From New York this is Democracy Now. To Democracy Now. Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I'm Amy Goodman on Capitol Hill the House Judiciary Committee will begin impeachment hearings next week into whether President Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals Joe Biden and his son Hunter the New York Times reports Trump knew about the whistleblower complaint about his July 25th phone call with the Ukrainian president and that Congress had been informed when Trump decided to unfreeze the withheld $391000000.00 in military aid an Office of Management and Budget official testified to the House Intelligence Committee that 2 of his colleagues quit after expressing concern and frustration about Trump's decision to withhold the aid and an anonymous senior Trump administration official who's blasted the administration said they would reveal themselves before the 2020 Alexion the official is the author of the book a warning and a viral New York Times op ed that was headlined I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration in Colombia anti-government protesters have called for another national strike today after talks between a protest committee and right wing president even did Gates failed massive protests have rocked Colombia for 6 straight days last week hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets for the largest national strike Columbia has seen in decades 4 people have been killed so far including 18 year old student Dylan Cruz who was shot in the head by a police projectile in Chile President Sebastian Pinera has sent a bill to lawmakers that would allow military troops to be ploy to the streets of Chile amidst ongoing anti austerity demonstrations this comes as Human Rights Watch has condemned police and military brutality against anti-government protesters at least 26 people have died in the 40 days of Chilean protests this is Human Rights Watch America's director has. They gonna go through and be meritorious it will be they don't see us so we will fix it so you would know there are hundreds of worrying reports of excessive force on the streets of an abuse of detainees such as brutal beatings and sexual abuse that cannot be left unpunished and should be quickly and it literally investigated and I'm going to supply the children just with Ortiz in Bolivia the enter American Commission on Human Rights says an independent commission should investigate possible human rights abuses against pro morale us protesters following the military ouster of the long time president Davao Morales at least 33 people have been killed since the protests began the military's carried out at least 2 massacres against more Alice's and Degeneres supporters. Secretary of State Mike pump aoe has called on Egypt to respect freedom of the press only days after a Gyptian security forces raided the Cairo office of Egypt's the last independent news outlet Madam OS or and detain staff members who have now been released as part of our longstanding strategic partnership with Egypt we continue to raise the fundamental importance of respect for human rights universal freedoms and the need for a robust a civil society we call on the Egyptian government to respect freedom of the press and to release journalists detained in a raid last week and to see our full interview with Madam asa reporter a long time to mocker see now correspondent Bill could do Skoda Democracy Now dot org In Iran videos of the Iranian security forces violence against protesters are emerging on line as Iran has partially restored internet access which was almost entirely blocked for over a week and Misty International says over $100.00 people were killed in the crackdown against demonstrations sparked by a sharp rise in gas prices earlier this month u.s. Sanctions against Iran have contributed to the economic crisis Iranian officials now say Internet access in the country could be curtailed indefinitely British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn has again condemned anti-Semitism after Britain's chief rabbi accused Corbin in the Labor Party of anti-Semitism ahead of national elections December 12th already a very clear separatism is completely wrong within our society policy to make it clear what I was elected leader to Basle. To so much as in the comics that will in any form in our party or our society unseating indeed call for it sympathies and apologies to those that had the self and other British rabbis have disagreed with Britain's chief rabbi and expressed support for korban Meanwhile the Muslim Council of Britain has accused the Conservative Party of allowing us. A phobia to fester in British society British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has previously written that he believed Islam a phobia is natural Jeremy Corbyn also says he said documents that reveal Britain's National Health Service could be up for sale and a post trade deal with the United States in Texas at least 3 people have been hospitalized after a chemical plant exploded in Port Natchez outside Houston the cause of the explosion at the Texas petroleum chemical plant has not yet been determined Meanwhile an uncontrolled wildfire outside Santa Barbara California has burned more than 4300 acres thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate and the New York City Council's passed legislation that would make New York the 1st major American city to ban most flavored cigarettes This is New York City council member Mark Levine the slow pace that which this country has responded to the teen of it being epidemic has been an epic failure we did nothing as these sleek new devices with an intense dose of nicotine started to hit the market or a shows started to fill up with every food minty Candy is flavor you