Early Tuesday afternoon, a handful of University of Texas students met at the steps of the UT Tower to hand out literature about the WTO for the International Day of Action. Some dressed like corporate sleaze, handing out literature to somewhat bewildered students. Who was the WTO? What was so bad about them? What was so bad about "free trade"?

Students seemed apathetic at times, but among others was a sense that something was up. News was starting to spread word-of-mouth that today would be a big event. News was already spreading through the community about the riots, tear gas, and rubber bullets in Seattle, but average students still did not understand much about this abstract thing called the WTO.

I left the students while they were doing radical cheers so I could make a banner for the upcoming march and rally though the City of Austin. While making my "No To WTO" flag along Guadalupe St., I saw I was just in time to wave it for a throng of Critical Mass bicyclists weaving through mid-afternoon traffic in a solidarity ride with the Seattle protesters.

I didn't know how big the protest would be, but 30 minutes later I was nearing Republic Park near the center of the city, where I first noticed several media trucks. Not much farther, I saw hundreds of activists gathered in the park area.

People were rather festive, and as the 4:00pm time for the rally came near, it became apparent that this would probably be the largest march that Austin has seen in years. It appeared to be a crowd of perhaps some 500 people. Larger than we had anticipated, it was soon off to a somewhat disorganized, but large parade though the city.

Art & Revolution provided a huge Octopus symbolizing the WTO, which rumbled down the street making lots of noise. All around, there were drummers, horns, and various music makers. As we started though the streets and spread out, it was apparent the march would be impressive. Motorcycle police blocked off intersection after intersection as we went up 4th St. then cut across downtown along Congress towards the Capitol.

Cars were stopped and traffic halted to make way for our long processions. Motorists wondered what we were doing, and people all along the route came out of their office buildings to find out what the ruckus was about. I remember one lady had her children carrying signs protesting child labor and yelling chants against corporations like The Gap. Numerous groups of activists carried large banners, and local AFL-CIO was represented as well.

Once we reached the capitol, we circled it and then came to the front steps. There were even more activists awaiting us there that had not marched. There was a feeling of great excitement and enthusiasm. Musicians were playing on stage. Soon, there were Radical Cheerleaders with various loud chants against the WTO, including Consumption Function song. Audience members everywhere were chanting and singing along. Art & Revolution did various skits, one about putting farmers out of business and ruining the environment with genetically engineered foods.

By now, everyone was aware of what had been going on all day in Seattle and there was a great sense of enthusiasm among the crowd. I personally taunted the police, telling them they would soon find their guns in the service of a fascist nation ruled by corporate elites if they did not start reading and learning about what was going on. One cop was filming the crowd. I started yelling out that we should be filming the police. He seemed uncomfortable.

Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at UT, gave a stirring keynote speech about the large gathering of diverse community groups. He made sure everyone knew that this march and rally was the beginning of a new activism that was growing in this country against undemocratic corporate control. He mentioned the intolerable amount of force and violence that was being used against peaceful protesters in Seattle, and how the Austin community needed to grow deeper ties with each other over the coming years. People were shouting, cheering, and making lots of noise.

Renu Namjose, of Texas Consumers for Safe Foods criticized the WTO for pushing genetically altered foods and unsafe hormone-treated meat and dairy products on American consumers and other nations, particularly in Europe. She spoke about the WTOs undemocratic ability to force consumers to take such products without labeling, and the dangers of "genetic pollution" spreading throughout the environment.

Rebecca Harrington, Texas director of the AFL-CIO, spoke about NAFTA and the horrendous working conditions of laborers in Mexico. She also talked about the impact such trade agreements have when there are no provisions made to protect the environment. Of course, she also talked about the massive job-flight to Mexico as large corporations took advantage of unsafe work conditions in Mexico, weakened labor, and lack of environmental laws.

Robert Jensen reminded everyone again that community activists within Austin communities, states, nations, and even across international boundaries needed to build long-term relationships that would last beyond the Battle of Seattle. He reminded all that this was the beginning of a new transformation in politics on both a local and global scale. People again shouted and cheered, waving banners and flags. Radical cheerleaders rounded out the night with more chants and music.

State Media Ignores Key Issues

Despite a large turnout in Austin, media chose to ignore the march and rally to various degrees. The Austin American-Statesman placed an article about the march on the front page of the Business section, making sure that relatively few would read it, and indeed, it is unclear what their intent was. While the article opens with a striking photo and good soundbites, it concludes with a pro-corporate report from an obscure group called the Texas International Trade Alliance about the benefits of such trade agreements as the WTO.

The study was sponsored by The Business Roundtable, "an association of chief executive officers of major corporations", by the Statesman's own admission. What methods the study uses to come to such figures is unclear, and what the actual benefits compared to losses are, is not at all clear, since the report is geared to giving only one side of the issue: the corporate side.

KVUE 24 in Austin seemed to do a somewhat better job, covering the undemocratic nature of the WTO. They also spoke about specific laws the WTO had ruled on, and pointed out that the Austin City Council had passed an anti-WTO resolution unanimously because it undermined local authority in decision making on trade, city planning, health and safety, and pivotal environmental decisions. While I only caught part of their story, it seemed more balanced than any of the other media outlets I caught the story on.

