The American Civil Liberties Union announced on Sept. 14 that it has settled a major civil rights lawsuit against the City of Seattle for violating the constitutional rights of protesters during the 1999 World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference.

The City of Seattle has agreed to pay $62,000 to Victor Menotti, the Program Director for the International Forum on Globalization, to settle a lawsuit stemming from the 1999 WTO conference in Seattle. Menotti, a San Francisco resident, claimed he was arrested during the WTO conference because he was talking about WTO policies on a street in downtown Seattle after Mayor Paul Schell had declared a "state of emergency" and a "no-protest zone" was established.

The ACLU filed the suit in March 2000 on behalf of citizens whose rights to freedom of speech were violated by the city's actions. The protesters claimed they were barred entry into the downtown area, and one person said that his copies of the First Amendment to the US Constitution were confiscated by police. Three plaintiffs who were originally parties to the lawsuit accepted settlements from the city in August 2000. Yesterday's settlement resolved the claims of the two remaining plaintiffs in the suit.

The city has also agreed to pay $12,000 to Doug Skove from Washington State. Skove claimed that a police officer confiscated his sign because he was told he was not allowed to protest in that area.

In an official statement, Aaron Caplan, staff attorney for the Seattle ACLU, said, "Officials must honor the rights of peaceful protesters even when the Mayor has declared a state of emergency. The settlement is an important step in holding the City accountable."

The ACLU maintains that the city's actions far exceeded any legitimate needs to provide security. They say police patrolled the borders of the "no-protest zone" and restricted entry. In practice, they argue, police prevented anyone who sought to express anti-WTO views from entering or remaining in the zone, even if they lived or worked there.

Despite the settlement of the WTO lawsuit against the city, the ACLU, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and other civil rights groups are still in the process of challenging the establishment of the "no-protest zone" by city officials. Although a 2005 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stated that the protections of the Bill of Rights apply even during a time of public unrest, the appeals court also ruled that the establishment of the No-Protest Zone per se did not violate people's constitutional rights. - Mark Taylor-Canfield

Broadcasters from community-based and low-power radio stations around the country gathered in Seattle Sept. 15-17 for the Northwest Community Radio Summit. Independent broadcasters met to form a new alternative radio network including members from community and low-power stations from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Northern California, western Montana and British Columbia. Network summit events focused on the role of local non-commercial radio stations as an independent voice in the US media.

Media activist Sharon Maeda addressed summit participants at Seattle's Town Hall. She told the audience, "Community radio stations, hundreds of them, are all over the country and operate on a shoestring and we continue to struggle to bring you the truth, to bring you democracy and to bring you justice."

Free speech issues were a major topic of discussion at the summit. Jonathon Lawson, from the media democracy group Reclaim the Media, helped create the NW Community Radio Network. Lawson says that community radio stations play a vital role in countering efforts by the FCC to encourage corporate media consolidation.

Pete Tridish, from the Prometheus Radio Project in Philadelphia, attended the summit and gave a workshop on radio station "barn-raising" - an ongoing series of projects where regional community broadcasters get together to build radio stations for non-profit community groups. Petrie says the NW Community Network is a powerful tool for regional programmers who may not have the funding or the resources to build

A surprise guest at the summit was Lt. Ehren Watada. The day before the radio summit he was charged with "conduct unbecoming an officer" by the US military for addressing the Veterans For Peace National Convention which took place in Seattle in August. Despite this new charge, Lt. Watada read a statement to the NW Community Radio Network Summit participants supporting alternative media and condemning the war in Iraq. - M. T.-C.

A severe farm labor shortage is causing economic hardship among rural communities across the US. Apple growers in Washington state say that for the second year in a row part of their crop will go unharvested due to lack of access to migrant workers.

Apple growers across Washington state are facing another difficult year. Although Washington state exports over a billion dollars in apples annually, the state's agricultural industry is facing a major economic crisis. Due to a widespread farm labor shortage, the harvest is late this year and growers say that some of their apples will spoil before they can be picked and shipped to markets all over the world.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, proposals in Congress that would amend current federal legislation to restrict immigration into the US could cost fruit and vegetable growers up to nine billion dollars in losses due to the resulting labor shortages. The Congressional Research Service admitted in their report to Congress earlier this year that perishable crop growers in the US are economically dependent on undocumented farm laborers.

Many farmers in Washington state maintain that part of their difficulty with this year's harvest stems from the intense political debate over immigration which has been taking place in Washington, DC. Border security has been increased since Sept. 11, 2001 and migrant workers claim that it's become more difficult to cross the border into the US from Mexico. Two years ago, farmers in the Yakima Valley hired workers from Thailand to harvest the apple crop. The farmers claim that current immigration programs are expensive and the process is too slow to help them save their crop this year.

Farm Bureaus in Florida and California agree. They are also experiencing severe agricultural labor shortages. Last year 300 million dollars in grapes were ruined in California because they could not be picked in time, and millions of boxes of oranges were left unharvested in Florida because of the lack of farm labor.

The labor shortage has also affected the blueberry and cherry harvests in Washington state. Jerry Dobbins operates a 156-acre strawberry farm in Cowlitz County. Much of his yield was sacrificed this year because he says there weren't enough workers to pick the berries. His farm is almost entirely dependent on Latino migrant laborers who he says stayed home this year because of the difficulties they encounter when attempting to cross the US/Mexican border. Dobbins says that US citizens will not work in the fields for the long hours and low wages required to harvest agricultural products. A federal study conducted in 2002 found that more than 60 percent of all apple pickers in Washington state were considered illegal aliens by the US government.

Washington Farm Bureau spokesperson Dean Boyer says that the problem is growing and farmers will continue to feel the negative effects of the labor shortage as each crop becomes ready to harvest. Boyer acknowledges that without serious relief programs, the agricultural industry in Washington state will continue to decline in productivity and profitability in the coming years.

United States Senator Patty Murray (D-Wa.) has been meeting with farmers across the region. The senator is encouraging the agricultural industry to lobby their representatives in Washington, DC to ease restrictions on immigration for migrant workers entering the US. - M. T.-C.

Fifteen protesters were arrested in Seattle on the last day of trade talks between the US and South Korea. On Sept. 9 anti-free-trade activists from the US and South Korea tried to enter the Washington State Convention Center where the negotiations were taking place behind locked doors. Nine protesters from South Korea and six from the US staged a demonstration outside the convention center. According to protest organizers, three women from the US suffered minor injuries after they broke through police lines and were dragged away by Seattle Police officers. The rest of the demonstrators sat down and locked arms in an act of civil disobedience and were also arrested.

The nine South Korean activists were turned over to the South Korean consulate. According to the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, they were released on condition that they refrain from staging unlawful protests. The three American women from New York City, Washington, DC and Brookline, Mass. are now facing trial in Seattle for misdemeanor assault.

One of those arrested was John Brier, a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Brier says that the US-South Korea trade agreement is yet one more example of how free trade agreements are harming people all around the globe.

Twenty-three members of the South Korean parliament signed a petition to the Constitutional Court stating that their rights as lawmakers have been violated because they have not been involved in approving the negotiations. Although the Foreign Trade Minister for South Korea admits that the new trade agreement will force many farmers off their land, the South Korean government officially supports the process.

Kang Kikab, a member of the South Korean National Assembly from the Democratic Labor Party, attended the Seattle protests and recently signed a petition demanding that the US stop trying to force South Korea to accept American beef. He says there are dozens of petitions which have been signed by South Korean members of parliament opposed to the free trade agreement talks. - M. T.-C.