can think of flavors that are clearly appealing to kids we did nothing when Jewel and other companies started to market their products on social media with stylish young people promoting Julie as a cool lifestyle choice New York's move came after President Trump reversed course and refused to sign a memo banning most flavored they ping products and those are some of the headlines This is Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I mean make it then and I'm one Gonzalez welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Today we spend the hour looking back at the Battle of Seattle. Human rights activist. Sure. 20 years ago this week tens of thousands of activists gathered in Seattle Washington to shut down a ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization grassroots organizers successfully blocked world leaders government trade ministers and corporate executives from meeting to sign a global trade deal that many cold deeply undemocratic and harmful to workers' rights the environment and Digitas people globally on the ember 30 s. 1999 those activists formed a human chain around the Seattle convention center and shut down the city's downtown police responded by firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the mostly peaceful crowd and the protests went on for 5 days resulted in over 600 arrests and the eventually collapse of the talks as well as the resignation of Seattle's police chief the protests were documented in the film this is what democracy looks like. You've got people here from all over you've got the neighbor you've got environmentalist you've got teachers got children you've got. People of color. And. You know mainstream white American middle class you know working for you got bored you got everybody out here because this hurt people this is bad for people are bad for our job here bad for the people over there in the documentary This is what democracy looks like organizers hop popguns and rice Baker you talk about the brutality protesters face in the streets of Seattle there was so much fear coming out of. I mean we had been shot at. Their border and beaten and sharp. People didn't expect they're going into Tuesday and people had to really commit themselves and reader for their position that night we end up meeting up on the their. Democracy now was in the streets of Seattle 20 years ago doing 2 hours of daily broadcasting during one broadcast we spoke to 2 of the leading critics of the w. CIO the Indian physicist and activists from Donna she will and Lori Wallach of Public Citizen the constraints every country government. Literally the level of food safety it can provide its public or whether or not poor farmers can have access to see whether or not workers can be safe from its best is actually the secrecy. Through which w. 2 was born is apparent in the fact that most parliaments had no idea what was the content of the treaty to the months after it had been ratified and signed in moderate. The w 2 wrote the rules it sits in judgment about implementation of those rules and its rights but inquisition you are listening to Pacifica Radio democracy now broadcasting live from Seattle that was Vandana Shiva and Lori Wallach on to mock Racine now with wind and solace and eye on Nov 29th 1999 during our live broadcast from the basement of Seattle's 1st United Methodist Church does during the w t o protests Well they are joining us again today war Lori Wallach is with us from Washington d.c. And Vandana Shiva is joining us from Rome Italy Welcome back both to Democracy Now Lori let's begin with you you were in the streets of Seattle 20 years ago can you explain why what was happening and then take us through to today. Well. Pardon my voice the w t o I did now instead was having its ministerial in the u.s. . And we knew it was critical for people around the world to see with protests against w t o in Africa Latin America Asia Europe that in the u.s. Also we didn't want this one size fits all corporate rule and so as soon as we heard it was Seattle we started organizing we open an office in Seattle in March of 9099 and the goal was buttoned up the plan w t o expansion and also to signal to the whole world the u.s. Was in this fight with everyone now as we needed different rules for the global economy. And that and she were a few people in the world haven't heard of the CIO at that time even among in the activist community tell us how you came to be in Seattle in November of 1999. I was in Seattle is part of the eye of g. The international forum on globalization which brought together all of us who were questioning gatt which was the precursor of the w t o before the modification agreement was signed. I was fighting that because of the corporations who mentioned at 1st in a meeting in 1907 in Geneva and in a resort outside Geneva and they were talking about patenting seeds and life they were talking about an international treaty which would make it a requirement for all countries to patent scenes and would make it illegal for farmers to save seeds and that this free trade agreement is what they were going to work on and they talked about 5 corporations controlling food and held by the year 2000 that conversation of 87 started me on the part of saving seed working with my government to not allow patenting of seed working with our ambassadors to not allow trips to be designed like Monsanto had designed it where they said we were the patient that must Titian and physician all in one but because I come from India to colonize the country. East India Company was created the 1st free trade agreement was not NAFTA or w t o the 1st Free Trade Agreement was imposed on India by the East India Company 716 so these were very familiar with the use of so-called free trade for corporate