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.

This poster was produced by the Direct Action Network (DAN), which helped coordinate the nonviolent civil disobedience at the WTO protests. The poster features an abstracted image of a sea turtle and explains that the Endangered Species Act included a provision requiring countries that import shrimp to the US to use “Turtle Exclusionary Devices” on their nets to drastically reduce sea turtle mortality. In 1999, however, a WTO panel ruled that the US law is an “invalid restriction” on free trade from countries not using the device. The turtle costumes worn by hundreds of marchers at the protest were a response to this WTO decision.