Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 63 (9161 total)
1 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,585 Year: 2,842/9,624 Month: 687/1,588 Week: 93/229 Day: 4/61 Hour: 0/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   "Only have ourselves to blame" NO!
contracycle
Inactive Member


Message 46 of 112 (163172)
11-25-2004 9:44 AM
Reply to: Message 43 by Silent H
11-25-2004 8:46 AM


quote:
Perhaps you missed the part where I said I had tape of the demonstrations and it shows something different.
Perhaps you missed the part where I menmtioned that plenty of tape was shot and distributed world-wide. As is the nature of these events, its very difficult to form an overview from the thick of the action. Why don't we look at a live report filed by Collateral Damage:
Collateral Damage in Seattle
by Jim Desyllas
December 2, 1999
(Jim Desyllas is a student in Portland, Oregon. His report was called in to emperors-clothes.com from a pay phone outside Seattle, Wed., 7:30 pm Pacific time.)
I just spent 4 days in Seattle. The information people are getting from the mass-media is false.
This was not, as Pres. Clinton claims, a peaceful protest marred by the actions of violent protesters. This was a massive, strong but peaceful demonstration which was attacked repeatedly by the police with the express purpose of provoking a violent response to provide photo opportunities for the Western media.
I know because I watched it happening. I’ll tell you how they did it.
As Michel Chossudovsky says in his Disarming the New World Order (See Note 3 at end for link to that article) the government put a lot of effort into making sure the protesters in Seattle were (portrayed as) a loyal opposition who wanted to reform the WTO, not get rid of it. But the people in Seattle American steel workers, Canadian postal workers, college kids from all over, environmentalists from Australia you name it were not for reforming the WTO. They were for getting rid of it.
And this wasn’t just true of the protesters. I interviewed delegates. None of them had anything favorable to say about the WTO. Two delegates from the Caribbean were angry about job loss. One delegate from Peru took a bullhorn and got up on a car and spoke to the protestors against the World Trade Organization. He said it hurts the workers and farmers. I interviewed a Norwegian guy from Greenpeace. Totally against it.
Even a delegate from Holland said it had hurt the farmers there. He said though it is supposedly democratic, that’s actually a lie: the US, England and Canada and a few others get together and decide what they want to do. Then they ask the rest of the countries to vote and if they vote wrong they threaten, You won’t get loans, or whatever. They get them to do what they want by blackmailing them. The Italians we interviewed were upset too. I couldn’t find any delegates who were in favor.
So the government instigated a riot to discredit the movement against the WTO because they couldn’t dilute it. I am not guessing about this. I was there. I saw it happening. And I will tell you I am frankly shocked to see, close up, just how little our leaders care what happens to ordinary people.
Clinton can pose and speak a lot of flowery stuff but the truth is we are nothing to them. I saw this with my own eyes. Sunday and Monday, there was no violence. None. The people were aggressively non-violent; they were self-policing. Up until Tuesday at 4pm there was one window broken in the whole city a McDonalds window. This compares favorably to the typical rock concert, let alone a demonstration of people who were non-violently barring entry to the World Trade Center!
At this point, a new group of police tactical police moved in and started gassing people and shooting rubber bullets. Is it any surprise that people got mad? Of course, the young kids hit back by breaking some windows in retaliation for being gassed, sprayed with very painful pepper gas, and shot with dangerous rubber bullets. The police instigated these kids, plain and simple.
Sunday and Monday they had young cops, using them to block the streets. These were trainees. But Tuesday they had the real cops; none of them were young. They were trained to attack people. A small group, maybe 100 people total, struck back. Then these cops herded that group around the city, making sure there were plenty of photo ops of violent protesters.
A number of times they had these 100 or so protesters caught between buildings and walls of police. They could easily have arrested and detained this small number of people and gotten it over with. Instead they would gas them and let them go. Then trap them again, gas them again, and again let them go. The cops made no arrests that I know of until late Tuesday night though the skirmishing was going on from three till 9:30. The cops would blockade three or five blocks of an area, give the angry kids room to operate, keep gassing them when you gas a person, let me tell you, it gets them fighting mad.
Tuesday night the police gassed all of downtown. This was going on from 3pm till 6pm. Gas everywhere. The kids broke a few windows McD’s, Starbucks small stuff burned a few garbage cans. The police were using these people as extras. It was staged.
I believe also the police had their own people in there, encouraging people to break stuff if people think I may be exaggerating, I saw supposed protesters they were screaming and so on and then later, when everything was over, the same people tackled other protestors and put handcuffs on them.
At 6pm they issued a State of Emergency. At that point they had pushed the 100 people outside the city limits, so the police went outside the limits too, and they started gassing that area too, gassing the neighborhoods where the regular people live. I am not exaggerating. The police were relentless.
This was in an area from the city limits for about 10 blocks to the Seattle Central Community College. If you were alive, the police gassed you. People coming back from work, kids, women, everyone. People would go out of their houses to see what was happening because these tear gas guns sound like a cannon and they would get gassed. A block away there was a Texaco gas station they threw tear gas at gas pumps, believe it or not they were like vandals. They gassed a bus. I saw it with my own eyes. A bus. The driver, the riders, the people just abandoned it.
I was sitting in a little coffee shop called Rauhaus, (Note: Jim did not spell this the spelling may be wrong.) They were shooting rubber bullets at the glass. I picked up a dozen of the things in a few square feet. They were also shooting this paint that you can only see with a florescent light. They would paint anyone and everyone and then go hunting them.
