Library Juice 2:48 Post-WTO Supplement - Library Juice is now a book and a blog

Library Juice 2:48 Post-WTO supplement - December 15, 1999 Contents: 1. Indymedia.org 2. Progressive Librarians Guild contingent at WTO meeting 3. FAIR Media Advisory: WTO Coverage: Prattle in Seattle 4. AlterNet compilation of articles on WTO protests 5. Chuck0's comments for TIME magazine (Eugene Anarchists) 6. New political comix by Mike Flugennock 7. Use of Force by the Police 8. ICTSD BRIDGES DAILY UPDATE 9. WTO Guide by IRC/IPS 10. Final comments on the ALA and the WTO ____________________________________________________________________________top 1. Indymedia.org http://www.indymedia.org Indymedia.org brought live coverage of the WTO protests by satellite feed and the web. The website is still the central distribution point for most alternative reports of the WTO protest. The story isn't told fairly by the mainstream media. It is told by the people who were in the streets, and their stories are at indymedia.org. Indymedia.org did a commendable job organizing their activities and I hope they will stay together and pursue new projects. ____________________________________________________________________________top 2. Progressive Librarians Guild contingent at WTO meeting From: Jeffery Purdue <Jeffery.Purdue[at]wwu.edu> To: PLG <PLGNet-L[at]listproc.sjsu.edu> Subject: PLG at the WTO Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 14:57:50 -0800 Here is an account of what the three librarians who made up the Progressive Librarians' Guild contingent saw and heard at the anti-World Trade Organization demonstrations on Tuesday, November 30th. We arrived at our designated meeting site in Seattle Center at 10:00am with the PLG banner. Although the banner attracted many librarians who spoke with us and expressed their support, our contingent did not grow as a result. By noon, we entered Memorial Stadium to join the last hour of the AFL-CIO rally and line up to march. An excruciating hour-long wait followed as the marchers assembled on 5th Avenue to head south toward downtown. We stood next to a news truck for part of this time. One of us heard a reporter indicate somewhat vaguely what was happening (violence . . . pepper spray . . . tear gas . . . one policeman down, heart attack . . .); hence the delay. He wished us "good luck, you'll need it." It was a huge rally; at no time could we see either front or back. RESPONSES TO THE BANNER The Progressive Librarians' Guild banner elicited quite a few comments. Mostly surprise-all positive. We were quite a novelty. People first looked at the banner, then read it again (just to make sure) and looked us up and down as if to assess what librarians look like outside a library. Finally, they would look one of us in the eye, smile or pat us on the shoulder and express their joy over our participation. Several people took pictures of the banner, and one or two posed with us for a picture. Most people, including librarians, asked how they could contact PLG and what issues we are involved in. We referred most of these people to the PLG web page. One child asked his mother who we are and she explained, "These are the people who make sure Harry Potter stays in the library." She looked at us, grinned, and added, "Among other activities, I'm sure." At one point, we found ourselves marching with ousted BC premier Glen Clark, who commented that his wife is a school librarian. One man stopped and exclaimed, "Aren't all librarians progressive?" GOING IN CIRCLES Meanwhile, an "illegal" mass nonviolent direct action march had begun at 7:00am in downtown Seattle. They had blocked intersections and access to buildings where the WTO dignitaries planned to meet. Ultimately they succeeded in their final goal: they shut down the WTO meeting for the day! The "legal" AFL-CIO march, in which we were participating, had originally planned to merge with the direct action people on 5th Avenue before turning around and heading back to Seattle Center via 6th Avenue. Our direct action comrades had spent the morning at the convention center being pepper sprayed, bombed with tear gas, and shot with rubber bullets. They desperately needed the reinforcements the AFL-CIO march would bring. However, in a decision that we consider a betrayal of our front-line comrades, the AFL-CIO organizers detoured the march route so that it turned around two blocks before the location of the direct action rally! (For an interesting discussion of the different approaches of the AFL-CIO and the direct action people, see Doug Henwood's reports in the Left Business Observer here: http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/Seattle.html). We were marching with the AFL-CIO, and therefore were ignorant of the morning's events and the success of the direct action group. Fortunately, people in front of us were in radio contact with the direct action activists. They informed everyone within