Port of Olympia: Round Two
On Tuesday November 6 there was a march and rally at the Port of Olympia
against the arrival of the USNS Brittin which came to the port carrying a
cargo of Stryker vehicles and other military supplies and weapons
returning from Iraq. At the rally Iraq War veterans and SDS members Seth
Manzel, and Josh Simpson both gave inspiring speeches as well as members
of Port Militarization Resistance and Peter Bohmer who is a member of
Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace and a former member of the 1960s
Rosa Luxemburg SDS chapter.
The Strykers were from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Stryker Combat
Team which resisters tried to prevent from leaving through the port in May
2006. Since then port actions have occurred in Tacoma and Aberdeen, WA
against military shipments. Most likely, the returning materials will be
shipped out again, even though the last tour of Iraq resulted in 48 deaths
of American soldiers and an unknown number of Iraqi civilian deaths. Also,
a high-ranking official in the US military leaked out that all the
vehicles and weapons aboard the ship are contaminated with depleted
uranium. The presence of the ship and the movement of Strykers act as a
hyper-militarization of an already militarized town.
Wednesday night over 150 people gathered at the Port of Olympia to
demonstrate against the militarization of the port. Demonstrators, both
members of PMR (Port Militarization Resistance) and others, decided to
block the convoys. People sat down in lines to block convoys leaving the
port and cops came in to push them back and assault them. The next several
hours saw similar displays of civil resistance. More cops came onto the
scene. More convoys left the port, running into resistance on many
streets. Several people came close to getting run over by Stryker vehicles
that were traveling at high speed. Small barricades went up as well and a
number of people defended themselves and their community from the cops by
pushing them back. People were chased by cops and in return cops made
fools of themselves by tripping over their own feet, falling down and
being too out of shape to run after and catch up with the evasive
resisters.
Original post by Olympia SDS and reposted by Radical Blogs
