ABSTRACT
The protestors certainly stopped trade in Seattle, since the only flourishing trade all week was in bottled water to overcome the tear gas, and in spray paints for graffiti. This would only have mattered to the numerous traders of Seattle, but its reach may have been far wider. US President Clinton in a pathetic attempt to placate US labour unions (supporting Al Gore’s Presidential campaign) suggested in a speech the day after the major riots, that labour rights be brought into the negotiations. The developing world sees labour standards as covert western protection, and so agreement foundered. They know that the real choice facing a 12-year-old farm worker in China or India is not between school or ‘exploitation’, but between knowing he and his family can eat tomorrow and not knowing. Whether Clinton changed his speech because of the rioters is hard to say, but if so, then they can rightly claim that they ‘Stopped the WTO’. Personally, I can’t see what triumph there is in that. Time will tell whether the WTO can let the developing countries come to the world fair, but while such outspoken ignorance has influence it seems increasingly unlikely.