Anyway, because they were gassing everybody, the local people got mad too and they joined the 100 who had been herded out of the city. So soon there were 500 including the neighborhood people and all very angry. Naturally. Because they had been gassed and hit with pepper spray, that stuff does a number on you. And shot with these damn bullets. Then people set up barricades at Seattle Central Community College. The cops organized themselves for about an hour and then moved in and gassed that area.
Today they started mass arrests. That was because Clinton the Greeks call him the Planitarchis, Ruler of the World was coming. Weeping crocodile tears about how he just LOVES peaceful protest, which of course you’d have to be two years old to believe he had nothing to do with the police action.
This whole thing, this police attack, this was US foreign policy, not some action decided by some bureaucrat in Seattle. This was the State Department. They wanted to discredit the people.
Sunday there was a protest of solidarity involving people from different walks of life. Monday it got even bigger. Tuesday there was a big sort of carnival where people were doing different things, a band was playing music and people were blocking the World Trade Center. And about 3 PM the cops started throwing tear gas.
The thing that drove Clinton crazy was that on Tuesday the protesters had succeeded in making nonviolent human chains and had therefore stopped everyone from going into the World Trade Center. Only maybe 27 delegates got through, mostly US and British. There were what seemed like tens of thousands of protesters involved. So the police did their gassing number against these nonviolent people to break up the human chains and make the protesters look violent.
Today (Wednesday) I followed the union protest put together by the Longshoremen’s Union. They went down to the docks and had a rally then marched to Third Avenue. As soon as they got there the cops started gassing them.
There was an old lady there. She had gone downtown by bus to buy something. This lady was in her 70s and I saw her trying to run, but she couldn’t breathe. She was in shock. I carried her to a building entryway. She was gasping, terrified. She had been in Germany, and it was like she was having flashbacks.
The tear gas sounds like gunfire and there were helicopters overhead, sirens, cops on horses, everything. They had clearly made a decision to destroy this movement.
So anyway there I was with her in this building and she wanted to go to the hospital but there was tear gas everywhere and I was afraid if I tried to move her she’d be gassed again. I went to this line of cops and begged I mean begged these riot police to help her. They ignored me.
A girl told me later that a one-year-old baby had been gassed. And I myself saw a girl no more than 18 a cop had busted her lip wide open she was bleeding and then they gassed everyone including her. After that she was kneeling on the ground crying like a baby and praying for 15 minutes, Hail Mary, Hail Mary. Over and over. She was in a state of shock. They just gassed these people who were sitting down non-violently and doing nothing. Nothing.
At one point the Seattle Mayor said his boys were not using rubber bullets. Miraculously, by then I had ten in my pocket. I could open a little market, sell the things. They are everywhere. I and other people started giving them to delegates and stuff. See what they’re doing? They’re shooting ‘rubber’ bullets and lying about it. We showed them to the media. I guess enough people and the media got the information because the Mayor made a new statement then that they were using them. As if he hadn’t known.
They shot rubber bullets from four feet away into the face of a guy next to me, broke all his front teeth.
When that happened I lost it. I forgot I was supposed to be getting the news for all of you and I started yelling at the cops, What the hell is wrong with you? Are you sick, man? So this cop aimed his gun right at me. That was his answer. So I first put my hands in front of my face because I didn’t want to lose my teeth. And then I thought, to hell with it. I was wearing my target shirt that said Collateral Damage, you know? With a bullseye target, like they wore during the bombing in Yugoslavia. And I told this guy, Go ahead, shoot! Here! Here’s the target! He didn’t shoot me.
I want to emphasize, these protesters were NOT violent people. They were the most non-violent people I have ever seen. Even when I was screaming at the cop, this girl came up to me and said, Do not scream. This is non-violent. These people were too much to believe. They must meditate all the time, I don’t know.
Clinton said he supports nonviolent protest. That is baloney. Today (Wed.) the protesters were causing absolutely no trouble". In downtown the cops had people running who weren’t even protesters like that old lady or just people going to work or shopping everyone was getting gassed. The busses weren’t running because of the gas. I was lucky to catch one with a driver who could still see. I begged him to drive the old lady home the driver changed his route especially for her.
If you want to find human decency, stay away from the Planitarchis. Go to the to regular people. They have some. The Planitarchis lost all his years ago. Now he wouldn’t know human decency if it came up and bit him.
So now I have made personal acquaintance with the people who run this country, and they are, quite simply, scum.
There were people at work, people with babies, they were all getting gassed because the government would not allow an assembly of people speaking their minds.
It is the same as what happened in Athens. Clinton’s requirements on the Greek government created the riot and he did the same thing here. And then he says he supports nonviolent protest? How? By shooting rubber bullets? And today they outlawed gas masks. They want to make sure everyone gets his money’s worth.
Today, just like yesterday night, the police were in the residential neighborhoods. People in cafes were getting gassed and shot at, you could hear it on the windows, bang, bang, bang. A guy trying to cross the street to go to his house got gassed. First a drunk guy outside a bar yelled at the cops Get out of here! so they gassed him. And then this other guy was just crossing the street to go home so the cops figured, might as well gas him too.
People got gassed for coming out of restaurants and bars and coffee shops. I’m amazed that nobody died who had asthma or something.
Or maybe somebody did die and they didn’t talk about it. I mean after all, it’s just collateral damage.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 43 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 8:46 AM Silent H has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 52 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 11:16 AM contracycle has replied