rule and having become free after famines killed 60000000 people we didn't want to be recall a nice again and I'm so happy that for that period our former prime minister our former Gatton bastards are joined us as the people's campaign against and we passed laws in that window that defended the sovereignty of the sea the sovereignty of farmers but as the corporate rule continued the monopoly on seeds continued the last 400000 farmers to suicide because of debt burden and Lee a 1000000000 people are hungry and when you introduce the protests going on in Chile and Colombia and other parts of the world I actually see the process of today in every part of the world as a continuation of the fight against neo liberalism a fight against austerity a fight against the permanence of structural adjustment which is what free trade is about it has given us the control of for giants boys and cartel over our seed and our food it's given us the billionaires Bill Gates is a child of w t o he got rules written so he wouldn't have to pay taxes in transborder transfer which is why software wasn't outsourced to India Jeff Bezos shipping goods around paying no taxes anywhere these trillion as are children of the w $2.00 rules and even then we said our world is not for sale we said we are writing other rules movements have written are the rules another world is. Possible we are making it but the brutality and limitless greet off the comfort of corporations and been in this is now really reaching equal sidling genocide limits so 20 years off to see if we need to make a commitment that in the next 10 years we've really got to change those rules and get rid of the rule of 1000000000 s. I want to go to Michael Moore the Oscar winning filmmaker didn't win an Oscar at the time speaking to a reporter in the middle of a crowd during the w t o demonstrations if you will there this is this really was an ordinary leader the organizing group by her and by one since it was organized by your son General Motors and Microsoft you know all the other great bear with you right there because what we're dealing with. Human any violence or any anybody here the boy it's taking place in companies that have been there that there were these people so that's Michael Moore back in the end of November 1909 and one you are and I were in the streets we were covering this for democracy now I make that point and this weekend. Holding a big forum at the people's forum called Media and resistance 20 years after Seattle that University of Pennsylvania your University Rutgers and democracy now helped to sponsor you talked about how here you were working for this major New York newspaper right the New York Daily News but it was democracy now that brought you out there because the paper we didn't want to Page did want to pay my expenses to go out there and then I mean really know what the dubby CIO was about and I assured them that was going to be a big event and that even Bill Clinton was going so it was worthwhile Culver and ended up having to come in the middle of the night because of the mass protests and Madeleine Albright couldn't get out of her hotel room the secretary of state because of the 2. Or gas that was coming under her door and if you could read your column since the Daily News didn't stop calling you once you got to hear it once the process paralyze the whole of the whole city then they wanted to hear as much as I could write and this was the this was the beginning of of a column I wrote in the summer of 1st a baptism by tear gas for America's students and and I wrote a new generation of rebels came of age in America yesterday thousands of young people paralyzed the city's downtown delayed the opening ceremony of the World Trade Organization meeting in a stunning protest that hearken back to the great civil rights marches of the 1960 s. And in another column on December 3rd I wrote quote It did not matter to these diehard kids that the city had been turned into an armed camp that was firmly under the control of an army of cops state troopers and National Guard they had been stunningly successful in giving a black eye to an obscure international organization and had alerted millions of Americans to the enormous power of the w t o wheels in the world and turned it into a household name and side as I said most people didn't even know about to go before these protests occurred. Pendennis Shiva if you can explain you came from India to be part in Seattle of the protests but you didn't know really the level of protest you had already been laying a foundation with the I have g. The international forum on globalization giving speeches about this and for people to understand the w t o the idea that a trans national organization could be used to overturn the laws of democratically legislature democratically elected legislatures say some city council didn't want to have g m O's want to have them labeled they could be called w t o illegal now you have been continuing to speak out about this sense but what difference did that seminal moment make when were you surprised the w t o got shut down. I was not surprised because actually it wasn't just the protests outside it was the 3rd world governments inside who were totally celebrating the ending of the bullying power of the rich countries who were working on behalf of the month centers to protest the trips agreement the related intellectual property rights agreement the car gives who's vice president was deposited to negotiate the agriculture treaty on behalf of the us government that's what that recall to Treaty was a Cargill agreement and a so-called sanitary and phytosanitary agreement was a basically Pepsi call Nestle junk food agreement forcing bad food around on everyone around the world and criminalizing