ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.

More Lessons from D.C.

In his analysis of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) protests held in Washington, D.C., Geov Parrish writes that "it's hard to imagine a public event in the District of Columbia that was so notably white." To simply limit the descriptions of the protester ranks as "so notably white" ignores the depth and breadth of people of color that I met in D.C. during the protests.

I came home from the World Bank/IMF protests invigorated from all the well-informed, committed, and inspired people of color I met and interviewed on the streets of D.C. They had traveled from all around the United States and all over the world to be a part of the protests, and hailed from different generations, faiths, sexual orientations, and economic backgrounds. They were students, workers, educators, journalists, and community organizers. They spoke strongly and passionately about how the World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies were significant sources of their struggles against gentrification, sweatshop labor, environmental racism, the global trafficking of women, poor access to HIV/AIDS treatment, police brutality and racial profiling, and the rise in the prison industrial complex over education. Protesters were D.C. residents as well: tenants facing evictions in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, where the majority of residents are low income and people of color, held an anti-gentrification march and rally that linked their displacement to those worldwide who have been unjustly displaced by the World Bank and IMF.

Many of us marched together in solidarity on April 16 with the People's Assembly, an international gathering of delegates and organizations from all over the world, and youth of color groups from all across the country convened by the nonprofit organization Just Act. Along with these contingents, I marched with environmental justice activists from Oakland, Portland, and Los Angeles as a representative of the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice (CCEJ), a Seattle-based, nonprofit, people of color-led organization fighting for environmental health and justice for low income communities and communities of color.

The Community Coalition for Environmental Justice's local fights against chemicals and corporations have effects on us globally, as well. While potent carcinogens like dioxin have been spewed in South Seattle (from sources like the V.A. Hospital's medical waste incinerator in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, now shut down by CCEJ and local residents), the toxins also migrate around the world, poisoning our bodies, food supply, and environment across countries, continents, and cultures. Boeing Corporation, well-known aircraft manufacturer and local polluter in Seattle's South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods, has also been supported by the World Bank. Corporations such as Dow Chemical, Exxon-Mobil, Shell Oil, and British Petroleum have all directly benefited from World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies, and sought to further expand their influence through the World Trade Organization. These companies are some of the world's leading players in the manufacture and emission of toxic chemicals in low income communities and communities of color around the world, and are the creators of environmental and economic racism on a global scale.

Indigenous communities, people of color, and low income folks are those who are most directly affected by the forces of privatization, globalization, and corporate plunder of our basic rights. We will continue to educate, agitate, and organize against these forces in the name of our very survival on this earth.

Kristine Wong, Seattle

ETS!,

I am disappointed in the article by Geov Parrish which portrayed the protesters being "disorganized," and ultimately how we were "foiled in their attempt to shut down" the IMF/WB meetings. Geov does mention the relative media success of the protests, but the subheading and underlying focus on how "the officials meetings went undisrupted", and focusing on the police response and victories only mimics what most of the other media missed. The real goals of the A16 protests were met tenfold, and if looked at carefully, the argument that the police managed to "prevent [the] protests from shutting down the IMF and World Bank" doesn't make sense. I would have expected Geov to highlight the bright flash of democracy and victories that were attained in D.C. by the protesters, instead of ignoring history as it passed right in front of him.

If we must insist on talking within the frame of the police, then let us point out what the police failed to do.

Police failed to prevent, weeks before the protest, the former WB/IMF officials who came out on the side of critics, denouncing their former employers. Astounding victory was won when former WB chief economist Joseph Stiglitz said the IMF was in desperate need of a large dose of democracy and transparency.

Even though the "convergence center" was raided, a similar, far more powerful victory was won by the protesters. This one the police did not foil its success. A large corporation, called Starbucks, was pushed to adopt more fair-trade policies. Four days before the planned protests, Starbucks was figuratively "shut down" when they caved-in and announced it would carry fair-trade coffee that is grown by farmers who are paid a living wage.