  
zephyr
Member (Idle past 4540 days)
Posts: 821
From: FOB Taji, Iraq
Joined: 04-22-2003


Message 47 of 112 (163174)
11-25-2004 9:46 AM
Reply to: Message 44 by contracycle
11-25-2004 9:40 AM


Fucking cross-post! Ach.
quote:
....my strategy is therefore to encourage indigenous domestic resistance within the US.
Care to elaborate?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 44 by contracycle, posted 11-25-2004 9:40 AM contracycle has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 49 by contracycle, posted 11-25-2004 10:03 AM zephyr has not replied

  
contracycle
Inactive Member


Message 48 of 112 (163177)
11-25-2004 9:57 AM


Scenes from the Battle of Seattle
Report and photos by Liz Highleyman
11/30/99
Tuesday, November 30 -- termed N30 by anti-WTO activists -- dawned gray and cloudy as I made my way up Pike Street to Victor Steinbrueck Park on the Seattle waterfront. By the time I arrived at 7:00 a.m., over 1,000 demonstrators had gathered, ranging from environmentalists to union members to advocates for human rights for the people of Tibet.
Soon the crowd began to march toward the Seattle Convention Center, site of the long-awaited meeting of the World Trade Organization, a group of government representatives who set the international rules regarding trade and tarriffs. WTO delegates were scheduled to attend an opening ceremony that morning at the historic Paramount Theater at 8th and Pine, but protesters were determined to ensure that WTO business did not proceed as usual.
As delegates arrived, demonstrators -- some dressed in sea turtle costumes and others carrying giant puppets -- formed a human barrier to deny them entry. Many began to climb on top of the Metro buses that Seattle police had parked end-to-end around the theater. Amazingly, authorities had neglected to secure a protected means of entry for the delegates who began streaming toward the theater individually and in small groups. This was to be the first sign that city officials were woefully ill-prepared for what was to come in the hours and days to follow.
Several affinity groups -- small groupings of ten or so people determined to interfere with the WTO meeting by means of direct action -- stationed themselves in major downtown intersections around the meeting sites, in some cases locking their arms together inside wire tubes or chaining themselves to makeshift platforms. About 100 others settled in for a sit-in outside the Sheraton convention center hotel at 6th and Pike. Along with the many protesters who would not have looked out of place at an anti-war demonstration three decades ago, there was 50 to 100 protesters clad in hoods and bandanas, accompanied by a small marching band wearing matching pink gas masks. From my 15-year acquaintance with the anarchist movement, I recognized the "black bloc," a direct action tactic adopted from Germany in the 1980s; several of the anarchists joined the sit-in, facing off against a line of cops in full riot gear.
Around 10:00 a.m., the demonstrators got louder and the police appeared nervous. Some protesters tipped newspaper boxes into the street to form makeshift barricades and began banging on them with sticks. Soon a small tank dubbed "the peacekeeper" pulled up behind the line of riot police. With no apparent provocation, the first of many cannisters of tear gas flew toward the crowd.
Some of the protesters had come prepared with goggles and gas masks, while others covered their noses and mouths with bandannas soaked in vinegar or baking soda. Many more, not expecting to be gassed and unsure what was happening, panicked and tried to flee the spreading cloud of gas and smoke. People with tears streaming down their faces sought shelter in the doorway of an FAO Schwartz store as others rinsed their eyes and burning skin with water. During a break in the melee, I picked up several quarter- and half-inch rubber pellets which police had shot at the crowd; as I would later see, the pellets cause large bruises and can break teeth and penetrate skin at close range.
Since the early-1990s, I had largely "retired" from direct activism and focused my energies on writing; having traded in my scruffy leather jacket for a North Face rain parka, I had come to Seattle to cover the events as a freelance journalist. As the gassing and shooting started, though, I began to think that my first aid training would prove more useful. I had been a volunteer "medic" at large events such as gay pride parades and pro-choice marches before, but had never had to do more than apply a bandaid to a blister. Such was not to be the case this week.
The tear gas used by the Seattle police -- CS gas, or O-chlorobenzalmalononitrile -- is actually a cloud of tiny crystals that irritate the mucous membranes. It causes the eyes to water, burns the nose and throat, and its acrid odor leaves a bitter taste in the back of the mouth. Those who come into contact with the gas -- even a block away from where it was dispensed -- may be blinded and find it hard to breathe; some also vomit. Flushing the eyes with water or a saline solution is the best immediate remedy. Rubbing the eyes -- most people's natural reaction -- only makes the burning worse.
Some protesters who were equipped with goggles and gas masks stayed on the front lines and lobbed gas cannisters back at the police. Other enraged protesters began to throw bottles and other small debris. As the police kept themselves occupied facing off against the large crowd, fewer than 50 protesters -- including several in hoods and masks -- vented their rage at the face of corporate America in a more direct way. Sticks, boots, manhole covers and newspaper boxes were used to smash store windows, and facades were spray-painted with the anarchist circle-A and anti-capitalist slogans. Damage was targeted at corporate monoliths such as McDonalds, Old Navy, and Niketown, accused of environmental destruction and the use of sweatshop labor. The majority of demonstrators opposed the vandalism, with some attempting to physically restrain or stand in the way of those carrying it out.
Many demostrators, newscasters, and politicians would lament in the days and weeks to followed that the violent actions of a few marred the message of the many. Ironically, the anti-corporate and anti-technology message of the militant anarchists was undermined in turn when a small number of local youths not initially involved with the anti-WTO protests looted the damaged storefronts, making off with armloads of Nike logo merchandise, cell phones, and small electronics equipment.
