Protesters attack McDonald's shop at WTO meeting Updated 8:26 PM ET November 29, 1999 By Chris Stetkiewicz SEATTLE (Reuters) - Protesters struck two icons of global capitalism in downtown Seattle Monday, attacking a McDonald's Corp. restaurant and Niketown store to vent their rage against world trade talks starting here this week.
Several demonstrators, some wearing ski caps, masks and bandannas, smashed windows at the restaurant, while others -- carrying a banner protesting the genetic engineering of food -- jumped on the roof of a city bus.
A short time later the protesters regrouped in front of the Nike Inc. shop, which finally was protected by a wall of riot police in full body armor.
No arrests were reported at either location, although eight people were arrested in two separate incidents on a day filled with protests against the World Trade Organization ministerial talks scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
At the McDonald's restaurant just four blocks from the convention center where the WTO meeting is being held, police cleared customers from the shop and then locked the doors as the protesters surged toward the store.
The demonstrators, part of a crowd of 400 to 500, ripped down advertising placards and pasted their own signs on the outside of the restaurant.
Backed by an armored troop carrier, a line of several dozen riot police stood impassively with their face shields down and batons drawn, as a group of masked protesters, dressed in black from head to toe, screamed profanities at them.
Later some of the same protesters attempted to break into the Niketown store, just a block from the convention center in the heart of Seattle's shopping district. They were blocked by other protesters and finally by riot police who forced demonstrators back with their batons.
The McDonald's incident occurred in conjunction with a speech by French farm leader Jose Bove, who gained fame earlier this year for wrecking a McDonald's in France in a protest against bioengineered food, which he calls "Frankenfoods."
"We don't want to eat any more of that kind of food," Bove said in a brief address to the Seattle crowd. "You've got to throw it in the sea."
At the Niketown store protesters shouted slogans denouncing consumerism.
The incidents were the most raucous so far in the run-up to the WTO talks, although demonstrators vowed to shut down the city Tuesday in a mass protest expected to draw up to 50,000 people.
Courts were closed, some schools let students go home early, and Seattle residents were being warned to avoid the downtown area because of street closures and expected massive traffic jams.
Shops all around downtown posted security guards to ward off demonstrators, who carried signs ranging from "Sea Turtles Say No to the WTO," to "Corporate Rule is No Jewel."
Protesters representing a panoply of causes from labor rights to religious freedom staged several actions throughout the city Monday, some planned and others spontaneous.
In one of the most dramatic, two environmental activists dangled from a nine-story-high construction crane by a busy interstate highway and unfurled a banner accusing the WTO of being anti-democratic.
Six people were arrested for criminal trespassing and reckless endangerment after that incident, Seattle police spokesman David Ellithorpe said.
Police arrested one man and one woman near the city's heavily guarded convention center on charges of assault and obstruction after a group of people tried to serve an "arrest warrant" on WTO officials, Ellithorpe said.
Scores of protesters dressed as sea turtles rallied outside a church to demonstrate against a WTO ruling they said loosened regulations protecting sea turtles.
Others prayed in a show of support for Falun Gong, the embattled Chinese spiritual movement.
Several protesters spray-painted graffiti on a Seattle police car, but the overwhelming majority of demonstrators said they were against any violence or vandalism.
