Note: The American Civil Liberties Union is collecting complaints and information about Police Conduct during the WTO, and they may file a class action lawsuit. Contact them at: http://www.aclu-wa.org or 206-624-2180.

The evolution of labor during WTO week was a curious thing. On Tuesday, there was labor's big march--which, though massive, was smaller than expected, largely because folks went downtown where the action was happening instead. March marshals were given the hopeless order to turn the march around at 4th and Virginia, short of downtown, so as to avoid the riff-raff, otherwise known as their allies. But a solid majority of marchers, including a lot of unionists, sailed right past the marshals and continued downtown as originally planned. When over 500 were outrageously arrested on Wednesday, labor leadership was silent, instead busily deploring property destruction (duh). Happily, though, by Friday the Direct Action Network and the AFL-CIO were able to work together in co-producing the Labor Temple march. And when a portion of the march not-so-unexpectedly peeled off and eventually headed to the King County Jail for an encampment, steelworkers and other unionists stopped by to offer support. Even if the AFL-CIO's leadership isn't comfortable with the new alliances forged by anti-WTO organizing, the rank and file clearly is.--Geov Parrish

Kudos: to the Seattle Fire Department, for refusing the Seattle Police Department's request on Tuesday to turn fire hoses on protesters. Too bad there weren't also cops with the shred of decency necessary to refuse orders that violated civil rights and common sense.--G.P.

Kudos should also go to the real media heroes during the week: the all-volunteer Independent Media Coalition, which set up an indy media center in the store front on 3rd Avenue and Union St. That store front was originally earmarked to become the downtown hygiene center for homeless folks (before that plan was scuttled by downtown businesses) and, prior to last week, it sat vacant for more than two years. Hundreds of indy media people from all over the country signed in at the center, were issued green press badges, and set up folding tables, computers, video editing equipment, Internet access, a website, and produced documentaries, thousands of photos, and the daily print publication Blind Spot. At daily evening meetings indy press people volunteered to cover various protests, conferences, demonstrations, jail solidarity actions, a squat at a vacant building on 9th Ave. and Virginia Street, and kept tabs on police actions. At one point during the "state of emergency," indy media folks were blockaded inside the center while cops flooded the space with tear gas, then shot tear gas canisters down the alley to prevent people from escaping out the back. For telling the story on the street, these people deserve a special thanks.--Maria Tomchick

Don't shed a single tear for downtown businesses. The newspapers have been full of articles detailing the millions of dollars of damages sustained last week. But, according to a friend of mine who works in insurance, retail businesses have insurance to cover damage due to "riots and civil commotion." For businesses like Nike, Nordstrom, Warner Brothers, and Ben Bridge Jewelers, new windows will be paid for by their insurance policies. In addition, most of them have insurance for "lost business income," which will cover their lost sales. Anarchists take note: destroying property may actually have benefited these companies. Why? Retailers were already expecting low sales volume during the WTO week because of traffic tie-ups due to closed streets and shoppers avoiding downtown. Their insurance claims--which will probably be based on last year's brisk shopping season--may pay better than their actual sales would have been.--M.T.

Oh, boo, hoo, hoo. Downtown merchants have nobody to blame but themselves--well, and the media--for their precious lost revenue. There was no threat to their businesses after Tuesday, but in some cases the plywood and locked doors stayed up until Saturday morning. The media, by harping on "violence" and continuing to run clips of Tuesday's hoodlums, fed people's fears of being exposed to their neighbors--i.e., protesters. Oh, we might as well also blame the SPD. Who wants to do their holiday shopping in tear gas?--G.P.

The national press is full of shit about what happened in Seattle on Tuesday, Nov. 30. The local press got some of the facts right, but reported it all with a pro-business bias. And by the time the national press got hold of the story, they made downtown Seattle sound like a bombed-out war zone. Among the local TV coverage, however, one TV station stands out for doing a relatively good job of following the demonstrations: KIRO-7. KOMO-4 hypocritically covered the same "illegal events" that they had declared they wouldn't cover. KOMO also gets the booby prize for running continuous loops of the same video footage over and over during several days of newscasts. KING-5 attempted to cover some protests, but routinely misrepresented the messages of the demonstrators. KIRO, on the other hand, had their reporters out among the protesters, sent their camera trucks to follow the marches, and they often interviewed folks from various protest groups. They also weren't afraid to be somewhat critical of both the police in the streets and the lack of progress inside the WTO meetings. While there was a lot of room for improvement, KIRO at least made an effort to present our side.--M.T.

