Today marks the 19th anniversary of the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) that took place on the streets of Seattle. These protests were part of much larger anti-globalization and anti-capitalist struggles across the world. They were also one of the first incidents of the use of the black bloc as a tactic in the so-called United States.
Many of us have some kind of story about our relationship to these protests; some of us were there, some of us participated in solidarity actions elsewhere, some of us experienced the protest’s coverage as a catalyst for our own radicalization, and for those of us too young to remember, the WTO protests of 1999 hold some sort of mythic status in our minds.
Feeling nostalgic, or maybe curious? Come take a listen to our recording of “N30: The Seattle WTO Protests: A Memoir and Analysis, With an Eye to the Future” originally put out by Crimethinc in 2006.