Tacoma Protesters Arrested for Blocking Military Equipment for Iraq

Seattle, Washington

Port Military
Resistance Protesters Arrested in Tacoma
for Blocking War Equipment

SIGN a statement in support of anti-war resisters at ports of Olympia & Tacoma 

Tacoma, Washington is a
Port city 30 minutes south of Seattle.
The USNS Brittin has been docked at the port and in recent days has unloaded
returning Strykers from the 4th Brigade stationed
at Ft. Lewis. They are unloading large weaponry
to be re-furbished at Ft. Lewis and then sent back to Iraq. Here we
have the murderous tools of war in our midst, the Bush regime is
literally “bringing the war home”. People of conscience see all this
and have pledged to put their bodies literally
in front of the path of these shipments.

The Seattle chapter of WCW joined with the Port
Militarization Resistance, a grouping of regional organizations and individuals
whose aim is to end the war by
resisting military shipments via public infrastructure. Last night Emma and
Rave were part of a group of 5 people who were arrested in an attempt to block
the Strykers. Here is what we’ve learned so far: 

About 20-30 people, most of
them youth, had mobilized to be in Tacoma
yesterday. They had to wait out the army, which was at the Port loading trucks
with weaponry. The police were on the offensive, making it impossible to get
near the Port. Emma said the youth had a spirit of defience and determination,
and that they strategized collectively around the best way to block the trucks.
A group of them went closer the Port entrance and were met by the police. This
kept the cops occupied.

Meanwhile, another crew went
to Fort Lewis (nearby) to the exit they knew the
trucks would come off of. When they got the word that the trucks were coming,
they went out onto the exit ramp and sat down. Emma said the youth were
chanting: “When the people of the world are under attack, what do we do,
stand up, fight back!!”, and “Iraq-get out, Iran-stay out, Bush-Drive
out”. 

The entrance to Ft. Lewis
is next to small military town which is, of course,  hositle to anti-war
proteters. Some guys drove by and yelled “Shoot them!” at the
protesters. Others were coming by and saying, “Why are you blocking them
coming back? You should be protesting the war, not the troops” (We think
they were military guys). The youth were soon surrounded, one woman was thrown
down to the ground face first. They were charged with either Obstructing Police
and Disorderly Conduct. 

The protestors plan to be outside the gates of Ft. Lewis
today (Saturday 8-2-08) in a pre-planned demonstration, and the PMR people will
be back to hook up with them, fill them in on what happned, mobilizing more
people to come down to Tacoma. These actions point up an important point that
was made in the recent WCW Statement calling on people to come to Denver this August to
protest the DNC:  

“What will things look like the
day after the election?  Will people – through their passivity and through
having restricted themselves to mobilizing behind one or the other major
candidate – have legitimized the results of an election that is taking place on
terms inhospitable to the future of the planet?  Will the millions who
want so badly a different future have forfeited this righteous demand on the
altar of “national unity” and an empty promise of “hope”?

Or will there be a pole of
opposition that inspires with its moral clarity and fearless
truth-telling?  An increasingly visible independent political force of
resistance, protest, and acts of conscience that people can join with and
persevere with until this whole direction is brought to a halt?” 

This Port Protest is a reflection of
that pole of opposition that is urgenly needed right now, and people should
learn from and build off of these protests so that they spread, leading
into the DNC protests and beyond. THIS dynamic needs to much
more set the terms of things in the political terrain at this moment.  
 

Here’s to the fearless truth-tellers of the PMR!