Over the course of four hours on Nov. 30, Seattle witnessed the results of months of organizing by organized labor. In a rally and march that lasted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., as many as 35,000 people filled a football stadium and took over miles of downtown Seattle streets.

The event sent an unmistakeable message to its target, the World Trade Organization. It also showed both the unity and the divisions in the house of labor.

Labor’s event began with a morning rally, in which some 20,000 people packed into Seattle Center’s Memorial Stadium to shout unequivocal disapproval of the World Trade Organization. Union members from more than 144 countries were present, many of them having attended an international labor conference in Seattle the week before.

Union members came from 50 US unions and 25 states. It took 185 buses, nine charter planes, and two trains to bring them in, not to mention the many who came by car.

Memorial Stadium’s gates opened at 8 a.m., and by 10:30 a.m., the massive arena was a quilt of colored ponchos, as unionists sat in rows in the bleachers and stood in blocks on the field. In the front, about a thousand Steelworkers stood under a tethered white blimp wearing blue ponchos, while to their right a thousand Teamsters stood in yellow ponchos.

In the risers, the Office and Professional Employees were visible in yellow ponchos, AFSCME public workers in green t-shirts, Sheetmetal Workers in blue jackets, Electrical Workers in yellow ponchos, the United Farm Workers waving red flags, Painters in white ponchos, Airline Pilots in full black uniform, and Service Employees in purple jackets.

A very large contingent of Longshore workers sat midway in the risers, brandishing yellow picket signs with the slogan "Stop Corporate Globalism." The signs depicted a "WTO" octopus stymied from strangling the globe by a wall of letters, the acronym of the longshore union, ILWU.

And everywhere at the rally (and along the perimeter of the march that followed), Boeing Machinist event marshals stood, recognizable in neon orange baseball caps.

In addition to the unionists, thousands of students, environmentalists, and others attended the rally and march.

Adding to the visual spectacle were many creative costumes and props, including a fearsome-looking 20-foot-high balloon of a giant rat, men on stilts in business suits and animal snouts, and a troupe of Aztec dancers dressed largely in feathers and beads.

After a performance by the a capella troupe Sweet Honey in the Rock, Washington state AFL-CIO president Rick Bender opened the rally with the declaration that "there’s only one answer to organized greed, and that’s organized labor." Over the next several hours, some 17 labor leaders spoke, as well as leaders from environmental, religious, and human rights groups. The most militant and unambiguous messages received the loudest applause.

"Who the hell asked our leaders to give us the WTO?" asked George Becker, president of the United Steelworkers. "And why do they feel the need to protect intellectual property rights but not workers’ rights?"

"We want enforceable labor rights in the WTO, and we want it now," Becker continued. "And our leaders had better deliver it, because if they don’t, we’re going to start a movement to get out of the WTO."

Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, decried the threat to democracy posed by an unelected trade body with the power to strike down national laws.

When their president Brian McWilliams took the stage, the longshore workers let out a tremendous roar. The longshore union had shut down all the ports on the West Coast today, from Canada to Mexico.

McWilliams did not beat around the bush. "We will not stand idly by while you corporate puppets in the WTO plot this economic coup."

To his call "Are you ready to fight?" the longshore workers yelled back, "Damn right!"

Some industrial unions such as the Teamsters, Steelworkers and Machinists took a more militant stance than the national AFL-CIO or the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. As the Teamsters’ slogan "No to WTO" indicated, the industrial unions are considering a push to abolish or withdraw from the WTO, while the program of the AFL-CIO and ICFTU is to press for reforms within it.

When Jimmy Hoffa, Junior, took the stage, several boos were largely drowned out by the cheers of others. But Hoffa was speaking to a diminished crowd.

Two hours into the rally, large numbers began voting with their feet that the time to march had come.

By the time the final speaker, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, took the stage, the stadium was largely empty. Most of the unionists, whether solo or in large groups, were already assembling outside the arena.

But the march was not to begin for another hour, delayed by police, who announced that parts of the march route were still covered in tear gas.

A group of Machinists riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles was supposed to have started the march, but hundreds of unaffiliated rallygoers began to march before the Harleys started. And soon after the march got underway, it came to a halt as it collided with thousands of protesters who were already near the Convention Center, including Tibetans, Vietnamese, and proponents of civil disobedience and direct action.

From that point on, labor’s march was mired in chaos as Machinist marshals struggled to clear streets so that organized contingents of unionists could continue. Attempts to herd protesters onto the sidewalk using barriers of yellow tape failed as groups of people ducked underneath and returned.

The march route was changed several times and cut short, but finally the unionists were able to proceed and return to Seattle Center. Despite the chaos, the larger groups of unionists managed to stay together, including the Steelworkers, the Teamsters, and the United Farm Workers.

As its organizers predicted, Nov. 30 is sure to stand as the last great protest of the millenium. And if organized labor has any say in it, it will be a harbinger of things to come.

by Don McIntosh, Northwest Labor Press

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