossil fuels – is a major source of greenhouse gases. They have caused disastrous deforestation in the largest rainforests, the planet’s lungs and the habitat of indigenous communities. They have created a globalised production network with high energy-consuming means of transportation, simply in order to exploit labour to the highest degree. Unfortunately, in Copenhagen the players will be the same, and the same interests and false “market solutions” will be on the agenda, though their failure is patently obvious. Twelve years after Kyoto, the CO2 emissions of developed countries have risen to higher levels than ever before.

Tempted by the Titanic?

Neither the socioeconomic crisis nor the environmental crisis will be resolved by the same logic that created them. The current economic system has brought about poverty, inequalities and wars; it has thrust us into the worst crisis since World War II. Today we are confronted with the ever more pressing need to give up on the absurd idea of infinite growth on a finite planet. But our leaders, whether in thrall to the well-to-do or debilitated by tunnel vision, are not looking for a way out. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, the interests of society and the environment must trump blind profit. We can live well – and actually live better – if we do away with the unsustainable waste of a system in which the pursuit of profit forces us to either seek unlimited growth or go bust trying.

Hundreds of representatives of grassroots movements from all over the world will be in Geneva and then in Copenhagen to demand a radical change of direction. Let’s all meet in Geneva and…

Mobilise against the WTO, because building a better world is an urgent issue! Demonstration: Place Neuve, Saturday 28th November, 2p.m.

Other action will be taken during the summit.

______________________________________________________________

Climate and social justice caravan - participants in the fight for survival

http://www.climatecaravan.org/
reader - http://www.climatecaravan.org/images/Caravan_bulletin_0...9.pdf

People who travelled to participate peacefully in the demonstrations, on behalf of their communities at home:

Filippino campaigner at WTO protest in Geneva 28 Nov 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUBFdSV1WTg

Wilfredo Marbella from the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines) describes the impacts of WTO policies in his country

South Korean farmer at WTO protest in Geneva, November 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ27n7oT7iY

Haesook Kim is a member of La Via Campesina, international peasant movement in South Korea. She describes why she is at the WTO protest in Geneva on 28 November 2009 and the impact that WTO rules is having on agriculture at home

more people from abroad videos from
The World Development Movement: Justice for the World's Poor (WDMUK) - http://www.youtube.com/user/wdmuk
WTO section - http://www.youtube.com/user/wdmuk#p/c/AA573A53CA344BCC

WTO Geneva - fight to protect people and planet
WTO Geneva - fight to protect people and planet

WTO Geneva - fight to protect people and planet
WTO Geneva - fight to protect people and planet

Climate and social justice caravan - reader (excellent 23 pages on trade and climate justice)
Climate and social justice caravan - reader (excellent 23 pages on trade and climate justice)

Caption: Video Id: aUBFdSV1WTg Type: Youtube Video
Filippino campaigner at WTO protest in Geneva


Caption: Video Id: PZ27n7oT7iY Type: Youtube Video
South Korean farmer at WTO protest in Geneva


author by dunkpublication date Mon Nov 30, 2009 21:29author address author phone

birthday salutations are starting to ripple around the IMC family network:

IMC-UK - November 30th: Happy Birthday Indymedia!!
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/11/442558.html?c=on...37979
(with a link back to this post)

Then years have passed since the first Indymedia site came to life in November 30th 1999. Media activists came together for the first time during the amazing anti-WTO summit protests that took place in Seattle (US), kick starting the emergence of a global 'movement of movements' that has spent this decade struggling against neoliberalism, war and environmental destruction.

But this has also been a Movement that has shown a capability for constructing collective processes for democratic and horizontal alternatives to Capitalism. Indymedia is a good example of such a living alternative. For ten years a global network of websites, collectives and individuals have been working together to maintain the IMC project alive and kicking. There are many examples of successes, as well as a few instances where both Indymedia sites and indiviuals have had to face repression and even death in the hands of state repression - Brad Will, presente! . But Indymedia has not gone away, not even for a minute during these long 10 years, and it is set to continue moving forward with new strategies and energy.

