Portland Independent Media Center

Seattle KorUS FTA Protests 1st Day

author: Jesse

Report 1st day from Seattle Korean US Free Trade Agreement Protests.

At the bus stop, we pull the Seattle Times business section out of the trash. KorUS FTA, The Korean US Free Trade Agreement, is billed as the biggist and most important FTA since NAFTA, which considering the size of the Korean economy, is a pretty accurate analysis. The article goes on to say that the meetings, scheduled to take place in Seattle at the very last minute so as to not alert potential protestors, are the first attempt at FTA talks in Seattle since police and protestors turned the city into a "war zone" in 1999. Indymedia Collectives in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest are Silent, the Schedule of events having been posted on the sidebar of the Seattle IMC and allowed to drift away without notice. We were staying with Lucy's friend in Seattle for the night after the immigrant march. She had been nice enough to give us the WTO "tour", including where she had been drug off by the police in Westlake Park. We got a call about 1 AM that the Korean Farmers and Allies were starting early in the morning and not waiting for the 1 PM Ralley at Westlake park. So we rise early to meet the farmers. We arrive at around 8 AM between the convention center and the building, connected to it with an overhead bridge, where the meetings are taking place. The Koreans are on their way. We are offered "Peace Keeper" positions which we politely refuse. PC is for Pagan Cluster, not "Peace Cop". The Police are there with horses, big canvas bags eith US on them with something I am sure is nasty inside, tasers, bikes and sun glasses. About 60 Korean Farmers and their Korean and US Allies begin chanting various slogans. NO NO FTA, NO NO NO NO FTA. Accompanied by drumming and an ever increasing tempo. As the crowd got louder, the police insisted that the crowd not take up the whole sidewalk, the peace police went along. Having had the chance to exert their authority, the police were placated. Several different people took the microphone and told how Koreas farmers would be destroyed by KorUS FTA, forced into abject slavery in low paying factory jobs producing the items that US workers had been producing and throwing US workers onto the street in a race to the bottom exactly like the one produced by NAFTA. There was also tremendous concern about the demise of the Korean family structure as mothers were forced into the factories and children left witout nurturing. We began Marching around the building chanting, beating on drums and cymbols, and generally making as much noise as possible. Then the shout went out. ZAPATA VIVE, LA LUCHA SIGAY. ZAPATA VIVE VIVE LA LUCHA SIGAY SIGAY. It's hard to describe just how inspiring it was to hear Korean farmers over and over again expressing not only their solidarity, but their identification with the Zapatistas. The March and Rally continued all morning. At 1 PM We all met back up at Westlake Park. People ate lunch and busloads of Union People started showing up. As the crowd swelled to close to a thousand, it became clear that the makeup of this protest was somewhat different than other antiglobalization protests I have attended. The vast majority of the people were Union, with the Longshoremans Union being the largest contingent. Although there were very few of the usual anarchist groups, their were quite a few people. Long Shoremen, Iron Workers, SEIU, Jobs with Justice, in all maybe 20 different Unions were represented. Their was a small ANSWER contingent, one of whom had traveled all the way from Mexico. Strangely, IWW, radical environmentalist groups, and other anarchist groups were conspicuous by their absence. Lucy and I, forming a small Pagan Cluster, were some of the few people their who would self identify as anarchist. During the rally their was much invoking of the 1999 WTO demontrations where the meetings were actually shut down. Some of the organizers seemed to be trying to raise energy for the type of direct action that would make a statement that went beyond permited marches and cultural events. It remains to be seen how succesfull that will be, some are, of course, taking it under consideration <|;-)> Some help up here from the usual suspects might be nice. As a large crowd headed out into the street toward the convention center, the energy was pretty high. The bike cops all had cans of pepper in their water carriers and tasers in their belts. ZAPATA VIVE chants went up many times. A banjo started playing behind me, it was Desert Rat. The Koreans had brought small but very loud wistles and handed them out to everybody along with NO FTA red bandanas. When we got to the meeting building and the convention center we stopped for a long period of time and just made a lot of noise. Finally, we marched back to Westlake park for some dancing and more speechifying much of which hinted at hopes of direct action. Hopefully, those doing the hinting are also doing some planning. There is little or no infrastructure for Legal observation, jail support or medical that I can see so people are pretty much on their own. No convergence space or wellness center. Everything was on very short notice and the Indymedia Collectives were about as usefull as corporate media or NPR which means pretty much totally useless. A couple of years ago, a women who worked for NPR once told me that Miami FTAA was not news worthy, other wise it would have been covered. I guess Indymedia collectives are morphing into another PBS/NPR. Pretty sad. On the bright side, Desert Rat performed the Teargas Song and Solidarity Forever on his Banjo, although sadly, most had left the park by the time he started performing. Here is the schedule for the rest of the week. 9/7 1:00pm Thurs Farmers and Farmworkers Event, Victor Steinbrueck Park > > (near Pike Place Market) 9/7 3:00pm Thurs Women/Farmers Workshops, Labor Temple (2800 1st Ave) 9/7 7:00pm Thurs Pagan Cluster full moon ritual at park near Pike Place ************************************************** 9/8 1:00pm Fri Sam Bo Il Bae* March, Westlake Park 9/8 ??????? ************************************************** 9/9 1:00pm Sat Closing Rally and March, Federal Building (2nd & Madison) 9/9 8:00pm Sat Solidarity Party, Labor Temple Autonomous unscheduled events, though not well supported, may be appreciated. PLEASE COME AND JOIN US Love, Solidarity and Magic Jesse