By Jim McMahan
Seattle
World Trade Organization delegates and corporation representatives have now left this city. But militant anti-WTO activists continue the struggle. They have vowed not to leave until all those arrested at the week-long demonstrations are released.
As of Dec. 5, hundreds of young people have occupied the plaza in front of the King County Jail—the site from which most of the 570 arrested are being released. For three days, activists have occupied the jail plaza throughout the nights, despite cold rainstorms.
The plaza is covered with plastic tarps. Many protesters are bundled up in sleeping bags.
Supporters bring donations of soup and other food to a makeshift kitchen with a propane stove.
Anti-capitalist, anti-WTO signs hang from the cement walls. There is a ride board for people needing transportation to different locations across the United States and Canada.
Members of the National Lawyers Guild staff a table where they document testimony about the police brutality people have suffered.
On Dec. 6, members of religious and labor groups came to the jail for a support rally for the political prisoners inside. The lesbian, gay, bi and trans community is holding meetings to protest the massive police brutality and to win the release of all the activists still being held.
Activists set up a small stage by the front door in order to make announcements and read international statements of support to the crowd.
A cheer goes up whenever another prisoner is released out the front door.
All but 40 have now been released, but people are not leaving until all are freed. Those still being held include people charged with serious felonies and people from other countries who risk losing their green cards or being deported.
‘LIKE THE EPICENTER OF AN EARTHQUAKE’
Many of the anti-WTO political prisoners were arrested on Dec.1. They were put on buses and hauled out to a naval station where they remained for up to 15 hours without food or water.
But spirits remained high. Activists "decorated" the buses and sang and danced through the night.
When they were finally removed from the buses, the police reportedly pepper sprayed and beat many of them. Many of the protesters continued to resist by refusing to give police their names or be fingerprinted.
The first protesters were not released until after the WTO meeting was over—late on Dec. 3.
But reports from the jail indicate that demonstrators are exuberant and defiant, despite their hardships.
Sarah Kerr said she was demonstrating more than a mile from the WTO conference on Dec. 1. Suddenly, she recalled, "The cops pushed us back and we were surrounded. All of a sudden tear gas, percussion grenades and rubber bullets were fired at us all at once. I got hit.
"And when you get hit by a rubber bullet you have a welt the size of a tennis ball on your body."
Carol Jackson was taking pictures for People for Fair Trade at the demonstrations. The cops swept her off the street and arrested her, along with other spectators. She spent four days in jail.
"The cops weren’t there to protect the people," Jackson explained. "They were there to protect the WTO. When you think there are children in sweatshops making rugs for pennies a day around the world, I’m not hurting bad.
"In fact, this struggle renews my faith in humanity!"
A woman speaking at the jail-plaza stage noted that one of the women who was gassed by the cops suffered a miscarriage. Because of this and other side effects from the gas, some demonstrators and an examining doctor believe there are highly dangerous additives in the cops’ tear gas.
"Being in the anti-WTO protests was like being in the epicenter of an earthquake," said Peter Myhre. "I saw 17-year-old youths get hit by percussion grenades and they kept on fighting. Young people who had never seen tear gas before kept on demonstrating.
"This is building leaders into the next millenium. Agents for change. Things are going to change."
Youths here have become increasingly politicized. They are talking like never before about what to do about capitalist sweatshop exploitation, attacks on the environment, and U.S. imperialist aggression.
They realize that while the WTO conference is over, the struggle continues.
