WEBVTT - Port Militarization Resistance 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:06.480 All right, welcome to it could happen here a podcast 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:11.160 about things falling apart and also sometimes about how things 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:15.960 have been falling apart for a while now. And today 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:20.360 we're gonna talk about how things were also bad in 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.400 falling apart in the two thousands, which a profoundly cursed 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:27.920 time period. And specifically we're going to talk about I 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.320 think a part of the anti war movement that does 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:34.159 not get much attention, um, which is the port militarization 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:39.320 resistance that happened sort of two seven And with us 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:43.000 today to talk about this is two people who were 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:48.160 part of this movement if Juliana Newhouser, hello, and Brendan 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:52.640 Maslaska's done, Yeah, both of whom were organizers and activists 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.440 while this was going on. Yeah, and I thank thank you, 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.800 thank you both for being here. Yeah, thanks for having 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.520 us so. Yeah. As I was saying a bit in 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:03.400 the intro, I think that this is a part of 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.559 the anti war movement that is not very well known. 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.160 I think I think a lot of people know about 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.800 the initial stuff happened in twos three, and people might 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:15.679 know about some of the stuff that was happening against 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:19.399 the war in Afghanistan, but right when it started. But 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.200 I don't think most people know that it, like you know, 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.240 even after jails and three sort of doesn't work, that 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.960 it continues and it continues sort of informs that are 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.160 that are very interesting. And so I guess I want 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:35.920 you to to start out. I want to ask how 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:40.080 we sort of got from the early part of the 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.000 anti war movement into this and how you got involved. 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.320 I would say that there's this narrative about the women 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.120 against the word Iraq, that there is the largest protests 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.520 in human history, at least at that point. I don't 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.160 know if it's still true against the invasion, and then 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:01.440 it didn't work and everyone kind of went home and 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:06.600 ended there, and to a certain extent that's true, but 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.720 like you said, the people that didn't go home went 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:14.560 an interesting direction. And UM, so at the time there 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:20.080 were direct action was not as acceptable as it is now. 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.600 The protest this movement was largely dominated either by UM 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:31.480 big liberal coalitions or PSL front groups that were basically 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.239 indistinguishable and what they actually did, which was basically nothing 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.799 and in the best of cases and then the worst 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:45.959 of cases, counterinsurgency. UM. But then there were small groups 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:50.680 of people that at when we saw that it didn't work, 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:56.280 and we saw that these giant, peaceful marches from one 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:00.000 part of town to another, um or voting for John 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.079 Carry or whatever, it didn't work, that we started to 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:09.200 look for other options. Yeah, and uh, you know, I 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.160 got involved. Um you know, I'd say, what the anti 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:17.000 war movement, That idea of how how war is unjust 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.919 was really talked to me from a very young age. 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.440 I mean my parents were you know, children of the sixties, 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:29.760 and they had family members fighting in Vietnam and um, 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.040 you know, friends dying in Vietnam and we're against the 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.840 protests back then. So I grew up hearing these stories 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.320 and of course stories from family members, particularly one of 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.720 my grandfather's, both of them who were veterans in World 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.920 War Two. One of them was a marine and the 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.880 you know, in the Pacific Theater and still into his seventies, 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.080 eighties and nineties until his final days, was just dealing 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.080 with horrific PTSD and had always taught me from a 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.160 young age never to get involved. So I, you know, 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.240 and I remember when when the very clearly, um you know, 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:04.640 I'm sure it's on everyone's minds now, and when the 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.360 invasion of Afghanistan started, when the invasion of a Rock started. 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.640 I was at that that massive demonstration in Washington, d C. 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:17.200 That Julianna just mentioned, and you know I ended up. 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.720 I'm from Utica, New York. I went to a rural 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:25.279 high school, uh just outside of of Utica, you know, 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:29.520 russ Bell generally speaking, impoverished and also very conservative area 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.200 of New York. And you know, I had the recruiters 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:39.080 bothering me, military recruiters in high school, recruiting my friends, 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:43.400 and they were just everywhere in the hallways. Uh So 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.880 it was very present um with me. When I was younger, 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.440 I moved out to Olympia, Washington, two thousand six, and 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:55.720 that's one a new student activist group, Students for a 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.520 Democratic Society, was launched. That's how Julianna and I first met. 