"There is growing concern among citizens around the globe, and an ever-increasing cry to review and repair the WTO before extending its reach," the site says.

The protest site also gives some background, helping to explain, for example, the WTO's role in ongoing trade disputes, such as the US' crippling tariffs on Euro treats like Rocquefort cheese.

"The WTO must be significantly changed if we are to enjoy a society based on human rights, labor rights, and environmental protection around the world," the site says.

The Seattle WTO page -- "mobilization against globalization" -- covers the issues in more detail, as does Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, which asks whether the WTO should stand for Whose Trade Organization?

In typically humorous style, Adbusters charges the WTO with promoting an agenda that has turned the world economy into "an ungoverned casino that may fail any day" and lead to environmental degradation that if unchecked will destroy the planet.

"Oddly, these issues hardly ever come up at these WTO meetings," Adbusters says.

Rather than rely on the "corporate media," Seattle's Independent Media Center is providing "up-to-the-minute, grassroots WTO coverage from Seattle. Coverage is a mixed bag of reports, photos, audio, and video "from the streets."

Likewise, WTO Watch has a number of breaking news reports from the protests, but also a lot of archived material, helping to explain the WTO's role in trade disputes and previous anti-globalization protests like this summer's anti-McDonald's brouhaha by French farmers.

On the other hand, the WTO gives its side of the story at its voluminous Web site, and is Webcasting the Seattle sessions.

More material can be found at the site of the WTO's sister organization, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.