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Resistance and reaction, captured on film
Remembering WTO protests
In an attempt to clear the intersection of Sixth and University that day, Seattle Police pepper spray the crowd and me.
Seattle Police prevent protesters from approaching the convention center on Wed., Nov. 30, 1999, the second day of protests.
Protesters hold an all-night vigil Dec. 1 outside the King County jail in solidarity with those arrested.
On Dec. 1, the third day of the protests, a few hundred protesters corralled by police on a street sit down to demonstrate to the police that they pose no threat to them.
Protesters block a downtown intersection.
Seattle police use Metro buses to transport hundreds of protesters arrested for violating the “no protest zone” established in response to the initial protests.
Real Change volunteer photographer George Hickey put himself at the heart of the protests against the World Trade Organization.
He found himself on the front lines of a non-lethal war. Then he became a casualty.
On Nov. 30, 1999, as a line of police tried to regain an access road to the organization’s meeting space by pepper-spraying protesters, Hickey stood to one side of the front line, taking pictures. A cop turned his way. The shutter clicked, catching the foamy spray in mid-flight. Hickey sued for damages, and was awarded $25,000 in 2001. He is now a veteran photographer of more than 100 street protests.
You told me that in hindsight, much of your pictures from that week weren’t very good. Why not?
For any photojournalist at any event, the bad photos will far outnumber the good ones. But it was only three years since I had taken up photography and I was inexperienced. I could have done a better job of composing images and not been snap shooting as much as I did. With the excitement of the crowds and the loud noise and the violence of the police, I was not as thoughtful about my framing as I think I would be now.
You’ve said you’ll be better prepared next time. How so?
Technically, I have a better idea now of what makes a good image. I’m more alert to light and background and appreciate the importance of getting close to the subject. I also have a better understanding of visual narrative and the types of images that one should make to tell a story, but also to be ready for the unexpected. And I think now I have some instinct for when something is going to happen.
What makes you think there’ll be a next time?
The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer. Millions of Americans are really hurting. Many of them vote and get no representation in return. Street demonstrations are a way to be heard.
What’s the thread between the WTO in 1999 and the Republican National Convention last year, where journalist Amy Goodman and some of her staff were arrested?
The police are more violent now. They have armed themselves with military crowd control weaponry and are not reluctant to use it. They are willing to arrest large groups of people whose presence and behavior is inconvenient for them, regardless of whether they are committing a crime.
Is there a lesson from WTO that wasn’t immediately apparent in 1999 or 2000, but that has become clear now?
The demonstrators won that battle, but the values and goals of the WTO continue. The rich and powerful are persistent and insatiable.
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