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.

Protests began on November 29. Among them was a march sponsored by several environmental organizations, including Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club, and the Humane Society. About 3,500 people joined the march, including over 200 dressed in homemade sea turtle costumes to protest the deaths of sea turtles caught in fishing nets. This photo shows protesters in the environmental march, with some holding signs that read "Turtles say No to WTO," "WTO Bad for Forests," and "I am not a trade barrier" next to a photo of a dolphin.

This photo was taken by Ervin Schleufer, a member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and retired member of the United Steelworkers of America Local 338. Schleufer was among the striking steelworkers locked out by the Kaiser Corporation in Spokane from 1998 to 2000. In 1999 he traveled the West Coast, with a group calling themselves “road warriors,” to connect with activists, get support for their strike, and raise interest in protesting the WTO conference in Seattle. Schleufer joined thousands of union members from across the country protesting at the WTO conference, and took photos documenting his participation in the street protests.

Caption information source: "Day One, November 29,1999" from "The WTO History Project" at the University of Washington, retrieved at https://depts.washington.edu/wtohist/day1.htm