An older man in an Uncle Sam outfit had dollar bills pinned to his coat tails and symbolically swung at

An older man in an Uncle Sam outfit had dollar bills pinned to his coat tails and symbolically swung at a football-sized globe with a baseball bat.Speeches broadcast over the loudspeakers denounced the capitalist system and accused the WTO of putting profits before people and the planet.Seattle has a long history of civil protest stretching back to a general strike in 1919, and yesterday it was all but shut down. Several banners played with the WTO acronym, suggesting “World Takeover Organisation” and “Way Too Orwellian” as alternatives. Groups of demonstrators, typically sporting body piercing and individual-sized coffee thermoses, emerged with their banners all over Capitol Hill, a student area above downtown “Whose streets? Our streets!” they chanted. Others resorted to teasing slogans broadcast over a loudspeaker system: “WTO – You’ve been very naughty delegates Go to your room!”The protests began before dawn. “Fair trade, not free trade,” said the banners, interspersed with whale balloons, large animal skeletons representing endangered species and big photographs of corporate leaders adorned with hate slogans.Some protesters urged police and WTO delegates to join them.

With a whole cluster of issues at stake, from genetically modified foods to the rights of Zapatista rebels in Mexico, the slogans on display represented a kind of alternative globalism to that being pushed by the WTO itself. But they climbed back down again after riot police threatened to remove them.The most serious violence broke out a couple of hours later, beginning with confrontations at street intersections and then degenerating as a small group hurled Molotov cocktails, smashed storefronts and sprayed graffiti declaring: “Corporate greed sux.” The violence then subsided as the trade union demonstration swelled through the afternoon.It was the largest public demonstration in Seattle since the Vietnam War. “Block the streets! They can’t move all of us!” shouted the organisers.This first protest was not authorised by the police, but officials initially seemed to be relaxed about it converging on downtown as long as it remained peaceful and did not block traffic getting on and off Interstate 5, the main freeway running through the city.Seattle’s mayor, Paul Schell, arrived at the besieged Paramount Theater, venue for the opening ceremony that never happened, and said simply: “You can be firm with your message, but be gentle with your city.” A group of protesters jumped on to the roofs of a ring of city buses set up by police as a barricade outside the theatre. Go home!”Entrances to the conference sites were blocked by spoof police cordon tape reading “Unseen Crimes” – a reference to allegation that the WTO works secretly to promote the interests of multinational corporations at the expense of labour standards, the environment and human rights. “I will defend the right of our ministers to sit around a table to settle their differences.”President Bill Clinton is due to arrive in Seattle today, but with protesters still milling around the streets it is hard to see how his motorcade could get into town, much less that he would be able to walk around the streets safely.At the start of the morning, with drums throbbing, whistles blowing and heavy rock and roll music blaring through the streets, the first wave of radical demonstrators pirouetted and danced towards the venue “Shut it down!” they chanted “We ain’t gonna leave till you get out of Seattle.

The American delegation was completely surrounded in its hotel. The opening ceremony was delayed six hours, and then disrupted by three protesters who reached the event despite heavy security. The Sheraton Hotel, where the EU delegation stayed, was surrounded by chanting protesters and at one stage tear gas drifted through its elegant lobby and meeting rooms choking delegates, including Glenys Kinnock.Many complained that little serious work had been achieved, and some openly questioned whether the event could go ahead if the protests continued today. But Mike Moore, Director General of the WTO, held a defiant press conference where he promised: “This conference will be a success.”I will not accept that somehow this is not a democratic organisation,” he said defiantly. Several protesters were temporarily blinded and two were seen staggering away with blood on their faces. But the violence largely subsided as a vast flow of protesters, co-ordinated by US trade unionists, joined the more radical groups which had blocked the area around the Convention Center.A patchwork of environmentalists, animal rights activists, students and trade unionists dressed as sea-turtles and undertakers sang, danced, chanted anti-capitalist slogans and formed a great snaking line stretching two miles from Memorial Stadium through downtown and back out again.The protests threw the WTO meeting into chaos, as delegates found themselves stranded and some where physically attacked. At one stage the festival atmosphere risked being overshadowed by gangs dressed in black clothing and balaclava hats, who rampaged through downtown smashing windows, spray-painting slogans, attacking cars and squirting oil and paint on photographers’ camera lenses.
Phalanxes of riot police fired pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowds at some intersections.

Vast, colourful, messy and marred by episodes of violence on the fringes, the protest launched to close down the World Trade Organisation meeting scored a major victory as the ministerial meeting failed to get off the ground on its opening day and gave way instead to a passionate “carnival against capitalism”. Set up in the aftermath of June’s riots, Operation Benbow was co-ordinated by a 50-strong team of officers based at police headquarters where officers from the Metropolitan Police, the City of London Police, and British Transport Police, followed events on video monitors.. PEOPLE POWER came to the streets of Seattle yesterday. As the evening wore, on people were only allowed to leave the cordon after they had been searched and photographed.

Scotland Yard said 15 people were arrested for public-order offences while seven people were hurt, including one police officer who suffered head and neck injuries.There had long been fears that yesterday’s planned demonstration would end in violence, repeating the summer’s incidents in the City which erupted into mayhem and caused millions of pounds worth of damage.As a result, many City institutions had organised special security measures. News International, publishers of The Times and The Sun newspapers, had sealed off their Wapping headquarters and hired 420 extra security guards against possible attack.The policing of yesterday’s demonstrations was the first time a new joint operation involving three forces was put into action. Its windows were smashed and attempts made to set it alight using burning placards. Onlookers chanted “Burn it, burn it” and cheered as one man carrying a flaming sign eventually managed to ignite the van, which exploded.Riot police encircled the rioters, hemming them in to a small area in front of the station where “snatch squads” of officers grabbed people they had identified in the crowd. “Will you pledge to kill a pig,” shouted one speaker.The mood appeared to change and at around 6.30pm the crowd, now estimated by police to be 750-strong, moved out of the station and confronted a line of uniformed police who were trying to turn them back. It was at this point that demonstrators began attacking officers using placards and hurling cans.Rapidly, police chiefs ordered in riot officers who arrived at the scene within seconds, equipped with shields, helmets and batons. A series of running fights with demonstrators ensued, as police attempted to move them back with charges.Just how many of the original demonstrators where involved in the violence was unclear, but there seemed to be a hardcore of no more than 100 who were bolstered and cheered by hundreds of onlookers.Having confronted the rioters, police withdrew and surrounded the demonstrators who congregated beneath buildings outside the station Then an empty police van was overturned.