HAVING witnessed the horrific scenes of peaceful demonstrators and journalists being attacked by riot police with tear gas outside the meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle, I felt obliged to write this letter.

Recently, whilst shopping in Lancaster, I saw an information stall where several people were handing out leaflets about the WTO.

These detailed the enormous power that this shadowy, unelected body, representing the interests of big business, has come to have over all our lives in recent years, plus the poverty and environmental damage that they have helped to cause.

Even more disturbing was the way this stall was picketed by a large number of individuals representing the WTO, who were telling people how it was in their interests to live in a global market controlled by multinational corporations.

Am I the only person who felt very angry that these greedy fat cats were in the middle of our town telling unemployed people like myself that we should want to make them richer? They certainly didn't convince me.

Thomas Simon

Keswick Road

Lancaster

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.