The Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held in Seattle from November 30 to December 3, 1999. Trade ministers and other officials from the WTO's 135 member nations met in an unsuccessful attempt to plan negotiations to further deregulate free trade. Tens of thousands of activists for many causes gathered to protest what they saw as the WTO's favoring of corporate interests over social and environmental concerns.

Here, a Seattle police officer points his tear gas laucher at point blank range into a group of demonstrators, after informing them that they were in violation of an order to disperse. The protestors were attempting to prohibit access to the WTO conference outside the Seattle Sheraton at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Union Street.

Caption information sources: "WTO Meeting and Protests in Seattle (1999) - Part 1," by Kit Oldham, HistoryLink.org Essay 9183; and "WTO Meeting and Protests in Seattle (1999) - Part 2," by Kit Oldham, HistoryLink.org Essay 9213.
Caption information source: "20 years later: Looking back at the Battle in Seattle, the WTO riots" by Zosha Millman, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved at
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/seattle-history/article/WTO-Riots-Battle-Seattle-1999-anniversary-13431709.php