[Ed. note: until the WTO ministerial meetings in Seattle Nov. 29-Dec. 3, ETS! will run WTO Watch, a column dedicated to news and opinions about WTO opposition.]

Will Blockades and Puppets Topple the WTO?

"The role of the revolutionary artist is to make revolution irresistible."--Toni Cade Bambara

ENVISION...

Thousands of people theatrically proceeding through Seattle with giant images and puppets graphically showing the economic and ecological devastation left in the wake of global capital. Mass nonviolent direct actions and blockades shutting down roads and arteries leading to the WTO. Simple theater skits for people on the street breaking down corporate globalization and showing glimpses of the world as it could be global liberation. Toxic chemical die-ins, and huge props taking over major Seattle streets. Reclaiming the streets with celebration, Mardi Gras style marching bands, street parties, sounds of topical spoken word and hip hop. Vibrant sounds and images of community, life, creativity and resistance in the face of thousands of deadening bureaucrats, businesspeople and politicians at the WTO.

An unprecedented growing alliance of local grassroots groups, street theater troupes, national and international organizations, and Seattle residents are coming together to realize such a vision.

WORLD TRADE IS HERE. WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?

Corporate globalization is arguably the most fundamental shift of the planet's economic and political arrangements since the industrial revolution. It shifts power even further away from human beings towards the most effective instrument for concentrating power and wealth ever developed: the transnational corporation. From Nov. 29 to Dec. 3 in Seattle, thousands of leaders of transnational corporations, and government officials with an army of bureaucrats will come to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Summit to accelerate their drive for profits and their control over our economic, political, and cultural life and nature. It is time to raise the social and political cost to those who aim to increase the destruction and misery caused by corporate globalization, as movements in other parts of the world have. The WTO Summit offers us an unprecedented opportunity to seriously challenge corporate globalization and to help catalyze a broad mass movement in North America.

WHY NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION

Direct action has been an essential part of every successful social change movement in US history: labor, women's suffrage, abolition of slavery, civil rights, anti-war, anti-nuclear, lesbian/gay rights, AIDS, Central America solidarity, environmental and forest, and so on. When the established channels for failed, as they do, these movements are forced to raise the social and political cost to the power that be. Well planned nonviolent direct action can intervene into processes that we have been left out of, showing the depth of our opposition and forcing the issues onto the public agenda. The time is clearly ripe and the need is desperate for all of us in the U.S. to join the people of the rest of the world--Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, Europe, Mexico--and take massive nonviolent direct action against the World Trade Organization and corporate globalization.

NEW FORMS OF RESISTANCE

Demonstrations and protest, while essential, are too often marginalized by corporate media, easily dismissed by those we want to engage, and can bore participants. Street theater--giant puppets, graffiti art, dance, music, and spoken word--can break into people's consciousness, communicate powerfully and capture the imagination of participants and observers. Corporate power is on the rise, and it is very innovative as it assaults our communities and the earth-- globalization, free trade, MAI, media monopolies, etc. We too need to be innovative in catalyzing mass movements that can stand up to corporate power by creating new forms of resistance.

Creativity and culture have been key weapons in other parts of the world. Fables and poems sent out from the Zapatistas in Chiapas were key in capturing the imagination of Mexico and the world, offering the greatest challenge to the Mexican dictatorship and corporate globalization (NAFTA) in recent history. Street parties reclaiming the streets of London, with their challenge to private space and celebration of defiance, have led to the largest actions against corporate globalization in history. On June 18 of this year simultaneous actions and street parties took place in over 100 financial districts and city centers in over 41 countries.

DIRECT ACTION NETWORK

A network of grassroots local groups from Vancouver B.C. to Los Angeles formed this summer to mobilize their communities to the WTO and to organize large scale street theater and mass nonviolent direct action at the WTO. The Direct Action Network Against Corporate Globalization is organizing a "Resist the WTO Roadshow," a Direct Action/Street Theater Convergence to prepare for the WTO. We're working with a broad alliance of organizations to SHUT DOWN THE WTO with Mass Nonviolent Direct Action on the morning of Tuesday November 30. This action is co-sponsored by a growing alliance of national, regional groups and local including: Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, Ruckus Society, Project Underground, Earth First! (Seattle), and IWW (Seattle). November 30 has become an International Day of Protest against the WTO and people around the world will be taking action in support: Britain, India, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Australia, Pakistan, Holland, Nepal, Argentina, Columbia, Bolivia, Bangladesh and more.

The Roadshow, a street theater multi-media teach-in tour of the Western U.S. and Canada from September 28 to October 18, will educate, agitate and organize against the World Trade Organization Summit. Co-sponsored by Global Exchange, the Roadshow will be joined by former Saipan GAP sweatshop worker/organizer Chie Abad. We will be in Seattle on October 5 visiting a local high school and participating in: A Protest and Procession to RESIST the World Trade Organization. Stop GAP Sweatshops: The human face of corporate globalization will be held on Tues. Oct. 5, 5 PM at Westlake Center. Bring drums, music, art, flags, banners, your friends. Sponsored (to date) by Direct Action Network and CISPES. We will have a street theater and prop/puppet making day on Sunday Sept. 26, 11 AM to 5 PM to prepare for Oct. 5. Call for location.

We need your help and creativity. We are also looking for warehouse and other large work, meeting/rehearsal spaces before and during the WTO, and for housing for performers and activists before and during the WTO. Please help us get the word out, organize your group or community, and join us at the next Seattle Direct Action Network Meeting: Thursday, Sept. 23, 6:30 PM, at University Baptist Church.

For more info on any of these activities, in Seattle call 206-632-1656, e- mail can@drizzle.com, or check the web at www.agitprop.org/artandrevolution.