The Meeting: The Battle In Seattle

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Their argument couched in moral terms, the unions are allied with U.S. environmental, human-rights and consumer activists in an effort to make social policy through trade. On Nov. 30, the first day of WTO deliberations, the AFL-CIO plans a rally in Seattle led by 900 Boeing machinists, whose employer is one of the world's top exporters. Union delegations representing everyone from teachers to teamsters are flocking in from 25 states and 143 nations. Dockworkers plan to shut down the port. Even the Wobblies are roused. The Puget Sound chapter of Industrial Workers of the World is orchestrating a student walkout. "In the early '80s, we gave up wages and benefits to be more globally competitive," says David Reid, 42, who nonetheless lost his job as a crane driver at Kaiser Aluminum. He has taken a course in civil disobedience to prepare for the protest. "It clicked," he says. "I am not a victim if I can organize."

The antiglobalist message resonates across a broad swath of ideology, from the isolationist Buchananite right to a kaleidoscope of left-wing groups. "The WTO has brought about a harmonic convergence," said John Sellers, director of the Ruckus Society, as he trained a group of Berkeley students for civil disobedience last month. Forest activists, who have polished their skills blocking the logging of redwoods, will target U.S. efforts to slash worldwide tariffs on paper and pulp products.

At the very least, it could be good theater. Earlier this month, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, in Seattle to drum up support for free trade, was picketed by steelworkers, antinuclear activists, Free Burma advocates--and Anne Kirkham, 26, of the Bicycle Alliance of Washington. "I'm a bicycle activist, but it's all one big thing--globalism, urban sprawl, pollution," she explained. "It's about corporate greed."

Police have little to fear from the 240 Humane Society activists, dressed in turtle costumes, set to protest the WTO's shrimp-export decision. Nor are they worried about the human chain of hand-holding clergy and parishioners who will surround the delegates' reception Monday to plead for Third World debt relief. But scores of "radical jeerleaders" are practicing their choreographed cheers in church basements: "Smash the state/ Let's liberate!" Four Molotov cocktails were lobbed into an empty Gap store in downtown Seattle this month, Gap being a focus of antisweatshop protests. No wonder the city has budgeted $6 million for police overtime and is stockpiling tear gas. "If there are rowdy guests, we plan to treat them that way," says Seattle Mayor Paul Schell.