Seattle, November 29, 1999. (N29): 4:00 a.m. Five protesters from the Rainforest Action Network scale a 170-foot construction crane overlooking the Interstate 5 and unfurl banners reading “Democracy” and “WTO” with arrows pointing in opposite directions.This moment really happened, but it is also dramatically recreated, with a little romantic overtures, in the opening of the film Battle In Seattle which is launching in Canadian theatres this Friday (check out the trailer below).
Stickers with the same message: < Democracy• WTO > end up on poles all over town. I have a photograph of one of them, I also have a couple of rubber bullets I picked up off the street later on. I saw this banner as I made my way into town the morning of November 29. The first familiar faces I saw were Kalle Lasn (Adbusters Magazine) and James MacKinnon (Then Adbusters editor and more recently author of the 100 Mile Diet). They were the first of many familiar faces I saw. Eventually I found Mark Achbar & cohorts and ended up running around in on of the three film crews covering the action both on the streets, and also with accreditations as "official" press allowed inside the WTO.
There's lots more to reflect on, and as I said in my last blog -- seeing Battle in Seattle was like a deja vu experience. But post election day, my question is reflective of the ongoing chant -- what DOES democracy look like?
I do believe it is our democtatic obligation to vote. But that is never the end of it. We need o participate, and yes sometimes protest, and to start plotting how we plan to be part of the change we want.
To connect to activism and more analysis issues around the issues of the WTO visit whocontrolstheworld.com
Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.
Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.
