WEBVTT - CZM Rewind: Port Militarization Resistance 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:06.519 All right, welcome to It could Happen here, a podcast 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:11.240 about things falling apart and also sometimes about how things 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:16.040 have been falling apart for a while now, and today 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:20.319 we're going to talk about how things were also bad 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.040 in falling apart in the two thousands, which a profoundly 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:26.920 cursed time period. And specifically we're going to talk about 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:29.880 I think a part of the anti war movement that 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:34.200 does not get much attention, which is the port militarization 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:37.159 resistance that happens sort of two thousand and six, two 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:41.720 thousand and seven. And with us today to talk about 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:43.880 this is two people who were part of this movement. 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:50.080 We have Juliana Neuhauser Hello, Hello, and Brendan Maslawska's done. Yeah, 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:53.880 both of them were organizers and activists while this was 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.600 going on. Yeah, thank you, thank you both for being here. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.160 Yeah, thanks for having us so. 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:01.960 Yeah, as I was saying a bit in the intro, 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:03.760 I think that this is a part of the anti 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:07.039 war movement that is not very well known. I think 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:08.600 I think a lot of people know about the initial 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:10.640 stuff that happened in two thousand and three, and people 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.759 might know about some of the stuff that was happening 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:19.000 against the war in Afghanistan, like right when it started, 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.000 but I don't think most people know that it like 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:24.280 you know, even after two thousand and three stort doesn't work, 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:29.160 that it continues, and it continues sort of informs. 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:29.960 That are that are very interesting. 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.000 And so I guess I want you to to start out, 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.960 I want to ask how we sort of got from 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:41.320 the early part of the anti war movement into this, 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:42.840 and how you got involved. 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.399 I would say that there's this narrative about the women 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.200 against the word Iraq, that there is the largest protests 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:52.600 in human history, at least at that point. I don't 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:56.560 know if it's still true against the invasion, and then 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:01.560 it didn't work and everyone kind of went home and 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:06.720 ended there, and to a certain extent that's true. But 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:09.839 like you said, the people that didn't go home went 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.840 in interesting directions, and so at the time there were 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:20.160 direct action was not as acceptable as it is now. 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:26.600 The this movement was largely dominated either by big liberal 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:32.520 coalitions or PSL front groups that were basically indistinguishable in 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:37.480 what they actually did, which was basically nothing and in 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.160 the best of cases and then the worst of cases, counterinsurgency. 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:49.520 But then there were small groups of people that when 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.240 we saw that it didn't work, and we saw that 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:57.440 these giant, peaceful marches from one part of town to another, 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:02.359 or voting for job Carrie or whatever the work, that 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.680 we started to look for other options. 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:11.600 Yeah, and you know, I got involved, you know, i'd 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:16.200 say with the anti war movement. That idea of how 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:19.680 war is unjust was really taught to me from a 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:23.080 very young age. I mean, my parents were you know, 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.760 children of the sixties, and they had family members fighting 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:32.520 in Vietnam and you know, friends dying in Vietnam, and 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.120 we're against the protests back then. So I grew up 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.760 hearing these stories and of course stories from family members, 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.080 particularly one of my grandfathers, both of them who were 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.440 veterans in World War Two. One of them was a 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.960 marine in the you know, in the Pacific Theater, and 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:51.240 still into his seventies, eighties and nineties until his final days, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.800 was just dealing with horrific PTSD and had always taught 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.680 me from young age never to get involved. So I, 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.360 you know, and I remember when when the very clearly, 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:04.080 you know, I'm sure it's on everyone's minds now, and 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.640 when the invasion of Afghanistan started, when the invasion of 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.360 a Rock started. I was at that that massive demonstration 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:16.400 in Washington, d C. That Juliana just mentioned, and I 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.599 ended up. I'm from Utica, New York. I went to 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:25.359 a rural high school just outside of of Utica, you know, 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:29.599 russ Bell generally speaking, impoverished and also very conservative area 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.320 of New York. And you know, I had the recruiters 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:39.160 bothering me, military recruiters in high school, recruiting my friends, 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:43.880 and they were just everywhere in the hallways. So it 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:48.080 was very present with me when I was younger. I 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.520 moved out to Olympia, Washington, two thousand and six, and 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:56.880 that's when a new student activist group, Students for Democratic Society, 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.800 was launched. That's how Juliana and I first met. We 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.839 were both in separate chapters of that new organization in 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:11.160 the Pacific Northwest. And the protests started just a few 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:13.960 months after I moved out there in Olympia in two 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:14.719 thousand and six. 