This week, ten years ago, between 50,000 and 100,000 protesters from a wide variety of labor, environmental and global justice organizations descended on the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference being held in Seattle and prevented delegates from reaching the convention hall. This effectively shut down the talks and focused public attention on an undemocratic institution that had previously been little understood. Delegates from more than forty poor African, Caribbean and Latin American nations were united in opposition to their treatment by the wealthy countries and the public outcry allowed them to renegotiate the terms of trade that were being imposed.

On the ten year anniversary, former BBC correspondent Greg Palast sits down with the “Generalissimo of Globalization,” the Director General of the WTO Pascal Lamay, to find out if the institution has learned it’s lessons from this public outcry during the last decade:

To watch a discussion about the actions in Seattle ten years ago from those who were involved see today’s edition of Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.