Bob Kolasky is the managing editor of IntellectualCapital.com. His e-mail address is bob@voxcap.com

SEATTLE, Dec. 1 -- Amidst images of a war zone, Seattle awoke this morning with the odor of tear gas lingering in the air. The National Guard, called out by Governor Gary Locke (D), patrolled the streets last night. A citywide curfew had been declared at 7 pm to combat what Seattle Mayor Paul Schell called a state of "civil emergency." The detritus of vandalism is strewn across downtown streets. On Tuesday, the "Battle in Seattle" turned very real -- and very ugly.

The images are stark: A shut-down Starbucks, with its front windows kicked in. A battered and tossed USA Today vending machine. A massively vandalized Nike Town superstore, with "F*** Nike" spray painted on its display window. Three American corporate success stories, at least for a day, defeated yesterday by those who oppose American consumerism.

For the most adamant protesters in Seattle this week, what they are fighting is not just the World Trade Organization (WTO), they are fighting the very capitalism that has overtaken the world. And, at least for today, they succeeded.

"No one in"

I was in Seattle in January of this year when Gov. Gary Locke (D) announced to the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce that the WTO had decided to host the launch of its Millennium talks in Seattle. The room -- filled with prominent Seattle business leader -- applauded heartily. What a signal to the world: Seattle would be seen as America's trade capital; plus local businesses would undoubtedly reap the tourist revenue from the thousands of delegates and members of the media that flocked to the Northwest. Think again. I guarantee you that downtown Seattle businesses would just as soon have had the trade group go somewhere else, anywhere else.

Tuesday was to have been the launch of the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle. It was to have been a day for the leaders of the world's governments to begin the considerable haggling still necessary to ensure that the Millennium Round talks would actually launch as scheduled. Instead, it was a day that was carried by those who would have the WTO eliminated -- most of the talks were postponed, because many of the delegates to the conference could not even get into the Seattle Trade Center.

Alternatively violent and peaceful, festive and foreboding, the streets of downtown Seattle were hijacked by thousands of globalization protestors. Their main protest technique: human chains blocking access into the official events of the WTO. Amidst chants of "no one out, no one in," delegates were forcibly restrained from going forward with their business.

Most of the delegates were visibly perplexed -- this was certainly not what they expected -- and a few were actually angry. "I don't understand why this is going on," a delegate from Colombia told me. "This is completely ridiculous." This is a "big mistake," said a representative from Australia. (Like most of the people involved today, neither one of them was forthcoming with their name.) Both of them realized that they were not going to get much accomplished today.

Courage or stupidity

Perhaps, therefore, it was no surprise that things eventually turned ugly. In attempting to maintain a semblance of control, the Seattle police resorted to crowd dispersement tactics, and, almost inevitably, those tactics led to violent conflicts. The police used a tear-gas like substance and rubber bullets to try and control the defiant crowd. All the familiar scenes from a riot played out -- vandalism, brushfires, cries of "medic," physical confrontations. It was quite frightening and at times surreal, although at no time did the situation escalate to full chaos.

The protestors were not to be stopped, however. "We know it's going to get ugly," admitted a young women from New Hampshire. "We know some of us are going to get arrested and hurt, but we are prepared to do so to send a message."

"These kids have courage," said Maria Caine, one of the protestors. "Global trade has gone on for far too long, we're here to stop it." Whether it was courage or stupidity many of the protestors were obviously willing to go to great lengths to get their point through. More than a dozen individuals were sent to local hospitals; dozens of protestors were arrested. I sat and watched as a group of young women -- not one of who looked older than 25 -- with tears in their eye, and obviously in pain because of the tear gas, made the decision to march right back toward the police despite the fact that those very same police had just fired tear-gas and rubber bullets at them.

"We came in peace," said Brian Allen, a spokesperson for the Independent Media Center just minutes after he had been gassed, and "we came to make a point."

Others, however, did not come in peace. The most dismaying scenes of the day were a rowdy group of a dozen or so young adults clad in black who ran through town breaking store windows and knocking down newspaper kiosks. Despite protestations for the group to use "no-violence" they were clearly interested only in causing complete anarchy.

What is the message?

It is that radical image that many WTO critics had hoped to avoid in Seattle, but it is that image that might well linger. Ultimately, the extreme fringe of WTO protestations carried the day. Most of the exuberant protestors were young adults and college-aged children -- many of whom were hard to take seriously. Was this a political rally or simply 1960s nostalgia?

Undoubtedly, there was a point made by the protestors, but it was not a point that some of the more mainstream critics of the WTO had hoped to make. Tuesday, the talk about how to reform the WTO to help labor and the environment was overshadowed by people who want to "kill the WTO" and calls of "go to hell" to anyone wearing a suit.

That message might do more harm than good. It is unlikely to be heard by the American government or the American people. Fighting to reform the WTO is one thing; fighting capitalism and consumerism is another. Despite the "victory" Tuesday, the radical protestors have to understand that those fights were long ago lost. And their actions in the streets of Seattle are not going to change that.

For more on the Battle in Seattle, visit VoxCap.com's Globalization Action Center.