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There's a great tradition amongst the
world's citizenry that is perhaps best expressed in the words
spoken by the late Berkeley radical Mario Savio. It was during
the Free Speech actions of 1964 that were aimed against the University
of California's repressive administrative dictates against student
and staff political activity that Mario said:
"There's a time when the
operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick
at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively
take part, and you've got to put your bodies on the gears and
upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and
you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the
people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're
free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"
Now, there are many folks around
the world that have felt that the operation of the machine has
been odious for a long time, and there's more of us joining every
day, but there are very few examples of anyone putting their
bodies on any gear. I suggest that is why we find ourselves
in the state we are in today. Too many of us have given up on
stopping the machine from working at all. If there was ever
a better time to awake from our slumber, that time is now. The
litany of death, repression, and exploitation of every form imaginable
has grown too long. As others have started to hint at, the time
for mere protest is over.
In Olympia, Washington, a small town with a sizable number of
citizens that are opposed to Washington DC's wars and other
excesses of the imperial state, there have been a number of actions
that attempted to prevent the loading of ships that were bound
for the battlefields of Iraq. These actions stepped up a notch
or two during the week of May 22-28th, 2006. For those of you
a little thin on US geography, Olympia is at the southern-most
tip of the Puget Sound--the part of the Pacific Ocean that serves
the much larger ports of Seattle and Tacoma. Yet, the Port of
Olympia does a fair amount of cargo business. Given the close
proximity of Fort Lewis, one of the larger US Army bases that
is home to the so-called Stryker Brigade, it has become on e
of the ports used to keep the troops in Iraq supplied with weaponry
and other tools of war, most notably the Stryker Fighting Vehicle
itself..
I used to live in Olympia from 1987 until 1992. During that
time, we organized several protests and direct actions against
the US wars in Central America and the middles East. There were
several other radical impulses growing in town at the time, as
well. Without delving into those, let it suffice to say that
the movement that was built against the first Gulf War in 1991-1992
created enough stability among anti-imperialists and other folks
opposed to war to organize a permanent anti-imperial and anti-racist
group in the town. That group, known as the Olympia Movement
for Justice and Peace (OMJP), dissolved and then reformed after
the events of September 11, 2001. OMJP serves as an umbrella
for many other groups with parallel philosophies. It is one
of these ad hoc groups within OMJP that organized the aforementioned
actions. That group calls itself the Port Militarization Resistance
(PMR).
In a recent statement to the
community and the media, OMJP and PMR spoke about the complicity
of the common citizen. In part, it read :
The weapons shipments, and
the use of our public property to prolong and supply the war
in Iraq have made us complicit in crimes against humanity. We
refuse to be complicit any longer.
We will continue to utilize
every available instrument of democracy, including direct action
and disruption when necessary. We are working to stop the war
machine by standing in front of the machines of war as they attempt
to enter our port.
Just as soldiers have a responsibility
to disobey unlawful orders we have a responsibility to refuse
to cooperate with the American Empire.
In an effort to get the story
from the horse's mouth, so to speak, I sent some questions via
email to the spokespeople for Port Militarization Resistance.
What follows is the exchange between one of the spokespeople,
Drew Hendricks and myself.
Ron: What's going on up
there in Olympia with the convoy blockades? Are the trucks being
blockaded military vehicles? What are they carrying and where
are the materials bound?
Drew: The vehicles being blocked
are a type of combat vehicle known as the Stryker Vehicle. They
are armored vehicles with mounted weapons and they each carry
troops into patrols or battles. Sixteen people (as of Thursday)
have been arrested for blocking the movement of these vehicles,
in various ways, toward the Port and from there to the war in
Iraq.
Ron: Can you give me a brief
history of what came before the current protests? Dis Olympia
invite the supply ships to their port or were they forced on
them by the US government?
Drew: Military shipments
began in 2004, and have continued sporadically since then. So
far, this is the first combat brigade to go OUT through the Port
of Olympia. We have seen tanks and other weapons arriving in
Olympia, but blocking them from re-entering the US seemed to
us to be inappropriate, despite the fact we don't support the
Port profiting from the war.
The Port Commissioners have
been asked if they had invited the military to use our Port,
and they have been quoted in the local corporate newspaper to
the effect that they did solicit the business of the Military.