Happy Birthday Indymedia! .. and here is a toast for another 10 years of alternative communication and information!

IMC-London


IMC-DENMARK - 30. november: Tillykke, Indymedia!
http://indymedia.dk/articles/1382

Der er gået ti år, siden det første Indymedia-site opstod d. 30. november 1999. Medieaktivister mødtes for den første gang under de vilde anti-WTO-protester, der fandt sted i Seattle, USA, og kickstartede en global 'bevægelse af bevægelser', der har brugt et årti på at kæmpe mod neoliberalisme, krig og miljømæssig ødelæggelse.

November 30th: Happy Birthday Indymedia!! (A lovley big pink b-day cake from London Town)
November 30th: Happy Birthday Indymedia!! (A lovley big pink b-day cake from London Town)

author by dunkpublication date Tue Dec 01, 2009 09:37author address author phone

Looking Back Five Years to the Battle of Seattle (Imc-santa cruz 204 report)
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/13076/i...x.php

At the WTO protests in Seattle, we had a collective vision. We saw beyond the borders that divide us. We saw people come together across every kind of political and cultural difference and stand up in a way that we had not seen in this country for decades. We saw peaceful protests shut down one of the most powerful institutions in the world and we saw a system dazed and frightened by the sound of our voices.

audio - FRSC's Look Back to the Historic Anti-WTO Protests of Five Years Ago (Free Radio Santa Cruz)
listen - http://santacruz.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/6/wto_99...x.mp3
from - http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/13060/i...x.php

AUDIO: This Is What Democracy Looks Like (Audio from the video)
listen - http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/this_is_what_democra...e.mp3
from - http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/13061/i...x.php

Democracy one way, WTO other way - famous banner drop Seattle '99
Democracy one way, WTO other way - famous banner drop Seattle '99

http://santacruz.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/6/wto_99_2004mix.mp3

FRSC

author by dunkpublication date Tue Dec 01, 2009 09:38author address author phone

Looking Back Five Years to the Battle of Seattle (Imc-santa cruz 204 report)
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/13076/i...x.php

At the WTO protests in Seattle, we had a collective vision. We saw beyond the borders that divide us. We saw people come together across every kind of political and cultural difference and stand up in a way that we had not seen in this country for decades. We saw peaceful protests shut down one of the most powerful institutions in the world and we saw a system dazed and frightened by the sound of our voices.

audio - FRSC's Look Back to the Historic Anti-WTO Protests of Five Years Ago (Free Radio Santa Cruz)
listen - http://santacruz.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/6/wto_99...x.mp3
from - http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/13060/i...x.php

AUDIO: This Is What Democracy Looks Like (Audio from the video)
listen - http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/this_is_what_democra...e.mp3
from - http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/13061/i...x.php

Democracy one way, WTO other way - famous banner drop Seattle '99
Democracy one way, WTO other way - famous banner drop Seattle '99

http://santacruz.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/6/wto_99_2004mix.mp3

FRSC

author by dunkpublication date Tue Dec 01, 2009 09:58author address author phone

a few more vid links via this TWEET - http://twitter.com/NihiloZero/status/6220845136

RIP WTO N30
- 35 mins IMC vid
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=554337784275373...8969#

Breaking the Spell

BREAKING THE SPELL - An hour-long look at the 1999 Seattle WTO protests and the anarchists (particularly those from Eugene) who traveled there to set a new precedent for militant confrontation. Rather than attempting to cover every situation at the WTO, Breaking the Spell has covers a few scenes film in depth. It is filmed in the thick of the action, including footage that aired nationally on 60 Minutes, it captures a moment when world history was up for grabs. Rather than attempting to cover every situation at the WTO, Breaking the Spell has several moving montage sequences combined with a few scenes that cover one or two situations in depth. [63 min.]
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=907382760839987...1128#

related -
N30 Black Bloc Communique
http://flag.blackened.net/global/1299bbcommunique.htm


To stop your IP being automatically logged by the provider of the (Google video) video content, we have not loaded it automatically. If you wish to proceed to watch the video, then please Click here to load the embedded video player for video Id RIP


This setting can be controlled by your User Preference settings.



