On November 30, 1999, protests against the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in downtown Seattle result in the cancellation of some
WTO events and in vandalism. What appears to be a hands-off policy by
Seattle Police is actually a department unprepared for the amount of disruption
and property damage downtown. Mayor Schell declares a state of emergency,
establishes a curfew, and requests the assistance of the Washington National
Guard and the Washington State Patrol. Exhausted police run out of riot
control chemicals and have to be resupplied by other agencies. After dark,
the police chase protesters into residential areas of Capitol Hill.
6:00 am |
"Shut Down the WTO- Mass Nonviolent Direct Action" is
scheduled and people begin to gather at Steinbreuck Park near the
Pike Place Market. (Sponsored by Global Action, Direct Action Network,
Earth First, and others.)
|
7:30 am |
Students from Seattle Central Community College start marching
toward downtown.
|
8:00 am
|
Youth Caucus Assembly/March and Rally is scheduled at the Filipino
Community Center, 5740 Martin Luther King Blvd.
|
8:00 am |
WTO Strategic Overview is scheduled at Westin Hotel by the Seattle
Host Organization.
|
8:00 am |
Demonstrators lock themselves to metal pipes where Pine Street
crosses Interstate-5.
|
8:00 am
|
Demonstrators lock themselves to concrete blocks at 4th Avenue
and University Street.
|
8:30 am |
Environmentalists sponsored by the Sierra Club gather at Denny
Playfield, 9th Avenue and Denny Way, before joining the larger march.
|
8:30 am |
Labor Rights and Living Standards/Non-Governmental Organization
symposium is scheduled at the Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 911 Stewart
Street.
|
8:45 am |
About 20 protesters dressed in black throw eight metal newspaper
boxes into 5th Avenue, but are chased away by other protesters.
The protesters in black join approximately 50 others in similar
clothing near the Washington Athletic Club in the 1500 block of
5th Avenue.
|
9:00 am |
Teach-in on human rights and the WTO is scheduled at the First
United Methodist Church, 811 5th Avenue. (Sponsored by Peoples Decade
of Human Rights Education.)
|
9:00 am |
Hundreds of students gather in Red Square at the University of
Washington. The crowd grows to several thousand and then marches
across the University Bridge towards downtown.
|
9:00 am |
Protesters prevent WTO delegates from attending opening ceremonies
at the Paramount Theater, 9th Avenue and Pine Street.
|
9:00 am |
Approximately 30 demonstrators lock themselves to a metal platform
at 6th Avenue and Pike Street. Sheraton Hotel security officers
lock down the hotel.
|
9:00 am |
Demonstrators block delegates from attending WTO functions at
7th Avenue between Pike Street and Pine Street.
|
9:15 am |
Soon after protesters block the 6th Avenue and Pike Street, about
a dozen young men and women clad head-to-toe in black, with black
masks and combat boots, throw newspaper boxes and garbage cans into
the street. Other protesters shout, "No violence, no violence."
|
9:15 am |
Nearly 50 demonstrators march down Pike Street from 6th Avenue
to the beat of their small drum corps. Some carry dark green flags
with black suns. It is principally these protesters, sometimes swelling
to 100, who break windows throughout downtown. They spray-paint
the anarchist logo (an A in a circle) and puncture the tires of
limousines and eight police cars.
|
9:30 am |
Demonstrators begin massing at key intersections around the Paramount
Theatre and the Convention Center.
|
9:30 am |
The head of maintenance for the Pike Place Market talks Anarchists
out of vandalism there.
|
10:00 am |
AFL-CIO People's Rally and March begins at Memorial Stadium. (Sponsored
by AFL-CIO.)
|
10:00 am |
The WTO Opening ceremony is postponed by protest action which
prevents delegates from entering the Paramount Theatre.
|
10:00 am |
Attempting to clear a corridor to the Paramount Theatre for delegates,
police in body armor fire tear gas.
|
10:00 am |
Police are unable to form safe-passage corridors for dignitaries
or to protect them from hecklers.
|
10:00 am |
Police clear the intersection of 6th Avenue and Union Street by
firing tear gas into the crowd from their armored vehicle. Demonstrators
throw back the sticks from their signs.