earshot that the AFL-CIO march was being diverted from its original course to avoid the "trouble" downtown. They asked us to continue marching straight down 5th Avenue to aid the others downtown. THE PEOPLE, UNITED, STILL HAVE DECISIONS TO MAKE Decision time came when we arrived at the next intersection. AFL-CIO marshals were directing the crowd to turn, while it was clear that there was action directly ahead. Particularly frustrating was the lack of honesty from the AFL-CIO marshals in explaining to us what was happening. They seemed to want to keep us ignorant of the direct action events. One marshal refused to show us a map of the march and insisted that if we turned now, we would be keeping on course with the original legal route. This was untrue - we had seen a map of the route just minutes earlier, which showed that it was supposed to continue and join the downtown protest. Finally, a group of AFL-CIO marshals stood in front of the street to block our path toward the direct action protesters. We decided to join the direct action group and continued straight through the AFL-CIO marshals. We found ourselves in a war-zone. As we made our way to 5th and Union we passed overturned garbage dumpsters forming a barricade in the middle of each intersection. Yellow tape hung from the dumpsters that read "Unseen Crime" - mocking police crime scene tape. A crowd of people milled about behind a large group facing off a line of police clad in black riot gear. It was then that we heard about the tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and the magnificent accomplishment of these young activists in shutting down the WTO meeting for the day. A tense calm characterized the atmosphere in that part of downtown when we marched up, still displaying our PLG banner, still receiving a positive response to the banner (a cyclist rode by and yelled "Way to go Progressive Librarians! Wooo!"). Everyone seemed to be peacefully waiting for something to happen. Great chants filled the air: "Whose streets? OUR STREETS!" and "You go back" (in response to a police order to clear the intersection). After a few minutes, we saw the police shoving the front liners back. We witnessed the police holding people's heads and spraying their eyes for several seconds with large cans of pepper spray. Tear gas canisters were launched into the air and approximately 200 people started retreating. This was around 3:00pm. Initially, we were angry with the police tactics, which we believed constituted excessive force. But soon we became used to it and even grew to expect it and predict when it was coming. For the next three and a half hours, this pattern was repeated at each intersection. THE PATTERN A core group of protesters occupied each intersection by sitting down in front of the line of riot police and sometimes chaining themselves to concrete blocks. They were in radio contact with each intersection throughout downtown. Surrounding them were hundreds, sometimes thousands of people. By this time, the numbers had swollen downtown as more unionists and participants in the AFL-CIO march joined us. The police seemed to wait patiently until either the crowd had grown to a certain size, or the exuberance of the crowd (which was something to experience) had reached a certain level. We were mostly sitting down, chanting no-to-WTO slogans, banging drums, standing around...and then suddenly a flash-bang grenade would go off and tear gas filled the air. Loud and frightening concussion grenades were detonated, pepper spray was discharged, and rubber bullets and paint pellets (which were used to tag activists for later apprehension or assault) were fired directly at protesters. Our contingent was never directly gassed, but no one could entirely avoid it. Even far away from detonation areas, where no tear gas was apparent, we suddenly would catch some gas - our eyes would tear up, our nostrils and throats would burn, and we'd have a difficult time trying to speak. The police pulled out all their sub-lethal toys for this protest, including armored personnel carriers and an attack helicopter. They even put on a show of videotaping faces of protesters. Activists also had toys: technology really helped with organization. Many people kept in contact with cell phones and several were recording the entire event, including police reaction, with camcorders. On Wednesday, police confiscated all these items, plus gas masks, and piled it in the middle of the street. But the activists had low-tech toys too; besides the cell phones, there also was a network of cyclists running messages. Some images: When we first arrived, we saw an injured man and a woman who was screaming for water to save him from the effects of a direct hit of pepper spray . . . a young guy, a woman cradling his head while another person tried to clean his eyes; he was in so much pain that he was clawing the street . . . at the first skirmish we witnessed, someone was trying to help his injured friend away from the tear gas; someone in a shoe store opened the door, pulled the two in, then locked it; a bunch of people were hiding inside . . . a spectacular moment when an anarchist marching band marched up to the intersection in tight and disciplined formation, playing as they approached. Everyone stopped and looked at the spectacle then erupted into enthusiastic cheers-morale improved . . . a couple of blocks behind one of the police barricades: another police barricade with a mirror-image group of protesters. It provided an odd sense of unity to see we had comrades in the same situation but separated from us. PROPERTY DAMAGE A few people ran around smashing windows and spray painting buildings. This distracted attention from the non-violent aspect of 99% of the protesters. Our contingent later debated about the nature of the property damage and the crowd's response to it. Some in our contingent confessed they got a charge out of seeing Niketown trashed, another expressed disgust over the vandalism. In news coverage, some reporters characterized the "violent" property damage as the typical feature of the protests. One police spokesperson even made the absurd claim that vandalism was a planned act by the protesters and that the activists purposely put the peaceful protesters up front as a kind of barrier to the police to prevent them from apprehending the vandals. Other reporters tried to carefully separate the property damage from the peaceful protests. In reality, it's more complex. It is clear that most of the protesters were very upset at the property damage. Plus, the vandalism wasn't random. The targets of vandalism were fairly major corporate symbols: Nike, Starbucks, and the WB store. One shop had a sign announcing that it was a small, privately owned business: it was untouched. There was a lot of self-policing during the protest. For almost every outbreak of property damage or hot-headedness, demonstrators moved immediately to quell damage and break up conflicts. The chant, "nonviolent protest! Nonviolent protest!" filled the air whenever someone tried to cause vandalism. The effect was to put the rowdier elements on notice that the vast majority of those present did not appreciate their tactics. It was common to see lines of demonstrators linking arms to successfully protect storefront windows. One protester who was protecting a store, and who was perched on the entrance canopy, told another person that yes, he could come and sit up there with him for a better view, but he couldn't damage anything. And, in the midst of all, there was a very high level of regard for others. In a café we went to (one of the very few businesses open: and, significantly, a small business) no one butted in line and everyone had correct change. A cell phone store was looted, but as far as we could see that was the only example of "opportunistic" theft. The only real violence we saw, as distinct from property damage, was on the part of the police with their sub-lethal toys. We participated until about 6:30pm and were at one of the last large intersection gatherings before we left (at 6th and Pine). When the police decided to clear this one, they fired tear gas behind the crowd, so as we retreated we walked directly into exploding gas canisters. As we drove away from Seattle, we listened to radio reports of the day's action and watched state patrollers whiz by us southbound. The city was now under a 7:00pm curfew and a State of Civil Emergency had been declared, enforced by the National Guard. HEROES OF THE DAY The young activists who pulled-off this action were committed, creative, smart, and funny. They took the city, WTO and the police by surprise when they succeeded in their stated goal. The event was as beautiful as it was terrifying. They organized legal aid, legal observers, and medical aid - all wearing shirts or armbands to clearly identify their position. They proved the old Wobbly statement: "direct action gets the goods." Hopefully this broad coalition between labor, anarchists, environmentalists, and the left will stick - we certainly hope to involve ourselves with this direct action group again so that the energy created on November 30th will be carried forward. We shall leave you with our favorite chant of the day: "Bad cop - no donut!" Shawna Hellenius Jeff Purdue (with contributions from Corey Schultz) ____________________________________________________________________________top 3. FAIR Media Advisory: WTO Coverage: Prattle in Seattle December 7, 1999 As an estimated 50,000 protesters rallied in Seattle to shut down the opening conference of the World Trade Organization meeting last week, mainstream media treated protesters' concerns with indifference and often contempt. That hostility translated into slanted coverage of both the demonstrations and the police reaction. In mainstream reports, "anti-trade" became a