SEATTLE – Police fired tear gas today as thousands of protesters took to the streets in an effort to disrupt a meeting of the World Trade Organization.
Tear-gas rounds were fired into groups of demonstrators who had chained themselves together and were lying in the streets in an attempt to prevent the delegates from 135 countries from making it to the opening sessions.
WTO officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the opening ceremonies were delayed because U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was unable to get to the ornate downtown theater where the starting sessions were being held.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and WTO Director General Mike Moore were also scheduled to talk at the opening ceremonies.
Police used tear gas on several hundred protesters after warning them that they were violating city law by blocking an intersection.
“We’re basically putting a human face on the WTO. It has to consider human rights and worker rights along with trade,” Teamsters union President James Hoffa said, speaking at the organizing point for the march, a football stadium near the Seattle Space Needle.
Up and down the West Coast, dockworkers began shutting down cargo movement in solidarity with the anti-WTO protest. About 9,600 workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union were expected to take part in the action at about three dozen West Coast ports, including the nation’s largest, Long Beach and Los Angeles.
“By taking time out from work to voice our concerns, the ILWU is telling the transnational corporations that they cannot run the global economy without the workers of the world,” union President Brian McWilliams said in a written statement.
Julia Harrington of San Francisco, who was walking with her 7-year-old son and pushing her 3-year-old daughter in a stroller, said she was marching “to protect the environment ... and to protect other children in the world from unfair labor practices.”
In Washington, President Clinton, who had wanted to hold the WTO meetings in the United States to spotlight the benefits America receives from international trade, said of the protest marches “I am very sympathetic” with the concerns raided by organized labor and environmental groups.
He spoke to reporters in the Oval Office before flying to San Francisco and Los Angeles before traveling here early Wednesday to conduct meetings and address the Geneva-based conference of 135 nations.
On Monday, Clinton’s special trade representative, Charlene Barshefsky, told reporters she believes “it is critical to launch a new round of global trade negotiations. We think the time is right.”
Labor unions and environmentalists – traditional Democratic Party constituencies – view the Geneva-based trade body as a threat to worker rights and environmental protection.
Clinton said today he wants the Seattle talks to chart a path for slashing trade tariffs and keeping barriers away from Internet commerce.
“I also strongly, strongly believe that we should open the process up to all those people who are now demonstrating on the outside,” he said. “They ought to be a part of it. And I think we should strengthen the role and the interest of labor and environment in our trade negotiations.”
Some of the more radical activists began lying down in the street along the march route to try and carry out their threats to shut down the WTO by clogging up streets so delegates can’t reach the meeting hall.
Police temporarily stopped letting reporters into the giant convention center where the meetings are being held after some protesters broke through an outer security perimeter before being subdued by police in riot gear.
A special session Monday for various interest groups was delayed for several hours by an apparent breach of security that occurred just after the Secret Service had combed through the building, forcing another careful search for bombs. None was found.
Despite all the uproar, delegates to the WTO insisted the protesters would accomplish little more than making lots of noise. Business will go on despite any disruptions, they said.
“Sadly, I think it’s a bit futile,” said Leigh W. Purnell, an Australian business lobbyist. “It achieves the publicity factor, but clearly, governments will be making their decisions in other venues.”
