November 30 is the anniversary of The Battle of Seattle in 1999. In the largest protest that Seattle ever saw, 40,000 people protested the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and were assaulted by Seattle police.

The WTO was having a summit in Seattle to discuss the “Millenium Round”, which was to discuss plans of liberalising the global south. Plans to disrupt the conference began months earlier by a wide variety of interested groups, ranging from environmentalists, people from the global south, and anarchists. On the morning of November 30, they blocked the roads leading to the convention centre. The police promptly responded with tear gas and pepper spray on the protestors. The protestors responded by throwing things back at the police (Erroneously reported by the capitalist media as molotov cocktails). The anarchists began smashing the windows of particularly heinous corporations. The protests continued for the next few days. Hundreds were arrested indiscriminately, the police ramped up their firepower to include rubber bullets and concussion grenades. The protest ultimately became one against police brutality, but the conference was ended without much being done. The protest was a success.

But perhaps the biggest success that came from the protest was that it forced the media to present the protestor’s side of the argument. Why would so many groups with little in common all come together and work towards destroying the WTO? Of course the answer to that is nebulous. But the short of it is that neoliberal reforms often only benefit the rich. In the context of a global economy that the WTO is so eager to establish, the rich in this case become the “western” countries and the corporations that control them. The health of an economy can be thought of as how the money is flowing within it. A healthy economy will have currency flowing in a circle, as money is exchanged for goods and services. But the scenario where a worker with minimal tools makes a product by hand has to sell their product at market at the same price as a rich corporation breaks this cycle. The poor worker is forced to sell their product at ever lower prices, or take crippling loans to increase their own efficiency. The currency instead of circulating, starts flowing in one direction… from the poor to the rich. We often see this depicted in liberal media as the Walmart effect.

This is the scenario that the WTO created. The poor workers in this case are the global south, and the industrial factories are in the west. In order to make any profit, they are forced to sell off their natural resources at bargain basement prices, or industrialise with massive loans, no matter the cost. This often leads to child labour, disastrous environmental policies, and other exploitative methods. This is why the people of the protest were so diverse. This policy only benefits the rich, increases inequality, and costs us all dearly.