New Zealanders tuning into television news on the evening of December 1, 1999, were confronted with images of demonstrators in downtown Seattle breaking windows, vandalizing vehicles, and setting fires. As police sought to control rioters, arresting hundreds of demonstrators, television viewers were informed that the scenes in Seattle were reminiscent of the civil rights and anti-war protests that shook the United States in the 1960s. While American civil rights and anti-war protests were responses to domestic policy initiatives, the demonstrations in Seattle were organised by individuals from numerous countries, united in their suspicion of global free trade agendas.