A midday, a large march of over 20,000 labor unionists and supporters met up with the ongoing downtown demonstration after marching from a rally at a stadium several blocks away. This new influx swelled the crowd to some 50,000. Indeed, the incoming march was so large that it was forced to separate into smaller columns to approach the convention center. Demonstrators were euphoric when word spread through the crowd that the morning's actions had resulted in the cancellation of the WTO's opening ceremonies.
Despite the anti-technology sentiments of some of the protesters, modern technology was highly in evidence. Much of the networking and planning necessary to gather so many activists from so many disparate movements had been carried out using the Internet. At times, it appeared that there were as many people photographing, recording, and videotaping the activities as there were participants. Mainstream Seattle media broadcast live for hours, and an Independent Media Center marshalled volunteer journalists and videographers to get non-corporate-controlled information out over the radio and the Web. It was easy to tell when some excitement was taking place in a surrounding area, as a chorus of ringing cell phones alerted organizers to mobilize their forces elsewhere or summoned the media to cover a new unfolding event.
At about 3:30 p.m., word came from the cell phones that the cops were attempting to push protesters out of the downtown core near 4th and Pine with a renewed barrage of tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets. Authorities had begun to worry about how downtown workers -- many trapped in their stores and offices by protests and street closures -- would be able to get home. Seattle Mayor Paul Schell imposed a 7:00 p.m. to dawn curfew for a several block radius around the city center.
had taken advantage of a break in the action to duck into a drug store for cigarettes and fresh first aid supplies -- water, gauze pads, paper towels, rubbing alcohol, and small squeeze bottles perfectly sized for eye-rinsing. As I approached the corner of 4th, a large number of people were fleeing a cloud of gas bigger than any we had seen so far. Chris, a fellow "medic," had set up a first aid station in the shelter of a nearby doorway. Although tear gas can be quickly flushed away with water and the sting lessens with exposure to the air, pepper spray is another matter. Not only does it cause agonizing and prolonged eye pain, it also causes the skin to redden and sting like a severe sunburn. Chris and I applied the recommended remedy of mineral oil, rubbing alcohol, and water to the red faces of dozens of demonstrators. As we worked, a woman came by with blood streaming down her face from a jagged wound on her forehead -- she had been hit at close range with a tear gas cannister. Another protester had been shot in the mouth with a rubber pellet and appeared through the blood to have several broken or missing teeth.
Determined to clear the downtown area by curfew, police continued to rush and gas the protesters, pushing them back toward Pine Street. As the twilight sky darkened, the clouds of gas reflected the Christmas lights that ringed the central shopping plaza. On Pine, the cops divided the crowd, sending some in the direction of the waterfront and others toward highway I-5 and the residential Capitol Hill neighborhood. As the demonstrators passed the convention center, a speaker on nearby hotel balcony blared Jimi Hendrix's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
As the evening wore on, police continued to push demonstrators up the slope toward the neighborhood. Despite the fact that the mayor had declared I-5 as the western boundary of the curfew zone, the police did not stop there. On Capitol Hill, residents and bar patrons joined the protesters, and all were pushed further west by intermittent barrages of concussion grenades and gas. Once the crowd reached Broadway, a stand-off ensued, and some people began to block the intersection with burning dumpsters. at around midnigt, arguments were continuing about whether the group should stand its ground or go home when I decided to call it a night.
12/1/99
On Wednesday morning, many store windows in the central shopping area were boarded up, and several of yesterday's demonstrators were helping sweep up broken glass and clean graffitti off walls. About 200 protesters from the Direct Action Network decided to stage a non-violent sit-in at Westlake plaza. But today, President Clinton was in town, and Seattle officials were not in the mood to deal with any dissent. Mayor Schell had declared a state of emergency, called in the National Guard, made the blocks surrounding the WTO meeting and Clinton's temporary residence at the Westin Hotel a "no protest" zone, and banned the possession, sale, or transport of gas masks. Faced with this affront, the focus of the protesters shifted somewhat from the WTO to the actions of the police and the denial of constititional rights.
Soon the police moved in and -- in a drastic departure from the day before -- arrestered the sitting demonstrators as well as many bystanders who had no intention of getting arrested. Onlookers raised peace signs and fists as the demonstrators were cuffed wth plastic ties and loaded onto city buses pressed into service to carry them to Sand Point, a decommissioned naval station several miles outside the city. The arrestees later reported that they were not given food or water and were denied access to their attorneys; the majority refused to cooperate with the police and declined to give their names.
The mainstream media and many city officials repeatedly lamented that the WTO and the surrounding events were interfering with expected holiday shopping. Indeed, little commerce was conducted Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday as Mayor Schell extended the previous night's curfew into a general 24-hour restriction on any unauthorized movement within the downtown core.
In the afternoon, under a drizzly sky, over 1,000 protesters gathered to march from downtown to join a large labor rally on the waterfront docks. Members of the steelworkers union were to dump steel into the sound to protest international trade rules that hurt American workers. Student activists, environmentalists, and anarchists alike cheered the union leaders, but grew impatient when they were followed by a string of long-winded legislators. Soon a chant of "Downtown!" arose, as protesters decided to march once again toward the convention center.