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:03.600 We were both in separate chapters of that new organization 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:10.640 in the Pacific Northwest. And the port protests started just 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:12.800 just a few months after I moved out there in 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.560 in Olympia in two thousand six. So wait to declare 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:18.200 for this for a second, because I've never quite been 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.400 clear on this history. So there was a second st 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.120 like Students for Democratic idea that was like unrelated to 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:30.400 the first one. Yeah, they're born briefly um at the 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.280 end of the bushop Manastery. That that explains a lot 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:38.000 of things that it's very baffling. We're not that old. Yeah, 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.000 we're definitely in the in the second uh, you know, 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.240 the rebirth of it um. So you know, I think 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.279 it it took on some things in spirit um you know, 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:50.600 but also was i'd say different in many ways, and 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:52.760 it was very active to me at least, it was 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.440 very exciting to be a member of the new STS 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.800 because they're over a dozen chapters in the Pacific Northwest 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.880 and was a great way to connect with young activists 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.599 all over the US. So STS is emerging in this 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:08.960 time period. One of the other things I was interested 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:11.320 about is something someone you were talking about in in 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.160 in the early part of this, which has to do 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:17.080 with the way that these giants both the sort of 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.479 Answer Coalition PSL Frank Group and I guess the I 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.479 s O was still around back then coalitions work versus 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:27.440 how like anything else worked. So so what was was 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:31.280 STS sort of like consciously set up and in opposition 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.440 to those groups. I don't think it was conscious, but 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.720 there was just like I mean, these days, I mean 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.760 like there's a lot of controversy around PSL with like 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:44.000 anarchist versus tanky politics. None of that mattered at that time, Like, 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:45.920 none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:50.799 the answer, which is the PSO Front group was completely 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:56.560 fucking useless. Like they completely indistinguishable from any peace police 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:02.000 um liberal democratic front group. There was literally no difference, 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.360 just in terms of their aesthetics maybe like is there 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.960 a donkey or a hammer and sickle on something. That's 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.320 the only difference we saw. So I don't I don't 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:14.000 think there was. It wasn't There wasn't like a conscious 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:19.080 like political opposite attention to it. It's just like they're 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:23.080 not doing anything, and and so we had to look 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.920 in another direction. Actually, you know, it's hard to keep 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:30.400 track of the alphabet soup of authilitarian communist groups at times, 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.280 but this was actually answer for those who don't recall 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.040 it was a front group for the Workers World Party, 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.040 the WWT, which yeah, I mean, it's it's hard to 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:43.560 keep track, right, Yeah, that's the same thing, like I think, 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:45.360 so so okay, So for people who are sort of 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:49.040 unaware of this, there's a network of connected but sometimes 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:53.360 feuding like weird stalonist cults that kind of kind of 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.400 like they hold on through the eighties and nineties and 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.400 they start sort of rebuilding again around the anti one 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:01.600 movements in that period. That that's the PSLs of the 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:06.600 DUP's answer, like, and I think that's like most like 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:10.440 modern anti war groups are also still these people, which 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.200 is incredibly depressing something they want to talk a bit 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.360 about it towards the end of this, but yet just 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:20.600 for people who have not spent the last half decade 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:27.160 in the in the trenches of extremely weird anti war politics. So, yeah, 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:32.040 so I think we should get into how the sort 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:39.880 of the first action starts in Olympia. Yeah so, and 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:43.359 there were actually a couple of actions that happened um 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.840 in the year proceeding that, you know, before I moved 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:47.960 out to Olympia in two thousand and six, it was 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:53.400 not yet under the banner of PMR port Militarization Resistance. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:59.360 That was a name that was officially coined in uh, 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:03.960 you know, and in May and June of two thousand six. So, 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.480 just to give you an idea, Olympia, it's it's a 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.319 college town or at the Evergreen State Colleges there. It's 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.640 also the capital of Washington State, so you have that 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.520 going on. It's also a military town. It's a little 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.840 over twenty miles south of what we called Fort Lewis. 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.640 It's now called j B l M. J BLOM or 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.800 Joint Base Lewis McCord. It's an Army and Air Force 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:28.320 base now it's one base. Um So, yet all these 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.640 you know, different kind of elements, uh in you know, 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:36.160 in tandem in in that town and the public port. 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.720 The Port of Olympia is one of about seventy years 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.800 so public ports in the state of Washington, some of 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.480 which are I mean, they're used for all kinds of things, 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:50.559 you know, for commercial, private industry, but also the military 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:53.920 and the US government. Uh So, uh you know, I 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.080 heard from someone I don't even remember who that the 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.760 military was sending a ship to the Port of Olympia 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.920 in late May of two thousand six. And this happened 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.400 for ten or so days, and it was just kind 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.959 of a natural instinct for a whole bunch of us 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.720 to go down to the Port of Olympia. It was 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.280 it was the war machine in our backyard. And the 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.400 idea was to just block the vehicles. It started out 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:28.840 with just like less than ten people number folks getting arrested, 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:34.000 and that very rapidly culminated into larger protests. Every single 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:38.439 day um AN active blockades people, those of us like 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:42.280 Julian and myself and other folks using civil disobedience or 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.440 what we prefer to call civil resistance to try and 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.319 stop or at the very least slow down these striker 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:50.959 vehicles and to give folks an idea of what a 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.880 striker vehicle is. You can look it up online, but 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:58.800 it's kind of halfway between um, you know, a tank 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.000 and humby. It doesn't have the slats you know that 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.640 a tank would have. It's you know. And they were 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.760 being used in both Iraq and Afghanistan for for raids 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.720 of residential areas. They were really on the front lines 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.840 of the war in in both those countries, and that's 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.360 what we were trying to stop. I only got involved 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.480 later um because I wasn't living in Olympia at the time. 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.480 UM I was in another STS chapter, but my roommate 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.440 was from Olympia and he had been involved in that 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:33.920 first round of protests in Olympia before moving up to Ballingham. 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.440 And so like hearing his story, it's got me very 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:42.440 excited because just like finally someone's someone's doing something like 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:46.560 someone's they're not just like you know, it's like everything 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:52.520 else was just so liberal. Take whether it's marching from 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.480 one place to another or writing to your congress people 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.000 or occupying their office. It was like asking someone else 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.840 to do something which you knew from the beginning they 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:07.280 were never going to do. And finally this was finally 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:11.560 someone was like actually getting into it. UM. I think 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.760 the first one of the things that happened here was 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:22.880 that um they started to avoid UM. There's it was 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.600 kind of a geographical thing. I think, UM for people 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:31.120 who either don't know Washington Washington, or because they're normal 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:35.640 people don't know like the port areas of these cities 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.800 very well because it's like like unless you're a long sherman, like, 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:40.960 why you would you go down to like the port 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:48.640 of Tacoma. There's nothing there. UM. But they kept moving 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.920 it around because um Olympia is also not very big 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:58.480 and UM, so it's there's really only two roads into 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.640 the port, which is very small, and so it was 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:07.920 it's very easy to block it. UM. And so then 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.439 I think The first time that I got involved UM 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.959 was in two thousands seven when they had moved it 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.480 because they kept moving it around to try and switch 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:24.360 things up. And wait, before they're moving the ship around, No, 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.360 it's like they had to make a military ship met. 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:32.080 They would UM. It's like like once the ship it 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:34.040 was in the port, they would just have to go 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.120 through with it. But then UM, you know, it's like 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:39.640 everything every six months or so they had to make 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.480 another military ship met and they would change the port 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:47.440 usually each time, UM, to try and let basically to 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:51.840 avoid us. It doesn't seem like this is like normal crap. Um. 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.720 The first time I had gone down was in um Tacoma, 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.520 which is a much much, much more industrialized port than Olympia. 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.760 It's you know, it's like a big port, more normal part, 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:07.840 I guess, And that one was honestly pretty crazy, UM, 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:13.840 because you're just trapped in this giant industrial maze basically 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.960 at the mercy of the riot cops. The best success 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.640 we had was definitely at the port of Olympia. UM. 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:25.480 I think the in two thousand seven in Olympia was 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:32.920 definitely as the glory moment, which was when people were 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:37.680 able to on and off like actually hold the port 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.080 and control it in the exits. Yeah, and I wanna, 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.640 you know, just emphasize that, like the the one the 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:49.040 military changing their approach right to avoid us so jumping 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:51.920 from port to port with these different shipments. They actually 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.800 went so far because we were so successful as a 0:14:54.880 --> 0:15:00.000 movement in the Pacific Northwest to ship striker vehicles by 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.520 rail out of the Pacific Northwest and even going so 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.320 far as to ports in Texas. Um. But you know 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.160 when one thing that we did is that we built 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.600 up contacts with other activists with long shore workers all 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.560 up and down the West coast in California. There are 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:21.640 other activists were connected with in Texas, Hawaii, New Jersey, 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:23.960 and New York. There is a desire in the anti 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.760 war movement. Uh. And and you know, in some extent 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.800 maybe it's like it was small, but some folks in 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.920 the labor movement, especially in Oakland where the I LW 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.760 the you know, long shore workers Union, it's a lot 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.160 more militant than say in a place like Olympia. UM. 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.160 But yeah, I mean people wanted to replicate this model because, 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.160 as Juliana said, we wore successful in two thousand and seven. 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.160 We shut down the port of Olympia for a total 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.840 of it was essentially two days. They were not they're 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:58.600 not shipping anything in or out. We set up blockades, 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.360 were willing to throw down with the police in the street. 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.640 And one of the things that was cool about that 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.880 blockade is that one of the there's two entrances, like 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.280 I said, and one was completely blockaded, and then the 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.840 other one, UM, we had like a moving I don't 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:15.640 really even know what it was, but something with wheels 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:17.760 that we could move in and out, um to open 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.520 it up, and so then we could allow like civilian 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.800 cargo to move in and out, but then like we 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:28.840 feel it back in place, um to block military shipments. 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:32.720 So we were able to actually like stopped him from 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:34.560 like what while in in in that oneted to come. 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:36.760 We able to actually like stopped him from moving the 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:38.680 self all together. Would you when sheally cleared up on 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:40.920 the police and they moved it, we would eventually get 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:42.440 cleared out by the police. It's like we were never 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.440 able to It's like we're we we held it for 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:50.600 two days. That those protests took place over a series 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:54.000 of two weeks or more or less. Um, we were 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.760 only able to fully hold it for two days before 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.680 eventually they would clear us out. But one of the 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.320 things is that it this does it did create problems 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:10.960 for the army because when you work with a port, 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.000 you know, it's like you've got like a certain time 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:17.359 frame that you've contracted with the port to do whatever 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:21.560 it is because you're going to do and it's not 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.800 too happy if you take longer every thing you said 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.000 you would or yeah, yeah. And the other thing I 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.320 want to add is, you know, I think the other 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.879 really important element with this whole movement going on is 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:41.160 the Pacific Northwest was um it is specifically western Washington, 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:44.199 where the two of us were living. It was it was, 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.520 you know, the center and in a sense it was 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:50.800 the heart of the anti war movement in the country 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.120 at that time. One because of this militant direct action 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:58.600 that we were, you know, we were building up in 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:02.640 the streets and trying to throw wrench and the gears 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.920 of the war machine to to at the verily slowed down, 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:09.280 which in some ways we did, but we're up against 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.479 so much. But the other added element, of course is 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:15.360 the g I resistance and the soldiers who are resisting 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:18.520 I've all also known as the Rock Veterans against the 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.399 War was very active there. They set up a g 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.879 I coffeehouse across you know, literally across the street, uh, 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:29.800 you know, the gates for one of the entrances for 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.760 Fort Louis. Um, there are a whole bunch of soldiers 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.600 that were going a wall. We had friends who were 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.200 active duty soldiers who had fought in you know, Iraq 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.439 and Afghanistan that were a wall and they were hiding, 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.600 you know, refusing to go back into the striker brigades 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.880 that joined us in port militarization Resistance. Uh. There are 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.720 a whole you know, long list of soldiers that were 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:59.320 very publicly saying, you know, I'm refusing to fight in 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:03.679 Iraq or Afghanistan for you know, various reasons. And so 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:07.000 we are very much connected with this movement too. And 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.040 I think the higher ups in the military they're they're 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.760 hyper aware of that. They studied us very well, um, 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.399 you know, to the point of actually spying on us. 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.080 So that's like a whole other element of this story too. 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:31.440 One of the things that I've heard from talking to 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:36.320 other people were involved this was that like wow, like 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.919 during these protests, like the level of police militarization just 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.560 like skyrocketed. And like I remember I was talking frend 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:45.000 about this. It was like, you know, if you go 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.840 back and look at like old system of a down videos, 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:49.680 you know, they'll they'll have these things. Yeah, and you'll 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:51.480 see these you see these riot police, and like you 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.840 look at them and it's like these people they look 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.639 so much less armored than like the people that we 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:00.680 have now. And one of the things that I thought 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.159 was interesting about this was that like this is I 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.440 think one of the points where you start getting the 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.919 modern riot police showing up that are just like, you know, 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.480 completely encased in like armor. And yeah, I want to 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.200 talk about just like the police response to this, because 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:18.040 I think that's that's another thing I think. I think 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:20.000 there's never there's a kind of a tendency to sort 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:24.840 of project back what the police look like just onto 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:26.639 the whole history of police, and I think it's like 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:31.760 it's it's it's gotten worse even in the last twenty years. Yeah, 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:36.679 I mean, so I lived downtown in Olympia and probably 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:38.960 just like a six minute walk away from the Port 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:43.400 of Olympia and and also very conveniently just a few 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.080 blocks away from the police station, so so lucky. So 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.560 we actually saw you know, we could see from the 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:52.320 front of down on the road, down the sidewalk from 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:54.960 the front of our house. Uh, some of the military 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:59.120 shipments going by. And we we we did see that absolutely, 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.240 and at at times it was it was terrifying. I 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.879 mean I lived in an activist house we jokingly called 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.960 h Q because that's just you know where because of 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.119 its proximity to the port, that's where a number of 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:16.280 us were having meetings, uh, you know, around these protests 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.439 early on in two thousand six, and um, yeah, I 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.040 mean we like they look like RoboCop and it's something 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.199 I had I you know, I hadn't like I had 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:31.159 been to like mass marches and demonstrations like the r 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.200 n C protests and d NC protests in Boston, New 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:38.040 York and like in Washington d C uh and so 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:42.640 I would see these like riot cops. But they were 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.760 I mean ubiquitous in the support protests. It was like 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:47.919 a whole army of them that was sent out. I 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:51.080 mean when Juliana said that things got kind of crazy 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:53.639 at the Port of Tacoma protests, I mean there was 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.760 like a police riot, you know, like the cops went 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.840 absolutely nuts there, shooting people with tear gas and pepper 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:05.080 balls and and brutalizing people. I had never before witnessed 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:07.159 anything like that. And it got to the point in 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:10.240 you know, in Olympia where we we kind of knew 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:12.720 early on that we were being traced by the police 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.399 to the extent where, you know, one friend of ours 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:20.080 was followed from our house to the bus station to 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:23.040 take a bus to school by the police and then 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.879 was stopped and essentially assaulted by them on the street. 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:31.359 And we had another fellow activists and you know, a 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.840 roommate of mine who is going out to driving out 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:38.680 with a few friends, uh few fellow activists from Olympia 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:41.399 to Aberdeen, about an hour's drive. So Aberdeen, there's a 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:44.960 port of Gray's Harbor there, pretty conservative small town. It's 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:49.359 where Kurt Cobain is from, home of the famous Kurt 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:57.639 Cobain teams. McDonald's. They served billions and and billions served 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.440 and that one McDonald's and Kurt Cobain's McDonalds. But yeah, 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:04.600 I mean, the you know, they they were they were following. 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:09.719 They had orders the Washington State Patrol two, um, you know, 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:14.040 pull over a car full full of known anarchists. There 0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:16.440 was alert gone out to all the police departments. They 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:19.160 pulled them, They pulled him over, they made him walk 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:21.800 the line. He was had you know, wasn't drinking and 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:25.040 no drugs, like nothing in his system, but they he 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:27.600 was driving under like one mile per hour under the 0:23:27.720 --> 0:23:32.399 speed limit. They arrested him for d d W I 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:36.080 you know, eventually fought the chargers, sued um uh and 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:38.679 you know when a big settlement out of all that. 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:42.240 But that's just one example of many of the lengths 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:44.960 that the police would go to h It was pretty severe. 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:49.280 Even there's a house of a bunch of anarchists, younger 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:52.919 anarchists called a pitch Pipe info shop in Tacoma, and 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:55.520 that was also a big target. The police were swarming 0:23:55.520 --> 0:23:58.640 around them all the time. They had like camera set 0:23:58.720 --> 0:24:01.480 up like specifically just a side the infishop, Like there 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:03.520 weren't Surrens cameras there before, but then it was like, 0:24:03.560 --> 0:24:06.639 oh well, just conveniently put them on this one specific 0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:10.240 street corner. Yeah. I think like that was one of 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:11.520 the things I was reading about this is you have 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:14.040 that stuff. And then also I think one of the 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:17.200 steers parts of this is that like Army intelligence gets involved, 0:24:17.720 --> 0:24:20.240 and yeah, do you want to talk about the man 0:24:20.320 --> 0:24:23.320 named quote unquote John Jacob, who was in fact not 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:27.600 that Yeah, so, uh, you know, I'm curious what what 0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:30.760