Battle in Seattle - Do protests have to be violent to be effective?

Stop Globalization! Protest the WTO!

Battle in Seattle is a new movie about the 1999 WTO protest against globalization. This film stars Woody Harrelson, Ray Liotta, and Charlize Theron.

Almost ten years ago, the mainstream media covered the protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO), but only the people who were there actually know what happened.

The average citizen still doesn't know how big the rallies were, or even what the 40,000 demonstrators were protesting. Sadly, most North Americans still have no idea what the WTO is really doing to the world....

The 1999 protest called for an end to globalization, the system of global free trade that's destroying this planet's environment and indigenous cultures in order to feed the markets of modern consumerism.

Battle in Seattle is a new age ideological war story that details a clash of ideals that brings the population into conflict with authority. In this way these protests are similar to other movements and communism and socialism in pre World War II Europe. Our perfect democracy is not so perfect and this is the voice of change. This movie is loosely based on the documentary, which covers the same subject, entitled, This Is What Democracy Looks Like.

Unfortunately in Seattle, the protests quickly turned violent and chaos enveloped the 1999 WTO conference. There's no question that the protesters had the right to protest, however, was so much destruction really necessary?

Battle in Seattle was written and directed by Stuart Townsend and stars Woody Harrelson as a tough cop (Dale), Martin Henderson as a protest leader (Jay), Ray Liotta as the mayor of Seattle (Jim Tobin), Connie Nielsen as news reporter (Jean Asbury), Rade Serbedzija (Dr. Maric), Jennifer Carpenter (Sam) and Charlize Theron as a pregnant retail store clerk (Ella).