Seattle in Coalition - (Justice, Power, and Politics) by Diana K Johnson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In the fall of 1999, the World Trade Organization (WTO) prepared to hold its biennial Ministerial Conference in Seattle. The event culminated in five days of chaotic political protest that would later be known as the Battle in Seattle. The convergence represented the pinnacle of decades of organizing among workers of color in the Pacific Northwest, yet the images and memory of what happened centered around assertive black bloc protest tactics deployed by a largely white core of activists whose message and goals were painted by media coverage as disorganized and incoherent. This insightful history takes readers beyond the Battle in Seattle and offers a wider view of the organizing campaigns that marked the last half of the twentieth century"--

Book Synopsis

In the fall of 1999, the World Trade Organization (WTO) prepared to hold its biennial Ministerial Conference in Seattle. The event culminated in five days of chaotic political protest that would later be known as the Battle in Seattle. The convergence represented the pinnacle of decades of organizing among workers of color in the Pacific Northwest, yet the images and memory of what happened centered around assertive black bloc protest tactics deployed by a largely white core of activists whose message and goals were painted by media coverage as disorganized and incoherent.

This insightful history takes readers beyond the Battle in Seattle and offers a wider view of the organizing campaigns that marked the last half of the twentieth century. Narrating the rise of multiracial coalition building in the Pacific Northwest from the 1970s to the 1990s, Diana K. Johnson shows how activists from Seattle's Black, Indigenous, Chicano, and Asian American communities traversed racial, regional, and national boundaries to counter racism, economic inequality, and perceptions of invisibility. In a city where more than eighty-five percent of the residents were white, they linked far-flung and historically segregated neighborhoods while also crafting urban-rural, multiregional, and transnational links to other populations of color. The activists at the center of this book challenged economic and racial inequality, the globalization of capitalism, and the white dominance of Seattle itself long before the WTO protest.

Review Quotes

"A rich book [that] rejects the notion that 'identity politics' fractured collective organizing, illustrates ties between civil rights and labor activism, illuminates the evolving challenges of labor unions under neoliberalism, and maps relationships between local, regional, and transnational activist networks. Each of these interventions is important and timely."--Pacific Historical Review

"Deeply engaging. . . . Johnson does a wonderful job of describing Seattle's geography and politics. . . . Those interested in the history of Northwest politics will find much to value here, as will urban historians, labor historians, and anyone interested in the ways working people and people of color have understood and responded to globalization."--Journal of American History

"This well-written, well-researched, superb work undermines attempts to discount the organizing skills of the working and under classes . . . . Highly recommended."--CHOICE