To those who were in Seattle, you are now an "epicenter" of activism in your area. It is your task to educate the people within your realm of contact. Here is a sample letter-to-editor which you can use, revise, whatever, to send to all the newspapers in your region. Continue to educate yourself via the purefood.org and wtowatch.org websites and when you go to speak, take the purefood (OCA) petition and the no patents on life petition and get signatures.
It's the same old struggle: the rich and powerful vs the poor and weak; tyranny vs democracy. It's another turning of the wheel, but now it has risen to new levels. The multinational corporations are beyond the control of any nation, and are now moving to control the nations. The profit margin is, of course, the motivating factor. All other considerations are being swept aside; labor standards, citizens' rights, farmers' issues, local and global ecologies; especially in poor countries. Now, due to mergers, just a few corporations are controlling the world's life support systems....seeds, agri-chemicals, pharmaceuticals. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is their vehicle for expansion of power. But in Seattle, the turtles and the teamsters held hands, chanting: "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, WTO has Got to Go!" and the churches called for a year of jubilee for the poor countries. I would be happy to speak to any non-anarchistic group that wants to hear more about what happened in Seattle and just WHY the WTO has Got to Go.
Message to anarchists: I was there, giving support to the non-violent protesters who were occupying one of the intersections, waiting for the police to descend upon them. Meanwhile you were bashing in the nearby windows. You stupid jerks! The bravery, heroism and power was with the non-violent protesters. Your behavior served only to diminish what they were doing. The police were using all of their nasty tools on the non-violent ones, who's discipline and persistance was terrific. The contrast between police and protester was dramatic, but your actions gave the police an out - and for many people - justification for their brutality. Sitting there, waiting for the police to descend, refusing to engage in violence, being arrested, that was courageous and beautiful. Kudos to you, young people, you opened the door for all of us to regain a toe-hold on democracy and pride in America. Shame on you, anarchists, bragging about how you concealed yourselves among the others and avoided arrest. You are cowardly, and disgustingly stupid.
Jill Davies, River Care
"You can do whatever you don't know you can't do."
"The mighty oak was once a nut that held its ground"
"Hey Hey, Ho Ho, WTO has got to Go"
[a4a: An anarchist comrade added the following to the above...]
Jill:
What is your opinion on the other 2000+ "nonviolent" anarchists that were present in Seattle? If you see the Starbucking of downtown Seattle as "violence," should we assume that you also denounce the "violent" trashing of crops by Genetix Snowfall or the Hexterminators activists here in the U.S.?
I'm supportive of everything that happened last week in Seattle, as long as didn't involve violence against people. I spent part of N30 here in D.C. helping an anti-biotech demo at an FDA meeting. I held a sign, yelled some stuff, and did an interview with some TV station. I wish I'd been in Seattle, but I did my little part here.
Jill, you sound like another activist who not only misunderstands anarchism, but also one want[s] to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Why not focus on the positive event that Seattle was instead of grinding your dogmatic axe about some anarchists that you misunderstand? Why are you buying the corporate press viewpoint that the anarchists spoiled the actions? It was their actions which put the anti-WTO protests on the front page of every newspaper around the world (save for the tabloids). They contributed overall to the greater success that was the "Battle for Seattle."