Ralph Nader reflects on the lack of restraint by the Seattle police. The response to the Seattle talks taught the WTO to exercise greater caution, causing them to hold future talks in secluded and more easily protected locations.
Experience the police reaction to the protests for yourself in historic footage from 1999.
Real footage of escalating [...]

Leading environmental and human rights activist Vandana Shiva speaks about the WTO’s intellectual property rights (TRIPS) that allow (and in some cases enforce) the corporate take-over of local subsistence farmers, replacing ancient methods of farming with genetically modified seed stock that requires expensive pesticides. As a result over 200,000 farmers have committed suicide since [...]

In an attempt to curb disturbances, the Seattle police began targeting protesters they identified as ring leaders. When Victor Menotti was attacked and arrested after simply talking to a small group of people, the police gave no explanation. They detained him for several hours, and gave no apology upon his release.
The experience of [...]

The protest turned the world on its head when police officers making arrests were more frightened than the people they were arresting.
Did police fores learn from their mistakes after Seattle? What kind of changes did they make to crowd disbursement tactics? Find out here.
The oft-neglected perspective of Seattle police officers is highlighted in the film [...]

Wallach knew this was a moment that would “change the course of history.” It took a year of planning, extensive preparation, and the coordination of hundreds of people on the ground and on the phones across the US and Europe to organize the protest, but it was worth the battle.
Since massive success in Seattle, internet [...]