Tuesday, November 30, 1999

WTO in Seattle
WTO notebook: Pro-trade rally fails to attract many fans

Organizers of the only pro-World Trade Organization rally going on this week owe a bit of thanks to the anti-WTO types who showed up yesterday.

For one thing, they listened quietly, waiting until the speeches ended to confront organizers of the pro-trade rally.

But more important, the handful of anti-WTO activists helped inflate the meager crowd at Mercer Arena.

Organizers put a happy face on the small showing of 80 people, sprinkled among the more than 600 chairs set up for the event.

Everyone probably heard the warnings that traffic would be terrible this week, said Jason Miller, spokesman for Working Families for Free Trade, the organizing group formed by Christian Coalition and Republican Party leaders.

Many people probably just stayed home, he said.

And, really, the main point is that, unlike other demonstrations scheduled this week, this event was a call to the world that many Seattleites support the WTO and want as much free trade with other countries as possible, Miller added.

Low-key rally

The world would have had to be listening really, really carefully. Pro-trade types are rather quiet ralliers, applauding speeches with demure, polite clapping.

The crowd included people such as Larry Kulp, who drove from Federal Way.

The former Columbia University professor and former Weyerhaeuser research director considers some of the anti-WTO protesters "misguided" for fighting against what he considers the best way to improve environmental, human rights and education in developing countries.

"When properly organized, (the WTO) enables us to move First World standards of living to the Third World," he said.

That's the same rationale offered by Randy Tate, executive vice president of the Christian Coalition.

Free trade is an avenue to influence human-rights issues abroad, keep trade-dependent jobs in the United States and send Bibles to countries like China, Tate said.

Free trade is the front door into countries to spread Christian and U.S. values, he said.

"I think the people in this room recognize that trade and cultural exchange does not hinder but actually advances free minds and free hearts," Tate said. "We're preaching to the choir."

Well, back to Point 1. Not everyone in the room was singing their gospel.

Charlie McClellan, a Seattle resident, said he's not opposed to free trade. But he was concerned by the WTO's limited interaction with the public and its considerable authority to overturn countries' policies.

The rally offered little to dissuade him from joining the anti-WTO marches today, he said.

And Si Mitchell and Leon Eski, two men from London, traveled to Seattle to take part in the anti-WTO protests.

They had heard about the pro-trade rally and decided to see what it was all about.

Blunt about opposition
 

They were blunt about their opposition and confronted organizers. Where, they asked, were the families promised by the name of the organizers' group? Rather, they saw "white men in suits and ties."

"We'd like to see the WTO completely dismantled," Mitchell said.

Many talk about how the WTO can help improve human rights and other issues, they noted, while the agreement for China to join the WTO focused on trade and profit, not on political prisoners or China's presence in Tibet.

They're planning to make some noise this week about their feelings on the WTO. Judging from the numbers of protesters and their volume, chances are the world will be listening.

Copyright © 1999 The Seattle Times Company