Some 4,000 people marched along the waterfront and through Seattle's famed Pike Place Market. Although police presence had been minimal at the docks, fully armed riot cops appeared seemingly out of nowhere -- on foot, on motorcycles, in squad cars, and riding the "peacekeeper" tanks -- as the crowd approached 1st Street. Once again, it didn't seem to matter that this area was several blocks outside the "no protest" zone declared by the mayor. "Flash bang" concussion grenades, designed to frighten and disorient a crowd, were followed by large amounts of tear gas. Unlike yesterday, though, today's crowds near the marketplace included shoppers, bystanders, and people leaving school or work. In the high winds, the gas could not be targeting and blanketed a several-block area. At one point, bus drivers and passengers were forced to abandon city buses as the acrid fumes filled the vehicles.
I stopped a volunteer medic on a bicycle flying a red cross flag to collect more supplies. Two of us found a sheltered spot around the corner from the melee and began helping people rinse their burning eyes. With only a pair of sunglasses and a bandanna soaked in vinegar to neutralize the acrid fumes, I found myself blinded and coughing as the wind blew the gas towards us. After recovering for a moment, I helped two Asian girls who said they were coming home from school. A demonstrator across the street assisted an elderly man who had gotten caught in the cross-fire. Although a faceful of tear gas is never pleasant, it is especially shocking and terrifying for those who are not expecting it and have no idea what hit them.
As the gas thickened, the crowd became disorganized. More riot police arrived. They ordered people to disperse, but fired on them with more and pepper spray before they had a chance to comply. Police had seemingly blocked off all routes of escape. The small group I was with attempted to turn up several side streets, only to find our exit blcoked by yet another line of police. During the panic following one grenade and gas blast, I found myself on the other side of a line of cops and was able to get away. Others were not so lucky. One group of about 100, finding themselves completely surrounded, sat in the street and began chanting, "The whole world is watching!", echoing the protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. As they did then, the cops attacked the group and a large number of arrests followed.
Many of the protesters who were not arrested made their way East on Denny Way, well north of the so-called "no protest" zone. As they had the previous evening, the police charged and gassed the crowd, moving them once more toward Capitol Hill. At Broadway, the demonstrators held a brief "victory celebration." The victory was short-lived, however. When a police SUV tried to drive through the crowd, several people began to pound and kick the vehicle, bringing an immediate response from a line of riot police stationed a couple blocks away. Once again, the tear gas flew, this time answered by a volley of firecrackers, bottles, and debris.
Many angry neighborhood residents, some of whom felt the effects of the tear gas in their homes, began to join the protesters on the streets. Others left shops and restaurants, demanding that the police "Get off our hill!" Although some neighbors also expressed anger at the protesters, but most appeared to support the demonstrators' right to engage in peaceful expression. As we watched the standoff from an adjacent corner, I talked with a young African-American high school student who lived a block away, after I had washed tear gas out of her eyes. She said she was studying to become a lawyer and hoped to fight against such civil rights abuses in the future. I gave her a spent CS cannister that I found on the grass at the community college; she wanted to take it to school the next day to show her classmates and teachers. Wednesday night's standoff continued for hours near the local precint headquarters -- and involved the gassing of a local city council member who tried to mediate between the cops and the crowd -- until the police were finally able to disperse the crowd at about 2:00 a.m.
12/2/99
On Thursday, with the first dawning of the sun all week -- and with the departure of the president -- everyone's spirits appeared to have improved considerably. A morning free speech demonstration at the community college on Capitol Hill was followed by an uneventful march to join a waterfront rally supporting farmers and opposing genetically engineered foods. A protest organizer later told me that the police -- apparently concerned about the public's negative reaction to their actions the previous day -- had offered to escort the marchers anywhere they wanted to go.
Following the farm rally, several thousand people marched through Pike's Place market and headed back downtown toward the King County jail at 4th and James to express their solidarity with those arrested the previous two days. After surrounding the jail, the demonstrators announced their intention to stay put until their comrades were released. The scene became a true "festival of resistance" as demonstrators played music and danced and Food Not Bombs distributed food. The mayor and police officials agreed to negotiate with representatives of the protesters for the release of the arrestees. Negotiations were continuing when I left to catch the last flight that night to San Francisco.
ccording to later reports, the demonstrators left before the curfew that night, but many returned to continue their vigil the next day. The arrestees continued their jail solidarity. Most were given minor charges and were released by the end of the week, but must return later for trials; a small number face more serious felony charges. A fragile progressive activist coalition was built on the basis of shared ideals rather than shared identities; it remains to be seen what will become of this in the future. The actions of the police so angered the citizens of Seattle that the chief of police was forced to resign the following week. As for the WTO, their meetings ended Friday in failure -- according to mainstream media reports -- with no major agreements or schedules for further talks. The U.S. public can no longer remain unaware of the once-secretive body that arbitrates international trade.
http://www.black-rose.com/seattle-wto.html
This message has been edited by contracycle, 11-25-2004 10:16 AM