local regional national governments which worked according to their constitutions to protect their sovereignty is and their rights as I mention I woke up to the use of a Gatton w t o to establish seed monopolies in 87 in India we immediately started to mobilize and the 1st very big rally was 850-0000 farmers rally to say agriculture should not be part of free trade those protests are still carrying on Seattle we planned with I have g. Teach in and we had been doing teach ins in the lead up to Seattle we thought about 30000 people would turn up. House and stand up and the young people on the streets would come up to me and talk to me about how they were there because of piracy they were there to stop privatisation of water each of them was there to defend our public goods they were there to defend our commons and everyone was speaking the chorus our world is not for sale our word is now on the verge of destruction and extinction and climate catastrophe because those who make money out of destroying the word want to continue and so the difference really is that those who pushed and body the us into the w t o of the corporations now want to dismantle the w.t. Or as a multilateral body and they want to have bilateral boring agreements. The end result is the same I think it's important for the workers of the United States to recognize that the unions were on the street in Europe right now that the corporations are pitting farmers again against the environment less as if banning pesticides which are killing the butterflies and birds are not the reason the farmers are in debt is not the reason their crops are failing not the reason that their soil is dying it is time to stop the divide and rule that has been created again and again by the money machine and the money makers and this divide and rule is right now taking very militaristic turns very fascist turns so our movement of 20 years ago is now a movement to defend democracy to defend democracy I wrote my book at democracy because all these journalists would say all the anti globalize us know what they're against They don't know what they're for we know what we're for that's what we're here to defend our work our lives our democracy so rooters democracy and I think there is even more urgently the agent of a day what we really need to learn from 20 years ago is that when people. Wake up to the situation and when people are determined in all their diversity that turtles and the Teamsters can walk together to defend the rights of the and I right that's the moment we are in today we have to unite for a fight for the planet and the flight for the last person including the last displaced person who is today's refugee Lori Wallach I want to ask you the. The impact that the protests had and how things have changed I want to turn to the cover of Foreign Policy magazine in the spring of 2000 which featured you Lori Wallach with the headline Why is this woman smiling because she just beat up the CIO in Seattle that's why of course you didn't beat up didn't you all by yourself there were thousands of people out there and there's identity but has said the 3rd world delegates within. The assembly that were also opposed to the bullying of the West I wonder if you could talk about the impact did you think that was going to happen in September in the November of 1999 and how has the world capital system adjusted to those kinds of protests since then. So what you wrote in your column is my personal experience which is I was awakened by the tear gas I sound like I did today I did it in day 5 of the protests. I saw the power of direct action protests of brave people putting themselves in the way of corporate power and a whole generation even the people who worked to organize who spent a year travelling around the us educating people about the w.t. . Doing seminars and the whole discussions people were really after the 1st day empowered awakens unified in a way to see what certainly was the aspiration to shut down that meeting and to see that people power affectively overcome the world's most powerful corporations and their goal of expanding the w t O's rules even more broadly than they are any were and the amazing outcome of that I think was that we had almost a matter of fact what was going on in the negotiating suites because of the fund in a sad. People undeveloped countries have been fighting the w t o I had been hit by it's a fax right away who knew what it meant and their governments and their negotiators in Geneva at the w t o and pushing back and there they were fighting for no w. Chip expansion but instead to fix the existing rules and so see all these people on the subway in the streets really had an effect on the negotiators in the suites the developing country negotiators were largely locked out of the decision making rooms so they were in the Seattle Convention Center looking at the protests on t.v. And that combination of inside and outside the provided that last. For the negotiators from the Caribbean and Africa and Latin America has been fighting this agenda for years to in Seattle block the w 2 expansion. But the bottom line of that story is after almost 15 years more of protest protest the w g m in the stairs in Cannes coon in Hong Kong in Geneva as well as protests in many developing countries capitals as well as an enormous bravery of developing country negotiators in the Geneva negotiating center w t o expansion was to feed the people while the agenda that was he was terrific extrusion version of globalization did not come to fruition and we see the reverberations of that empowerment that experience of winning of having an alternative of a better world and stopping that corporate power that experience is reflected in people's movements that have had incredible