AMY GOODMAN: You are listening to Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!, as we move into the last segment of the show, beginning with a teacher from Northern California named Blase Bonpane, who was arrested, held for five days in jail. He was one of the protesters last week. And when he was in jail, he wrote this letter to his judge.

BLASE BONPANE JR.: Dear Judge Bonner, under oath in your courtroom today, you insulted me, America, the civil rights movement and the current international movement to replace the WTO in which I am a proud organizer and participant. I appeared before you as a jailed activist in favor of alternatives to the undemocratic and unaccountable dominance of the World Trade Organization, the WTO. The WTO is now responsible for overturning democratic decisions made by people all over the world. Prevalent examples of those democratic decisions that have been subverted include decisions made by people of the United States and the European Union, among many, many others. This overturning of democratic decisions is done by threatening sanctions against these countries if they are to implement environmental and labor rights protection laws which their people have determined as necessary. The WTO calls laws like these, quote, “trade barriers,” because they may increase the overhead expense of billionaire corporations like Nike and Exxon.

Your Honor, when I told you that I was a high school teacher in California, you said to the court, quote, “If he’s a high school teacher, he shouldn’t be acting so stupid by protesting.” Your Honor, if it were not for protesters, I have to remind you, you would not be anywhere near the position at the bench from which you currently preside. For one thing, the land under your feet would still be a colony of the kingdom of England. Furthermore, because you are an African American, you and I would not enjoy the long-awaited basic rights of equality that were won by the organizing prowess and the inspiring sacrificial endurance of our civil rights movement here. Your Honor, it seems tragically clear that you would benefit from attending my world history class that we mentioned in court. Doing so can help you avoid the contagious embarrassment stemming from your apparently thorough lack of knowledge regarding the critical role of social and political activists throughout recorded history.

You and, needless to say, the city government of Seattle owe all activists everywhere a deep and comprehensive apology. You might specify in your apology activists such as Thomas Paine, Sojourner Truth, Eugene Debs, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dolores Huerta, Dr. Noam Chomsky and, of course, us, the new international coalition of activists to halt the globalization of corporate colonialism while building toward the globalization of increasingly participatory labor governance and environmental sustainability.

Judge Bonner, I hope to hear from you soon in circumstances which lend themselves more easily toward friendship, whether in my class, which you are welcome to — I gave you the phone number in court — or through a response letter in The Seattle Times. Thank you for your time and consideration. Blase Bonpane Jr.

AMY GOODMAN: Blase Bonpane, a high school teacher from Humboldt, California, who spent five days in the general population of the Seattle jail, where he witnessed, among other things, a 75-year-old protester whose wrists were dripping with blood because her handcuffs were too tight. You are listening to Pacific Radio’s Democracy Now! When we come back, we’ll hear from another teacher, this one from Seattle, as well as his students, who were in the protests on Tuesday. They have some questions for the media. Stay with us.