In response to scattered reports of violence and vandalism among the demonstrators protesting the WTO in Seattle, labor and environmental leaders issued statements disavowing any support for violent activity.

"We certainly don’t support violence or property destruction," said Naomi Walker, a spokeswoman for John Sweeney, the head of the AFL-CIO.

Leaders of major environmental organizations also roundly criticized the tactics of some of the protesters.

Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club said, "Today for the first time, students, people of faith, environmentalists, labor leaders, and working families came together to send the message that the WTO rules do not protect workers or the environment.

"This historic march drew huge numbers of people together to draw a line in the sand that the public deserves far more protection from the damages of unmitigated global trade. However, the environmental community wanted only peaceful demonstrations. We deplore the violence exhibited in downtown Seattle, and it is usurping the real story of 50,000 people who stood together to demand respect for workers and the environment."

Patti Goldman, managing attorney with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund in Seattle, added, "We condemn the violence. We are a legal institution that works through the law to protect the environment. There are valid arguments to be made to the WTO and the Clinton administration about a critical need for fundamental reform of trade rules to protect our health and our environment.

"Violence only obscures our message. A handful of anarchists should not drown out the message of thousands of peaceful marchers. We hope obstructionists won't continue to obscure a contructive dialogue for the remainder of the WTO meetings this week."

Mike Dolan, lead trade organizer for Ralph Nader’s organization Public Citizen, also released a statement.

"During the last several weeks," said Dolan, "I have worked with local and national activists groups in anticiption of an opportunity to protest against the WTO and call for a dramatic reform or its replacement.

"Today, Tuesday November 30, began well with several simultaneous peaceful protests around downtown Seattle. These non-violent direct actions were early disrupted and corrupted by small bands of vandals who turned over some newspaper boxes and apparently smashed a couple of windows downtown. The police failed to identify and arrest these few anti-social individuals.

"Meanwhile, the peaceful direct action protesters were expecting to be arrested. They had locked themselves to one another in several downtown intersections by way of basic civil disobedience. Neither were they arested.

The result was that the vandals were able to use the non-violent direct action protesters as cover throughout the morning and early afternoon and their property destruction continued sporadically throughout the day.

At 4:30 in the afternoon I was at the intersection of 4th and Pine to verify reports of heavy-handed police response, which was occupied by prodominately peaceful protesters, many of them sitting or laying down. At that time I spoke to Captain Jim Pugel, behind a line of riot police about the situation in the downtown area and its peaceful resolution.

"I crossed the police line six times, relaying information to and from Captain Pugel and some of the direct action protesters. At 5:00, just after I had conveyed the information that the protesters were planning to disperse to another location, the police unleashed an unannounced and unprovoked barrage of something called "CS gas" which incapacited me for nearly half an hour, my eyes swollen shut and stinging.

"Why didn’t the police identify and arrest the vandals early on? If they had, the ugliness in the afternoon and my own substantial discomfort would have been avoided.

"We didn’t come to trash Seattle, we came here to expose the trashy reputation of the WTO."

Tom Turner and Judith Barish

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