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"The Battle in Seattle - The Story Behind and Beyond
the WTO Demonstrations" by Janet Thomas
"This book is fascinating, informative, and radiant
with compassion."-- JOHN NICHOLS, author of The Milagro
Beanfield War "I found the book
inspirational, thoughtful, highly informative, and full of soul." --
STUART TOWNSEND, writer/director of the film, "The Battle in Seattle." ( www.battleinseattlemovie.com ) "I have no doubt that future historians
will include the Seattle protests as a significant part of the turning point in public awareness of the pernicious effects
of globalization. Thousands of people engaged in serious discussion of globalization's destructive impact on local communities
and ecosystems. Burly longshoreman linked arm in arm with youth dressed in turtle and butterfly costumes and marched together
with peace activists, human rights workers, indigenous people, environmentalists, and anti-poverty groups in an incredible
display of solidarity. Sadly, that wasn't reported. At last, with Thomas' book, we get a serious and inspiring look
at the people and issues that sparked the protests against the WTO in Seattle."
---DAVID SUZUKI, scientist, environmentalist, visionary and author of 30 books, including The Sacred Balance and
Good News for a Change. www.davidsuzuki.org
"Behind the headlines in The Battle in Seattle were an amazing number of people and organizations, each contributing
to a mosaic of reform and environmental sanity that must be adopted if our species is to survive. Janet Thomas creates a breathtaking
vision of issues and people all coalescing in Seattle and demonstrating to the World Trade Organization that people, nor corporations,
must be served. If you want to understand the future, read this book and find out how far into the future we really are."
---VINE DELORIA, JR. (1913-2005), historian, scholar,
politcal scientist, theologian and author of: Custer Died for Your Sins; God Is Red; Red Earth, White Lies; and Evolution, Creationism and Other Modern Myths.
"Humane, authoritative, personal, and engagingly written, this is the real story of the people, events,
and issues behind the Battle of Seattle and N30, the day the most international, inclusive, and potentially powerful social
movement in history announced itself to the world. It is a message of hope and courage--profound proof that ordinary people
can make a difference in the global struggle of life and democracy against the forces of global corporate and financial tyranny.
Read it and rejoice in the power of the awakened human spirit."
---DAVID C. KORTEN, activist, scholar and author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning--From
Empire to Earth Community. "At
the WTO demonstration in Seattle, I felt the dawning of a global ethical society. Arising from the ashes of corporate hegemony
and government complicity and corruption, it links the rights and interests of all beings, human and nonhuman, with a healthy
environment, a healthy economy, and healthy communities. The Battle in Seattle shows us the way." --DR. MICHAEL W. FOX, Veterinarian,
Bioethicist, and author.
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movie? what movie?
my phone rings. people stop me on the street and at the post office. they all congratulate me on the
movie about my book. only problem is, i wasn't involved...... when i first heard about the film, i tried to
do something. but hollywood did not return my calls. jt 8/24/08 it's two days before the film
opens nationwide & i got a nice email from stuart townsend explaining that he was never informed by the producers that
i'd called & that he appreciated the book & had used it in his research. i forgive him everything because we share
celtic blood. i hope the movie does well for him & helps sell lots of books for me. www.battleinseattlemovie.com jt 9/17/08 ok. here's the me 'n stuart townsend email exchange: he said
on 9/17, 7:09 am:
hi Janet,
I have just read your post on the Brad Listi blog. I just
wanted to reach out and let you know that I never knew you had contacted my producers before. I did indeed read your book
and found it inspirational, thoughtful, and highly informative. I spent a year and a half trawling though websites,
documentaries, book, pamphlets - you name it. And I always thought your work was full of soul. I am sorry I never
made contact but I literally wrote this script at home without really knowing how to reach out to the activist community in
America. Since then I have had the good fortune to meet many activists and maybe our paths may cross one day!