Protesters may have been disrupted by the harassment and aggressive tactics of the DC police, but by that time it was too late. The terms of the debate had been defined already, the public relations defeats had already been won and they were won by us. The word "Capitalism" was used on CNN, and in the New York Times, instead of just "the economy."

The World Bank agenda was hijacked. The usual mantra of "deregulation, privatization, structural adjustment" was replaced by honest talk about speeding up debt relief, and spending "unlimited" sums on the African AIDS crisis.

The delegates had to stay the night in their offices, or wake up at 3 AM, sneak around in costume (WB employees were advised to dress like protesters in a memo that leaked was leaked). The core of the United States Federal Government, and DC city government WAS effectively shut down, a much larger task than just the IMF/WB offices. Ninety downtown blocks were closed off, only emergency federal employees were asked to report to work. The WB and IMF were not stormed by force, but they were, as Naomi Klein points out, "shaken to their very core." The fact that an immense public relations defeat was won by the protesters should not be dwarfed by the fact that some delegates were able to make it to their meeting.

The victories, of the protesters are far more interesting, important and worthy of attention than our "failure to shut down the meetings." The meetings weren't shut down, you are right, they were picked up in the air over the heads of the protesters, and overturned.

Micah Anderson, Seattle and DC protester and organizer

ETS!,

I believe that the differing responses of the two police departments shows the differences between the two cities. Dissent and protest are not new to the D.C. police, I imagine it is considered part of the beat. In Seattle it's another matter. At its core Seattle is still a company town. Despite its oh so progressive self image, after 5 PM on Tuesday 30 November '99 it bore more resemblance to--say--Decatur, Illinois.

There is been a fair amount of talk about Seattle's "soul." One place I would suggest looking for it is on the sixth floor of the new KOMO/Fisher Broadcasting building, across from the Space Needle. You won't be able to access it directly. You will have to take the separate elevator from the fifth to the sixth floor. Once you have made it up there, after looking at the view, look behind you to the emergency exit door to the helipad. Of course this building is fully self-reliant with its own back up power--and water supply. But just in case the investment climate does not recover there is that exit door.

Solidarity,

Griff, via e-mail

G.P. replies: There is absolutely no doubt that people of color, at home and abroad, have borne the brunt of globalization, and stood in solidarity (as is reported elsewhere this issue) with A16. I'm glad for Kristine Wong's letter. However, it doesn't describe the portions of A16 I saw. That included the Independent Media Center and the Convergence Center--both hosted in primarily African American/Hispanic neighborhoods, almost entirely white. The affinity group I was part of was all white, and the New York cluster it was part of was almost entirely white. So was the Seattle cluster. The public leadership (media interviewees)--all white. Just like the spokescouncil, which was also mostly non-local that weekend. Also almost all white were the intersections, primarily to the north and northwest of the WB/IMF, where I spent most of Sunday and Monday. I never made it to the Ellipse, and I never saw the People's Assembly. Obviously, I didn't see the whole event. But the movement I saw was distressingly white, and a movement that's not doing a better job of drawing in, let alone taking leadership from, the people most impacted by the policies it's protesting, has got a problem. I did not intend to marginalize the people of color who were there, but I stand by my comment.

As for Micah's letter, he acknowledges himself that I led off by touting the victory of the protesters. But that wasn't the primary focus of my article; plenty of others can and have covered that. I write for a local Seattle audience, and for us the local story was how--even from a law enforcement standpoint--unnecessary the use of chemical warfare, as practiced by the Seattle PD last fall, was in retrospect. It's also now been ruled unconstitutional, and this is an issue that must not be allowed to die. Official Seattle's political momentum is all toward treating the WTO as a law enforcement problem--how to curb protesters--not a problem of incompetent politicians and massive civil rights abuses. That's wrong.

I'm also far from the only person to note that the protest leadership (yes, there was a leadership) focus on shutting down the meetings painted the actual action into a corner. It allowed media to ignore precisely the victories Micah describes--though I wouldn't put Starbucks on that list just yet. Years ago, Starbucks got great PR out of a similar agreement to abide by a Code of Conduct, which they then proceeded to ignore. Let's wait and see what they do before declaring victory on that one.