WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity

1999 Seattle WTO protests
Part of the Anti-globalization movement
A law enforcement agent sprays pepper spray at the crowd
Date	30 November 1999 - 1 December 1999
Location	Seattle, Washington, United States
Result	Resignation of Seattle police chief Norm Stamper; Increased exposure of WTO in US media; 157 individuals arrested but released for lack of probable cause or hard evidence; $250,000 paid to the arrested by the city of Seattle; creation of the Independent Media Center
Parties to the civil conflict
Anti-globalization movement Direct Action Network NGOs Labor unions Student and religious groups King County Sheriff's Office Seattle Police Department Washington State Patrol 81st Brigade, Washington Army National Guard
Number
~40,000 Unknown

1999 Seattle WTO protests, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Seattle or the Battle in Seattle, were a series of protests surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, when members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington on November 30, 1999. The Conference was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations.

The negotiations were quickly overshadowed by massive and controversial street protests outside the hotels and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, in what became the second phase of the anti-globalization movement in the United States. The protests were nicknamed "N30", on similar lines to J18 and similar mobilizations. The large scale of the demonstrations, estimated at no less than 40,000 protesters, dwarfed any previous demonstration in the United States against a world meeting of any of the organizations generally associated with economic globalization (such as the WTO, the International Monetary Fund, or the World Bank).

Planning for the demonstrations began months in advance and included local, national, and international organizations. Among the most notable participants were national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as Global Exchange (especially those concerned with labor issues, the environment, and consumer protection), labor unions (including the AFL-CIO), student groups, religion-based groups (Jubilee 2000), and anarchists (some of whom formed a Black bloc).