In November 1999, a collection of 50,000 environmentalists student, anarchists and ordinary members of the public gathered in Seattle, USA, to protest a against a meeting there of the World Trade Organisation. The decomstration began peacefully, but by the end of the day, protestors had smashed shop windows and destroyed propery, the police had fried plastic bullets and gas into the crowd, and a state of civil emergency had been declared. The ”Battle of Seattle” is now seen as the start of a world-wide anti-globalisation movement.