victories around the world so that even as we're living with the catastrophe of the existing. Rules People Power stop that expansion that would have made things even worse and now we basically have to fight is on an aside to change the existing rules and to some degree the w t o now is in the amazing crisis it's never regained its legitimacy said Seattle and on December 11th its ability to issue its outrageous rulings against countries g.m.o. Policies environmental policies and House policy development policies will be shut down because at that point the w t O's dispute system will no longer have a quorum there's enough protest about the systems operations but is the w t o paying attention to this existential threat to its own survival Oh its agenda is to again try and expand its rules this time to constrain governments from. The Internet giants that are undermining our privacy and monopolizing the world so am I thinking that w t o is going to reform no it's going to take more people power but wanting to actually get the rules we need I want to thank you both for being with us Lori Wallach of Public Citizens global trade watch in the streets 20 years ago in Seattle and Vandana Shiva Indian scholar environmental activists physicists food sovereignty and seed freedom advocate alternative globalization author you were in Rome Italy usually in India or I should say you're just a world citizen because you're always traveling the globe what award are you winning today Vandana. It's called them in their award when it was the goddess of knowledge and beef to return to the recognition that women have knowledge Well I thank you so much for being with us to these 2 women of knowledge who joined us. And Lori Wallach This is Democracy Now when we come back we look at the movement the independent media movement that grow grew out of the Battle of Seattle Stay with us. On 91.9 f.m. K c s p k fire is holding it 4300 acres it's 10 percent contained but it looks like that might be reevaluated to a better number in just a little while the rain certainly helped according to Michael liason of Santa Barbara County Fire Incident Command is considering not letting those who were evacuated return to their homes possibly later today so that still touch and go keep an eye out for that there is a new flow of actuation warning that went into effect late last night and it's for the area below that cave fire burn area. And foothills road down to the ocean between Paterson and last but status and on Terror a little higher up closer to the burning area rain today through tomorrow night and then the chance of rain tapering off through the weekend but we could see rain all through the holiday weekend here in Santa Barbara it's been. Killing in the name by Rage Against The Machine This is Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I mean the good men with Gonzales Well we turn now to look at how the 20th anniversary of protests in Seattle the shut down a meeting of the World Trade Organization also more the time when the 1st independent media center came to life amid the. Clouds of tear gas hundreds of violence you reporters documented what unfolded that week in the media dot org received 1500000 visitors more than c.n.n. And it produced a daily video report and a newspaper it was the 1st No in the global citizen journalism movement we're going to meet some of the n.t. Media activists in a moment but 1st this excerpt from showdown in Seattle it was produced for deep dish t.v. By the Seattle indie media center and scores of media activists in the clip we get a tour of the 1st the very 1st Independent Media Center beginning with Jeff Pearlstein one of the founders of Seattle and the media the main motivation for. a living by 17 over the phone but I and which is pretty much all we can afford to do I'm sure we get a lot more that's an excerpt from showdown in Seattle about the 1st independent media center that opened 20 years ago this week well for more we're joined by several guests in Seattle Joe fried bird who is co-founder of the Seattle Independent Media Center and co-produced the Seattle documentary this is what democracy looks like we're also joined here in studio with a Rick Reilly He joins us he was an Oscar nominated filmmaker an independent journalist with Midnight film and he co-directed that film with jail and he. And Renee felts are Coorg a nice years of the 20th anniversary and the media and kwento that's taking place this weekend at the Rice media center Tish's film program manager at Rice author of a book on Indian media called Move guerilla films collaborative modes and the tactics of radical media making when a at the Seattle w t o protest then joined with others to found the Houston Independent Media Center long time tomography now producer and reporter including for the end dependence a newspaper that grew out of the New York City and the media we welcome you all to Democracy Now Joe Freberg we can go to you 1st you're right there in Seattle you to this weekend have a large gathering honoring this 20th anniversary of the media talk about that in the media center that was right there in the middle of Seattle the fact that in the media dot org was getting more hits than c.n.n. Dot com as c.n.n. Was saying there are no. There are no. Rubber bullets being fired and here was indeed media showing pictures of people holding the rubber bullets jail. Yeah I mean I think that thing that was really amazing about that moment was that the physical space on the ground of the independent media center which really came together in a couple of months before the came to town. That the capacity of that independent media center on the ground combined with the reach of indie media dot org which was if not the 1st one of the very 