ABSTRACT
Tens of thousands of protesters greeted delegates to the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Seattle. Protesters staged demonstrations throughout the four-day conference, but won what has come to be known as the ‘Battle in Seattle’ on the fi rst day of the WTO meetings when they blockaded downtown streets for several hours, forcing the cancellation of the opening day’s trade talks. Police and protesters clashed repeatedly during the fourday conference, particularly on the opening day when Seattle police made extensive use of less-lethal weapons to disperse the protesters – a process that took the better part of the day. Among the largest direct action protests in the US since the Vietnam War, the WTO demonstrations were the fi rst of several mass demonstrations in US cities over the next several months, each featuring street clashes between police and protesters (Gillham 2003; Thomas 2000; Cockburn et al. 2001).
