Anonymity & Gender in Peaceful and Violent Protest

The media coverage that ensued during the World Trade Organization Protests largely focused on the violent protests carried out by “masked Anarchists from Eugene”. Accompanied by this were also claims that the majority of the rioters were young and male. Although arrest records were official suppressed and eventually deleted after a lawsuit was filed by protesters during the legal battle that followed the protests, many sources debunk these claims and open up an interesting discussion about gender in relation to violent and anonymous protest¹.

It is first important to understand that a variety of tactics were used by protesters during the World Trade Organization conference, most of which could largely be considered non-violent. Each group had a very specific goal and means of carrying out said objective. While the largely decentralized Direct Action Network (DAN) desired to use non-violent obstructionist tactics to shut down the conference altogether², the more hierarchical and structured American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) desired to steer the direction of the conference in a light favorable to protectionist policy in favor of US workers. Arguably the most conventionally peaceful forms of protest were the rallies and marches held by the AFL-CIO and other more conventional groups that worked directly with city authorities to coordinate routes and permitted spaces³. These forms of protest did not directly challenge the authority of the city or the WTO, but attempted to sway opinion in an indirect way. A blended approach was taken by DAN, who went as far as chasing delegates away from the conference center and physically preventing delegates from entering the conference center⁴. These groups not only directly confronted and in some cases attacked delegates, but also directly confronted police and national guard during the protests, often times engaging in scuffles and shoving that resulted in the police using chemical weapons and brute force against protesters to clear paths or disperse them. The use of violence by city and state security forces against unarmed protesters is one that often jars a gendered perspective and understanding of violence in one's mind. While violence is traditionally associated with masculinity and peace is traditionally associated with femininity, the imposition of force upon non-violent protesters by police clad in riot gear using tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray can be viewed as a physical attack by masculinity on feminine values. This analysis is deepened when the goals of many of the protesters are brought into perspective. One of the main concerns of the protesters was environmental rights as the WTO had become infamous for its support for policies that many environmentalists and activists alike had deemed destructive⁵. The maternalization and feminitization of the planet, so often in these circles depicted as Mother Earth, was central to the arguments of many activists involved in the WTO protests whether they used non-violent or violent tactics.

While many of these non-violent protesters chose transparency of identity, a group of protesters that deemed property destruction as a viable form of resistance chose anonymity as a more secure way to participate in their selected form of protest. In this regard, this group transcended the association of violence with masculinity. According to an article published in Salon during the aftermath of the protests, women made up some of the most vocal and violent organizers of the black bloc that chose property destruction as its primary tactic⁶. These women had been radicalized in earlier interactions with authority involving logging in the state of Washington and believed that violence was an acceptable form to combat the destruction of Mother Earth. The degendering of violence is a central point to the perspective of those that participated in the black bloc as it allowed two important things to occur. Firstly, and indirectly, it allowed for the removal of gender roles during the protest. No expectations or limitations, in theory, would be imposed on any protester who's gender was not easily determined, thus making all black clad protesters potentially more imposing, formidable, and respectable. Secondly, and more to the point, the blacking out of identity was used more for security than anything else, however it is important to note that this also played into the empowerment of degendering as it meant that protesters using this tactic could not necessarily be targeted specifically for their gender.

While the arrest records were deleted to help protect the identity of those wrongfully arrested during the protests, much evidence remains that the protesters using both violent and non-violent tactics were as diverse in gender as they were in their methods. Indeed, it should also be considered that the understanding of violence varies from individuals to individual. While evidence does show that some non-violent protesters were discontented by the actions of those that participated in property destruction⁷, the contrary also can be proven. A mutual respect for methods of resistance, both violent and non-violent, was present on both sides, as can be seen from interviews and the sheer number of individuals who shifted focus from the AFL-CIO permitted labor march, to the non-permitted DAN activities that surrounded the convention center and were successful at shutting the first day of the conference down⁸.

¹ - Kauffman, LA. "Who were those masked anarchists in Seattle?" Salon. December 10, 1999. Accessed December 05, 2017. https://www.salon.com/1999/12/10/anarchists/.

² - Arquilla, John and David Ronfeldt. Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2001 pg 2

³ - Ibid, pg 3

⁴ - Unknown. "N30: The Seattle WTO Protests: A Memoir and Analysis, With An Eye To The Future." 2006

⁵ - Ibid

⁶ - Kauffman, LA. "Who were those masked anarchists in Seattle?" Salon. December 10, 1999. Accessed December 05, 2017. https://www.salon.com/1999/12/10/anarchists/.

⁷ - Tizon, Alex. "A Look At WTO Week." Seattle Times, December 5, 1999.

⁸ - Seattle Police Department: The Seattle Police Department After Action Report: World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference Seattle, Washington November 29 – December 3, 1999.