The Battle of Seattle
20 years ago a coalition of freedom fighters assembled in Seattle, Washington USA for the Battle of Seattle. What were they fighting? Did they win? Is the war over?
Sometimes in today's fast-paced world we forget that our freedoms are not guaranteed - that they must be vigilantly defended. It's easy to go to the store and select an item, purchase it, and take it home. But what goes into putting those products on the shelf? What responsibility to investigate the ethics of the corporation bringing these items to stores, do consumers have?
The morning of November 30 1999 - dubbed N30 - in Seattle, Washington, USA the World Trade Organization (WTO) held a Ministerial Conference which was subjected to the first major demonstration by the American people against globalisation. The estimated number of protesters ranged from 40,000 to 100,000 in person, and 400,000 online protestors.
But why? The answer to this question really lies in looking at human rights enforcement in the globalisation movement. Is there an organization which is effectively overseeing the corporatization of our planet's natural resources and indigenous cultures?
The word globalisation was first known to be used in 1930. Merriam - Webster defines it as ": the act or process of globalizing : the state of being globalized (especially) : the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets."
The potential for capitalization of poverty in globalisation left a need for a voice which represented the people. One of the first major internet initiated protests, finally the people had spoken that they had qualms about globalisation.
The Battle of Seattle is seen as the birth of the antiglobalisation movement. It forced the major media outlets to report on exactly why so many people were against globalisation - marking a turn around in the collective awareness of the dangers of globalisation.
"The system of corporate life is a new power for which our language contains no name. We have no word to express government by moneyed corporations" -- Charles Francis Adams
“We must ensure that the global market is embedded in broadly shared values and practices that reflect global social needs, and that all the world's people share the benefits of globalization.” -- Kofi Annan
Today, global poverty is still on the decline, so it would seem that the victory of the Battle of Seattle marked a turn around in the direction globalisation was headed. Even so, this author contends that as long as any child is hungry, or any human is homeless, that the war is not over.