Also, Schell and Stamper lied. They told reporters that the downtown exclusion zone established on Tuesday night was not a "no protest" zone, and that people could protest inside the zone as long as they stayed on the sidewalks and acted peacefully. But come Wednesday morning, police confiscated banners, signs, and buttons, and told folks: "this is a no protest zone." Inside the zone, it didn't matter if people were standing on the sidewalk, on a street corner, or in a doorway: the cops formed lines and indiscriminately shoved everyone out of the way, pepper-sprayed people trying to get to their cars or to stores (which, yes, were open at least part of the day on Wednesday), roughed up reporters, and abused both protesters and commuters alike. The Seattle Police Department is hiding behind the excuse that they were simply following the orders of the Secret Service, but that won't wash, especially for Wednesday's actions.--M.T.

What a Fucking Weasel. That would be Pres. Clinton, who got great positive press during WTO week--his only positive press, actually--by signing in Seattle a U.N.-sponsored treaty that bans excesses of child labor. Trouble is, Congress passed that treaty in June, and it's been sitting on Bill's desk ever since. He should have signed it long ago, yet he somehow gets credit for finally doing the right thing. Slick W., indeed.--G.P.

So is Bill Clinton holding strong against selfish Third World countries in defense of workers' rights? Don't make me laugh. When he signed the ILO's convention on child labor, the U.S. media conveniently forgot to mention that the ILO has eight separate conventions on workers' rights, and the U.S. has only signed two--including the child labor convention. And when Clinton proposed a WTO labor standards working group with the power to impose sanctions, he undercut the position of his own trade representatives at the WTO ministerial, who had been working for weeks to assure delegates from other nations that their unfair labor practices would go unchallenged. "It cut the legs right out from under us," said one member of the U.S. trade delegation. It also virtually ended the WTO negotiations on the spot, as delegates from over 70 nations threatened to walk out of the meeting. But never fear, U.S. trade reps. quickly assured them that Clinton wasn't talking about a real proposal--only some hazy goal for the very, very, very distant future.--M.T.

For work reasons, I missed the tear gas and rubber bullets of Tuesday's demonstrations. On Wednesday, however, I got a dose from a smoke bomb while watching other protesters arrested for peacefully sitting in a public park near Westlake Mall. After the arrests were over, I watched police clear the area by wielding batons and pepper spray against protesters, media people, and Bon Marche shoppers alike. But throughout the morning, although tensions were high, I saw no more tear gas deployed. No, it wasn't until I went home and went to bed that I got a really good dose of it. You see, I live on Capitol Hill, where, at 2 AM, I woke up coughing, with my eyes watering, and heard loud explosions outside. My neighbors slammed open their windows and people in the streets screamed: "Get out of my neighborhood, you fascists!" What made this completely unforgivable is that anyone who lives on the hill knows that Capitol Hill stays open all night, every night. Broadway is full of people 24 hours-a-day ... and the cops just didn't care who got hit with their chemical warfare.--M.T.

Another benefit of living on Capitol Hill is that I also live near the Direct Action Network's warehouse space--where thousands of protesters spent their time sleeping, eating, planning actions, listening to speakers on various issues, and making connections with other activists from around the country. As each busload, van, and carpool of people pulled into town, they were greeted with loud drumming, dancing, and performance art on a street corner near the warehouse. Some of my neighbors complained about the noise, but many of them also went over to see what was happening and undoubtedly got involved. A special thanks needs to go to all the people who set up the space, provided food, cooked and served meals, coordinated events, provided medical care, and contacted the hundreds of people who opened their homes to activists arriving for the Nov. 30 protests. It couldn't have happened without you.--M.T.