This New Exhibition Looks Back on WTO Protests Legacy

The first main gallery of the Museum of History and Industry's (MOHAI) Teamsters, Turtles, and Beyond: The Legacy of the Seattle WTO Protests exhibition presents visitors with an incredible wall-sized photo.

In protest of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) meeting in Seattle in 1999, Rainforest Action Network activists climbed a construction crane near I-5 and unfurled a giant banner with the word "DEMOCRACY" blazed on a giant white arrow pointing forward and "WTO" on a giant white arrow pointing backward. In the image, activists seemingly hang from the sky as the Space Needle occupies the background. The photo — snapped by Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Jeff Larsen — speaks not only to the scale of the protests that rocked Seattle but also to the strength of organization and conviction of the demonstrators.

Twenty-five years ago, tens of thousands of anti-globalization activists flooded downtown Seattle to protest the WTO's third ministerial conference taking place at the Washington Convention and Trade Center. For months ahead of the meeting, organizers of all stripes — from labor union reps to environmental activists to anarchists — had forged various alliances to push the WTO toward fair trade, climate justice, and accountability on myriad global economic issues. 

Over the course of five days, videos and images of demonstrators protesting in the streets and being brutalized by police made worldwide headlines. It sent negotiations to a screeching halt and forever shaped a generation of Seattle leaders and activists. MOHAI's Teamsters, Turtles, and Beyond looks back on those protests and threads the story all the way to today. Guest-curated by University of Washington labor history professor James Gregory, the show features various ephemera, video footage, oral histories, and even clothing that all explore the major forces surrounding the "Battle in Seattle" and its subsequent impact on the city and global trade. 

"This is a real turning point in American political history, Seattle history, and global relations history. It comes right at the end of the [millennium], and it signaled in so many ways that the world is changing," said Gregory in a recent interview. "[The protests were] a big change in terms of American and global protest movements. The number of people involved and the dimensions of the protest alliances were really path breaking."

With the thousands of people and numerous organizations involved in protesting the WTO conference, the exhibition's attempt to congeal different narratives and experiences into a defined space is a lot to wrap your brain around. To address this, Teamsters, Turtles, and Beyond is linear in its presentation of the Battle in Seattle — going from the WTO's formation in 1995, the months of organizing leading up to the conference, the five days of protests, and the subsequent aftermath of the event.

While there are lots of photos, informational plaques, and quotes from people who experienced the protests firsthand, perhaps the most revelational part of the exhibition are the objects and ephemera from various factions of the protests, like the Direct Action Network (DAN), the Jubilee 2000 coalition, various workers unions, the Festival of Resistance, and student protesters. In the center of the exhibition is a staged protest replete with dolphin protest signs, turtle costumes worn by activists calling for better environmental regulations, and tees made by steelworkers. 

"People at the time were out there picking up rubber bullets and collecting [items]. There were a lot of people at UW who were involved in the protests, who also became part of the documentation team," said MOHAI curator Mikala Woodward. "It has become a thing to collect in real time — maybe it wasn't as much then, but this is a historic event. People do recognize that this stuff will get tossed and vanish otherwise."

One of those incredible artifacts is a giant map of the Central Business District from the UW Labor Archives of Washington made by the Kroll Map Company and utilized by DAN in the lead-up to the protests. Highlighting the organization's Convergence Center on the corner of Denny and Olive, the "pie slice" map split Seattle into giant slices and assigned each slice to a different affinity group. There are markings that designated protest routes, various hotels, and other areas of protest importance.

Even more affecting are the remnants of strategies used by the Seattle Police Department to violently dispel protesters — empty tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades thrown by SPD and the National Guard, a broken zip tie used as makeshift handcuffs, gas masks used by police, and even then-SPD Captain Jim Pugel's uniform. All together, it immediately brings to mind SPD's tactics 21 years after the WTO protests during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests — flash-bang grenades, tear gas, brute force, and all. It seems as if the lessons gleaned from the handling of WTO demonstrators didn't necessarily carry over into the millennium. 

Regardless, Teamsters, Turtles, and Beyond does the unenviable job of distilling the essence of the seminal 1999 WTO protest into a digestible and thought-provoking exhibition. 

Teamsters, Turtles, and Beyond: The Legacy of the Seattle WTO Protests runs until April 27 at the Museum of History and Industry. Check out the museum's website for more information.