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:17.800 So wait declared for this or second because I've never 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.840 quite been clear in this history. So there was a 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.520 second SD like Students for Democratic Society that was like 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.960 unrelated to the first one. 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:31.440 They're born briefly at the end of the Budshet Master. 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:36.880 That explains a lot of things that it's very baffling. 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:38.960 We're not that old. Yeah, we were definitely in the 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.560 in the second you know, the rebirth of it. So 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.760 you know, I think it took on some things in spirit, 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.279 you know, but also was i'd say different in many ways, 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:52.720 and it was very active. To me at least, it 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.880 was very exciting to be a member of the New 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.280 STS because they're over a dozen chapters in the Pacific 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.479 Northwest and it was a great way to connect with 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.159 young activists all over the US. 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.000 So STS is emerging in this time period. One of 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.120 the other things I was interested about is something something 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:12.600 you were talking about in the early part of this, 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.359 which has to do with the way that these giant 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.120 both the sort of answer Coalition PSL, Frank Group, and 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.880 I guess the ISO was still around back then coalitions 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:27.480 work versus how like anything else worked on. So was 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.760 was SDS sort of like consciously set up and in 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:32.040 opposition to those groups? 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.200 I don't think it was conscious, but there was just 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.200 like I mean these days, I mean, like there's a 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.840 lot of controversy around PSL with like anarchists versus tanky politics. 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.440 None of that mattered at that time, Like, none of 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:46.640 that mattered. The only thing that mattered was the answer, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:51.960 which was the PSL Front group was completely fucking useless. 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:59.360 Like they completely indistinguishable from any peace police liberal democratic 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.760 front group. There was literally no difference, just in terms 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.200 of their aesthetics maybe like is there a donkey or 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:08.880 a hammer and sickle on something. That's the only difference 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:10.880 we saw. So I don't I don't think there was. 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:17.120 It wasn't There wasn't like a conscious like political opposite 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.160 attention to it. It was just like they're not doing anything, 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:24.080 and so we had to look in another direction. 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:26.640 Actually, you know, it's hard to keep track of the 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.560 alphabet soup of authilitary and communist groups at times, but 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:33.520 this was actually answer for those who don't recall it 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.280 was a front group for the Workers World Party the 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:40.120 W which, yeah, I mean it's it's hard to keep track, right. 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.400 Yeah, it's the same thing, like I think, so okay, 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:46.000 So for people who are sort of unaware of this, 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:51.600 there's a network of connected but sometimes feuding like weird stalness. 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.600 Cults that kind of that kind of like they hold. 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:56.720 On through like this the eighties and nineties and they 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.880 start sort of rebuilding again around the anti war movements 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.000 in that period. That that's the PSL's of a DUP's answer, like, 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:07.640 and I think that's like most like modern anti war 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:12.480 groups are also still these people, which is incredibly depressing 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:14.240 something I want to talk a bit about it towards 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.960 the end of this, but yeah, just for people who 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:21.080 have not spent the last half decade in the in 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:27.240 the trenches of extremely weird anti war politics. So yeah, 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:32.120 so I think we should get into how the sort 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.679 of the first action starts in Olympia. 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.839 Yeah. So, and there were actually a couple actions that 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.640 happened in the year proceeding that, you know, before I 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:47.840 moved out to Olympia in two thousand and six, it 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:53.440 was not yet under the banner of PMR port Militarization Resistance. 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:59.720 That was a name that was officially coined in you know, 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.800 in in May and June of two thousand and six. 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.480 And so, just to give you an idea, Olympias it's 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:09.880 a college town, or at the Evergreen State College is there. 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.760 It's also the capital Washington State, so you have that 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.560 going on. It's also a military town. It's a little 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.920 over twenty miles south of what we called Fort Lewis. 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:23.680 It's now called JBLM j BLUM or Joint Base Lewis McCord. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.120 It's an Army and Air Force base. Now it's one base. 