  
contracycle
Inactive Member


Message 49 of 112 (163179)
11-25-2004 10:03 AM
Reply to: Message 47 by zephyr
11-25-2004 9:46 AM


quote:
Care to elaborate?
My organisation operates in the US, as do many others. Many US citizens are engaged in the anti-globalisation movement, and there is something of an underground; in fact most of the direct action training camps I've heard of operate of the US, or Canada. Obviously, the US is not my special responsibility or anything, local people on the ground are the best placed to make any practical intervention.
In general terms, if what you were asking about was strategic methodology, I'm entirely orthodox as a commie in this regard: the best weapon we have is the mass strike. A popular movement can effectively shut down an entire state. I see the Ukrainian opposition has called for a mass strike - this is exactly the right strategy IMO. It will make or break the movement without violence (with any luck) becuase its a pretty clear manifestation of the popular will: either nearly everyone is on your side, and the state grinds to a halt, or they are not, and the state carries and blithely ignores you till you get bored and give up.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 47 by zephyr, posted 11-25-2004 9:46 AM zephyr has not replied

  
zephyr
Member (Idle past 4540 days)
Posts: 821
From: FOB Taji, Iraq
Joined: 04-22-2003


Message 50 of 112 (163181)
11-25-2004 10:11 AM
Reply to: Message 39 by Silent H
11-25-2004 5:15 AM


quote:
I guess that was the other odd thing about the arrests, they weren't really from the front of the demonstration. Near but not exact. Did your friend say why he felt he was arrested? Was it just a random thing?
He was actually done participating and had started to leave, as part of a crowd. They were blocked off at some point by a line of riot cops, who just started locking everyone up. There was a small amount of violence (according to my friend, the cops initiated it). That's about all I remember. I heard most of the story secondhand.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 39 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 5:15 AM Silent H has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 54 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 11:29 AM zephyr has not replied

  
contracycle
Inactive Member


Message 51 of 112 (163183)
11-25-2004 10:17 AM


whoops, correct incident supplied:
THE BATTLE OF SEATTLE: 'State of emergency’ at WTO meet/ Our streets! Our world!
International Action Center Eyewitness Bulletins, December 1, December 2, 1999
Demos against the WTO and imperialism
By Key Martin reporting from Seattle
SEATTLEWED, 1 DEC 1999
Seattle, Wash.Police marched through downtown Seattle the night of Nov. 30 firing teargas, rubber and plastic bullets, and "flash and bang" concussion grenades to clear thousands of youth from the streets, after protesters closed down a World Trade Organization meeting with peaceful protests.
President Bill Clinton was expected to arrive shortly after midnight to address the WTO the next day.
A dusk-to-dawn curfew in downtown was invoked as Seattle Mayor Paul Schell declared a "state of emergency" and Washington Gov. Gary Locke called out the National Guard. Helicopters with searchlights and cameras circled as police continued to fire teargas up into the residential Capitol Hill area. Overlooking downtown, this district was supposed to be outside the curfew.
Cops began arresting people as residents from the Capitol Hill community angered over the teargassing of their neighborhoodjoined the protests.
Beginning early in the day thousands of youths had linked arms just outside the police perimeter around the WTO meeting at the Seattle convention center. They blocked every street, alley and doorway, preventing delegates from entering the area. Police attempts to dislodge them with pepper gas failed as they stood their ground.
"Whose world? Our world. Whose streets? Our streets," chanted the protesters.
Many youths had come prepared with gas masks or bottles of water and bandanas. Some were part of Direct Action Network. They were joined by feeder marches from the University of Washington. The Peoples Assembly, with a large participation from the Philippine, Korean and other Asian communities, joined later. It ended its march by singing the Internationale in three languages.
40,000 march for labor
A few hours later a labor contingent that included John Sweeney, Linda Chavez-Thompson and other leaders of the AFL-CIO marched with what one local station estimated to be 40,000 union members and youths from Memorial Stadium to the Convention Center area, stretching as far as the eye could see.
The march included large delegations from the Steelworkers, Machinists, Service Employees and AFSCME. In addition to raising labor issues, many signs read "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal." Organizers found a widespread awareness of Mumia’s case among the rank-and-file unionists.
Taxi drivers struck for the day over the city’s tightening of restrictions.
Longshore workers shut down docks
The most militant labor contingents were from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which shut down the docks in Seattle and elsewhere on the West Coast in solidarity with the WTO protests.
ILWU President Brian McWilliams addressed a pre-march rally in the packed stadium telling the crowd, "There will be no business as usual today ... demonstrating to the corporate CEOs that the global economy will not run without the consent of the workers everywhere. ... The interests of working people transcend international boundaries."
McWilliams said labor was there "to tell the agents of global capital that we will not sit quietly by while they meet behind closed doors to carve up our world."
The rally was also addressed by the new general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Velinzima Vavi. "I come from that country that has enjoyed its freedom only for a few years after many decades of slavery. I want to tell you that freedom is under a new threat today, the threat of corporate greed, corporate tyranny, a new form of terrorism led by the WTO itself, a new form of colonialism led by globalization. ... Those greedy corporations are involved in a desperate attempt to throw a new wedge between workers of the developed and workers of the developing countries. Today we want to tell them that their endeavors are not going to succeed."
Labor delegations from 120 countries marched, including a large participation from Canada.
Cops step up repression
As soon as the labor march left the downtown area, the police began to take a harder line, firing more pepper gas and then plastic bullets. Police denied the use of the plastic bullets, but this writer was struck with one. Protesters gathered them up off the ground to show the media.
Many live media reports ended abruptly as reporters suddenly began gagging and coughing from the pepper spray and teargas.
The pretext for the "state of emergency" was a series of minor incidents much earlier in the day. Windows in McDonalds and several stores, including a number of overpriced Starbucks cafes, were broken and a recycling dumpster set on fire. The incidents were replayed over and over on television, as if to justify police attacks that began pushing peaceful protesters out of downtown block by block. Without warning, police assaulted large groups with teargas, plastic bullets and concussion grenades.
Protesters were jubilant, however, over the reported closing of the WTO. As of Dec. 1, some were still occupying a number of key intersections around the Convention Center area, many on streets already closed by the police.
Protesters kicked or threw the canisters back as they played a dissonant version of the national anthem over a sound system through the teargas clouds. Police rode around standing on running boards attached to the sides and back of armored cars. But the protesters retreated only as far as they had to as police advanced through the downtown office buildings and across the interstate highway. At midnight police were still assaulting people and making arrests in the neighborhoods above downtown.
Protests are expected to continue as thousands of youth have become radicalized by the police violence.
SEATTLETHU, 2 DEC 1999
Seattle, Wash.Protesters converged once again on downtown Seattle on Wednesday in protest both of the World Trade Organization and of the police brutality that had occurred the day before as police forcefully suppressed protest. Demonstrators once again were met with tea gas and plastic and rubber bullets. About a thousand demonstrators left the afternoon protest of Steelworkers and Longshoremen to converge on the convention center area. In midst of rush hour traffic, while attempting to disperse the demonstration, police unleashed a barrage of tear gas and concussion grenades on protesters, cars and buses sitting in rush hour traffic, and bystanders.
The cops marched through the streets rhythmically banging their billy clubs, sounding a fascist drumbeat as they pursued the protesters down the street. They would speed on armored guards and then screech to a halt and open up a barrage of tear gas. In one such incident a man in a wheel chair was severely injured and could not get out of the area. People in rush hour traffic couldn’t leave their cars. On close inspection all the cops had pepper spray cans as well as billy cubs in their hands, both of which they used indiscriminately.
Protesters stood their ground from rush hour till the early morning. Moving up hill from downtown to the Broadway area, demonstrators only dispersed after being hit with a massive barrage of bullets and a new projectile, cylindrical wooden bullet unleashed on the crowd.
A number of protesters reported Wednesday that they had been assaulted, pepper sprayed, and arrested by plain clothes police outside demo area as leaving. Today’s protests were also marked by mass arrests. Over 400 people have been detained and some were tear gassed while in police custody. Medical workers who were trying to treat those who were injured were themselves assaulted by police and had equipment seized and trashed. Protesters in detention refused to come out of the buses in protest of the way in which they were detained.
There were several serious injuries that we are aware of by people who were fleeing the tea gas attack.
In response to demonstrators wearing tear gas masks for their own self defense, police last night removed them and used pepper spray at close range. Now authorities have outlawed wearing the masks downtown and have said they will arrested anyone caught with one on. People came out of their houses with water to help wash tear gas and pepper spray off demonstrators, as the community joined into protests in large numbers as it grew throughout the night.
Police pepper sprayed an entire news van, causing the KIRO radio host, who was reporting live, to began gasping for air in the midst of her descriptions of the protests and police brutality. Even delegates to WTO were tear gassed and sprayed.
In addition to raising the effects on the corporate imperialism of the WTO, the banners of the International Action Center help up a banner with three-foot high letters demanding "Free Mumia" could be seen in the marches amidst the tear gas.
At a press conference Thursday morning, it was announced that the protests will continue; there will be a 11 am procession.
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
This message has been edited by contracycle, 11-25-2004 10:31 AM

