In workplace lunchrooms, in university cafeterias, in coffee shops, and at kitchen tables across the country, people have been excitedly discussing "the battle of Seattle".
Fifty thousand people of conscience, as one newspaper referred to the demonstrators, shut down the opening sessions of the World Trade Organization.
In doing so they brought hope for the future, and an understanding that ordinary workers and students can fight back against their own governments, and the win one against the corporations.
Suddenly the world was a different place.
A Steelworker friend was there. He is originally from Britain, and was active in the sixties; he called home to his wife and said, "Sweetie, it was just like Paris in 1968!"
This was a recurrent theme in newscasts. Not since the mass demonstrations against the Viet Nam war had Americans seen this type of protest against their government.
A Seattle resident was quoted as saying, "The WTO will be the Viet Nam of this generation".
Young people from the US and Canada traveled to the city to express their outrage at the machinations of world governments.
The vehemence directed at the corporations was unmistakable and an anti-capitalist mood was everywhere. The bitterness and anger that has been bubbling beneath the surface for years finally exploded in the US, and it was met with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets.
Just as in Chicago in 1968 at the Democratic Party national convention, the chant went up, "The whole world is watching".
The demonstrations were being viewed across the globe, and because they were taking place in "the heart of the beast", it was a defining moment in the struggle against world capitalism.
The participants were not only youth. A demonstration of over twenty-thousand trade unionists was a major feature of the Tuesday actions. Some 900 Machinists from Boeing provided the marshals, and over 1,000 Steelworkers from Canada and the US traveled to Seattle for the events.
George Becker, the president of the United Steelworkers, put out a release that I have to quote at length: "all of us were excited by the young people here -- by their enthusiasm and their energy, but mostly by their dedication and their creativity.
"They were environmentalists, human rights activists and persons of conscience. And it was clear they were very comfortable with us. It was common for them to applaud us on our marches.
"Quite a few of our activists reported walking through town and encountering them on the streets, handcuffed together blocking pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
"Are you Steelworkers?", they asked.
"Yes, we're Steelworkers," our members responded.
"That's the password, you can go through," they replied.
"Oh, how we would like to enlist them in our organizing efforts!
"The tens of thousands of activists who came here to Seattle know the issues. All who are leaving here are determined that the activist spirit in Seattle is not over, but just beginning."
The impact of Seattle on this labour leader, the push from below to continue the fight, was clear from these remarks. It's now up to the membership to keep up the pressure.
There is an anti-capitalist mood that is finding expression, and not just in Seattle.
In a letter to the Toronto Star a suburban mother talked about her 14-year-old son spending Friday nights at a "big box" book store with his friends, arguing about the relative merits of communism and capitalism.
Something is happening, and Seattle is just an indication of the mood that is there.
We don't have a crystal ball, but there is no doubt that the attacks from the corporations will not stop, and continued class struggle is on the agenda.