common--though wildly inaccurate--label for the demonstrators. "A guerrilla army of anti-trade activists took control of downtown Seattle today," a Washington Post article (12/1/99) began. ABC News reporter John Cochran (11/30/99) said Seattle had become a "home for protests against world trade." ABC anchor Jack Ford (12/1/99) pitted the demonstrators against the city hosting them: "No American city exports as much, President Clinton was happy to point out today, which helps explain why a good many people in Seattle are angry--at the protesters and their very anti-trade message." Even coverage that did attempt to describe the protesters' goals dealt with them in only the vaguest terms--and often at a level of generalization that rendered the descriptions inaccurate or meaningless. An ABC News story by correspondent Deborah Wang in Seattle failed to address the activists' concerns with anything more than platitudes: "They are fighting for essentially the same issues they campaigned against in the '60's. Corporations, which they say are still exploiting workers in the Third World. Agribusiness is still putting small farmers out of work. Mining companies, still displacing peasants from the land.... But what is different is that, for these protesters, this single organization, the WTO has come to symbolize about all that is wrong in the modern world." More helpful than such generalities would have been a summary of some of the protesters' specific complaints: that the WTO has issued rulings forcing member countries to repeal specific laws that protect public health and the environment; that it proposes new rules limiting countries' freedom to regulate foreign corporate investors; and that its decisions are made in secret by an unaccountable tribunal. The lack of understanding of the demonstrators' concerns was unsurprising, given how seldom the media spoke with them. When the police first started using tear gas against street blockades, CNN reporter Katherine Barrett (11/30/99) turned for comment to Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers. Jasinowski confessed that he was "struck by how loopy some of the protesters were" and observed that they were "shouting a lot of crazy different messages." Perhaps the single WTO opponent who received the largest amount of time on CNN to expound his views was Pat Buchanan, who was interviewed, one-on-one and at length, by Inside Politics anchor Judy Woodruff (11/30/99). Though right-wing nationalists appeared to make up--at most--an infinitesimal fraction of the actual protesters in Seattle's streets, the media seemed to anoint Buchanan as a major leader of the anti-WTO movement. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote (12/1/99) that "knaves like Pat Buchanan" had "duped" the demonstrators--"a Noah's ark of flat-earth advocates, protectionist trade unions and yuppies looking for their 1960s fix"--into protesting the WTO. "What's driving [the protests]?" CNN political analyst Bill Schneider asked on Inside Politics (11/30/99). "Resentment of big business for its irresponsible behavior, a resentment shared by the left"--followed by a soundbite of AFL-CIO leader John Sweeney--"and the right"--followed by a soundbite of Pat Buchanan. This type of right/left "evenhandedness" concerning the protests did not appear to be justified by the actual composition of the anti-WTO movement. Media outlets seemed unconcerned by Buchanan's less-than-sterling record as an advocate for labor. As co-host of CNN's Crossfire (7/3/91), Buchanan once grilled public-sector union leader Gerald McEntee--one of the labor officials present at the Seattle demos--on "the suicidal impulses of American unions": "A lot of the jobs now have disappeared-they're gone. One reason, one complaint, is the pay of the United Auto Workers and the benefits.... Aren't you fellows committing suicide by yourselves?" Perhaps mainstream news outlets' confusion concerning the protesters' goals contributed to their often skewed coverage of the behavior of the Seattle police and National Guard. A continuing theme in news reports was that the use of tear gas and concussion grenades was an appropriate response to "violent" activists. CBS News anchor Dan Rather reported (12/1/99) that "the meeting of the World Trade Organization was thrown into turmoil by violent demonstrations that went on into last night. That brought on today's crackdown." A CNN report from Seattle (12/1/99) claimed that "as tens of thousands marched through downtown Seattle, [a] small group of self-described anarchists smashed windows and vandalized stores. Police responded with rubber bullets and pepper gas." But the sequence of events described in these reports was wrong. As Detective Randy Huserik, a spokesman for the Seattle police, confirmed, pepper spray had first been used against protesters engaged in peaceful civil disobedience. CNN anchor Lou Waters asked Huserik (11/30/99) why the gas