  
Silent H
Member (Idle past 5810 days)
Posts: 7405
From: satellite of love
Joined: 12-11-2002


Message 52 of 112 (163200)
11-25-2004 11:16 AM
Reply to: Message 46 by contracycle
11-25-2004 9:44 AM


Perhaps you missed the part where I menmtioned that plenty of tape was shot and distributed world-wide. As is the nature of these events, its very difficult to form an overview from the thick of the action. Why don't we look at a live report filed by Collateral Damage:
I guess you are unfamiliar with the geography of the US, Chicago is nowhere near Seattle. From what I understand some really shitty things happened in Seattle and I am not in any way doubting that they happened.
I had not heard the WTO protests called the battle for Seattle before so that is why I asked.
The problem is you are pumping up a few instances without looking at many other instances. I am telling you that other situations did not turn out anything like what happened in Seattle.
My cameras caught actions that went down well, and indeed for one of the protests there was a lot of antagonism of the cops by the protestors. And let me tell you I have no inherent sympathy for police.
The New York protests also went very well, and from what I understand so did protests in SF and LA (with only a few instances of real police brutality).
Perhaps you enjoy how protestors are treated in other nations?
This message has been edited by holmes, 11-25-2004 11:18 AM

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 46 by contracycle, posted 11-25-2004 9:44 AM contracycle has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 53 by contracycle, posted 11-25-2004 11:22 AM Silent H has replied

  
contracycle
Inactive Member


Message 53 of 112 (163201)
11-25-2004 11:22 AM
Reply to: Message 52 by Silent H
11-25-2004 11:16 AM


quote:
Perhaps you enjoy how protestors are treated in other nations?
Is there a difference? I mean by even by South African standards this was a full-bore cluster-fuck in which the police radically exceeded their remit and used far, far too high a level of violence far too indiscriminately.
And, is this a race to the bottom? Remember my thesis is that the US has no credibility to export democracy to anyone, and is urgent need of an investigation into its own democratic crdentials. does refraining from Tiananmen Square type massacres necessarily counter my argument?
Further, if the police are willing, able, and supported in going completely batshit in this manner in an event in which they were NOT threatened by physical violence, how do you think they will respond if there is such a prospect, or if a tangible threat to the prevailing order is perceived? They will shoot first and ask questions later. So yes, at this point I am expecting that demonstrations in the US will soonner or later result in a very significant body-count.
This message has been edited by contracycle, 11-25-2004 11:30 AM

This message is a reply to:
 Message 52 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 11:16 AM Silent H has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 55 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 11:32 AM contracycle has replied

  
Silent H
Member (Idle past 5810 days)
Posts: 7405
From: satellite of love
Joined: 12-11-2002


Message 54 of 112 (163203)
11-25-2004 11:29 AM
Reply to: Message 50 by zephyr
11-25-2004 10:11 AM


He was actually done participating and had started to leave, as part of a crowd. They were blocked off at some point by a line of riot cops, who just started locking everyone up. There was a small amount of violence (according to my friend, the cops initiated it).
Yeah, that's what was so wierd. I left because it really felt like everything was over. Then when I get home I hear that shortly after I left people began gettingarrested? When I saw where it was I was left scratching my head as it wasn't exactly the "front line".
I heard some people decided to get confrontational and then the police just started grabbing anyone at random. Of course I have also heard the cops just started grabbing people and that's when some people got pissed.
Just to let you know, in chicago it was really hard to discern cop from riot cop. The latter sounds menacing but it was just regular duty cops (and they could be just as out of shape as ever). For some reason the police department shelled out big bucks and got just about everyone robocop style bodyarmour (meaning police from the movie robocop, not robocop himself).
Many of the guys just look lost and I taped some getting impromptu training. Some were even getting all goofy with the fact that they were now wearing unusual getups.
An interesting counterpoint was taking part in the largest protest in the Netherlands in 20 years. It had to be larger than the Chicago protests, but there were a lot fewer cops and I really didn't see many in armor.
I love to see how people and cities react to mass actions.

