Police Fire Pepper Gas At WTO Protesters

VIDEO

Police fire pepper spray at protesters attempting to stop the meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle. Police drive throngs of rioters across the I-5 freeway overpass and try to get the crowd to disperse. Protesters react as police fire bean bags and use pepper spray on demonstrators. Police knock down protesters' fences outside the conference.

Police fired red pepper gas Tuesday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in a successful effort to disrupt the opening ceremonies of the 135-nation World Trade Organization meeting.

The Clinton administration had hoped the event, the largest trade gathering ever held in the United States, would showcase the benefits of free trade. But demonstrators loudly protested the Geneva-based organization, which they contend has a lack of concern for environmental and workers' rights issues.

Police fired rounds of bean bag bullets and red pepper gas into groups of demonstrators, according to KOIN 6 News in Portland, Ore. The protesters had chained themselves together and were lying in the streets in an attempt to prevent delegates from making it to the opening sessions.

WTO officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the opening ceremonies were delayed because U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was unable to get to the ornate downtown theater where the opening sessions were being held.

Police inside the hall, which had only a scattering of delegates more than an hour after the appointed start time, said the ceremonies were delayed because the official motorcades could not get through the protesters, which earlier in the day had set up fences to baricade the officials' progress, KOIN-TV reports.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and WTO Director General Mike Moore were also scheduled to talk at the opening ceremonies.

Police used red pepper gas on several hundred protesters after warning them that they were violating city law by blocking an intersection.

"We're basically putting a human face on the WTO. It has to consider human rights and worker rights along with trade," Teamsters union President James Hoffa said, speaking at an organizing meeting for a peaceful march which was slated for this afternoon. Several hundred union supporters -- some traveling hundreds of miles -- attended the organizational meeting at a football stadium near the Seattle Space Needle. Many told KOIN-TV they are concerned their jobs might suffer from decisions made by the WTO.

But some officials from other countries expressed outrage that the protesters had been allowed to delay the proceedings.

Mohammed Asfour, the Jordanian minister of industry and trade, said he had not been able to get to the convention center because the odor of gas used by the police was wafting over the official entrance designated for his use.

"People like us, who came from thousands of miles and to find no organization -- it's very sad," Asfour said.

Up and down the West Coast, dock workers began shutting down cargo movement in solidarity with the anti-WTO protest. About 9,600 workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union were expected to take part in the action at about three dozen West Coast ports, including the nation's largest, Long Beach and Los Angeles.

"By taking time out from work to voice our concerns, the ILWU is telling the transnational corporations that they cannot run the global economy without the workers of the world," union President Brian McWilliams said in a written statement.

Julia Harrington of San Francisco, who was walking with her 7-year-old son and pushing her 3-year-old daughter in a stroller, said she was marching "to protect the environment ... and to protect other children in the world from unfair labor practices."

In Washington, President Clinton, who had wanted to hold the WTO meetings in the United States to spotlight the benefits America receives from international trade, said "I am very sympathetic" with the concerns raised by organized labor and environmental groups.

He spoke to reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday before beginning a trip that will have him arriving in Seattle early Wednesday. He will then conduct meetings and address the Geneva-based conference of 135 nations.

On Monday, Clinton's special trade representative, Charlene Barshefsky, told reporters she believes "it is critical to launch a new round of global trade negotiations. We think the time is right."

Labor unions and environmentalists -- traditional Democratic Party constituencies -- view the WTO as a threat to workers' rights and environmental protection.

Clinton said Tuesday he wants the Seattle talks to chart a path for slashing trade tariffs and keeping barriers away from Internet commerce.

"I also strongly, strongly believe that we should open the process up to all those people who are now demonstrating on the outside," he said. "They ought to be a part of it. And I think we should strengthen the role and the interest of labor and environment in our trade negotiations."

Some of the more radical activists began lying down in the street along the march route in an attempt to carry out their threats to shut down the WTO meeting by clogging up streets so delegates can't reach the meeting hall.

Police temporarily stopped letting reporters into the giant convention center where the meetings are being held after some protesters broke through an outer security perimeter before being subdued by police in riot gear.

Despite all the uproar, delegates to the WTO insisted the protesters would accomplish little more than making lots of noise. Business will go on despite any disruptions, they said.

"Sadly, I think it's a bit futile," said Leigh W. Purnell, an Australian business lobbyist. "It achieves the publicity factor, but clearly, governments will be making their decisions in other venues."