|
10:00 am |
WTO delegates are told to stay in their hotels.
|
10:30 am |
Police clear a crowd at 6th Avenue and University Street with
tear gas. Protesters who have chained themselves together do not
move. Other protesters provide them with water and treatment for
the effects of the crowd-ontrol agents.
|
11:30 am |
"France and the WTO" luncheon and discussion is scheduled
at the World Trade Center West, 2200 Alaskan Way. (Sponsored by
French American Chamber of Commerce.)
|
11:30 am |
Police attempt to clear the street at the Sheraton Hotel, 6th
Avenue and Pike Street. Officers carry protesters off the street.
Protesters throw cans, bottles, and barricades at the police. Garbage
cans and newspaper boxes litter the streets.
|
11:55 am |
Protesters smash windows at the Bank of America, 4th Avenue and
Pike Street.
|
11:55 am |
Protesters throw a newspaper box through the already-damaged window
of McDonald's, 3rd Avenue and Pine Street.
|
11:55 |
am Protesters in black clothing break windows along 6th Avenue.
Alarms at Carroll's Fine Jewelry are set off.
|
12:00 pm |
25,000 union members and supporters march to downtown from Memorial
Stadium.
|
12:00 pm |
Protesters break windows at Banana Republic, FAO Swartz, and Warner
Brothers.
|
12:00 pm |
Secretary of State Madeline Albright and U.S. Trade Representative
Charles Barshefsky remain at the Westin Hotel because their protection
details say the streets of Seattle are too dangerous for them to
travel the few blocks to the opening ceremonies. A press conference
with Barshefsky is canceled.
|
12:00 pm |
The WTO Opening ceremony at the Convention Center is cancelled.
|
12:00 pm
|
Approximately 200 Anarchists use hammers to smash windows at Nordstrom,
Nike Town, Planet Hollywood, and several other stores near 6th Avenue
and Pike Street.
|
12:00 pm
|
WTO officials get the word out: the conference will continue.
|
12:15 pm
|
Starbucks is looted by protesters at 6th Avenue and Stewart Street.
|
12:15 pm
|
The clear film over the windows at Pacific Place, 6th Avenue and
Pine Street, designed as an anti-graffiti measure, serves to prevent
windows from being shattered.
|
12:20 pm
|
A State Patrol response team guarding dignitaries at the Westin
Hotel takes no action as protesters vandalize a Starbucks 300 feet
away. They are not authorized to take action against vandals.
|
12:50 pm
|
People's Assembly march arrives downtown at 4th Avenue and University
Street.
|
1:00 pm
|
The AFL-CIO march arrives downtown at Westlake Center. When they
converge with other protests, as many as 35,000 protesters jam the
central business district.
|
2:00 pm
|
Plenary session of the WTO starts at the Convention Center. (Sponsored
by WTO.)
|
2:00 pm
|
Pacific Place, Nordstrom, and The Bon Marche close and send their
employees home.
|
3:00 pm |
Benaroya Hall is damaged by protesters at 2nd Avenue and University
Street.
|
3:00 pm
|
Demonstrators build a bonfire in trash bins and police fire tear
gas at 4th Avenue and Pike Street. Protesters respond by throwing
bottles. Neither side gives ground.
|
3:00 pm
|
Police run out of department-issued pepper spray. Officers take
matters in their own hands and arrange to obtain supplies from police
agencies in Auburn, Tukwila, Renton, and from the King County Jail
and the State Department of Corrections. When supplies are collected,
the officers drive as close to downtown as they can get. Plainclothes
officers load the material into gym bags and knapsacks and run through
crowds to resupply uniformed officers.
|
3:10 pm |
Anarchists start a fire in a dumpster at 4th Avenue and Pike Street.