1st open publishing platforms ever it was a new and unprecedented thing that independent journalists could share their content directly to a website without an editor in between them and the site and the combination of those 2 factors really facilitated independent media not just providing a strong alternative to the corporate media but interrupting the narrative that the corporate media was trying to construct about what was happening in the streets of Seattle that week and I think another really important piece of that is that on the ground the Independent Media Center was not just a press enter it wasn't just a space with computer and computers and Internet access it was a space of collaboration it was a space of training a lot of people who just came through the door looking for a way to help out by the end of the week knew how to edit a radio segment or write and publish a print article and all of that came together because people around the world but also on the ground in Seattle anticipated ahead of time that the corporate media coverage would be slanted narrow and inadequate and also anticipated that hundreds of independent journalists from around the world would need a space infrastructure collaboration and support and we anticipated a little bit of what happened but we were all also quite surprised that not just at what happened in the streets of Seattle but what happened inside the independent media center in terms of response and numbers of people who came through the door to participate and you would you were you surprised through the week of protests about the hour and of these independent media centers really around the world you talk about that as well. 100 percent surprise I mean if there were others there who had expected that you know I didn't know about it because we all. Had really not anticipated that independent media centers would start popping up all over the world initially they were popping up where big protests were happening but then eventually they were just. Taking shape in towns literally around the world where people felt like an independent media center could serve their communities needs and it was a really important experience to learn on the fly what did that mean to be connected through values and practice but not in the same room together because it was sort of like a testing ground for social media again this was unprecedented that people would be more or less doing the same kind of work all around the world but only connected for the most part through the Internet so it was very hard there were a lot of lessons learned but it also created a really important network of independent journalists who when they worry in the same room could support each other protect each other share material 'd share Quitman a lot of people who participated in those independent media centers. Had their work facilitated when they had to go to another country to do some reporting or make a film they would land there and it was the Indian media people who would be there and of course them 1st providing whatever they needed what made this more stunning this accomplishment is that they were doing this if they were choking on tear gas I want to turn to footage from the Seattle Indian pendant Media Center that shows the night in 1909 when Seattle police in riot gear attempted to enter the offices of indy media after Indy Media journalists kept police from coming in Officer surrounded the door blocked access to the building denying reporters sentry. Can you just give me some kind of like get of when we market you get back you get people to work each deadlines you know you have a. Very large. Market. It's you know you suing the city of Seattle for infringement of freedom of speech. And now we're going to go to another clip right outside the indie media center where. They're. Very very gathered. Doria really were. So that was that last person was wrecked rally demanding to know why they're going into the Indy Media Center. I was also standing outside following the police who were ahead of me looking like Robo cops when they didn't realize of course they did see it but I wasn't thinking about it is they were all wearing gas masks I was behind them coughing broadcasting to w.b.i. On the telephone I could hardly get my breath I didn't have a gas mask Rick you were pushing to ask why they were charging the Indian media center ultimately as they try to push their way end down this morning head of democracy now was inside the Indian media center reporting to the press as they were trying to get in they actually took a whole who's to tear gas the inside of the center. Co-producer with Jill. What democracy looks like it could have been called what democracy smells like. It's amazing to see that footage I have I actually have never seen that clip of me outside it but I mean is there but it was it was really I can't express what an amazing you know week it was for all of us I mean that was a moment when you know when change to us really felt like it was impossible this kind of global corporate order seemed inevitable and invincible NAFTA had just been signed by Clinton the Democratic Party such as it was was fully recuperated by financial capital the union movement had been beaten up over more than a decade the national liberation movements in Latin America had been murdered in the mountains and then outside of camera range resistance had been building and it 1st you know appeared to us in. $9094.00 when the Zapatistas rose up in Mexico but when that movement exploded into the streets in Seattle it was it was a shock to all of us and Rick you mentioned on Friday night at the event we had here in New York that you almost didn't go to Seattle right that it was a last minute decision on your. To talk about