[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

NEWS - Giant trade protests set for



Subject: NEWS - Giant trade protests set for export-rich Seattle

NOTE: Dozens of Free Burma Activists will be attending this rally.

Giant trade protests set for export-rich Seattle

By Chris Stetkiewicz

  
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Massive protests await the world's free trade
boosters as they gather late this month in Seattle, even though exports
support the booming economy and many of the jobs in the Northwest United
States. 

Aircraft, timber, fruit and software sales help Washington state lead
the nation in exports, yet local politicians will join some 50,000
marchers demanding ``fair trade,'' not just free trade, when the World
Trade Organization meets here from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. 

Several seaports on western Washington waterways will be idle as
hundreds of longshoremen join the parade. 

``Obviously the union is not anti-trade -- that's how we make our
living. But the union opposes the free trade policies of the WTO. We
take a stand for fair trade, not free trade,'' Steve Stallone,
communications director for the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union. 

The demonstrations will be organized with the help of 900 machinists
from plane maker Boeing Co., the nation's top exporting company. They
will act as marshals during the march, hoping to keep it peaceful. 

STREETS CLOGGED 

Led by the giant AFL-CIO labor union, marchers will clog downtown
streets in a parade to the Washington State Convention Center to present
WTO chief Mike Moore a list of their demands as the conference kicks off
on Nov. 30. 

Hordes of wall-climbers and pamphleteers have also promised to halt
traffic on Seattle's busy streets and wharves and officials representing
a region highly suspicious of the WTO are engaging them early to head
off any violence or riots. 

``There's going to be an unbelievable amount of people in the City of
Seattle,'' said Seattle Police spokeswoman Lisa Ross. ''We are expecting
demonstrations and protests. We are also expecting them to be
peaceful.'' 

Most of Seattle's 1,261 police officers will work 12-hour shifts during
the conference, backed up by hundreds of local and federal security
staff as protesters jam into town to greet delegates from the 134-member
WTO. 

WTO organizers have played down forecasts for tens of thousands of
protesters, citing Seattle's notoriously foul autumn weather. 

But labor leaders don't expect gray skies to keep protesters away and
the AFL-CIO has ordered 20,000 rain ponchos for those who arrive
unprepared. 

``We're trying to get the word out that it will likely be wet and
cold,'' said AFL-CIO communications director Karen Keiser. 

NO FREE-TRADE HAVEN 

Puget Sound residents remain deeply suspicious of unfettered free trade
and see the WTO, which hopes to launch a new round of global trade
liberalization, as hell-bent on overturning environmental and labor
safeguards in a drive to maximize corporate profits. 

Seattle billboards have been plastered with ads accusing the WTO of
sacrificing democracy and family farms while encouraging toxic waste,
forest destruction and even forced labor in Burma, a WTO member. 

In September the King County Council gave a highly controversial
lukewarm welcome to the WTO, voting to strike a reference to ``free
trade'' from an official WTO salute. 

After a call from the White House, the council approved a statement
favoring ``free and fair trade'' that would improve people's lives and
working conditions, sovereignty and the environment. 

More recently WTO opponents have harassed White House officials,
including top economic adviser Martin Baily, whose speech at the
University of Washington was canceled Monday at the mere presence of a
few dozen activists. 

To avoid similar disruptions, the Council is reportedly considering
circling the wagons, literally. Metro buses may be used to encircle
downtown locations hosting key WTO meetings, shielding them from
protesters, local reports say. 

READY FOR BIOTERRORISM 

While a large contingent of protesters spent several days this summer in
rural Washington state training to scale walls and hang banners from
buildings, police say they don't consider these demonstrators the
violent type. 

Law enforcement officials were reluctant to talk about the threat of
bioterrorism during the meetings, though area hospitals have said they
are preparing for chemical or germ attacks, however remote the
possibility. 

``We are ready for anything but we have not had any indication of
bioterrorism or anything of that sort,'' Ross said. 

Agencies supporting Seattle police include police in nearby Tukwila,
Kent and Bellevue, the King County Sheriff, Port of Seattle and
Washington state police, U.S. Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI. 

09:56 11-19-99