The MOHAI exhibition commemorates the WTO-Os in Seattle

“We can’t afford another Seattle.”

That’s what then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair said at a meeting in Switzerland in January 2000. The remarks came in Davos, just months after things went so badly in the Emerald City during an event called the WTO’s Third Ministerial Conference in 1999.

A quarter century after it happened, a new exhibit at Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) is a reminder of what the WTO was all about and how it left its infamous mark on local and world history. The exhibit “Teamsters, Turtles, and Beyond: The Legacy of the Seattle WTO Protests” opened Friday and will be on display at the museum in Lake Union Park through the end of April 2025.

Anyone who lived in the Northwest 25 years ago will never forget the event held in Seattle for five days in late November and early December 1999 by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in conjunction with a local organizing committee.

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Earlier this year, political and trade leaders from dozens of countries chose Seattle as the venue for their third conference, or “ministerial meeting.” When Seattle was selected, it was a highlight for the city. Seattle and Washington state have always been heavily dependent on foreign trade, dating back to the 19th century^Th Century. Hopes were high for a major economic boost from all visitors and for lots of free advertising around the world showcasing the beautiful Puget Sound city.

Of course, everything went horribly wrong. Months before the event was scheduled to begin, activists from across the United States began organizing to protest not only by exercising their right to free speech, but also with the specific goal of ending the whole thing. While there were many nonviolent events, including demonstrations and marches, the WTO in Seattle is best remembered for the blocked streets, tear gas, the inability of WTO members to reach any agreements, and the damage to downtown businesses – and to civic pride.

Combined with Tony Blair’s international swipe, the WTO left a bad taste in Seattle’s collective mouth and was a black eye for then-Mayor Paul Schell. Schell ultimately lost to Greg Nickels in the 2001 mayoral election, due in part to the way he and Norm Stamper, the chief of the Seattle Police Department, handled the riot. Quiz fans will remember that a fictionalized version of the late Paul Schell was portrayed by the late Ray Liotta in the 2007 Hollywood film Battle in Seattle, whose character was named Mayor Jim Tobin.

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The new exhibition at MOHAI is led by Dr. Curated by James Gregory, a UW history professor who studies labor movements and radicalism that have existed in the Northwest almost as long as the region’s dependence on foreign trade. Mikala Woodward, MOHAI’s curator of community engagement, led the museum’s project team.

During a preview earlier this week, Woodward explained that the second word in the exhibition title – “Teamsters Turtles and Beyond” – reflects one of the WTO’s most iconic artifacts in Seattle: colorful cardboard turtle costumes worn by protesters to raise awareness Environmental damage from unregulated world trade.

Furthermore, Woodward says, the word “Teamsters” partly reflects the unlikely coalition of groups that opposed the WTO. One of the most interesting things in the MOHAI exhibition is a diagram on the wall that resembles a Venn diagram, showing how incredibly diverse the range of groups opposing the WTO was, ranging from mainstream labor groups like the Teamsters to to radical environmentalists who normally have nothing in common with a large union.

Aside from the colorful turtle costumes and protest signs with dolphin silhouettes, one of the most compelling sights in the MOHAI exhibition initially appears to be a graphic made specifically for the museum exhibition. However, as Mikala Woodward explained, it is actually a real artifact collected by the University of Washington.

The group that organized demonstrations and protests against the WTO event in Seattle was called Direct Action Network (DAN), according to Woodward. In November 1999, DAN set up what it called its “convergence center” — essentially a command post — on Capitol Hill in an old building at the corner of Denny Way and Olive.

Woodward told KIRO Newsradio that someone at DAN took a Kroll map of downtown Seattle, enlarged it, and then had it printed out on giant paper, creating a map about 6 feet high and 12 feet wide. In the MOHAI exhibition, the old map is displayed behind plexiglass so visitors can walk right up to it and see the original markings and how MOHAI imbued them with additional context and history.

“It’s so cool and it’s really fun to just look and see what was here in 1999,” Woodward told KIRO Newsradio, pointing out long-gone landmarks including the Kingdome.

“But it also shows the route of the marches,” Woodward continued. “I think there are notes here like, ‘We start at 7:00’.” . . ‘This is where the workers’ rally will take place, this is the route it will take.'”

A walk through “Teamsters Turtles and Beyond” naturally brings back memories of the WTO, but it also sparks deeper thoughts about how much the world has changed since November 1999.

Back then, there was the Internet, but there were no smartphones or social media, and the old media – newspapers, television and radio – largely drove the stories (along with a growing number of blogs). The feared year 2000 and the possible collapse of civilization were still a month away. President Bill Clinton (who was visiting Seattle for the WTO and was stuck in his hotel for security reasons) was late in his second term. The Internet-fueled economy was on fire everywhere and was particularly booming in Seattle. Cell phones were still just for talking. The bizarre Gore-Bush presidential election of November 2000 was less than a year away, and 9/11 was just around the corner.

If you personally remember the WTO in Seattle or any of those old realities, Teamster Turtles and Beyond brings it all back and gives you a lot to think about. If this is all new to you, what better way to understand what happened and why, and to imagine the role Seattle played then – and continues to play today in a very different world – other than that served as a stage for peaceful demonstrations and violent clashes.

Who knows? A visit to MOHAI’s new exhibition might even change Tony Blair’s opinion.

You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks Here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast Here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please contact us Email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks on X.

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