yeah I mean we. Won our small team arrive there we were we weren't really expecting much and we ended up there because we we met Jeff Pearlstein and some of the organizers of Seattle we were on tour with a film called Zapatista that we've made over a couple of years and so the Mexico and in Austin we met Jeff and some of the organizers of of India media and I think you know one of the genius of what Jeff did and Jill who convened this kind of amazing collaborative space is that they didn't have the same genius of the movement itself that you know it convened a space and invited people in as participants not as not his supporters and. Not his followers but we were all as collectives invited in to find a space and to work together I've never I've worked in all sorts of different television environment since then I've never been in a place that was that had so little ego and such a shared kind of sense of purpose it was really a transformational moment and amazing what was happening outside also and that you had the Teamsters and turtles together right you had the a.f.l. C.i.a.o. They decided to March in the streets led by John Sweeney then president of the a.f.l. C.i.l. Thousands of people with environmentalist high school kids you had judges a valve a the French farmer farmers from around the world doctors and nurses saying you cannot overturn the laws of democratically elected legislatures to pass corporate friendly laws that could jeopardize our health but we are going to go right now to break and when we come back we're going to expand this discussion with our colleagues in Houston who are also holding a 20th anniversary event around independent media Stay with us. that we send the money singing Have you been to jail for Justice at the w t o protest in 1999 from the documentary This is what democracy looks like that was directed by Joe fried Berg and Rick Reilly who are 2 of our guests today I mean a good man with Juan Gonzalez well as we continue to look at the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Seattle we now turn to Houston where we're joined by chief Stringer and Renee folds who are Coorg a Nizer of the 20th anniversary in the media and went to that takes place this weekend at the Rice media center Renee was at the Seattle double t o protests and then joined with Titian others to found the Houston Independent Media Center She's a longtime Democracy Now producer and reporter and killing for The Independent a newspaper that grew out of New York City in the media. Like to start with Renee tell us about the the the conference you're holding and and also little bit about your experience in developing the Houston Independent media centers after Seattle. I think through one Amy It's so great to be a Houston. Metro I left Houston in 1909 in November as a young anarchist and headed up to Seattle Washington for the deputy a protest on a bus on my way up there no one knew what the World Trade Organization was way back everyone knew in Seattle I was radicalized as I watched my country turn into a police state we saw all the footage of the robo cops the police the police not just tear gas being media centers but many of us exercising your right to free speech in the streets and when we didn't back down it was so inspirational for me I learned so much about tactical organizing and I also learned a lot about how media concept of don't hate the media be the media I came back to Houston and as they say stepped off the curb and back into the street and worked with people and many others here in town to found our own Houston indie media center one of my favorite things about it was how we did do sort of daily news but we also were ready to gear up for convergences similar to mass protests like the. Here in Houston at the time in 2004 in 2005 after Indian media had been around for a while we were covering the protest against the Halliburton shareholder meetings Dick Cheney was vice president at the time a former c.e.o. Of the company and many times the police outnumbered protesters here and were not on their best behavior and we would do projects which would help cover those demonstrations and just like in Seattle we knew that we couldn't rely on the corporate media to tell the full narrative and so we were we were active I learned a lot about how to be a journalist through 'd being in the media member I learned all of my digital training and much about how I practice today in the sense that I practice it with a purpose of practice tactical media and. I have made great friends relationships lifelong relationships along the way with people like to. Talk to us about some of the you have an actual exhibition of. Various or artifacts of the media movement over the last 20 years can you talk about that. Thank you again one for having us in Amy it's great to be here we have an exhibition that is open now and open up through December 9th at the race Media Center in Houston we made a call out to any media activists around the country and around the world to send us things they had stored away in their own archives we it's a great show interesting Lee so much of what we did on indie media was digital but what we found in what preserves and all of our archives a lot of it is paper newspapers flyers handbells stickers t. Shirts protest dresses and banners that people made we have a lot of video a lot of audio stations lot of multimedia in the exhibition of w t o artifacts of facts and there's a lot of organizing packets that were given to activists in different towns documents and founding Indian media is or how to open your own I am see and so yeah we had contributions from a lot of different people and it's really a beautiful show it's inspiring to be around and be in and it's been great to watch people walk