Oct
3
Click here for dates and times to see Battle in Seattle.
I am somewhat excited about a new film coming out called Battle in Seattle – it is a reenactment of the protests that went on against the World Trade Organization when they came to Seattle in 1999. It was a pivotal moment in that it showed the strength and voice of the anti-globalization movement. (The way the media covered the protests is a much different story – I did a speech about how this seems to be a pivotal point in the way the media began to cover protests and its intended impact on public opinion. Perhaps I’ll turn it into a post. The Solnit article linked at the bottom goes nicely into detail about it though.)
On the other hand, after having viewed the trailer my excitement has been tempered by a hunch concerning how they covered some of the factions of protesters – and sure enough found a bit of commentary on it at the Wiki:
Despite director Stuart Townsend’s stated intention of portraying the events of protest accurately, the film was criticized by anarchist collective CrimethInc. for what they saw as its sensationalistic portrayal of events.[7] In a pamphlet titled “And What About Tomorrow?”, the collective allege that the protests were characterized in the film as an isolated spontaneous uprising in which a “small fringe group” of black bloc anarchists “stole the show”, whereas CrimethInc. contend that “anarchists were involved in all different aspects of the protests” including nonviolent organization and Food Not Bombs, and credit the adoption of anarchist direct action tactics with the success of the uprising.[7] A review published by Anarkismo praised the film as “clearly well-researched”, citing the pacing and general narrative as quite accurate, but criticized the presentation of anarchist politics as one-dimensional and a caricature.[8]
The link to the pamplet (PDF) – And What About Tomorrow?
And a web site: Real Battle in Seattle
The story of resistance to the WTO in Seattle in ‘99 is one of how people power can change the world. It’s a dangerous example for the elites and a powerful one for people. That’s why for eight years, the corporate media, governments, and their police have waged a dis-information campaign about Seattle ‘99.
In fall ‘08, a major motion picture, “Battle in Seattle,” will be seen across North America. It’s a huge improvement over corporate media lies, but won’t tell the motives or thinking of the people who shutdown the WTO. Only we can do that.
Stories are how we understand the world and thus shape the future- and the story of Seattle ‘99 shapes what people think of protest, corporate globalization and repression. It’s time that we in the social movements tell our own stories, reclaim our own histories, and publicly fight damaging myths past and present. This website is doing just that!
An excerpt from David Solnit’s article, The Battle for Reality
My stomach clenched the first time I heard that actor Stuart Townsend was making a mainstream movie about the 1999 shutdown of the WTO ministerial meetings, Battle in Seattle.
I was an on-the-ground organizer in Seattle, and for me and many other activists, the event was a high point in our social change work. It was a moment when organized resistance became a genuine popular uprising, successfully shutting down the opening day of the WTO meeting, taking over the downtown core of a major American city, and contributing to the collapse of negotiations that would have increased poverty, destruction, and misery around the world.
But for years, that story has been distorted. In mainstream media, the Seattle protesters have been portrayed either as violent extremists or as irrelevant “flat-earth advocates … and yuppies looking for their 1960s fix” as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman put it.
The story of Seattle has itself become a battleground, one where activists fight the lies and disinformation used to stoke public fears and justify repression against grassroots movements across the U.S.
Now Townsend wanted to tell our story, and I wondered if he’d do any better.
What would a multimillion-dollar Hollywood-star-studded film tell Americans about the sometimes life-or-death struggle against trade policies that threatened to wreck local economies and dismantle environmental protections the world over? Would it tell about the extraordinary power of 50,000 ordinary people in Seattle and their millions of counterparts around the world to demand a just and democratic world—or repeat media myths about riots and violence that activists had fought so long to change?
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Widespread amnesia about the history of movements and rebellion is part of what has made grassroots organizing in the U.S. so difficult. Many activists have romanticized Seattle as a semi-spontaneous rebellion that arose as if by luck. This ignores the key strategizing, mass mobilizing, networking, education, and alliance-building that made Seattle possible. Battle in Seattle’s greatest contribution may be that it reminds us of this and spurs us to action.
For more on the impact of free trade, I highly recommend the documentary Life and Debt. My only gripe is that it desperately needs subtitles. Argh!
And on a side note, I’m excited to see !!three!! actresses I’ve really enjoyed watching play strong characters in other things – Connie Nielson, Michelle Rodriquez and Charlize Theron.
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