> >---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 01:38:02 EST
> >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Reply-To: Michael Moore's newsletter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Subject: The Battle of Seattle
> >
> >December 7, 1999
> >
> >Dear Friends,
> >
> >They never knew what hit them. They had assumed it
> >would be business as usual, the way it had been for
> >decades. Rich men gather, meet, decide the fate of the
> >world, then return home to amass more wealth. It's the
> >way it's always been.
> >
> >Until Seattle.
> >
> >On the morning of November 30, 1999, as government
> >officials from 135 nations attempted to meet with the
> >largest gathering ever of corporate executives, tens of
> >thousands of average everyday working Americans shut
> >down the city of Seattle and physically prohibited the
> >hoped-for historic and official merger of the earth's
> >political and business elite. I was there. I saw it
> >first-hand. It was a sight I had never seen.
> >
> >But there it was. It was a massively representive body of
> >Americans (and Canadians and Brits and French, etc.),
> >all of us standing there on the streets between Pine and
> >Pike -- Teamsters and turtle-lovers, grandparents and
> >Gap clerks, the homeless and computer geeks, high
> >school students and Alaskans, nuns and Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.,
> >airplane mechanics and caffeinated slaves from Microsoft.
> >A few were professional protesters, but the majority
> >looked as if this was their first exercise in a
> >constitutionally protected redress of grievances. There
> >were no "leaders," no "movement," no idea of what to do
> >except stop the World Trade Organization from holding
> >its secret meeting.
> >
> >Only the anarchists seemed organized. They even had
> >their own anarchist marching band!
> >
> >The big labor march grew so large (that's what happens
> >when so many workers are temps), it broke into six or
> >seven separate marches, choking off the entire downtown
> >area of Seattle.
> >
> >The beauty of all this is that it just happened. And why
> >should anyone be surprised? After two decades of
> >downsizing, wage stagnation, lost health benefits and
> >the deliberate destruction of the middle class, the bubble
> >sooner or later had to burst.
> >
> >The Fortune 500 brought this on themselves. If they
> >hadn't been so greedy, if they had been willing to share
> >even a sliver of the pie, then maybe Seattle wouldn't
> >have happened.
> >
> >But the rich decided to take a piss on their biggest
> >supporters -- their loyal workers, those Reagan
> >Democrats -- and there's nothing uglier than a
> >Teamster who voted for Nixon realizing he's been had.
> >
> >It was funny watching how the media presented the
> >Battle of Seattle ("violent protests" was the mantra),
> >and while a McDonald's and a Starbucks had their
> >windows broken, the truth was that 99% of the
> >participants destroyed no property and took great
> >pains to treat the city of Seattle with endearing
> >respect. Seattle is, after all, the only city in the
> >history of this country to have a general strike (the
> >entire town refused to show up for work back in 1919).
> >
> >The liberal mayor of Seattle, who at first did not want to
> >be known as a West Coast Mayor Daley, eventually lost
> >his cool and let his police force run amok. Tear gas and
> >rubber bullets started flying toward the grandparents and
> >the nuns. All civil liberties were suspended. They even
> >had the audacity to use the term, "no protest zones."
> >Hey, this is America, buddy! Seattle may be considered
> >one of those groovy "Pacific Rim" cities, but that doesn't
> >make it Singapore.
> >
> >Clinton came to town on the second day. He was so
> >badgered by the protests, he ended up committing a
> >sin so serious, it was like he was burning his draft card
> >all over again. He completely changed his position and
> >called on all WTO countries to enact laws prohibiting
> >trade with nations that use children in sweatshops and
> >do not honor the rights of all workers to organize a
> >union. Whoa! You see, free trade is an absolute with the
> >WTO (e.g., trade must never be used as a tool to
> >accomplish "social" goals). So, for Clinton to climb the
> >space needle (or was he chased up it?) and then declare
> >that the human rights of workers were more important
> >than making a buck, well, this was nothing short of Paul
> >being knocked off his horse and seeing Jesus! You could
> >almost hear the collective seething of the hundreds of
> >CEOs gathered in Seattle. Their boy Bill -- the politician
> >they had bought and paid for at so many coffee klatches
> >and Lincoln Bedroom stays --- had betrayed them. You
> >could almost see them reaching for their Palm Pilots to
> >look up the phone number of The Jackal.
> >
> >It was a tremendous victory for everyone who lives from
> >paycheck to paycheck. We owe a lot to those brave
> >souls who got arrested and spent the rest of the week
> >in jail.
> >
> >This is by no means the end of Big Business. The
> >richest 1% still own 90% of everything in this world.
> >They will not go down without a fight.
> >
> >But they have been put on notice that people from all
> >walks of life have had their fill and will not let up until we
> >have a fair, just, and democratic economy. This week,
> >Seattle was the Lexington and Concord of a movement
> >that now cannot be stopped. Mark it down, this last great,
> >important date of the 20th century -- November 30, 1999 --
> >The Battle of Seattle, the day the people got tired of having
> >to work a second job while fighting off the collection agents
> >and decided it was time the pie was shared with the people
> >who baked it.
> >
> >Yours,
> >Michael Moore
> ><A HREF="http://www.michaelmoore.com">http://www.michaelmoore.com</A>
> >[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> >P.S. We're still looking for someone to run our web site.
> >Someone who can write, edit, and make the thing look
> >like a million rubles. It's a full time job located in our
> >New York City office. We need someone who, like us,
> >sees all the subversive, crazy potential of the Internet.
> >E-mail us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
>
>
