'4- North Shore News — Friday, December 3,

From page

_It took awhile, but soon I
was drawn back into the fray.
The tactics of the protest-
crs were ‘to create iruman
chains and logjams of people
to keep the delegates away
trom their meetings — and it
worked the first day. All the
official mectings were. can-
celled.

‘But behind each ‘of the
human chains was another
kind of chain thar. was still
quite human if you looked
closely.

_The lines of police. were
dressed in gas masks and he!-
‘mets. with their visors down
so only their eyes: were. visi-
ble. ;

‘They wore black -
armour: from head to: toe.
There ‘was nothing on their
body: to’ identify. who: they
“were. They were backed up
'. by: imposing armoured 5 Pere
. sonnel carriers. : ”
DL “wondered. what. they -
were: thinking, as they stood

sively for: hours in their own
an chain.:

few had’ fogged up their visors in .

ervousness and: you. could ‘sce
“sweat .on some of their: faces. a

the: p
there were no‘defections:

of p

In the morning, when the police were

still crying to clear the strects to get some
of. the lelegates ‘to

|, the. word to disperse t

1999

observers and the plethora ‘of television
cameras coon put an end to that.”

Later in the day, I heard that sume of
the tear gas’atracks. were caused. by
rowdy crowds throwing sticks or bottles
at the police, but they were also some-

'. times carried out without any obvious

_) When the sun went down the scene /
Was straight out of a sci-fi flick. ;

lice. were
ie groups black-

At five 0 "clock, the

ing, each street corner.
. Without. warning, cach of the ar: ‘cas

had'a half dozen canisters of tea gas”
thrown at them sequentially.
'. ° And when the crowds retreated, the °

police marched forward through . the
white smoke in ¢ ¢ darkness to reclaim
another. corncr.

.. They’ did this for about an hour, until

ven.

Photo ‘Anna-Loulse Pentiand

RIOT police watch protesters during demonstrations at the World Trade
Organization conference in Seattie.

the majority of the crowds were dis-
persed.
Shouts of “Nazi” and “Do you think

‘your children would be proud of you

now?” echoed in the strects.

Some protesters threw objects at the
police, but most just made peace signs .
or simply left shaken.

:There ‘were rumoured to be .200
anarchists in the group, breaking win-
dows and spray-painting all day and gen-
erally ‘undermining the credibility of the

‘majority of the protesters.

‘This group was also. dressed black

“and had covered their faces with black
-kerchiefs.
.The destruction continued on- into »

the night, with-others jeining in, until
finally a state of emergency was declared
just after eight o’ciock and the. National
Guard was callcd i in.

che hadn’t been on ‘a. march since 1962.

Radicals got
= most coverage

From page 1

other downtown retailers. :

Tuesday night's live television coverage showed a number of
young people making off with looted televisions and electronic
equipment.

Washington’s state governor immediately imposed a 7 p.m. to
dawn curfew that will remain in effect in Seattle for the rest of the
conference.

Three distinct groups took part in the day’s events, said Adams:
labour leaders and unionists, “fringe” groups who “attached —
themselves to the demonstration to create controv ersy,” and final-
ly those who “weren't even around during the day. They just wait-
ed for police activity so they could ;
start looting.”

Said Adams, “The radical.
aspects of the day got 95% of the |
coverage — 40,000 people walked
through Seattle without any inci-
dent.”

Added Morissette, “Despite
what was portrayed on TV, the
protest was very peaceful and the
atmosphere was very unified —

almost happy.”
Said IInyckyj, “The media
placed too mach emphasis on the
unfortunate violence that erupted.
This was a protest against'a dan-
gerous organization that violates
the rights of people and govern-
ments in order to blindly pursuc
the purposes of profit and trade,
without examining the conse-
quences that their actions are having on peoples’ lives and the
environment.” . : :
- “For anyone that thinks i it was all rabble- using groups,
Adams, “far from it. There were 1,000 machinists walking beside
us, is, keeping the crowd in an orderly manner, I knew nothing of the
. I didn’t see any riot polic That all appened yell before’
fora er we were there.” :
He. did, however, have a plan in. place had viol

“The radical .
aspects of the”.
day got 95% of
the coverage.
40,000 people

’ while the group were still in Seattle. “The boys knew. what to ¢

if things turned nasty.” ee
Although Adams admiis to being a bit of an activist,
; “Te was when i

McDonald report came out, We marched from. UEC to down:
town Vancouver i in support of better er finding for universities.”

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