Tuesday, November 30, 1999 will forever be the day the WTO stood still.

On one magical day, a few thousand protesters, many under the age of 25, effectively shut down the most powerful organization on earth. They succeeded despite months of preparation by the Seattle Police Department and a host of other local, state, and federal agencies. How did it happen?

The strategy of the Direct Action Network (DAN) was relatively simple. Protest organizers targeted the Paramount Theater--where WTO activities were scheduled to start--and divided the surrounding area into 13 pie wedges. Different affinity groups took responsibility for blocking key intersections and hotels in each wedge. Organizers assumed they would not be able to get near the Paramount itself, and so sought to gridlock downtown, preventing delegates in their limos, cabs, and hotel rooms from getting to their appointed talks.

The strategy succeeded beyond DAN's wildest expectations. Until the tear gas flew, a carnival atmosphere prevailed in the downtown streets, with music, drumming, giant puppets, and other festive accoutrements. The success was due to two factors. First, a flood of activists were willing to brave 7 AM rains to shut the WTO down. Optimistic organizers had hoped for a couple thousand on the morning streets of downtown Seattle. By the end of the day some were estimating that 35,000 were taking part in the protests--excluding the big labor march. The police had no idea.

The affinity groups spent the whole day blocking their intersections and entrances, largely untouched by police. While craziness erupted around them, the affinity groups held their ground, linking arms, locking down, or (in one case at Boren and Pine) erecting a massive tripod. Despite what was at times extreme provocation, the protests remained almost entirely nonviolent. Frustrated delegates were engaged in conversations with them; when vandalism did erupt, peaceful protesters tried to stop it.

The second factor was what can only be construed as a massive miscalculation by police. In ringing Metro buses and police lines to protect the Paramount and Convention Center, they forgot to leave a way for delegates to get in. Or out.

It would have been simple for police to provide a corridor from hotels to the meeting place, but they didn't. By the time it occurred to them, thousands of protesters were barring the way. Throughout the morning, police were completely outnumbered by nonviolent protesters, singing, chanting, and generally having the time of their lives.

But rather than ask how a ragtag army of activists shut down the WTO, the media found a better, if ultimately far less important, story: broken windows.

By late afternoon, with most of the peaceful protesters trying to save themselves and innocent bystanders from tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray, groups of a couple dozen alleged anarchists made at least two passes through downtown, breaking windows and in two cases (a Starbucks and a Radio Shack) looting. The damage generally took place away from the affinity group protesters and police lines, with the culprits using the larger demonstration as a cover for their own cowardly agenda.

There was an agreement in place between the loosely-knit group of West Coast anarchists that organized for the WTO, and the Direct Action Network, to respect the nonviolence code downtown during the day of November 30. The nonviolence code agreed to by participants in the November 30 direct action reflected the reality that most of America values property over democracy in action. It was a protest that, with exposure to the totalitarian nature of the WTO and transnational corporate rule, a broad cross-section of our society could support.

That agreement was, obviously, broken. The anarchists' (a group in Eugene has claimed responsibility for at least some of the damage) enemy here was not the state, nor corporate America. Those windows cost a few bucks; the expenses will be picked up by insurance companies. The real damage was done to the integrity of an action that was successful enough to shut down the most powerful organization on earth. That reality was lost in the overreaction to property damage. The Eugene anarchists' actions were a calculated attack not on the corporate state, but on the resistance to it.

Unfortunately, it also gave anarchism a bad name. The direct action that shut down the WTO was genuine anarchism in action last Tuesday. The glass-breaking and graffiti was, however unwittingly, abetting the state.

A true anarchist--as in the Seattle General Strike of 1919--works through mutual aid, not through taking their most likely compatriots, some of whom also self-identify as anarchists, and kicking them in the teeth. A few minutes of glass-breaking was far more effective than months of police infiltration would have been. Possibly the most significant mass action in our lifetimes was a lot less effective in its global message than it could have been thanks to a few dozen people out of 50,000.

Those 50,000, however, are an enormous hope for the future. It's a safe statement that progressive politics in Seattle will never be the same. A wide spectrum of people worked together last week who have never--or very seldom--worked together before: labor with environmental, with student and religious, with social justice groups and anti-police brutality and civil rights organizations. New leaders emerged; new skills were learned. And most of all, we learned that when we work together, we can win. Even against a seemingly insurmountable foe.

Anti-WTO organizing must continue. Although we'll certainly never be inviting the WTO back to Seattle, local activists can still play a vital role in telling our stories and inspiring people around the world who are working on similar issues. We also have work to do in holding our disgustingly pro-free-trade elected officials accountable.

And speaking of holding officials accountable ... there will also be a lot of work to do in the aftermath of the suspension of civil rights and wanton police brutality that marked the city's response to activists' success. As described in a previous article, police and jail officers were out of control, and somebody's going to pay for that. That issue, and the jury trials of hundreds of illegally arrested activists, should keep us all quite busy in the coming months.