was used: Waters: How would you characterize the nature of the threat today? Were police assaulted? Is that what precipitated this? Huserik: Well, a rather large group of protesters...were determined to continue blocking public entrance and exit in access of some of the various venue sites. They were given a lawful order to disperse, which was ignored. Officers then announced that the Seattle police officers would deploy pepper spray if the crowd did not disperse. For those that remained, the pepper spray was deployed in order to disperse that crowd. One eyewitness, nonviolence trainer Matt Guynn, distributed the following account of police brutality over the Internet: "In one scene I witnessed this morning (at 8th Ave and Seneca), police who had been standing behind a blockade line began marching in lock-step toward the line, swinging their batons forward, and when they reached the line they began striking the (nonviolent, seated) protestors repeatedly in the back. Then they ripped off the protestors' gas masks, and sprayed pepper spray at point-blank range into their eyes repeatedly. After spraying, they rubbed the protestors' eyes and pushed their fingers around on their lips to aggravate the effect of the spray. And after all THIS, they began striking them again with batons.... The police then were able to break up the line, and the protestors retreated to the steps of a nearby church for medical assistance." The lack of condemnation of police tactics--especially their tear-gassing and pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters--was a striking feature of the coverage. "Thanks for joining us and good luck to you out there," CNN anchor Lou Waters told a Seattle police spokesperson (12/1/99) as police continued their crackdown on demonstrators. A front-page Los Angeles Times article on the protests (12/2/99) featured a subhead that read "Police Commended for Restraint." Yet the only source cited by the Times was Seattle police chief Norm Stamper, who praised the "professionalism, restraint and competence" of his forces. Contrast that with this account from Seattle physician Richard DeAndrea, posted on the website Emperors-clothes.com : "The police were using concussion grenades. They were... shooting tear gas canisters directly at protesters' faces. They were using rubber bullets. Some of the damage I saw from these rubber bullets took off part of a person's jaw, smashed teeth... There are people who have been... treated for plastic bullet wounds. Lots of tear gas injuries, lots of damage to [the] cornea, lots of damage to the eyes and skin." One of the few media accounts that conveyed the brutality of the Seattle police was written by a local correspondent for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (12/2/99), who reported that "three Seattle police officers slammed me to the pavement, handcuffed me and threw me into the van. I was charged with failing to disperse even though I showed them reporter's credentials and repeatedly said I was just covering a story." -------- For more on coverage of the World Trade Organization, go to http://www.fair.org/issues-news/trade.html ____________________________________________________________________________top 4. AlterNet compilation of articles on WTO protests Dear media mavens, The massive protests of the Seattle's World Trade Organization talks have proved to be as explosive as anticipated. AlterNet has compiled a tremendous variety of articles about this hugely important event, all drawn from the independent media, which often presents a different perspective from local and national daily media. Check out http://www.alternet.org/wto.html for these breaking stories: THE SIEGE OF SEATTLE By Roni Krouzman, Original to AlterNet Seattle remained under marshal law on Thursday, as the WTO continued its ministerial meetings and Seattle Police resorted to violence and mass arrests to keep protesters off of the city's streets. The latest update from the Emerald City. TAKING IT TO THE STREETS By Bill McKibben, Tompaine.com The era when global trade decisions get made without anyone noticing is officially over. INSIDE THE BUNKER By Mark D. Fefer, Seattle Weekly The WTO delegates fumed -- and ran scared -- as protester brought their talks to a halt. THE BATTLE IN SEATTLE By Harold Meyerson, LA Weekly The WTO protests in Seattle could well signify an ideological turning point -- or at least, an end to the unchallenged dominance that right-wing economics has enjoyed for the past two decades. BARE BREASTS, GREEN CONDOMS AND RUBBER BULLETS By David Moberg, Salon The WTO has united labor and the radical, countercultural left in a way the anti-war movement never could. THE DAY THE WTO STOOD STILL By Geov Parrish, Seattle Weekly How did thousands of protesters get together and make their massive, non-violent, highly effective demonstrations happen? WHO'S VOICE MATTERS ON TRADE? From the Public Campaign The protests