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.

After protests shut down the opening ceremonies on the morning of November 30, WTO meetings finally began. Here, the Clinton administration’s top economic advisor Gene Sperling listens as US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky says that the Clinton administration is sympathetic to many of the protestors’ goals, and that the meetings would continue despite the unrest.

Caption information source: “Chaos closes downtown,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 1, 1999, page A1.
Caption information source: “Delegates hear protesters’ message”, by Bruce Ramsey, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 1, 1999, p. A16.