Second Seattle WTO ShutDown in Mexico

firsthand account by Peter Rosset

Cancun, Sept. 14 -- We just returned from a ceremony for Lee Kyung-hae, the Korean farmer who immolated himself in protest against the WTO. Speaker after speaker had the same message: "The sacrifice of Companero Lee was not in vain, it gave us the energy to derail the WTO talks in Cancun.... keep fighting for that better world that is possible."

A short time later [we heard about] the collapse of the official talks. We were told that the Kenyan representative had declared: "This is over. We have just had a second Seattle," and walked out, followed by the representatives of South Korea and India. [A delegate] told us that the massive protests in the streets and the death of Mr. Lee had been key factors in creating a climate in which Third World countries felt they could once again stand up to pressure from the US and the European Union, just like in Seattle.

In fact yesterday, Saturday, was the most incredible day of protest any of us had ever experienced. [There were] multiple actions by protestors including the powerfully moving farmer-indigenous people-trade union-youth protests.

After the violence triggered by paid provocateurs on Tuesday, the death of Mr. Lee, and a general climate of anger and repression, everyone feared [a] confrontation on Saturday, and the police brought in massive reinforcements. They tripled the size of the metal barriers, and the provocateurs showed up in greater numbers, with shopping carts filled with stones and huge metal bars.

[But] just when large-scale violence most likely to erupt, the collective "we" created a show of unity and power that left paid rock-throwers with no recourse but to stand down. With the black blocks [militant groups dressed in black] providing security from the provocateurs and cordoning off the first 10 meters in front of the wire walls, more than a hundred women went forward with bolt cutters and began dismantling the walls, bit by bit. What a diversity of women it was! Indigenous women, punks, students, old women, young women, Mexican women, American and European women, African women. Once the wall was weakened, the Koreans supervised the attachment of 50 meter long, four-inch circumference ropes to the top of the walls. Then thousands of people of all nations, races and cultures, punks, black blocks, peasants, etc, together pulled the walls down. Quite literally, the power of the people, united, pulled down the walls of the WTO. When the walls fell, there stood thousands of riot police clearly spoiling for a fight.

Just when they thought we would attack, however, the Koreans who were on the front line turned their backs on them, everyone else sat down, hundreds of flowers appeared, and we had a mass memorial service for Mr. Lee. A singer sang John Lennon's "Imagine" for the crowd, the WTO was burned in effigy, and we got up and marched away. The police were left with their mouths hanging open in shock, with nobody to fight with. The hundreds of journalists who were present marveled at our collective ability to do the unexpected, to turn promised violence into moving peace, and to make a statement so powerful that the WTO could not hope to resist.

The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First, is a nonprofit think tank and action center, committed to establishing food as a fundamental human right, www.foodfirst.org/wto/reports. This article was reprinted with permission.