To stop your IP being automatically logged by the provider of the (Google video) video content, we have not loaded it automatically. If you wish to proceed to watch the video, then please Click here to load the embedded video player for video Id Breaking


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author by dunkpublication date Tue Dec 01, 2009 13:17author address author phone

TWITTER #N30 channel at http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23n30

Find links, vids, articles, thoughts as they come in, heres a few:

- KBCS audio reports - The WTO Protest, Then & Now: The Radio Series
http://kbcs.fm/site/PageServer?pagename=specialreports

- The Battle of the Story of the "Battle of Seattle"
http://www.akpress.org/2008/items/battleofseattleakpress

- The Seattle WTO People's History Project
http://www.realbattleinseattle.org/

- The World Turned Out in Seattle
WTO+10: Ten years later, what has been the legacy of the 1999 Seattle protests?
by Anuradha Mittal
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/the-world-turne...attle

author by dunkpublication date Tue Dec 01, 2009 15:59author address author phone

Democracy now headline -

Dozens Arrested in Climate Justice Actions Across Nation
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/1/headlines#6

Climate Justice actions were held across the nation and Canada Monday one week ahead of the start of the climate talks in Cophenhagen . In San Francisco, 23 people were arrested for blocking the entrances to Bank of America. In Chicago 12 people were arrested during a protest against carbon trading at the Chicago Climate Exchange. In Whitby, Ontario seven people were arrested for a sit-in at the office of Canada’s Finance Minister. Four people were arrested in Greenville, South Carolina after activists locked themselves to a 1.5 million pound generator destined for a coal plant run by Duke Energy. And in New York a protest was held outside the offices of the Natural Resource Defense Council. Protest organizers targeted the environmental group because of its support of a cap and trade system.NASA scientist James Hansen took part in the New York protest.

James Hansen: “The effect that humans are going to have on future climate and the future for our children and grandchildren is analogous to the situation that Lincoln faced with slavery or that Churchill faced with Nazism: it’s not a thing where you can compromise. You have to take the actions that are needed to solve the problem and that means we are going to have to phase out coal use unless the CO2 is captured and sequestered but there is no such thing as clean coal at this time and probably never will be.”


Reports are now starting to come in from:

* Chicago, Illinois: Activists target Carbon Trading @ Chicago Climate Exchange – 12 arrested
* Denver, Colorado: Citizens ‘Die-in’ at Department of Public Health and Environment in Coal Protest
* Greensville, SC: Blockade of shipment of generator to Cliffside Coal Plant, 4 arrested
* New York City, NY: Occupation of the Natural Resource Defense Council Office with James Hansen exposing their ties to industry
* San Francisco, CA: San Francisco Climate Justice Action at Bank of America; 200 Rally with at least 23 Arrested
* Whitby, Ontatio: Sit-in for Climate Justice at Finance Minister’s Office
* Washington, DC: Downtown march targets major polluters and lobbyists

Many more updates are coming in from Boston, Palm Beach, Bangor, Burlington, Seattle and other locales

N30 CLIMATE JUSTICE MOBILISATION
http://www.actforclimatejustice.org/n30-day-of-action/r...tion/

IMC-NYC - Reports pouring in from n30 day of climate justice action! Compilation here!
Rundown of the climate justice protests & direct actions across North America on the WTO anniversary
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/12/108480.html

Today, on November 30, one week before the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen open, and on the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protest in Seattle in 1999, major demonstrations, teach-ins and civil disobedience are taking actions place in cities around the North America.

EARTH FIRST - November 30: Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis (USA, Canada & UK)
http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/23426

GRIST - Prelude to COP15: Climate Justice actions sweep the US before Copenhagen talks
http://www.grist.org/article/actions-speak-louder-than-...mobil

More updates as they come in on RisingTideNA TWITTER
http://twitter.com/RisingTideNA

Last massive US eco direct mobilisations:
The largest act of civil disobedience to happen in the US this Monday!!! (feb 2009)
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/91326
+ http://itsafunnyoldworld.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/us_di...tion/

Great to see that the spirit of action is taking off, again, in the US.
Might it spread like wildfire and assist in the massive shut down of US emissions, hope so, expect so!!!

