"This is What Democracy Looks Like"

From http://www.publicintelligence.net/

I've heard those words a lot over the past week, and it naturally takes me back to when I was 24 and marching on the streets of Seattle shouting those words during a cold and rainy week in late November.  It was the week of the WTO protests and I was working as a Customs broker entering cargo from overseas through U.S. Customs.  Having started my career working on the Canadian border entering mostly paper and wood products from Canada, I was beginning to realize for the first time in my career how things shifted as I moved to the larger port of Seattle.  Suddenly my job was entering consumer goods made in Asia and I was realizing my role in the larger world of global commerce.  In the months leading up to the WTO conference in Seattle, I was learning about the governing body from two angles - in my job people were looking at the conference as a networking opportunity and a chance to get in front of global decision makers and trade officials while in my personal life my friends were doing a different kind of networking - setting up trainings and workshops on the role of the WTO and why people are opposed to it's workings and arranging to house, feed, and support the massive influx of protesters coming in from all over the world. 

Having just moved to the city from a small town a year earlier, it was a time of great growth and learning for me.  I didn't attend college, and had entered the work force while still in high school working my way into a decent entry level position for a 24 year old.  Career wise I was one of the most "grown-up" of my group of my friends but I also felt like I had missed a huge chunk of education that they had gotten, the education on social issues and the systems of oppression that keep the status quo in place.  It seems funny to even say now but I was learning about systemized oppression such as sexism, racism, and classism for the first time.  Things that I had just thought were "the way things were" were actually complex ideas and theories and there were people talking about them, and actually planning to do things to create change.

So I did what most young people learning about the evils of the world for the first time do, I said cliche things like, "if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" and I got involved.  That involvement led me to DIY workshops where I learned about the intersections of race, gender, and class.  I learned about the power of multinational corporations over the governments of poorer countries when it came to sidestepping environmental or labor protections standing in the way of profits.  I learned about GMO's for the first time and how corporations were controlling the global food supply and squeezing out small farmers.  It seems ridiculous to say it now, but at the time my mind was blown.

I read everything I could get my hands on and attending potlucks, skillshare sessions, and fundraising shows and parties.  It was one of the first time the internet was being used to organize folks on a global scale and get unbiased news coverage and information out quickly.  It was a very exciting time to be getting involved in activism to say the least. 

I took the day off work on November 30th for the big protest march through Seattle organized by a coalition of labor, environmental and other NGO's.  As I walked miles through my city I was amazed by the different messages of the groups and how they all tied in to this global meeting of trade officials.  It was a peaceful protest of union men and women in hardhats concerned about trade agreements sending jobs overseas, environmental advocates dressed as sea turtles concerned about trade agreements that override local protections put in place for wildlife, nude vegans protesting the destruction of organic local food supplies by multinational seed corporations and so many others with signs broadcasting their varied messages.  And then, in my city, in the United States of America, I saw this:

Photo from http://www.gapsucks.org/



Photo from http://www.benjamin.org/

 Heavily armed police in riot gear firing rubber bullets and tear gas at peacefully assembled protesters exercising their constitutionally protected right to freely assemble.  This is not the country I thought I lived in.  That week turned out to be more of an education and life changing experience than I ever imagined.  I watched as people were beaten in the streets indiscriminately by the police, I saw hundreds rounded up and arrested and held for days for no reason or recourse, I watched dumpsters and cars burn in the streets of the city I loved, and I felt the burn of tear gas in my eyes and throat over and over again for no reason.  It was the time I stopped trusting my government and the time I stopped thinking of the police as protectors of the law.  The trauma of what I saw happening to Americans in the streets of what is supposed to be the most free country on Earth was shocking.  For years after the protests I would walk downtown and still be able to see the smoke from fires and tear gas and hear the shouting, the explosions of percussion grenades and the rhythmic thumping of the police hitting their riot shields with their nightsticks in unison. It was a terrifying experience that has not been easily forgotten, but so much good came out of it as well.  It was also the time I believed that a small group of dedicated people could make change and have an impact.  We shut down the WTO negotiations that week and brought global attention to important issues.  Yes, much was overshadowed by the violent and stupid actions of a few but the impact of the WTO Seattle protests lives on today as I watch #OccupyWallStreet unfold in New York and around the world.

The lessons I learned that week in November have stayed with me and shaped a lot of what I do now.  While I'm older and much less willing to risk arrest now, my heart and support are with those in the streets refusing to be silent and accept what they see happening to their world.  And whenever I start to feel like the issues are overwhelming and nothing will ever change, I'm inspired to get back out there and fight for the world I believe we all deserve in any way I can.  I wish I could say that things have changed since WTO, I wish the horror of the photos above brought about changes in the way police deal with peaceful protesters, I wish it were safe to take to the streets and speak up about injustice but the stories coming out of New York show that it is not.

In some ways it's surprising to me that people are confused about what these protests are about.  I get that the messages can be mixed and confusing and it's easy to write the protesters off as trust fund college kids who are bored and causing trouble...some of them probably are.  But the message behind these protests is one that should appeal to about 99% of the U.S. population, the ones who are struggling every day in this economy.  These aren't troublemakers, spoiled college kids out of touch with reality or the "lazy and unemployed".  These are hard working people, educated people, people who went to school, got jobs, paid their taxes and did everything there were "supposed to" do and still they aren't getting ahead - some of them aren't even getting by without taking on a crippling debt load they have no idea how they will pay back.  Meanwhile we watch the wealth gap grow every day in America and around the world.  We watch those with money use it to make money and those without slip further and further behind.  It's maddening and it makes sense that people are taking to the streets now and I hope it continues.  It is the only way things have changed in history, when the frustrated and disenfranchised have had enough and realize they have little left to lose by being silent.  This is an exciting movement and I hope we are just witnessing the beginning of historic change.  I look forward to the weeks, months and years to come.