WTO History Project
The
protests against the World Trade Organization that
rocked Seattle, Washington in late 1999 were an incredibly
significant moment in the history of popular protests.
Not only did the protestors succeed in disrupting the
meetings of the world's most influential trade-governing
bodies, but the event drew together incredibly diverse
constituencies that represented a wide range of interests,
many of which would seem to be incompatible at first
light.
The ways these organizations worked
together to orchestrate the protest events, which took
months of planning, will be the subject of popular
and academic research for many years to come. The WTO
History Project, a joint effort of several programs
at the University
of Washington - the Harry
Bridges Center for Labor Studies, the Center
for Communication and Civic Engagement, the Digital
Initiatives project and the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections
division of the University Libraries seeks to
make a wide array of resources available to researchers
and the interested public via the Internet.
Our unique collection of interviews
with protest organizers and participants sheds light
on the behind-the-scenes cooperative (and sometimes
contentious) relationships among social movement organizations
involved in the protests. While many additional materials
may be physically examined at the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, we have selected
for electronic access from the collection some materials
which are most illustrative of the diversity of the
protests and which most represent the intense mobilization
that made the events so dramatic. Our collection, donated
by a great number of generous individuals, seeks to
be representative of the diversity of interests that
participated in the protests while paying special attention
to the role played by organized Labor in these historic
events.
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