Round up of N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis (USA, Canada & UK)
Round up of N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis (USA, Canada & UK)

N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis - Climate resistance atlas (you have to love it)
N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis - Climate resistance atlas (you have to love it)

N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis - Climate resistance atlas - splat map, I make it 13 so far
N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis - Climate resistance atlas - splat map, I make it 13 so far

And NYC is shut down - N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis : in the streets
And NYC is shut down - N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis : in the streets

And this office is shut down - N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis : in the buildings
And this office is shut down - N30 Global Day of Action on Climate Crisis : in the buildings

author by dunkpublication date Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:29author address author phone

Well things have definately changed, despite from how disapointing things looked from outside, we, those there on the streets of copenhagen, have come even more energised and full of hope due to experiences in copenhagen. The highlight was the peoples assembly, a communication space based on hierarchial organisation, a model that can and already is being, replicated globally, as we built our movements of resistance and struggle.

For links to all that stuff:
Cambiando el mundo despuis CPH | Changing the world after Copenhagen – fotos, vids, audios, commenteries – VIVA PACHAMAMA
http://climatecaravan.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/viva-pac...mama/

Also there was an exciting declaration, the KLIMAFORUM DECLARATION, which has already been signed up to by the kilkenyy based transition group FUTURE PROOF - http://futureproofkilkenny.org/

KLIMAFORUM DECLARATION – System Change – Not Climate Change

The KLIMAFORUM DECLARATION was presented by Ms. Mathilde Kaalund-Jørgensen and Mr. Juan N. Rojas, as members from Civil Society’s Climate Forum Speaking on behalf of the Klimaforum09, in the Tycho Brahe Hall at the UNFCCC Plenary on the 18th of December 2009.

The declaration communicates the diversity of the wide range of grassroots movements that were present in Copenhagen and had been in communication for some time. Together through the declaration, global struggles for climate justice have made a list of very strong basic demands. It is very hearthening to see the wide range of groups from all around the planet that have signed up to support its demands, that group is presently over 500 and growing.

http://www.klimaforum09.org/Declaration

I am hunting around for more info about this at present, I leave you with the audios from the Peoples assembly

Be great to hear ideas from Ireland about how local assemblies are happening there, or might happen, and see if more groups are willing to sign up to the KLIMAFORUM DECLARATION.

From that, who knows, there is a call for peoples assembly to try to set up a legal framework to safeguard PACHAMAMA, mother earth, in Bolivia next april:

- Conferencia Mundial de los Pueblos sobre el Cambio Climático y los Derechos de la Madre Tierra
Cochabamba, Bolivia 19 al 22 de Abril 2010
http://cmpcc.org/2010/01/06/convocatoria/#more-1

- For a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth -
http://www.movementgeneration.org/for-a-universal-decla...earth

KLIMAFORUM DECLARATION – System Change – Not Climate Change (Social movements @ Copenhagen, december 2009)
KLIMAFORUM DECLARATION – System Change – Not Climate Change (Social movements @ Copenhagen, december 2009)

http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/PEOPLES_ASSEMBLY.mp3

THE PEOPLES ASSEMBLY

http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/POST_HORIZONTAL_PROCESS_FEEDBACK.mp3

POST HORIZONTAL PROCESS FEEDBACK SESSION

http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/other_bits.mp3

RECLAIM POWER SOUNDSCAPE

author by dunkpublication date Wed Jan 13, 2010 15:36author address author phone

The Caravan reader is a very well put together document containing many reports and stories from groups that took part, about their struggle against "free trade" and how they are being affected by climate chaos already.

alternative a4 cover of the caravan reader found at http://www.climatecaravan.org/images/Caravan_bulletin_0...9.pdf

Caravan reader
Caravan reader


http://www.indymedia.ie/article/94961

Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.