Community Alliance for Global Justice was founded by some of the organizers of the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO). We offer these resources in hopes that people will be inspired by what this people’s movement accomplished, and carry on the spirit of resistance to build today’s social movements for global justice. Please contact us if you have additions!
Archives
WTO History Project A collection of electronic resources, interviews and research compiled through the University of Washington (NB. the WTO History Project site is no longer being maintained but is still available for its historical value).
1999: WTO — HistoryLink webcam of protests and a slideshow of each day (November 30-December 3) Includes webcam and slideshow of the protests.
- Councilmember and mayoral records, video and audio recordings, and images of protests and WTO-related events. Official letters, memos, photographs, correspondence, audio and video files.
- Guide to the 1999 WTO Protests: Online guide to the WTO protests accompanied by digitized primary source materials, including a full bibliography of WTO-related records held by SMA.
- WTO Accountability Review Committee Document Catalog: Contains over 13,500 documents and audio files assembled by the Committee tasked with analyzing the city’s actions during the protests. Over 60% of thedocuments have been digitized and are available online.
Websites
N30 History Project, created in 2019 by a small group of co-founders and core organizers of the Direct Action Network, the organization that called for the shutdown of the WTO in 1999.
Co-intelligence thoughts on Seattle WTO demonstrations A selection of analyses gathered by the Co-Intelligence Institute, Eugene, Oregon.
Books
One Week to Change the World, by DW Gibson. In more than 100 original interviews with protestors, police, politicians, anarchists, artists, activists, union members, and many others, Gibson reconstructs the events in gripping detail; documents its antecedents and aftermath; and shows how so many of its themes remain just as pressing today. Simon and Schuster, 2024.
The Battle of the Story of the “Battle of Seattle”. By David Solnit and Rebecca Solnit, with the contribution of Chris Borte and Stephanie Guilloud, and introduction by Anuradha Mittal. AK Press, 2009.
5 Days that Shook the World: Seattle and Beyond. By Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, photography by Allan Sekula, Verso, 2000.
Films
This is What Democracy Looks Like A co-production of the Independent Media Center and Big Noise films, follows the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle through the footage of over 100 videographers, Co-edited by CAGJ Member Jill Friedberg, 2000.
Videos
Another World is Possible! 20th anniversary events co-hosted by CAGJ, UFCW 21, and Town Hall Seattle, November 30 2019:
- Opening forum, Another World is Possible! WTO+20 at Town Hall Seattle (1 hour). Video courtesy of Ed Mays.
- Lisa Fithian gave her “Escalating Resistance, Mass Rebellion” training on November 30th; Watch her presentation about her book, Shut It Down: Stories From A Fierce, Loving Resistance, which took place at Third Place Books on December 3, 2019; video courtesy of Elliot Stoller. A lifetime organizer, Fithian speaks about how now is the time for us to rise up if we are to save the things we love in this world.
20th anniversary events hosted by Washington Fair Trade Coalition, December 7, 2019:
- WTO+20 Morning Rally at Occidental Park Rally speakers included icons of the global justice movement, including Lori Wallach, Global Trade Watch; Rhonda Ramiro, Chairperson for BAYAN USA; Tefere Gebre, AFL-CIO; Robin Everett, Washington State Sierra Club; Ahmed Gaya, Sunrise Movement and Manuel Perez-Rocha, Institute for Policy Studies.
- Joseph Stiglitz and Lori Wallach Keynote After a brief action orientation with Lori Wallach (Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch), Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz dove into strategies for managing globalization while addressing countries’ markedly different social and political frameworks.
- WTO+20 Workshop Welcome Hillary Haden, Executive Director of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition and a short address by Arthur Stamoulis, Executive Director of Citizens Trade Campaign (CTC). (12 minutes)
- WTO+20 Food Sovereignty Workshop Karen Hansen-Kuhn, International Program Director at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Heather Day Executive Director of Community Alliance for Global Justice and Manuel Pérez Rocha of the Institute for Policy. (52 minutes)
- WTO+20 Environmental Issues and Trade Workshop Selden Prentice from 350 Seattle with Manuel Pérez Rocha of the Institute for Policy Studies and includes a short video address by Bill McKibben. (44 minutes)
Battle of Seattle 10 Years Later: Organizers reflect on 1999 Shutdown of WTO Democracy Now!, November 2009.
Articles
Whose Story of Seattle? A Protest History Misses the Point review and response to “One Week to Change the World” by Gabriel Sayegh, 2024.
Throwback Thursday: A History of Protests in Seattle, by Jaclyn Norton, Seattle Magazine, November 27, 2018.
‘Battle of Seattle’ and the WTO Legacy, by Jon Talton, Seattle Times, November 23, 2014.
The Dark Side of Globalization: Why Seattle’s 1999 protesters Were Right, by Noah Smith, The Atlantic, January 6, 2014.