Officers fire gas to disperse the crowd there. With each volley
of gas, the protesters become more defiant.
|
3:15 pm
|
Clinton administration officials inform Mayor Schell that if the
protesters are not cleared from the Central Business District, the
WTO will be called off.
|
3:30 pm
|
Seattle Mayor Paul Schell asks Washington Governor Gary Locke for
National Guard help.
|
4:00 pm
|
Several hundred protesters from the earlier Sierra Club march are
involved in minor confrontations with police. A window is broken
at McDonald's at 3rd Avenue and Pine Street.
|
4:00 pm |
Protesters stand in front of Nike Town windows, 6th Avenue and
Pine Street, to keep others from breaking them.
|
4:00 pm
|
A garbage truck is seized by protesters and they set a bonfire
at 6th Avenue and Stewart Street.
|
4:00 pm |
Protesters board Metro busses and assault drivers, pull battery
plugs (disabling the busses) and slash tires. Metro service is suspended
downtown. Because many bus routes go through downtown, this has
the effect of shutting down the entire Metro transit system.
|
4:00 pm
|
Protesters break windows at Washington Mutual Bank at 5th Avenue
and Union Street.
|
4:00 pm
|
In violation of Seattle Police procedures, street level officers
have not received meal or rest breaks.
|
4:00 pm
|
Protesters sit down at 4th Avenue and Pike Street and police fire
tear gas to disperse them.
|
4:30 pm |
Benefit for locked-out Kaiser Aluminum workers is scheduled at
the Mercer Arena by the United Steelworkers.
|
4:30 pm |
Mayor Schell declares a state of emergency and establishes a 7
p.m. to 7:30 a.m. curfew on the area of downtown between Interstate-5
and the waterfront and between Yesler Way and Denny Way.
|
4:30 pm |
Arrests begin at 6th Avenue and Pine Street because the Secret
Service demands safe streets for President Clinton who is due to
arrive in Seattle in a few hours.
|
4:30 pm |
"I was in the trenches for two days and I was in the middle
of it," one officer later stated. "Whenever we used tear
gas or bullets with pepper gas, we warned people. We gave them five
minutes to leave. When the first gas was deployed, we already were
getting bottles thrown at us" (Officer Brett Smith).
|
4:45 pm |
Governor Locke orders the National Guard and 300 State Troopers
to assist Seattle Police. This is the first time in recent history
that the National Guard is called into Seattle.
|
5:00 pm |
Protesters persuade others not to climb onto Interstate-5 to block
traffic.
|
5:00 pm |
Police sweep through downtown, pushing protesters out of the curfew
area with tear gas and pepper spray.
|
5:00 pm |
As crowds begin to thin, police begin a major push to clear downtown
using gas to force protesters to retreat from several locations.
|
6:00 pm |
More than two dozen protesters, three police officers and two
delegates are treated at hospitals for minor injuries.
|
6:00 pm |
Police fire gas into a determined group of protesters at 6th Avenue
and Pine Street and begin driving them east up Pine Street, toward
Capitol Hill.
|
6:30 pm |
Police temporarily halt their push up Pine Street at Boren Avenue
in hopes that demonstrators will disperse.
|
7:00 pm |
Debate between Ralph Nader et al. and Jagdish Rhagwati et al.
is scheduled. at Seattle Town Hall, 1119 8th Avenue.
(Sponsored by Public Citizen, International Forum on Globalization,
and The Nation.)
|
7:00 pm |
A Seattle Police captain flies to Casper, Wyoming, to pick up
a stock of tear gas from federal agents there.
|
7:30 pm
|
Police break up a group of demonstrators who had started a small
bonfire at Pine Street and Melrose Avenue.
|
8:00 pm
|
Ministerial reception and dinner is scheduled at the Museum of
Flight.
|
9:00 pm |
Demonstrators blare Jimi Hendrix's version of the National Anthem
at 4th Avenue and University Street as police move forward in a
fog of gas.
|
9:00 pm |
Protesters overturn and set fire to trash bins in front of Egyptian
Theater and then block the intersection at Pine Street and Broadway.
Police disperse the crowd which gathers again farther north on Broadway.
|
10:00 pm |
Police bomb technicians detonate a suspected explosive device
in a parking garage near the Convention Center. It turns out to
be an unattended briefcase. Police use concussion grenades and tear
gas to clear 300 to 400 protesters who had gathered nearby.
|
11:00 pm |
Police leave Capitol Hill area and the protesters go home.
|
By midnight, 68 people have been arrested, several
for felonies
|
*
Compiled from media accounts by HistoryLink.org
Used with permission |