Success in Olympia
There’s a must-read story by Peter Bohmer about 10 day civil disobedience action in Olympia, Washington, in which people were able to blockade military equipment from Iraq that was loading off of a ship (to be repaired and returned to Iraq). It had was a big success on many fronts, rubber bullets and pepper spray notwithstanding. Check this out:
Tuesday, November 13th will be a day long remembered by many in Olympia. In the morning about 20 people sat down at the Port entrance blocking military equipment from moving. For 13 hours no military equipment moved out of the Port. Hence, for a minimum of 30 hours, we stopped Stryker vehicles from returning to Ft. Lewis, a major action and statement. In the evening about 200 people gathered at the Port of Olympia entrance to resist by various and complementary means the war and the militarization of Olympia. In the midst of this action, a GI from Ft. Lewis who was supposed to be involved in the transport of these military vehicles to Ft. Lewis, walked out of the Port, saying he was against the war and refused to transport the war equipment. This was a really powerful action and reminded me of the increasing resistance to the Vietnam war by active duty soldiers. Civilian anti-war and GI cooperation and solidarity is a key to ending this war. This is a victory for the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance organization (PMR) and the anti-war movement as a whole.
Refreshing news for a change, dontcha think?
November 17th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
This is something we need more of. Somewhere, somehow, we need to work with people within the military. My hunch is the majority of ordinary folks making up our armed forces are against this occupation and do not want to be sacrificed for it.
Derrick Jensen talked about the WTO/World Bank resistance and said why don’t we get the cops to turn and point their guns, batons, etc. to those in the meetings. Because the cops have more in common with the protestors than they do with those making economic policy decisions. Well, not all of them. But is there something we’re missing here?
We on the anti-war movement have a lot more in common with service men and women than we think: We’re both at the whims of power: They with the military brass and us with the government. I think this is a strectch by all accounts but if you heard Derrick Jensen talk about this it would make more sense to you all. I can only describe what I remember.