10 year anniversary of the WTO protests in Seattle

10 years ago today, i was released from jail in Seattle after spending 6 days in police custody over my participation in the WTO protests. Over 600 of us were arrested illegally for exercising our freedom of assembly.

I think it is important to remember how we changed things through simply deciding that we needed to be involved. We were not invited by the people in suits. We were not given a voice. We had to take it.

You will not be given freedom, and if you fail to exercise your freedom, you will loose it.

I also find it important to remember that we have allies, amny of which we don't know yet, and we will never know until we start acting who they are. When we 3000 in the direct action network decided to shut down the WTO meeting, we could not have succeeded except for the 150,000 people who rallied with us. The unions were not going to come join us in our direct action, but the union membership decided that they wanted more than their leaders were suggesting that they settle for. They saw the 3000 of us taking our freedom, and they came for some too.

We shut down the meeting.

the tear gas, pepper spray, rubber and wooden bullets couldn't stop us that day.

But more than that, the 150,000 of us could not have succeeded alone in stopping the WTO, but we found that the southern delegates to the WTO were inspired by the freedom that we took, and they took some too. They stopped going along with the developed north and the corporate interests that control the north and since that day, not a single new piece of legislation has passed through the WTO becasue the South stopped going along. They took their freedom.

You are not always given freedom. sometimes, you need to take it.

We have allies, many of whom we don't know yet. We only meet them when we start to act and let our views and voice be seen and heard.

600 of us spent a week in jail, but we changed the course of history.

We need to keep participating.