By

Miguel Alandete

5 Days That Shook the World: Seattle and Beyond

Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair with photo essay by Allan Sekula

118pp. Verso Books ISBN: 185984779X

I felt surprised and a little ashamed when I heard news reports surrounding the November 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle—reports suggesting that anarchists from my town were to blame for the violence. I live in Eugene, Oregon, home of the Pacific Northwest anarchist movement. Like me, many of Eugene’s citizens are ambivalent about the anarchists and their grievances: we’re respectful of their right to protest and yet we’re often rather distressed with their penchant for mayhem. However, the events in Seattle forced me to revisit my ambivalence. I knew that what the media was portraying couldn’t be true: the anarchists I had become familiar with could never have single-handedly carried out what was accomplished in Seattle. As it turned out, the anarchists were only a small part of the story.

The Seattle protestors were unified in their disdain for the WTO and its efforts to coerce freely elected governments to accept free trade. Free Traders, or Neo-Liberalists, seek to liberate free enterprise from any government intervention. They began to make their presence felt in the early 1970s when Milton Friedman, University of Chicago economist, dusted off Adam Smith’s laissez-faire capitalism and made more popular the notion that economic freedom from government intervention was the way to prosperity. This “free” economics stands in opposition to the theory that full employment is necessary for the success of capitalism, a theory proposed by Maynard Keynes. The Great Depression of the 1930s influenced Keynes, who thought that full employment could only be assured through government intervention. Naturally, his work heavily influenced Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Friedman, and the Neo-Liberalists, however, disagreed. Instead, they believed that the total and free movement of capital, goods and services would be the atmosphere under which capitalism would flourish. Under this system, public expenditures for social services would be reduced. Deregulation and privatization of state-owned enterprises would be rationalized as more efficient and, therefore, more profitable. In effect, the Neo-Liberalists bemoan the common good and instead promote “individual responsibility.”

These are the goals of those who presumably believe that future generations will ultimately benefit from a free-market system unfettered by un-evolved sentiments like compassion for one’s fellow man. In fact, a free trader might argue that it is paradoxically more compassionate to be selfish; if we would just stand aside and leave them alone, they would, by virtue of their own self-interest, improve our lot.

5 Days That Shook the World: Seattle and Beyond is a primer for those of us ignorant of the excesses of Neo-Liberalism and ignorant, too, of the burgeoning Internationalist backlash against it. Written by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair with photo essay by Allan Sekula, 118pp. Verso Books, 5 Days revels in the blossoming of this new movement and its shocking victory in Seattle. The work makes available the unique and vastly under-reported perspective of the direct-action street protesters of the Internationalist movement. Cockburn and St. Clair, the well-informed co-editors of the political newsletter, Counterpunch, tell the story of Seattle with fervency and poise in a style gripping and informative.

While providing insight into the makings of the Internationalist movement, Cockburn and St. Clair introduce us to its many faces. Blaming the situation in Seattle on Eugene’s anarchists was woefully inaccurate. In reality, the Internationalist movement is comprised of groups ranging from radical environmentalists to union members to French farmers. I found it fascinating that this group was so democratic in its make-up. Cockburn and St. Clair do a fine job of illuminating what unites these disparate groups into such a powerful and growing movement.

I was most moved by the protestor’s display of courage in the face of questionable police tactics, tactics that make a mockery of the Bill of Rights. Indeed, the diaries of the Seattle protest are particularly well written, propelling the reader into the maelstrom of protestors, police, and confused global capitalists in a spellbinding manner. Most importantly, the diaries provide eyewitness accounts of the direct-action protests in Seattle and later, in D.C. and L.A. The reader is compelled to confront long-held opinions about our society and the forces that shape it. This book makes it impossible to dismiss the allegations regarding the media, the police, the politicians, and the multi-national corporations who influence them, and it lays bare the myopia inherent in Neo-Liberalism

Although Cockburn and St. Clair do not mention it, Internationalism clearly draws its strength from the increasing availability of free speech and information available on the Internet. Whereas “radical” social movements have been historically hampered by the necessity of moving underground, the Internet makes it much simpler to coordinate and mobilize a growing number of people disaffected by global free trade. Prague is an example of this movement’s electronic momentum. It is difficult to imagine that Internationalism, if the freedom of information available on the World Wide Web remains free, will not eventually be quite successful. As a matter of fact, one of the demands of the Internationalist movement, Jubilee 2000, has recently made some headway.

Jubilee 2000, the grass-roots movement to force international banks to forgive crushing levels of third-world debt has had some recent success. The World Bank has agreed to consider that third-world debt be forgiven for countries reeling from the effects of decades-long poor public-health policies. Implied, of course, is the forced realization that the health and well-being of a nation’s people are ultimately more valuable than the profits to be made from their resources. This movement toward an ecological perspective of economics is the real goal of Internationalists.

Seattle is the germination of a seed planted by the likes of Eduardo Galleano, who in the wake of the CIA-backed coup of Allende’s 1973 Chilean regime, first warned us of Neo-Liberalism’s evils. Anyone blind to Neo-Liberalism’s effects in Latin America over the last 30 years need only consider recent Mexican history to see whether this notion of “compassionate self-interest” (one might even call it “compassionate conservatism”) has any value. In the first year of the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA), Mexican wages declined 40 to 50% while the cost of living rose by 80%. Over 20,000 small and medium-sized businesses failed and more than 1,000 state-owned enterprises were privatized.

Even the United States is not immune to the Neo-Liberalist zeal for wealth: Public utility deregulation as practiced in California earlier this winter resulted in requests for federal financial relief by California’s poorer citizenry. Most recently, deregulation has been identified as the culprit in California’s energy woes. On another front, Clinton’s handling of the welfare problem has resulted in millions of “post-welfare” women and children living well below the poverty line. These actions point to the growing trend of conservatism by the two major political parties.

Clearly, our present capitalist system has become heady or even drunk in the wake of its relatively recent “victory” over communism; to the extent that this reverie continues to be blind to the billions who do not share in its plenty, its demise looms. The great pendulum of social conscience, which forever seeks moderation, has started to tug at the coattails of Neo-Liberalist capitalism. There is irony here. And, the irony is not lost on those who are, in fact, battling capitalist extremism. The voice of moderation is gaining strength in the streets of Eugene, Oregon, and, indeed, in Seattle and beyond.

Miguel Alandete is a writer in Eugene, Oregon who works at The Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments.