Olympia Port Militarization Resistance,
Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace
Originally posted at ZNet
by Peter Bohmer; November 15, 2007
“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 upon 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!”
–Mario Savio, the steps of Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley, December 2, 1964
For 10 days, anti-war activists in Olympia, Washington have slowed down and for two different periods of 12 hours or more, stopped the flow of military weapons and military cargo that were unloaded from a Navy ship that had returned from Iraq. For 24 hours a day, we have used a variety of tactics and actions. They have included sitting in front of trucks carrying Stryker vehicles and other military equipment from leaving the Port of Olympia, building barricades on the roads where these military vehicles were traveling, anti-war demonstrations through the streets of Olympia and vigils, downtown. A hearing was held at City Hall, last Sunday, November 11th, 2007 to document the excessive police force used against people who participated in these actions. We testified at the Olympia City Council and at a hearing of the elected Port Commissioners demanding that they take a stand opposing the U.S. war against Iraq by not letting our Port be used to transport war supplies. About 500 people have taken part in some or all of these protests.
To read the full text of this article go to ZNet.
(Peter Bohmer is a former SDSU professor, who worked on the OB Rag newspaper in early 1970s.)
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
NO main stream press about this at all what a shame
It is becoming very apparent that freedom of the press/media is a past right. Strike that one from the Bill of Rights
doesn’t these type of actions turn off more of those people you want to reach? sounds like the union guys were pissed off, the military guys mostly were pissed off, most of the community didn’t support you.
Is this the same Peter Bohmer that was run out of town on a rail? Just kidding. Good to hear that you’re still kicking, Peter, and hopefully this blog will post more of your stuff.
it’s really really important that we support these kind of activities among peace people. what happened to congress? we voted them a majority in 2006, I mean we voted in a majority of democrats so they could bring the war to a close, but they have not been able to do that. so people have to take to the streets all over the US of A. and these street actions is our sister state are right on!