In the months leading up to the November 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, many groups in what would come to be known as the anti-globalization movement decided, in loose coordination, to hold massive demonstrations in the streets of Seattle during the WTO meetings. This included groups from the Seattle area and elsewhere in the United States and abroad. The groups involved ranged from organized labor to student groups to religiously-based groups to anarchist groups.
The announced intent of many, perhaps most, of the protesting groups was to perform civil disobedience by filling the streets and sidewalks of the area around the Paramount Theater and the Washington State Convention Center, where the WTO meeting was to be held, so thoroughly as to make it impossible for the delegates to reach the convention. The organizing was highly decentralized, based mainly on affinity groups.
Certain groups, perhaps most notably some mostly young anarchists from Eugene, Oregon, advocated more confrontational direct action tactics going beyond civil disobedience, including deliberate vandalism of properties in downtown Seattle owned by multinational corporations, such as Oregon-based Nike, Seattle-based Starbucks, various banks, etc.
The coalition was loose and broad, based more on opposition to "free trade" policies than support for any one political position, but there was a general consensus among the protestors that the WTO favors the rich and the corporations over the general populace of the world's many countries and, in particular, that its policies are destroying the lives of people in third world countries. Many would also hold the position that the WTO make the lives of the average American miserable, by undermining popular sovereignty and/or by providing organizational support for corporate backroom deals that are unfavorable to the average United States citizen.
The scale of the demonstrations - even the lowest estimates put the crowd at over 40,000 - dwarfed any previous demonstration against a world meeting of any of the organizations generally associated with corporate-dominated globalization (e.g. the WTO, the IMF, or the World Bank).
February 1999. Anarchists conferenced inside a Oregon coffeehouse "Out of the Fog" and discused the situation about the WTO. It was determined by those in the coffeehouse that the WTO was doing a lot of harm, and they had to protest against the WTO. Anarchists along with other activists made plans to appear at the next WTO meeting.
June 18, 1999. A riot breaks out in Oregon. Methods were practiced by many would be protestors such as Anarchist Simple Street Fighting.
November 30, 1999. A riot breaks out in Seattle, Washington. Seattle Mayor Paul Schell imposes a curfew of dubious legality. Businesses lost approximately 9 to 18 million in sales, and suffered 2 to 3 million dollars in property damage. Over 600 people were arrested, although virtually all of these people were later acquitted due to inappropriate police procedure during the arrests. There were further losses in tourism due to damaged reputation, and/or public apphrension in living or visiting Seattle.
The conclusion by many in Seattle was that the WTO convention was not worth hosting due to the economic damage caused by civil disobedience and outright criminal activity. Long-term impacts of the rioting on WTO policies remained decidedly unclear, and it is an open question whether the WTO's actions since that time have been influenced significantly by these events.