Derek Ishikiwa Danilo Trisi ‘02 demonstrates the unification of labor and environmental interests, a cohesion that encouraged many participants in the protests.

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One hundred students sat transfixed, watching a video shot produced by their classmates flicker between images of peaceful protests and violent police actions in the streets of Seattle. One of their peers narrated the documentary with his account of his visit to Seattle.

This was one of several "teach-ins" happening on campus Wednesday night at Scripps College. As those who witnessed firsthand the Anti-WTO demonstrations returned to campus, ten times their number of students followed them to hear their tales.

"It was a lot fun, a lot of laughter. I had some good conversations," said David Allen PI ’00, appearing no worse for the wear having been in what some of his peers described as "a warzone" last week.

Seven students from the Claremont Colleges were arrested in Seattle’s protests and crowded into holding cells for three or more days. Protests continued in Seattle long after the WTO sent its delegates back home.

Towards the end of the week and into the weekend protest centered around injustices done to what Seattle resident Young Kim feels were "political prisoners."

Kim and other protesters camped outside Seattle’s King County Prison for three days protesting police action. Prisoners who had fasted for four days were released into their arms, dehydrated and dazed, most unfamiliar with their surroundings. The protesters who greeted them found them food and rides.

Prisoners were refused lawyers for 20 hours, beaten for refusal to comply, and "persecuted by authorities," reports Eli Hastings PI ‘00.

Hastings and seven other Claremont College students gathered at Scripps to informally discuss their first-hand accounts and analyses of past and on-going events in Seattle. The goal of the meeting was to inform their classmates of everything they learned in Seattle by talking to activists, protesting, and spending time in jail.

Approximately 15 Claremont students attended the protests, all in varying capacities and with an array of intentions. Jordy Shourman ‘00, who was arrested and held for three days at Sandpoint Naval Base, originally was curious about the WTO because of an academic interest. "I haven’t really been an activist. I learned a lot about the WTO and the world economy in a class I took at Pitzer," he said.

"I just went up to protest the WTO," said Sean Doherty PI ‘01. "I didn’t expect what happened to happen." Students spoke mostly about of police brutalities which occurred in the streets, but they also relayed some alarming reports of the arrests.

"It was so organized," said Stefan Judelman PI ’00. "Guaranteed one kid was going to get the shit kicked out of him on every bus [holding prisoners] that came in just to prove a point to the other protestors."

Meryl Haydock Derek Ishikawa ‘01 participates in a labor march in Seattle.

"It wasn’t just protestors who were getting beaten up, it was residents–kids and old people–who were just bystanders," said Rudy Bababouie PI ’00.

The overall mood, however, was positive. The experience of protesting proved extremely valuable to all who went. Some told stories of bonding with their fellow arrested protesters while being detained in buses for ten or more hours.

"We didn’t know how long we’d be on the bus, it was just 70 people that didn’t know each other, sharing whatever food or water they had and just being incredibly kind and giving," said Toby Gaster ’03.

"It really frustrated [police] that there were no leaders, that it was a group thing. It conflicted with the individual level that they tried to begin with," said Hastings.

Seattle witnessed possibly the country’s largest congregation of differing political, environmental, and activist groups it has seen since the 1960s, as the WTO conference drew protesters from all around the globe. It is clear that the anti-WTO sentiments were not a single city’s inflammatory protests; Seattle was merely the site of a global gathering of multiple growing complaints.

"This was the greatest event of solidarity," said Stacey Dinner PI ’00. The students backed up her feelings about the convergence of activists groups towards a unified stance against big business and its foreshadowing of greater communal worldwide action and cooperation.

"We’re standing today at a new kind of activism, a unified community with a common enemy," emphasized Judelman.