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.

Thousands of college and high school students joined the WTO protests on November 30th. From rallies at University of Washington (UW) and Seattle Central Community College (SCCC), the students converged on Denny Way and walked toward Seattle Center, where they met an AFL-CIO protest. By late afternoon the group of around 4000 students had joined the protests downtown.

Here, a large procession of students marches across an overpass on Denny Way, heading to Seattle Center.

Caption information source: "Students make a strong showing in yesterday's protest" by Ruth Schubert, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 1, 1999, p. A15