But I have not seen any memo or document which says this is the
case, and I did not conduct the interview I remember. I'm not
sure I can even cite when it was published
Ron: What kind of support
do you all sense for the current actions? Do you think the current
actions are crystallizing the contradictions of each citizen's
complicity in US imperialism? Or are they just pissing people
off across the board?
Drew: We have certainly angered
many people who do not understand what we are doing, and they
have been vocal about their misconceptions and their anger in
many forums. Some people who do know what we are attempting are
also angry--but I have not heard from any of them directly. No
one I have read so far actually defends Empire. Most are in denial
that we are, in fact, complicit in supporting Empire through
this use of our public property. We have not had any polling
done to see what the average responses would be.
Ron: What kind of charges
are people being arrested on?
Drew: I was arrested at 3:15AM
on Tuesday, May 23rd for Burglary, Second Degree. I was held
for 14 hours in Thurston County Jail and then charged with Trespassing,
Second Degree. I was released on personal recognizance until
trial. I have not yet received my court date. Most others have
been arrested by OPD (Olympia Police department) or Thurston
County Sheriff's Department in the streets outside of the Port's
marine terminal, and were held for a few hours. Some were not
charged, and some were detained and released at the scene. Most
arrests have been for pedestrian interference.
Ron: These attempts to actually prevent material support to
the US war reminds me of similar actions during the US wars
on Vietnam and Central America. The Vietnam Day Committee troop
train blockades in the East Bay, the attempts to block trains
in San Diego that Olympia resident Peter Bohmer was involved
in, and the train blockades during the US wars in Central America
that resulted in Brian Willson losing his legs are the examples
I recall the easiest. Do you think that these actions in Olympia
can move beyond the primarily symbolic affect of the aforementioned
acts?
Drew: We have not been destroying
the crated material, damaging the combat vehicles, or dumping
the cranes into the Sound, so the protests are likely to remain
symbolic. The only way I can see the actions move beyond that
symbolic effect is if they are emulated all across the country
and we start to have a national conversation about what we are
doing locally to stop the war in Iraq.
Ron: If so, how?
Drew: The only way I can see
the actions move beyond that symbolic effect is if they are emulated
all across the country and we start to have a national conversation
about what we are doing locally to stop the war in Iraq.
Ron: How long do the groups organizing these actions intend
for them to last?
Drew: As long as we draw breath
and the military occupies our port. We have only so far planned
for the next day. Each day, we change tactics slightly. Each
day we brainstorm new ways to make this work better.
Ron: Anything else?
Drew: We're considering how
to resist the arrival of a ship. We're frightened of the possibility
that the Coast Guard will shoot us. We're trying to figure out
how to accomplish one without the other.
(Before I sent this article
out, I received a short missive from a young woman named
Rosaire. The message was sent to me via Sandy Mayes, one of
the members of the collective that publishes Olympia's monthly
alternaitve newspaper, Works In Progress. Her message
provides another view on the nature of the protests and the response
from Olympia's citizens.)
Rosaire: Hi Ron, I only have
a few things to add to Drew's comments. I would like to add that
the response from the majority of people has been positive. Throughout
this campaign many people have gathered at intersections - myself
one of them - with signs protesting the war. The support from
drivers has been very supportive. There are a few middle fingers
and "get a job"s, but they are few compared to the
number of thumbs-up and two-fingered peace signs. Also, I have
a few words to say about the symbolic nature of the civil disobedience.
I agree with Drew, that if this is going to be effective in the
terms of actual stoppage, that more people throughout the country
need to be doing these actions, but I would also add that we
need to draw in more from the Olympia community too. Right now,
these activities are being done by a handful of very dedicated
people, and for the most part, the arrest have been completely
spontaneous - which can be both good and bad. We don't just need
more actions, but must also improve on the quality of our actions
- both in the terms of numbers and forethought. For those reasons,
I think it is a bit fanciful to view the main objective of these
actions as stoppage, and judge it as such. Currently, that goal
just is not possible. Instead, I think we ought to view the main
objective of these actions as inspiration to others - as a shot
hear around the world, or at least in our community. We are setting
an example that others can mimic, draw from, and improve on.
Judged in those terms, I think we are being, and will continue
to be, quite successful.
Ron: Thanks a lot and keep
up the good work. May there be many more such actions across
the country.
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