Although I wasn't there in 99, when I found the story I felt it was so important to try and make a film about
it that would re-examine an event that most people only vaguely remembered. I hope that the film does create renewed
interest in the debate on all the important issues that people stood up for, and hopefully it brings many people to read your
book. We have created a website
It is a comprehensive site explaining many of the issues in more detail
than a feature film can, in the hope that if people get inspired to learn more about the issues there is a place for them
to go. There is a link section to all the books that were inspirational and educational to me, and "The Battle
In seattle" book is there.
I would also like to say, for what it's worth, I have not made
a single dime in two years because of working on this film. And I will not see a dime from any profits made. Although we are
so Indy there probably won't be any profits anyway. I have done this because I have always wanted to make films, and the
subject of corporate globalization is something that I believe is so important and detrimental to our world.
All the best Stuart Townsend she said on 9/17 at 7:55 am:Dear Stuart,
Thanks so much for your email. I appreciate your appreciation of the book, "Battle." I haven't
made a dime on the book either, and it, too, was a work of dedication, as I knew your film was when I saw it. I thought it
was very interesting that you, an Irish man, saw the importance of such a film and I , a Welsh woman, wrote the book.
Genetically, we must know something about oppression..... Post-911 in the U.S. has created an atmosphere fear & restriction
in which such demonstrations will likely never happen again. It was an event that reached out from the global heart
instead of the global pocketbook......I know you know. I was at the opening of your film at the Seattle Film Festival.
Pissed off, of course. Contacting Mary Aloe & Kirk Shaw was done out of sincere excitement that the movie was being made
& a genuine interest in being useful. I was surprised not to hear back. And sorry you weren't informed. You did a
great job job capturing the activist passion & the complexity of police/personal politics. The cops were in a friggin'
pickle on that one. And I appreciate also that you did not leave out reference to issues. I came away from the film begrudgingly
glad that it was good. (I'm only human.) I will put a link to the movie on www.battleinseattlebook.com & will express my support for the movie whenever I get the opportunity. And I appreciate your support of the book. All best & blessings, too, janet and he said on 9/17 at 8:12 am:yes global
justice and anti-colonialism is in the blood!!! Thanks for your email, and now that you mention Kirk and Mary it all
makes sense. They are no longer our producers as they were bought out. Cheers for the link. Keep writing books!! Stu yep. and you keep making movies.
all good luck with the "Battle" opening. keep your composure. protect your heart. there
are sharks out there everywhere.....and none of them recognize they are part of the problem. j
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"There are two basic rules of consciousness.
Rule number one is that life will out, no matter what. And rule number two is the main rule governing human society: Everyone
wants freedom. And they will eventually get it. No matter what."
-- Ben White,
activist, arborist, author and visionary who conceived and created the WTO Turtles.
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| WTO Seattle was a watershed event for our hopeful, and still committed global civic society. |
One World, One People, One Future
WTO Seattle brought the world together in hope, possibility and conviction. WTO Seattle was a watershed
event. It brought together scholars, students, farmers, union workers, civic leaders, religious leaders, environmental activists,
human rights activists, indigenous people, anti-war groups, anti-poverty groups and all manner of creative, constructive and
concerned people worried about earth and life on earth. They were real people and the issues continue to be all too real.
Everything we are finally facing and talking about today--the economy, the environment, the war, the massive injustice at-large
in the world--was on the streets of WTO Seattle begging to be recognized. Thanks to a corporately blind-folded media, the
most important issues on the planet failed to make news because all time & attention was paid to the one lone burning
garbage container that got coverage over & over & over all over the world.
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"If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark,
and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength
without sight."
--The Reverend Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Nothing could be worse
that the fear that one had given up too soon and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world."
--Jane
Adams, born in 1860, founder of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
"As a result
of the war, corporations have now been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow...until all wealth is
aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed."
--Abraham Lincoln
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from
those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is
spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
--President Dwight
D. Eisenhower
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Please get in touch.
Support your community. Buy the "The Battle in Seattle"
from your neighborhood bookstore.
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