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:29.320 So ye had all these you know, different kind of 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:34.400 elements in you know, in tandem in that town and 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.800 the public port. The Port of Olympia is one of 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.800 about seventy or so public ports in the state of Washington, 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.760 some of which are I mean, they're used for all 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:49.120 kinds of things, you know, for our commercial, private industry, 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:53.880 but also the military and the US government. So, you know, 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.760 I heard from someone I don't even remember who that 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.280 the military was sending a ship to the Port of 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:05.200 Olympia in late May of two thousand and six. And 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.880 this happened for ten or so days, and it was 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:13.680 just kind of a natural instinct for a whole bunch 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.520 of us to go down to the Port of Olympia. 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.360 It was the war machine in our backyard, and the 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:24.480 idea was to just block the vehicles. It started out 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.800 with just like less than ten people, a number of 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:32.440 folks getting arrested, and that very rapidly culminated into larger 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:38.120 protests every single day, an act of blockades people those 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:40.760 of us like Julian and myself and other folks using 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.239 civil disobedience or what we preferred to call civil resistance 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.280 to try and stop or at the very least slow 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:50.280 down these striker vehicles and to give folks an idea 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:52.920 of what a striker vehicle is. You can look it 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:58.160 up online, but it's kind of halfway between, you know, 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:00.640 a tank and a hum vy. It doesn't have slats, 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.240 you know that a tank would have. It's you know, 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.040 and they were being used in both Iraq and Afghanistan 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.920 for for raids of residential areas. They were really on 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:14.560 the front lines of the war in both those countries, 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.040 and that's what we were trying to stop. 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.680 I only got involved later because I wasn't living in 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.640 Olympia at the time. I was in another STS chapter. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.199 But my roommate was from Olympia and he had been 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:31.360 involved in that first round of protests in Olympia before 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.360 moving up to Balingham. And so like, hearing his story 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:41.120 has got me very excited because it's like finally someone's 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:46.160 someone's doing something like someone's they're not just like it's 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:51.960 like everything else was just so liberal, like whether it's 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:54.400 marching from one place to another or writing to your 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.440 congress people or occupying their office. It was like asking 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:01.760 someone else to do something you knew from the beginning 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.240 they were never going to do. Yeah, and finally this 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:11.400 was finally someone was like actually getting into it. I 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.560 think the first one of the things that happened here 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:23.120 was that they started to avoid there's it was kind 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.920 of a geographical thing that I think for people who 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:31.600 either don't know Wash Washington or because they're normal people 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:36.040 don't know like the port areas of these cities very 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:38.880 well because it's like like unless you're a longshoreman, like 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.120 why would you go down to like the port of Tacoma. Yeah, 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:43.240 there's nothing there. 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:45.480 Yeah. 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:51.720 But they kept moving it around because Olympia is also 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:57.880 not very big and so it's there's really only two 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.120 roads into the port, which is very small, and so 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:07.680 it was it's very easy to block it. And so 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:09.960 then I think the first time that I got involved 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:15.080 was in two thousands seven when they had moved it 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.560 because they kept moving it around to try and switch 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:18.560 things up and. 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:26.440 Wait before they're the ship around. 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:27.400 Is no it's like they had to make a military shipment, 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:32.800 they would It's like like once the ship wasn't the port, 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:35.719 they would just have to go through with it. But then, 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.080 you know, it's like every every six months or so, 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.800 they had to make another military shipment and they would 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.880 change the port usually each time to try and let 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.240 basically to avoid us. It doesn't seem like this is 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:53.080 like normal craft. Yeah. The first time I had gone 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.440 down was in Dacoma, which is a much much, much 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.880 more industrialized port than Olympia. It's you know, it's a 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:05.520 big port, more normal port, I guess, And that one 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:10.280 was honestly pretty crazy because you're just trapped into a 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:15.360 giant industrial maize basically at the mercy of the riot cops. 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.680 The best success we had was definitely at the port 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:24.080 of Olympia. I think the in two thousand and seven 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:28.120 and Olympia was definitely And it's like the glory moment, 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:36.080 which was when people were able to on and off 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.440 like actually hold the port and control it in as 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:40.200 an exits. 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.280 Yeah, and I want to, you know, just emphasize that, 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:47.440 like the one the military changing their approach right to 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.280 avoid us, so jumping from port to port with these 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.760 different shipments. They actually went so far because we were 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.680 so successful as a movement in the Pacific Northwest to 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:02.560 ship striker vehicles by rail out of the Pacific Northwest 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.720 and even going so far as to ports in Texas. 