in the Seattle illustrate what happens to issue -- in this case global free trade -- when the American public says "go slow" and campaign contributors say "move fast." THE MASK SLIPS By Roger Downey, Seattle Weekly How are WTO delegates going to cover their asses and pretend that WTO Seattle 1999 isn't turning out to be a catastrophic public embarrassment for US foreign and economic policy? In addition to these stories we have comprehensive background information about the WTO, the Seattle protests and the issues surrounding global trade. Check it all out at http://www.alternet.org/wto.html. ____________________________________________________________________________top 5. Chuck0's comments for TIME magazine Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 16:26:53 -0500 From: Chuck0 <chuck[at]tao.ca> To: Margot_Hornblower[at]timeinc.com Subject: Re: Time Magazine story Margot_Hornblower[at]timeinc.com wrote: > > Hello Chuck: I am a reporter for TIME magazine, and have been covering the > WTO. Am working on a piece about who the protesters were, particularly the > anarchists, and the group which resorted to violent direct action. What > were their concerns? Where were they from? How did they organize? Can you > offer some > insight? thanks, margot hornblower Margot: First of all, I'd like to point you to my website, which has been tracking the news from both the mainstream media and the alternative media. That URL is: http://www.infoshop.org/no2wto.html I've been following the news online and via TV so I think I have a grasp of what happened, although I'm still 3,000 miles away and am relying on mediated accounts. There were quite a variety of anarchists who went to the anti-WTO protests in Seattle. I'd estimate that several thousand attended the events, which I base on the sense I got that everybody was going. At least two anarchists from the D.C. area went. Anarchists were involved in all aspects of the Seattle events: some were involved in the nonviolent street sit-ins. Others did street theater and displayed puppets. I know quite a few were involved in alternative media efforts, including everything from filing eyewitness accounts, updating websites, shooting pictures and video, and operating the micropower radio stations. I also know that quite a few of my union mates in the IWW participated in the union march, but I haven't heard back from them. And yes, there were the young anarchists who trashed downtown Seattle. More on them in a moment. Several press accounts I've read have stated that there were only "hundreds of anarchists." This would be true if you only counted teenagers dressed in black. This count would have left out anarchists who look like hippies and the vast majority of us who look just plain ole working class. I know that several of my anarchist librarian buddies were there. They probably dress like librarians, but don't tell anybody I told you that. The anarchists that attended the WTO protests went for a variety of reasons. Some are involved in union organizing and workplace struggles. Others are involved in direct action on behalf of the environment and animals. The environmental direct action contingent includes member from Earth First movement, animal rights activists, Reclaim the Streets dancers, Critical Mass bikers, anti-biotechnology activists, sustainable agriculture advocates, and the Eugene primitivists who question the very idea of civilization. I would say that all anarchists who attended are united in their opposition to the onward march of global capitalism at the expense of people's lives and the envrionment's health. We are not interested in reforming the WTO or GATT--we seek the elimination of capitalism for a more humane, free, and egalitarian planet. But as the Seattle protests demonstrate, one doesn't have to be an anarchist to see that world trade groups like WTO are inherently undemocratic institutions. They are clubs for the rich guys, which explains why the better off people from Third World countries are so eager to get in the club. The WTO is simply the latest effort by those with the most money to set the agenda for the world. If that infringes on the right of folks from Massachusetts to refuse to do business with companies doing business in Burma, so be it. This foolish arrogance about controlling the world's agenda comes at a price: the world includes people who get angry and fight back. How did people organize? Chiefly through the Internet: websites and mailing lists. Except for the Eugene anarchists, who are pretty hardcore against the Net. They relied on traditional face-to-face meetings. Explaining the Eugene anarchists is a difficult task. I should point out that they are highly controversial with the anarchist movement and that the majority of anarchists don't agree with their tactics, or their message. What's more, a majority of anarchists are uncomfortable with the property destruction in Seattle, which