Saturday was cold, but sunny--a perfect day for setting out 32 benches on the sidewalks of Ballard, Fremont, and Phinney Ridge. John Fox of the Displacement Coalition was there, with his clipboard, directing foot traffic and other activists who moved the benches into position. Lots of folks showed up to watch, shake hands with local business owners, sit on the benches, pose for TV cameras, talk with old friends, pet their dogs, play with the kids, listen to Jim Page play his guitar, and generally have a lot of fun. The Benches Project is one of those ideas that make for a romping good time. Even City Councilmember Peter Steinbreuck enjoyed it; he showed up to talk about how the city's "civility laws"--particularly the no-sitting ordinance--make the city's public spaces alienating, instead of accommodating. The heart of a city is its public places; an empty heart makes for a mean city.

The benches themselves are beautiful, covered in painted designs of autumn leaves, abstract squirt-bottle art, and decorated with found items, including bits of ceramic tiles. You can see the benches on NW Market Street in Ballard between 15th Avenue NW and 24th Avenue NW (with a few on side streets), on N 36th Street and N 35th outside the Still Life Caf in Fremont, and at three locations in Phinney-Ridge (The Flower Company, Terra Mar, and Mae's). Last year The Benches Project came to Belltown and Capitol Hill; it'll be interesting to see where they go next. If you'd like to help out with the next benches project, call 632-0668.--Maria Tomchick

On the way home from checking out the benches, a friend and I noticed a sign on the sidewalk near the new, red-brick pillars of the Safeway superstore at 15th and NW Market Street. The sign read: "Safeway: Low Wages = Homelessness." A half-dozen men were holding their lunches in their hands and handing out flyers to passing motorists (there's not much foot traffic in that part of town--yet). We approached and took one. In the past few years, Safeway has been upgrading its old supermarkets around town, expanding them in size and trying to make them look more upscale. While Safeway itself is a union shop, the contractors the company is hiring to renovate and rebuild its stores are not. The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters is asking folks to boycott Safeway stores and call the Safeway regional headquarters at 425-455-6444 to let them know why you won't shop at a union-busting superstore. And, in the meantime, why the hell haven't the local papers covered this story?--M.T.

Are you confused by the WTO-protesting, Gore-loving AFL-CIO's mixed signals on neoliberalism and globalization? Wondering how it'll get along with a Bush Administration hell-bent on FTAA and various other free trade agreements? Here's a clue: AFL-CIO head John Sweeney will be mingling with the heads-of-state and CEOs at the heavily protested World Economic Forum, being held in Davos, Switzerland Jan. 25-31. Sweeney's there to give a talk to his assembled capitalist colleagues on "Addressing the Backlash Against Globalization."

Sweeney, incidentally, "gets along famously" with new Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, whose extensive shortcomings Maria Tomchick ably surveyed last issue. Sweeney and Chao know each other from their days together at the United Way (he on the board, she as CEO). Inside the Beltway, everyone's chums. Interestingly, the info on Sweeney's Davos itinerary comes from the invaluable Aziz Choudry, a wonderful anti-APEC organizer in New Zealand. >From labor activists in the USA, not a peep.--Geov Parrish

Unable to find a country willing to host it since Seattle, the WTO has finally agreed to meet next November in Qatar. The oil rich Emirate, located on a small peninsula attached to Saudi Arabia and surrounded on three sides by the Persian Gulf, is the perfect location for the next meeting of the moribund organization. Initially rejected when it first offered its services because there aren't enough hotel rooms to house all the delegates, Qatar is sufficiently inhospitable to visiting activists to provide a modicum of comfort to the ministers and their media lackeys. The official attendees will be accommodated on luxury cruise ships anchored in the harbor of Doha, the monarchy's capital. Qatar's people don't vote, the secret police monitor every kind of organization (including athletic organizations), and criticizing the government is against the law. Nevertheless, Qatar has reportedly promised the WTO that all critics who want to are free to attend the festivities. Hardly seems necessary to go to the dangerous trouble. The WTO, by meeting in a country where people are property, seems to be highlighting the real point on its own. Demonstrate in your own home town on November 5-9, 2001. Let the authorities know that, not only can they not locally host a WTO conference without trouble, they can't even let their delegates attend a distant one.--Troy Skeels

Speaking of the same old news in a new place, Honolulu's 1800 police officers are being trained for "handling civil disturbances, dealing with crowds and other situations," in preparation for the upcoming Asian Development Bank convention. Following standard procedure, the police department has requested several million dollars for "special equipment" to "deal with ADB protesters." According to the Honolulu Advertiser, the special training has so far included a simulated demonstration, with "protesters" throwing water balloons, then being shot with less-lethal munitions. The city is drafting new laws, the local news is painting lurid pictures of rabid protesting, and activists are being harassed by police. You know the drill.--T.S.