20th Anniversary of the Battle of Seattle

When Masses Debated Communism

Only social practice can be the criterion of truth. —Mao Zedong

Seattle, 1999

SEATTLE (USA), Nov. 30— Here, twenty years ago, fifty thousand demonstrated against the World Trade Organization (WTO). They broke martial law and fought cops in the streets for days. US President Clinton and his Secretary of State were trapped in their hotel rooms.

In the midst of this “Battle of Seattle” US comrades fought for a communist vision. This helped put us on a path towards forming a party that mobilizes the masses for communism: the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP).

Leading capitalist nations established the WTO supposedly to govern international commerce. US imperialists viewed it as another vehicle to ensure their dominance.

It failed. The emergence of other imperialists and the beginning of the long decline of US power became clear. The battle foreshadowed the choices ahead: fascism or communism.

During the preceding week, protestors with different causes poured into Seattle. Debates erupted about what to do.

The US ruling class thought their usual agents would control the protestors. Then-AFL-CIO president Sweeney vowed to “support US interests.” Well-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) formed the other arm of the reformist bloc.

But mobilizing students and workers, especially industrial workers, turned out to be a big problem for them. Our comrades saw the potential to fight for our communist vision.

A Global Exchange workshop panelist said he wasn’t against the accumulation of wealth (billionaires). He just wanted better wealth distribution. A young comrade explained how capitalist accumulation of individual wealth leads to greater exploitation, economic crisis and eventually to war. The Global Exchange organizer responded by advocating for “cool capitalism.”

That night, the comrade said it wasn’t good enough to be anti-capitalist. We needed to show how communism is the solution to capitalist exploitation.

We took this self-criticism to heart. The next day, we confronted a panelist who said communism was too simplistic. We explained how to build a new system without wages and commodity production. We won the majority of the 400 participants to applaud communism.

About 1,000 workers and students heard our communist message during that week.

The Day of the Battle

Meanwhile, Boeing comrades and friends built their forces in the plants. Hundreds of Machinist Union members comprised the march’s security force. We organized a critical communist core within this force.

This core helped others distribute over 8,000 pieces of communist literature. They helped comrades bring a “Fight for Communism” banner into the unions’ rally at Memorial Stadium.

Thousands in the stands saw it. Nearly everyone was discussing communism. A couple called later to say that those debates “made their day.” Responses like this gave our comrades confidence to give communist speeches as 20,000 streamed out of the stadium.

Soon after, we led the chant, “It’s time to march, it’s time to go!” The protestors took off, leaving the union hacks behind.

At a crucial moment, the communist core won an even bigger security group to ignore AFL-CIO orders. The union big shots told us to direct 30,000 industrial workers to a peaceful sit-down far from the fighting downtown.

Instead we offered the rank-and-file the option to enter the battle. Thirty thousand did. The ruling class lost control.

ICWP, Seattle, 2012

The Aftermath

A Boeing comrade was kidded upon returning to work. “Was it you setting fires downtown?”

“I did something much more radical,” our comrade answered. “I spread the communist alternative by distributing communist literature in the midst of the battle.”

“I listened to a two-hour presentation of alternatives to the present state of affairs at a WTO teach-in,” said a high school teacher at our follow-up potluck. “Why can’t we have a two-hour presentation of your communist vision? That’s what will motivate people.”

After an hour-long discussion, she told us, “I may not have gotten two hours, but I did get one!”

Comrades in many places seized the opportunity to present our communist vision. Frankly, we were shocked at the mass response to our line.

We weren’t the only ones. We expected to earn the hatred of the bosses’ reformist agents. But we hadn’t anticipated the consternation of those on the “left” who wanted to ingratiate themselves in the reform movements.

Even leaders of the party our comrades belonged to then (PLP) thought that recruiting communist activists would isolate us. They said recruitment had to rely on advancement (often personal) in reformist organizations “for the foreseeable future.” They feared our bold communist approach.

To the contrary, we thought we were too timid. We made many contacts, but we should have recruited many more communist activists. Our key weakness was that we didn’t have a party that made recruiting communist fighters a priority.

We do now. After more and sharper disagreements like this one, we split from PLP ten years later to form the ICWP. Our upcoming conferences will mark ten years of fighting openly and directly for communism. Let us take with us the key lesson of the Battle of Seattle and build the ICWP.

 

Front page of this issue