It is also possible, although this was not Mercer's intention, to see the limitations of the protest. At the end of the film he says that the linking up of groups and the demand for WTO accountability signify a victory. For a relatively new film, it has rapidly been left behind by events. The recent Summit of the Americas in Quebec, with its accompanying Summit of the People, shows how far the movement has been neutered and even co-opted by the trade union bureaucracy and others. At no point in Mercer's film do we see a thoroughgoing attempt at understanding the phenomenon of globalisation.
Mercer glorifies the confusion under the guise of defending diversity.
The Seattle protests were noteworthy for the relative absence of nationalism and chauvinism, but without the above perspective these sentiments have grown. The film also shows Jim Hoffa tub-thumping at the union bureaucracy's Labor Day rally. For Mercer the image is all-important. She makes matters worse by omitting any reference to the AFL-CIO's demands for economic protectionism such as the call to dump Chinese steel in the harbour. At the discussion session after the screening, Mercer apologised for the number of Democratic Party senators featured in the film.