Boston Joins Nation in WTO Protest

More than 30 Harvard students joined hundreds of Bostonians who gathered downtown to protest the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its policies last night.

Boston's rally was sparked by ongoing massive protests in Seattle, where the WTO is currently holding its annual conference.

Among speakers at the event were Rev. William Mathis, a Harvard Divinity School student and member of the corporate watchdog organization INFACT and Benjamin L. McKean '02, a member of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM).

"The WTO needs to change...it's not just a matter of little country versus big country or environmentalists versus capitalists--it's about democracy," said Harvard Law student and PSLM member Aaron D. Bartley.

While PSLM spearheaded Harvard participation, students affiliated with the Environmental Action Committee and other activist groups also joined the protest.

PSLM members said they saw the event as an important rallying point for the anti-sweatshop movement.

"The WTO directly relates to the sweatshop campaign, because the WTO doesn't take workers into account, with the general tendency to push the global economy to the lowest common denominator," said PSLM member Aron R. Fischer '00.

Members of the protest's organizing groups, including the labor union AFL-CIO and several activist organizations such as Jobs with Justice, United for a Fair Economy and the Rainforest Action Network, specifically asked Harvard students to attend the event.

"We need to get involved in events and protests beyond the campus, with the issues that effect the world," McKean said. "Harvard students are particularly important to the movement because we can get publicity easier than other students."

Although violence erupted among the 30,000 protestors in Seattle yesterday (please see story, page A-2), the Boston protest was peaceful. The protestors marched from Park Street to the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, located next to South Station. At the bank, the group heard several speeches condemning the WTO and its practices.

Topics included a nationwide drop in union membership, the closing of local factories, increasing water pollution, and concern about rainforest destruction and international human rights abuses.

The event's theme echoed a more famous Boston protest with the slogan, "No globalization without representation." Protestors believe that the WTO, which was created to promote international free trade, should incorporate more viewpoints in its decision-making process.

The rally took on the appearance of a pageant, as people ranging from high schools students to the elderly carried large paper mache dolls, brightly colored signs and props, while others played drums and other instruments.

"Just say no to the WTO!" the marchers chanted, as they made their way to the Federal Reserve Bank.

Then, illuminated by the lights of television cameras, Massachusetts Jobs with Justice director Russell Davis served as emcee, handing the microphone to speakers who ranged from the angry to the erudite.

The speakers raised a wide variety of concerns related to the WTO, in an attempt to show how far reaching the organization is.

"If you eat, if you breathe, if you are paid wages, then the WTO effects your life," Davis told the enthusiastic crowd.

Protestors claimed their efforts are merely the beginning of a larger social movement.

"They say that high school students are completely apathetic these days, that we simply don't care...but I'm here to tell you apathy is dead," declared Rainforest Action Network member and high school student Pepper Yelford.