Economy
What the ‘Battle of Seattle’ Means 20 Years Later
The 1999 WTO protests shut down Seattle and brought new attention to the effects of global trade. The event looms large in the activist imagination today.
When Seattle police began tear-gassing peaceful protesters on November 30, 1999, John Sellers was supposed to be in jail.
A day earlier, he had rappelled off a crane to hang a giant banner emblazoned with two one-way street signs. One was labeled “WTO” and the other “Democracy,” with their arrows pointing in opposite directions.