through it and learn about independent media center if they didn't already and to be inspired by universities so my students are going through and it's great to see a new generation get inspired by a citizen journalism and people need to shoot talk about indie media dot org And the media the Independent Media Center is being a collective of collectives and the significance of the open source publishing platform that was used as a model today. Yes without an army of hackers and coders who are committed to open source software in the media centers and the code that created them wouldn't have been invented the massive support it took to keep these sites running on a shoestring budget and also to his battle armies of trolls which is a funny thing to say but we really did have trouble in those days Independent Media Center would not have happened without and a dedication to open source software and without it army of volunteer hackers that sort of blurred the lines between the open source movement and the Independent Media Center movement this was pre Wordpress we didn't have work press or other websites you could just start up and we also didn't have social media the idea that you could anyone could decide what was news and publish a picture or a story and I think you could argue that the open publishing platform came along with the fact that we had open source software would you say definitely one if it one went in the other open publishing open collectives open media open source software for sure and I do want to follow up on something Rick said about how it was a space for collectives to come for people to come and open participation where we were all welcome to participate to make media to share media to get training I got my training in indy media and so many people I know did it changed the course of our lives and there's an there's a generation of journalists working today who have a bent for social justice media because they were trained in independent media centers you know when Seattle's talked about it shouldn't just be talked about is this is the birthplace of Microsoft and Amazon right it was the largest export city I think in one of the largest export cities in the world is also growing but it's the birthplace of Indian media India media dot org You know Rick you have gone on to become an Oscar nominated filmmaker you. Work with Jeremy Scahill on Dirty Wars you've done so many other groundbreaking films but this was not your absolute stark but this model the influence it had on you and then I want to ask Jill about that at the end point drove the meeting you're having this weekend. Right there in Seattle the mere remember insets going to be taking place not just a remembrance but where do we go from here Rick Yeah I mean 2 things I mean 1st that. It was the 1st time that I imagine that these these changes in these movements that I'd seen around the world were possible in America and I remember on the night of November 30th on that Tuesday when the National Guard came out and tear gas was everywhere and we were ordered to disperse and people people stayed in the streets and refused to be afraid and seeing fear break there and people reimagine themselves and their role in the world not as just observers on the sidelines but as participants who had the power to rewrite their history I mean that was a fundamentally like was an earth shaking revelation for me and for I think everyone in the street but coming out of Seattle we. Know one of things that Jill and I were thinking about was central to as we were making this is what democracy looks like was this was a moment of where this kind of transformation of the global economy had scarred America had scar the whole hemisphere and there was this release of populist energies that we weren't the only ones who were trying to organize right after Seattle with the next protest we're going to be at I guess the World Bank and i.m.f. And Washington d.c. And Pat Buchanan came out and tried to be the champion of those protests tried to co-opt that movement and say what we're really up against where it's really a nativist worker movement against these elite banker globalize are using all the sort of the codes of of white supremacist nativism and so when Jill and I were making this about the market we decided that we were making needed to win this battle over the narrative of what defined this moment and and make it make a film and tell a story that made it impossible to read this global movement back inside a narrow universe and you've got the last 20 seconds. Well one of the great things that came out of the Independent Media Center was it was 400 hours of video an archive that we have just reopened since Rick and I finished the film and are digitizing for preservation and this weekend David Soul That's coming up we're going to be projecting footage from that archive on to the Washington State Convention Center there's going to be all they have been reflecting on what happened and what we can do with those lessons today parties who knows what will happen with the projections it could turn into a street party but there's going to be a bunch of opportunities this weekend here in Seattle but around the world as well at other events to really take the lessons from what have we want to thank you so much you either being with us Joe Freebird Crowley Renee. Stringer from Houston to Seattle here in New York I mean a good number and so. It is $858.00 almost $859.00 and you are tuned to k.c. Is. 91.9 on your dial no alibi is coming up right now and we're going on local. National and international. If you're on the road. If you're not in the room stay tuned in Drive carefully in any case. Here's luck. With our intro music.
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