Then came the anti-WTO eruption in Seattle. The campaign of police violence hit not only young anarchists but also the steelworkers beside them, and USWA was prominent in the vigils and rallies against cop brutality that followed. Over the next months, the solidarity and spiritedness of the WTO protests had a dynamic effect on the organizing against the lockout. Family members, other unionists, students, retirees, environmentalists, feminists and leftists all joined with them in bedding down on the marble floors. The idea was initially endorsed by two of the state's largest central labor councils.
Officials drag on the reins.
But then labor leaders got cold feet. Perhaps they were loath to be part of high-profile protests that would embarrass Democrats in a hotly contested election year. In any case, USWA authorities unilaterally cancelled the planned events, a move that the head of the Pierce County Labor Council rationalized with a nasty public attack on anarchists as dangerous and untrustworthy. Those labor misleaders whose outlook is narrow find common ground with conservative eco-leaders. What they don't acknowledge is that the problem is really the profit system as a whole.