WTO 1
I've been pissed about the chronology of this for a while. But the fact is that I'm a little neurotic about re-doing things. If I forget something at home after I've left, I cannot go back to my house the same way. If I get into a checkout line and realize I've put the wrong thing in my basket, it's too late, I pay for it and leave, wait a day and then go back and return it. It is admission of wrongness.
Anyway, about 6-7 months ago, I spent a great deal of time writing about June's and My experience at the WTO protests in Seattle only to have the entire thing destroyed by a computer crash. So I've been loath the re-write it. I don't cover ground I've covered before. But I'm stuck chronologically. So, I'm swallowing my neurosis (or at least distracting it) and re doing this. Maybe in parts this time.
I'd heard about the WTO through AdBusters (which my mother gave me a subscription to for my birthday). I knew it was fairly evil and not at all pro-me. I heard it was supposed to be having a big important meeting thing in Seattle. In fact, the mayor had pushed and hemmed and hawwed for it. "This will make Seattle a World Class City." He sold it to the city council on the premise that it'll be a huge international convention, it'll put us on the international map, it'll make us look like grown ups, ready to play with the big boys. They bought it. Much of downtown businesses bought it. Everybody spent money laying in product for the huge influx of outsiders ready to spend their money on our wonderful little emerald city to the north.
This was in '99. The intraweb (called the internet, back then) was new, but robust enough to be used by entrepreneur weirdos, such as protesters. The police department, however was a little slower to pick up on the "internets," and while a few techno-geek-ish straight fuckers told them "Hey, there's actually a large number of people who don't like this whole WTO thing and are going to, maybe disrupt our eden-esque commercial frenzied foray into international politics." The majority of city officials were rosy-eyed enough that they didn't need glasses to alter their perceptions (like rose colored glasses... get it... rosy-eyed. Like, uh, well, you know).
A small club (studio 420) on capitol hill had been shut down a few months before and the owners (being a little, maybe, bitter about the bust which was pretty much a targeted attack) donated the space as an organizational space for resistance to the city, country and WTO's insistence that it had the right to overpower our sovereignty.
Anyway, about 6-7 months ago, I spent a great deal of time writing about June's and My experience at the WTO protests in Seattle only to have the entire thing destroyed by a computer crash. So I've been loath the re-write it. I don't cover ground I've covered before. But I'm stuck chronologically. So, I'm swallowing my neurosis (or at least distracting it) and re doing this. Maybe in parts this time.
I'd heard about the WTO through AdBusters (which my mother gave me a subscription to for my birthday). I knew it was fairly evil and not at all pro-me. I heard it was supposed to be having a big important meeting thing in Seattle. In fact, the mayor had pushed and hemmed and hawwed for it. "This will make Seattle a World Class City." He sold it to the city council on the premise that it'll be a huge international convention, it'll put us on the international map, it'll make us look like grown ups, ready to play with the big boys. They bought it. Much of downtown businesses bought it. Everybody spent money laying in product for the huge influx of outsiders ready to spend their money on our wonderful little emerald city to the north.
This was in '99. The intraweb (called the internet, back then) was new, but robust enough to be used by entrepreneur weirdos, such as protesters. The police department, however was a little slower to pick up on the "internets," and while a few techno-geek-ish straight fuckers told them "Hey, there's actually a large number of people who don't like this whole WTO thing and are going to, maybe disrupt our eden-esque commercial frenzied foray into international politics." The majority of city officials were rosy-eyed enough that they didn't need glasses to alter their perceptions (like rose colored glasses... get it... rosy-eyed. Like, uh, well, you know).
A small club (studio 420) on capitol hill had been shut down a few months before and the owners (being a little, maybe, bitter about the bust which was pretty much a targeted attack) donated the space as an organizational space for resistance to the city, country and WTO's insistence that it had the right to overpower our sovereignty.