In Seattle 500 people turned out for the SOU protest in the face of a miserable driving rain. The protest was held in front of Fisher plaza – the “Jewel” of the local media and center of large media outlets. WCW won a permit battle with the city to have streets on two sides of the plaza shut down for the protest.
The enthusiasm and determination of the people was amazing, they starting banging on pots and pans before the rally started and throughout the whole event for hours. As the call was put out to bring the noise at the beginning of the SOU – people were shouting, banging and blowing their hearts out on drums, buckets, pots and pans, cowbells, whistles, instruments and lifting their voices in chants and howls. The noise lasted for 20 minutes and then was raised to another level as people banged and drummed along with a hardcore band.
At the end of the song the lead singer growled out a chant joined in by the whole crowd- ‘The World Can’t Wait- Bush Step Down!’ that went on and on. It was like the feeling of people about all the lies, all the spying and torturing and killing, all the ways Bush was raising this daily to another level including with the Alito confirmation, was getting concentrated into people’s hearts and voices, arms and fingers.
The numbers of people turning out were held down due to the horrible weather, but those who did come forward were very significant. There were national academy of science profs, well known clergy, lawyers, members of the NAACP, and disgruntled democrats standing together to demand Bush step down, with youth, anti-war activists and other progressives, poets and musicians, and revolutionaries. It represented a real basis- in terms of having this movement go from being on the cusp, to the next level, to a movement of literally millions.
WCW gathered significant new support- reflected in the speakers; Rich Lang of the Trinity United Methodist Church, a pastor who has been speaking out against the danger of Christian fascism, called on people to reach out and gather support from all sectors of the population.
Gordon Orians – an emeritus professor of biology at the University of Washington and signer of the Union of Concerned Scientists statement criticizing the Bush administration for undermining science exposed the Bushite attacks on science. Larry Hildes from the National Lawyers Guild talked about the danger of fascism and how Bush is undermining the rule of law. Sheley Secrest – President of the NAACP said, ‘Now maybe to some of those cars over here, we sound like we’re just making a lot of noise, but to the NAACP and the others that stand for civil rights and social justice, we know that this noise that we’re making is the sound of freedom ringing, is that right? So even in the rain, all throughout the night, make sure that Bush hears all of us, that he needs to step down and we’ll continue to agitate, continue to make noise, continue to let freedom ring until he hears our message.’
Poet Zeek Green delivered a hilarious and deep poem that had people busting out in laughter ‘So is this it? Is this the time that we finally force change and impose the will of the masses?
Will we or will we not demand an end to this war before another life passes. How loud will you shout, how high can you pump your fist to let this current administration know that a strong domestic opposition does indeed exist. We are the undeniable evidence, we are the presence that no longer can be ignored, and we are here to rock the boat so hard that his entire administration falls overboard’. Other speakers and performers included Paul Loeb, author of “Soul of a Citizen-Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time’, a representative of the Backbone Campaign (for making the Democrats grow a backbone) Bill Moyer, a WCW representative, Seattle RCP spokesperson Terri Allred and other poets and musicians, etc. The drawing together of these forces was an exciting development in varied sections of people coming forward and taking up WCW.
Throughout the night the message was promoted from the stage that it is up to us to stop Bush and drive out his regime, and that the urgency is being increased with each passing day, with each new revelation of spying or lies, with each new move to lock things down in a fascist theocracy for generations to come.
WCW emcee’s and organizers repeatedly put out the call for people to get tickets to fly to DC and hook up to help, that they must become part of WCW by taking fliers and spreading this everywhere they go, by getting on the contact list so they could participate in a myriad of ways, by donating money because without this, this movement can’t be what it must be. People left after standing in the rain for hours soaked and freezing cold, but inspired and uplifted. Just hours after the protest, the Seattle WCW email began getting emails of thanks and inspiration from all kinds of different people, and queries about how to hook up for DC. Connected to building for the protests. Seattle librarians wrote and circulated nationally a draft resolution and letter for librarians to sign ‘Resolution Condemning the Actions of President George W. Bush and Calling for His Immediate Removal or Resignation from Office.’ The letter is gathering support from librarians around the country. In Seattle, the resolution is on the agenda for the next union meeting to vote on endorsing it.
The SOU protest took place and developed in the face of attacks from the state were battled back, and created a basis to generate broader support and outrage. City permit officials and police did not want this thing to happen right smack in front major media, and tried to prevent the protest by denying a permit but were defeated by a multi-pronged campaign involving lawyers jumping in to the assistance of WCW and by mobilization of many people including prominence to demand the city grant the permit.
After the first round the city asked WCW if they could ‘please remove from your website the call for people to call the chief of police’! The permit battle went up right to hours before the protest. WCW lawyers beat back other regulations officials had tried to put into the permit that would have provided a basis for the police to set up and shut down the protest. As certain city officials tried to stop the protest, others, including in the city council were bringing pressure to bear on the police to grant the permit.
Protest spokespeople did a live radio feed to a radio station in Olympia, Washington and other press interviews.
There were also SOU events held in Kingston, Forest Park and other locations.
Seattle, WA Chapter, WCW.ORG