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.280 But you know, one thing that we did is that 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:14.080 we built up contacts with other activists with long shore 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.040 workers all up and down the West coast in California. 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.040 There are other activists we were connected with in Texas, Hawaii, 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.600 New Jersey, and New York. There is a desire in 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.800 the anti war movement, and you know, in some extent 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.760 maybe it's like it was small, but with some folks 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:35.320 in the labor movement, especially in Oakland where the ISLWU, 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.640 the longshore Workers Union, it's a lot more militant than 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.880 say in a place like Olympia. But yeah, I mean 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.440 people wanted to replicate this model because, as Julianna said, 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:48.680 we wore successful. In two thousand and seven, we shut 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:51.680 down the port of Olympia for a total of it 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.440 was essentially two days. They were not they're not shipping 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.880 anything in or out. We set up blockades, we're willing 0:15:59.880 --> 0:16:02.720 to throw down with the police in the street. 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:04.720 And one of the things that was cool about that 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.960 blockade is that one of the there's two entrances, like 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.320 I said, and one was completely blockaded, and then the 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.200 other one we had like a moving I don't really 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.000 know what it was, but something with wheels that we 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.600 could move in and out to open it up, and 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.480 so then we could allow like civilian cargo to move 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.560 in and out, but then like we would feel it 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.360 back in place to block military shipments. 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:32.600 So we were you able to actually like stop them 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:34.640 from like wet while in that one in to come 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.520 we actually like stopped them from moving this stuff altogether. 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:39.200 Or do you actually cleared up by the police and 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:39.760 they moved it. 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:42.000 We would eventually get cleared out by the police. It's 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:44.640 like we were never able to It's like we were 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:49.200 we we held it for two days. That those protests 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.400 took place over a series of two weeks or more 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.760 or less. We were only able to fully hold it 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.720 for two days before eventually they would clear us out. 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.920 But one of the things is that this does it 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:10.440 did create problems for the army because when you work 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:12.920 with a port, you know, it's like you've got like 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:16.400 a certain time frame that you've contracted with the port 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:19.800 to do whatever it is is you're going to do, 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:25.479 and it's not too happy if you take longer than 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:26.040 you said. 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.280 You would or Yeah. And the other thing I want 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.680 to add is, you know, I think the other really 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.760 important element with this whole movement going on is the 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:41.560 Pacific Northwest was it is specifically western Washington, where the 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:46.280 two of us were living. It was, you know, the 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.119 center in a sense, it was the heart of the 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:52.120 anti war movement in the country at that time. One 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.399 because of this militant direct action that we were you know, 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.719 we were building up in the streets and trying to 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:04.040 throw wrench in the gears of the war machine to 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:06.959 at the very least slow it down, which in some 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.359 ways we did, but you know, we were up against 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.560 so much. But the other added element, of course, is 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:16.560 the GI resistance and the soldiers who are resisting i've 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:19.720 all also known as Iraq veterans against the war was 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.240 very active there. They set up a GI coffeehouse across 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.560 you know, literally across the street, you know, the the 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:31.800 gates for one of the entrances for Fort Lewis. There 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:35.240 are a whole bunch of soldiers that were going a wall. 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.400 We had friends who were active duty soldiers who had 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:42.080 fought in you know, Iraq and Afghanistan that were a 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.000 wall and they were hiding, you know, refusing to go 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:48.160 back into these striker brigades that joined us in port 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:52.680 militarization resistance. There are a whole, you know, long list 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:57.040 of soldiers that were very publicly saying, you know, I'm 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:02.000 refusing to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan for you know, 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.480 various reasons. And so we are very much connected with 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.760 this movement too, and I think the higher ups in 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.760 the military they're they're hyper aware of that. They studied 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:15.200 us very well, you know, to the point of actually 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.280 spying on us. So that's like a whole other element 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:19.120 of the story too. 