they see as reinforcing wrong stereotypes about our politics. The Eugene anarchists represent a minority trend within anarchism, albeit one that tends to get press attention. To really understand the Eugene anarchists, you should understand their take on things, which usually revolves around primitivism. One of their local muses is John Zerzan, who has been profiled in numerous newspapers, usually in conjunction with the Unabomber. Zerzan links: http://www.oregonlive.com/todaysnews/1297/st12316.html http://www.teleport.com/~jaheriot/whosuna.htm The Eugene anarchists also publish several magazines, including Black Clad Messanger. Their anger revolves around several factors. Last year they had a destructive protest a the Niketown in Eugene. One of their teenage members was arrested and placed under house arrest. Last summer, on June 18th, they had a protest in conjunction with worldwide June 18th activities, which turned into a riot after the police attacked them. One of their members, Rob Los Ricos, was arrested, tried, and later sentenced to 7 YEARS in prison for throwing a rock at a cop. The Eugene anarchists, including anarchists who disagree with the Anarchist Action Collective, have also been subjected to several pepper spray attacks by cops at various demos (including one over a park). More info on this here: http://www.infoshop.org/rob.html http://www.registerguard.com/news/19991014/1a.rockthrower.1014.html Articles on Eugene anarchists: Disaffected Youth Dust Off A Combustible Philosophy [Wall Street Journal] http://www.infoshop.org/news4/wsj.html University of Oregon doesn't gavel anarchists out of order http://www.oregonlive.com:80/news/99/06/st061619.html Anarchists' rally erupts into riot in Eugene http://www.oregonlive.com:80/news/99/06/st061905.html Some other anarchist sources that I recommend: Eat The State (Seattle anarchist magazine) http://www.eatthestate.org Geov Parrish also has written alot about the WTO for Seattle Weekly (http://www.seattleweekly.com) Jessamyn West's journal, which has her account of helping people during the tear gas attacks, and includes pictures from the riot. http://www.jessamyn.com/journal/nov99.html Jessamyn as "street librarian" http://www.sover.net/~jessamyn/seattle/pmewflag.jpg http://www.sover.net/~jessamyn/seattle/paskme.jpg In conclusion, let me say that anarchists are like any other political philosophy. We have our factions and we disagree about our politics. -- Chuck0 Mid-Atlantic Infoshop http://www.infoshop.org/ Leonard Peltier Freedom Month Executive Clemency For Peltier! http://www.freepeltier.org/lpfreedommonth.html Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Now! http://www.infoshop.org/gulag/mumia_idx.html "A society is a healthy society only to the degree that it exhibits anarchistic traits." - Jens Bjørneboe ____________________________________________________________________________top 6. New political comix by Mike Flugennock "Give me your Starbuck's, your Gap, Your Nike Towns full of sweatshop inventory, Your McDonald's, gobbling profit and craving more. Send these, and tacky corporate-branded outlet malls to me, I put my Louisville Slugger through your plate-glass door!" New political comix by Mike Flugennock are online at: http://www.sinkers.org/DC-streets Hey, now, kids! Let's all raise our bongs in salute to the anarchist heroes of Seattle! In glorious tabloid format, available in .jpg, generic .eps and Adobe .pdf formats! And that was just the pep rally...just wait 'til we play the football game! Heads up, flypasters! "...you were caught with your hands in the till but you still got to swallow your pill as you slip and you slide down the hill on the blood of the people you killed!" --John Lennon. _______________________________________________________________ Mike Flugennock, flugennock[at]sinkers.org Mike Flugennock's Mikey'zine, http://www.sinkers.org ____________________________________________________________________________top 7. Use of Force by the Police [.pdf] -- BJS http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ufbponld.htm Released this week by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), this report is the product of several national and local-level surveys on the use of force by police officers. Offered in six independent but interrelated chapters, the report explores what is and what is not known about the extent and nature of police use of force, the circumstances under which force is applied, and the difficulties in measuring the use of force, and suggests future paths for research in this area. The report is available in .pdf format in two parts or in text format. [MD] >From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-1999. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ ____________________________________________________________________________top 8. ICTSD BRIDGES DAILY UPDATE is a daily news service covering trade and sustainable development on the occasion of the Third World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Seattle. The publication focuses on news, activities and negotiations around the Ministerial from 30 November to 3 December 1999 as they relate to sustainable development issue-areas. Copies in English, French and Spanish can be found on the ICTSD website at http://www.ictsd.org/wto_daily/index.htm ____________________________________________________________________________top 9. WTO Guide by IRC/IPS Here is another good guide to the World Trade Organization by the Interhemispheric Resource Center and the Institute for Policy Studies. _What's This Organization (WTO)_ is written by Tom Barry as part of IRC/IPS's _Foreign Policy in Focus series. _What's This Organization (WTO)_ is at http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/seattle_whats_wto.html From the website: "(Editor's Note: The following description of the WTO's structure is part of a larger FPIF document called: "What's This Organization (WTO): An Annotated Glossary of Terms and Concepts about the World Trade Organization." Other parts of this document, whose online version will be constantly updated and revised, include: Key Concepts, Social Issues, WTO Agreements and Related Issues, and Developing Country Issues. Your comments, suggested changes, and criticisms are encouraged.)" _What's This Organization (WTO)_ is part of a larger website called the _In Focus Project in Seattle During the World Trade Organization Ministerial_ at http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/seattle_wto.html It has the following policy briefs and reports online: What's This Organization (WTO) In Focus briefs: China in the WTO: The Debate (December 1999-v4, n38) U.S.-EU Trade Issues (December 1999-v4, n37) WTO and Sustainable Development (December 1999-v4, n36) WTO and Developing Countries (December 1999-v4, n35) WTO, Agricultural Deregulation and Food Security (December 1999-v4, n34) NAFTA and Environment (October 1999-v4, n26) International Investment Rules and the Environment: Stuck in the Mud? (August 1999-v4,n22) Trade and Labor (January 1997-v2, n15) Progressive Response: WTO and Sustainable Development (December 1, 1999-v3, n43) WTO and Developing Countries (November 24, 1999-v3, n42) WTO & AFL-CIO, Drug Policy (Novenber 5, 1999-v3, n39) Trade and Environent (October 8, 1999-v3, n36) ----------- Dale Wertz Chicago ----------- ____________________________________________________________________________top 10. Final comments on the ALA and the WTO The American Library Association was invited to the WTO meeting as an official non-governmental organization, and, I believe, did send a delegate. Hoever, there was no discussion on the ALA Council List about what that delegate ought to say. This was despite attempts by councilors Al Kagan and Mark Rosenzweig to get council to take a position on the WTO, along the lines of the IFLA or the Canadian Library Association statements, which came out strongly opposed to the WTO. The ALA has issued no report on its WTO participation, and it seems that they aren't going to. This is disturbing on a variety of levels. Why is there such a reluctance to face the issues of the day in the American Library Association? Article One of the ALA Policy Manual states that the ALA "recognizes its broad social responsibilities"... and defines in terms of having the willingness to speak out on current critical issues. Al Kagan made ALA council fairly well informed on the WTO issue, but he might as well have been talking to a tree. There was absolutely no response. It is like a completely different organization from the one that wrote the policy manual. And what about this ALA delegate to the WTO? Why aren't we hearing back from them? Why was their participation, whatever it was, planned in secrecy? Will it remain secret? It often seems like the ALA is more concerned with the interests of its corporate sponsors than with library interests. Remember, for example, when the recommendations of council's outsourcing task force were all but ignored by council. It looked like it was because they were too unfriendly to ALA's vendor/partners. Now it looks like ALA tacitly supported the WTO in not issuing a statement against it. On the plus side: new respect for IFLA and the Canadian Library Association for their strong statements (available in Library Juice back issues). ____________________________________________________________________________top L I B R A R Y J U I C E | http://libr.org/Juice/ | | Library Juice is supported by a voluntary subscription | fee of $10 per year, variable based on ability and | desire to pay. You may send a check payable in US funds | to Rory Litwin, at PO Box 720511, San Jose, CA 95172 | | Original material and added value in Library Juice | is copyright-free; beyond that the publisher makes | no guarantees. 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