Black Flag Over Seattle by Paul de Armond, Albion Monitor, February 29, 2000
10TH ANNIVERSARY: 2009
Local Print/Blogs
The “Special WTO Edition”, Eat the State, 11/26/09
“WTO Anniversary, Part 1” & “WTO Anniversary, Part 2”, Real Change, 11/25/09
WTO – 10 Years Later, Don McIntosh with NW Labor Press, 11/20/2009
Change and Pains: 10 years after the No WTO Combo, Krist Novoselic on Seattle Weekly’s Blog, 12/1/2009
Other Print
Behind the Scenes of Seattle: An in-depth interview with Alli Chagi-Starr, a key organizer of the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, by Susan Gleason, Yes! Magazine, December 2, 2009.
WTO Meeting and Protests in Seattle (1999) — Part 1 and Part 2, by Kit Oldham, HistoryLink.org, October 13 and November 13, 2009.
The Battle of Seattle Ten Years Later: Organizers Reflect on 1999 Shutdown of WTO Talks and the Birth of a Movement, Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, 2009.
Ten Years After Seattle – The Global Justice Movement Evolves, by Christopher Moraff with In These Times, 10/19/2009
10 Years After: Labor Needs Spirit of Seattle Protests, Roger Bybee with In These Times’ “Working in America” Blog, 11/17/2009
“The Seattle activists’ coming of age in Copenhagen will be very disobedient”, by Naomi Klein, 11/12/2009
Ten years after Battle in Seattle: Another World is Necessary, by John Nichols on the Nation’s Blog, 11/30/2009
Finding WTO significance beyond the protests, by Stephen Dunphy, crosscut.com, 11/30/2009
From Seattle to Detroit: 10 Lessons for Movement Building on the 10th Anniversary of the WTO Shutdown, By Stephanie Guilloud; An article written for the Project South Fall Newsletter, 2009.
The Meaning of Seattle: Truth Only Becomes True Through Action – WTO+10: Before 1999, the momentum of globalization seemed to sweep everything in front of it, including the truth. But in Seattle, ordinary women and men made truth real with collective action. By Walden Bello, 2009.
The “Battle in Seattle” at 10 – WTO+10: Did the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization actually make a difference? By Mark Engler
The World Turned Out in Seattle – WTO+10: Ten years later, what has been the legacy of the 1999 Seattle protests? By Anuradha Mittal
The Battle for Reality. What really happened at the 1999 WTO demonstrations in Seattle? On television, it looked like vandalism and random violence. On the streets, it looked like part festival, part uprising, part police riot. Now there’s a movie version. Activist and author David Solnit was there—organizing in the streets and speaking up on the set. By David Solnit
One More Thing Seattle’s WTO Shutdown Taught the World – Among the many ripple effects of the successful shutdown of the WTO in Seattle in 1999 is one that few know about. The organizing that went into the direct action, marches, media center, and forums inspired the organizers of the World Social Forums, which have become some of the world’s most important centers of people power. By Sarah van Gelder
The WTO and the Myth of Activist Violence. From the Boston Tea Party perpetrators to Civil Rights activists, the people who have made our world through direct action have been treated as dangerous, even if they are revered when their radical acts are at a safe distance. By Rebecca Solnit
Seattle + 10. Time to declare our independence from Wall Street. By David Korten, Yes! Magazine.
The Battle Since Seattle: The Road to Pittsburgh and Beyond, by Paul J. Comeau and Wes Strong for Infoshop News, 12/08/09
“I Made Major Mistakes”–Ex-Seattle Police Chief Admits Response to 1999 WTO Protests Was Too Heavy-Handed Transcript of the interview of Norm Stamper, former police chief of Seattle, by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales, Democracy Now!, March 30, 2009.
The Battle of Seattle 10 Years Later: Organizers Reflect on 1999 Shutdown of WTO Talks and the Birth of a Movement Interview of the organizers David Solnit and Ananda Tan, by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales, Democracy Now!, November 30, 2009
7 Ways the Battle of Seattle Changed the World, by Fran Korten, Yes! Magazine, December 1st , 2009. The impact of the 1999 protests, 10 years later.
5 Days in Seattle that Shook the World, by Alex Girma, Rachel Solomon, Connor Guy, as told to Eric Scigliano, Seattle Met, October 19, 2009. Testimonies by those who fought the battle, 10 years after.
Audio and Podcasts
Listen to audio from MOHAI History Café: Remembering the WTO 20 Years Later. Moderated by Heather Day, panelists included Cindy Domingo, Jill Freidberg, and Matt Remle.
Direct Action Resources
Beautiful Trouble: Direct Action as Tactic
Why Direct Action? by 350 Seattle
A Manual for a New Era of Direct Action, George Lakey