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:31.520 One of the things that I've heard from talking to 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:36.160 other people who were involved in this was that like wow, 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.680 like during these protests, like the level of police militarization 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:43.359 just like skyrocketed. And like I remember, I was, like 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:44.840 you said about this, those like you know, if if 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:47.040 you go back and look at like old system of 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.560 a down videos, you know, they'll have these things. Yeah, 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:51.359 you'll see these you see these riot police and like 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.639 you look at them and it's like these people they 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.560 look so much less armored than like the people that 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.520 we have now. And one of the of things I 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:02.919 thought was interesting about this was that like this is 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.800 I think one of the points where you start getting 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:08.800 the modern riot police showing up that are just like, 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:12.320 you know, completely concased in like armor. And yeah, I 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.840 want to talk about just like the police response to this, 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:17.879 because I think that's That's another thing I think. I 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.120 think there's there's a kind of a tendency to sort 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.359 of project back what the police looked like in twenty 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.159 twenty one, just onto the whole history of police, and 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.200 I think it's like it's it's it's gotten worse even 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:30.600 in the last twenty years. 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:36.320 Yeah, I mean, so I lived downtown in Olympia and 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.720 probably just like a six minute walk away from the 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:43.480 Port of Olympia and also very conveniently just a few 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.000 blocks away from the police station. So so lucky. Yuh 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.520 So we actually saw, you know, we could see from 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.760 the front of down on the road, down on the 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.639 sidewalk from the front of our house, some of the 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:59.200 military shipments going by, and we we did see that absolutely, 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.520 and at at times it was it was terrifying. I mean, 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:06.879 I lived in an activist house we jokingly called HQ 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.200 because that's just you know, where it because of its 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.359 proximity to the port. That's where a number of us 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.680 were having meetings, you know, around these protests early on 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.919 in two thousand and six. And yeah, I mean we 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.639 like they looked like RoboCop and it's something I had 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:27.560 I you know, I hadn't like I had been to 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:32.359 like mass marches and demonstrations like the RNC protests and 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:36.159 DNC protests in Boston, New York and like in Washington, 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:40.159 d c uh and so I would see these like 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:44.399 riot cops, but they were I mean ubiquitous in these 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:46.960 port protests. It was like a whole army of them 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:50.159 that was sent out. I mean when Juliana said that 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:52.720 things got kind of crazy at the Port of Tacoma protests, 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:55.520 I mean there was like a police riot, you know, 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.240 like the cops went absolutely nuts there, shooting people with 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:04.159 tear gas and pepper balls and brutalizing people. I had 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:06.600 never before witnessed anything like that. And it got to 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.920 the point in you know, in Olympia where we kind 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.280 of knew early on that we were being traced by 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:16.080 the police to the extent where you know, one friend 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:19.480 of ours was followed from our house to the bus 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.720 station to take a bus to school by the police 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:26.359 and then was stopped and essentially assaulted by them on 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:31.359 the street. And we had another fellow activists and you know, 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:34.760 a roommate of mine who was going out to driving 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:38.280 out with a few friends, a few fellow activists from 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:41.400 Olympia to Aberdeen, about an hour's drive. So Aberdeen, there's 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.760 a port of grays Harbor there, pretty conservative small town. 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:47.040 It's where Kirk Cobain is from. 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:51.040 Home of the famous Kurt Cobain teamed McDonald's. 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:58.840 They served billions and billions served in that one McDonald's 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:01.879 and Kirk Cobain's McDon donalds. But yeah, I mean they 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:05.120 you know, they they were, they were following. They had 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:10.480 orders the Washington State Patrol too, you know, pull over 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:14.600 a car ful full of known anarchists. There was alert 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:16.960 gone out to all the police departments. They pulled them, 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:19.720 they pulled them over, They made him walk the line. 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.720 He was hadn't you know, wasn't drinking at no drugs 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:25.639 like nothing in his system. But they he was driving 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:28.440 under like one mile per hour under the speed limit. 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:32.800 They arrested him for d d W I, you know, 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:36.560 eventually fought the chargers, sued them h and you know 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:39.160 what a big settlement out of all that. But that's 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.480 just one example of many of the lengths that the 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:46.400 police would go to. It was pretty severe. Even there's 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:50.560 a house of a bunch of anarchists, younger anarchists called 0:23:50.840 --> 0:23:53.520 pitch Pipe Info Shop and Tacoma, and that was also 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:56.200 a big target. The police were swarming around them all 0:23:56.240 --> 0:23:56.679 the time. 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:00.280 They had like cameras set up, like specifically just side 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:03.120 the Inn Fishop, Like there weren't seriunce cameras there before, 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:05.360 but then there's like, oh well, just conveniently put them 0:24:05.400 --> 0:24:07.440 on this one specific street corner. 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:10.600 Yeah, I think like those One of the things I 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:12.159