Washington State Activists Go From Protest To Resistance, Block Military Shipments

[babylonsister]

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/139439/index.php

Pacific Northwest anti-war activists up the ante by blocking military shipments to Iraq

by Linda Averill

A new breed of struggle is flowering in the Northwest anti-war movement. Its aim: to stop public ports from being used for export of war materials. Activists in Washington state are evolving from demonstrators and lobbyists into direct actors against the war masters, blocking streets and facing arrest as needed.

This development isn't happening in a vacuum. A product of anger over congressional inaction on the war and repulsion at the militarization of U.S. society, it is also inspired by a rising resistance movement among GIs.

A statement from the Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) puts it this way: "The weapons shipments, and the use of our public property to prolong and supply the war in Iraq, have made us complicit in crimes against humanity. We refuse to be complicit any longer."

The first action took place last year in Olympia, near Fort Lewis. Participants blocked entrance to their port to stop the Army from shipping war materials.

In 2007, activists declared victory when the Army announced it was going elsewhere. The new location turned out to be Tacoma, 30 miles north of Olympia. Students from the nearby University of Puget Sound, military veterans, teachers, a city councilman, and many others quickly sprang into action, aided by organizers of the blockades in Olympia. As Tacoma protester Leah Coakley said, "We will not serve as a pit stop for the war machine."

more...

[shance]

1. That's compassion and courage at its core. Bravo***

n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Bravo to my fellow Washingtonians.

[seemslikeadream]

3. There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious

http://www.glumbert.com/media/tsquare


There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Mf9j8co70&eurl=



There is 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!