FOX 7 was by far the worst. FOX again showed it's daring anti-community stand by not covering the protests against the WTO at all, either locally or in Seattle. They did however, have and emotional piece about a 12 year old girl, new to Austin, who got lost on the city busses for hours. Whew! Glad to know someone is still covering the vital issues. But it comes as no surprise as FOX is embroiled in suits with reporters in Florida who did a story about Monsanto and genetically-altered foods. FOX forced these reporters to rewrite the story dozens of time. In the end, they fired the reporters who refused to cave in and do a pro-Monsanto story. Those reporters are now suing FOX Networks.

The Dallas Morning News also comes in carrying the corporate agenda, as all major Texas dailies did, citing "protester violence" as the cause of the Seattle riots. But most people who saw early news reports on less tainted outlets like Yahoo!, direct reports from the Independent Media Center (http://www.indymedia.org), Seattle Free Radio, and various independent media sources and protesters on the street, realized an entirely different story. It was a story of peaceful protesters who refused to move away from their blockade of the main convention and suddenly found themselves being shot at by rubber bullets, tear gas thrown into large crowds, pepper spray forced into their eyes, and indiscriminate concussion grenades.

Mass media would have the average citizen think that there were large amounts of "violent protesters", when in fact, there is no proof of any such thing. There is not a single recorded incident yet where a protester directly attacked another citizen or even officers of the law. Media ignorance is too great to be mere coincidence, and it is a growing tendency of most mass media outlets to ignore the real story. And the real story here is how media itself is following the corporate agenda of casting protesters as being "violent", even as police instigated almost all of the violence.

In fact, the central focal point of police brutality was the circle of protesters surrounding the convention that was blockading the delegates from getting in. These were the most peaceful ones, and the ones that caught the brunt of police violence as riot police became frustrated with their non-violent protests and the mayor of Seattle began to feel the political pressure.

Even many other protesters failed to see that even had their been no wild anarchists breaking the windows of corporate-owned businesses, the police would have found some other pretext to break this human chain of protesters blocking access to the WTO meetings. Sooner or later, the political pressure would have mounted and the violence of police would have manifested itself as it did. Stories of protester violence is mere fabrication and an attempt to hide the real agenda of elites.

In Houston, about 20 people from Houston Peace News gathered at the Mickey LeLand Federal Building to give a news conference about the WTO. Only two reporters showed up, one from the Houston Chronicle and another from a local news station. And of course, the Houston Chronicle ran no story at all about the news conference or used any quotes. They did not make it on television either. It was an apparent media blackout in Houston, or feigned ignorance at best.

But what else would one expect from a state where no major city has more than one daily newspaper?

The Need for Solidarity Across Community and State

All in all, it was the media reception that activists had been expecting for quite a while. Media had already been long-ignoring the WTO and past massive protests actions in Europe. There was a preceding media blackout leading up to the summit as mass media ignored it altogether and refused to discuss it, despite the deep and broad implications of the new round of trade negotiation talks.

In various media outlets, such as a recent article in Business Week magazine by Jeffery Garten (Dean of Yale School of Management) inciting news establishments to deeply question Non-Governmental Organizations, criticize their membership, funding, and resources, there was an outright ambivalence towards the resistance they saw coming.

Over dinner that night after the protests, I had a chance to get to know fellow activists, Phil and Candle from the Campaign for International Justice. We talked about the need for a community media center in Austin to help gather and disperse information to activists and the community at large. Mass media has shown its corporate-biased hue too often, and its failure to live up to covering critical issues. We agreed that was needed was a common ground where disparate groups from conventional community groups to radical anarchists could find support. Such a media outlet would be part InfoShop, but would also focus on producing inexpensive literature, magazines, multimedia, web sites, and give activists universal access to Internet resources and email.

The time has come for activists and NGOs to stop being dependent on corporate media and corporate handouts. Our long-term growth relies on opening new channels of media, discussion, and outreach. I hope that out of the Battle for Seattle, we grow as organizations and activists, take root, and make self-reliant moves against the hegemony of corporate influence.

Keith A. Vick is a regular talk show host on Free Radio Austin 97.1FM. A recent English and Anthropology graduate from Southwest Texas State University, he makes his living as a computer helpdesk support agent. Permission hereby granted to reprint without motive of profit and capital gain. The only exception being that this article may not be transmitted, posted, or in any way appear on Microsoft's MSN network.

Media Contact Points on WTO:

Radio Free Seattle

An unlicensed micro-broadcaster (pirate radio), is doing a steady Real Audio feed of music and news stories throughout the actions there. Numerous live reports are coming in with volunteer reporters and many other reporters under the large umbrella group called the Independent Media Center.
http://216.173.206.96/imc/

WTO Watch

Has lots of great background information on WTO, as well as daily press releases and multimedia. Lots of Real Audio broadcasts and such.
http://www.wtowatch.org/

Z Magazine Online

Z has always had insightful material, and promises to cover this event in detail. Their most recent issue has a cover dedicated to the WTO protests.
http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm

Seattle WTO

This site has basic background info. Not as current as others, but has lots of links to external media sources.
http://www.seattlewto.org/news-info.html

One World

Comes at issue with more environmental stand.
http://www.oneworld.org/campaigns/wto/front.shtml

Global Exchange

Lots of links to tons of organizations involved in the protests.
http://www.globalexchange.org/