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 50 by zephyr, posted 11-25-2004 10:11 AM zephyr has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 56 by contracycle, posted 11-25-2004 11:37 AM Silent H has replied

  
Silent H
Member (Idle past 5810 days)
Posts: 7405
From: satellite of love
Joined: 12-11-2002


Message 55 of 112 (163204)
11-25-2004 11:32 AM
Reply to: Message 53 by contracycle
11-25-2004 11:22 AM


Is there a difference?
Yes. Protestors can be and have been treated worse in different nations.
I think you need to take a broader view, especially of dissent within the US. There certainly are bad incidents, but there are protests that work as well. Its just that the ones that go right don't make as much news.

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 53 by contracycle, posted 11-25-2004 11:22 AM contracycle has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 57 by contracycle, posted 11-25-2004 11:38 AM Silent H has replied

  
contracycle
Inactive Member


Message 56 of 112 (163205)
11-25-2004 11:37 AM
Reply to: Message 54 by Silent H
11-25-2004 11:29 AM


There is a discernable strategy to provoke violence at these demonstrations. At the London solidarity demonstration for Seattle, which I attended, the police employed the technique they call "the bubble". What they do is surround protestors, squeeze them in, and refuse to let them leave. When I was in the bubble, I was squished in next to a woman who asked to be let out so she could retrieve her child from daycare, and who was told" you should have thought of that before you came". Also, there were some German tourists trapped in the bubble.
Now the nominal theory behind the bubble is to make the protestors bored through passivity. Allegedly. Unfortunately, it always has exactly the opposite result, and is likely to provoke serious breakout attempts. Seeing as the majority of people will believe ewhat see on the news, and never invbestigate the facts, its very easy to use the bubble, cause a riot, and thus dismiss the issues that brought the demonstrators out as "discredited". It is the purposeful and deliberate frustration of democratic politics.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 54 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 11:29 AM Silent H has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 58 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 12:04 PM contracycle has not replied

  
contracycle
Inactive Member


Message 57 of 112 (163207)
11-25-2004 11:38 AM
Reply to: Message 55 by Silent H
11-25-2004 11:32 AM


quote:
Yes. Protestors can be and have been treated worse in different nations.
And its abundantly clear, America is no better. America is a democracy in name only; its actual existance is an oligarchy.
You are failing to adress, for example, the persistent misrepresentation of these events by a craven and government-worshipping media.
quote:
I think you need to take a broader view, especially of dissent within the US. There certainly are bad incidents, but there are protests that work as well. Its just that the ones that go right don't make as much news
I could say the same for virtually any state on the planet.
This message has been edited by contracycle, 11-25-2004 11:40 AM

This message is a reply to:
 Message 55 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 11:32 AM Silent H has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 59 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 12:15 PM contracycle has replied

  
Silent H
Member (Idle past 5810 days)
Posts: 7405
From: satellite of love
Joined: 12-11-2002


Message 58 of 112 (163215)
11-25-2004 12:04 PM
Reply to: Message 56 by contracycle
11-25-2004 11:37 AM


If you are trying to insinuate the Chicago police used "the bubble" approach, then you are wrong. There was a huge open back area... indeed the area I left through. If you knew the watertower square you'd understand ringing and crushing it would be just about impossible.
From what I understand it was people walking around and into a certain section that were grabbed. If it was a ringed area, then the police only picked on a very small and very side area (indeed grabbing some coming out of a hotel) to encircle.
I suppose it is possible they had a strategy of some other sort to antagonize protestors into something. The fact remains this "strategy" remained hidden as the demonstration shut down a large section of LSD, and then Michigan Ave (arteries of chicago transport), and then waited until after the protestors had camped out for at least an hour in the heart of the Mag Mile (surrounding the water tower)... Indeed waiting until many had already started going home.
And then they did not grab a large group of anyone in relation to the massive group that was there.

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 56 by contracycle, posted 11-25-2004 11:37 AM contracycle has not replied

  
Silent H
Member (Idle past 5810 days)
Posts: 7405
From: satellite of love
Joined: 12-11-2002


Message 59 of 112 (163218)
11-25-2004 12:15 PM
Reply to: Message 57 by contracycle
11-25-2004 11:38 AM


America is no better. America is a democracy in name only; its actual existance is an oligarchy.
Actually the US is better than many nations when it comes to human rights. That is what makes your hyperbolic assertions pointless.
I do believe it is having some major problems. I think there are issues which need to be addressed to get it back into better shape as a democracy.
I do not believe it is an oligarchy, though it is certainly trending toward that and if people don't stop it, that will happen. Well, actually it is a little more complicated than oligarchy, but that is close enough.
Making it worse than it is, just puts you in the same class as Bush calling other nations "the axis of evil". It is hyperbolic and does not offer practical solutions.
You are failing to adress, for example, the persistent misrepresentation of these events by a craven and government-worshipping media.
I criticize the media all the time. Actually you are mistating the facts though. It is sensationalist-worshipping media. Some go left and some go right and the facts go straight out the window.
FOX is clearly a propaganda machine for Bush and Co, but the rest are not as easy to peg, except as worthless.
I wish Europe would start broadcasting in their news services over our own.
I could say the same for virtually any state on the planet.
Virtually, but not all. And that is the problem. There are some powerful nations that are worse and you seem to give them some free pass, while overvillifying what the US and its citizens are like.

holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

This message is a reply to:
 Message 57 by contracycle, posted 11-25-2004 11:38 AM contracycle has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 60 by jar, posted 11-25-2004 2:18 PM Silent H has replied
 Message 64 by contracycle, posted 11-26-2004 6:49 AM Silent H has replied

  
jar
Member (Idle past 384 days)
Posts: 34026
From: Texas!!
Joined: 04-20-2004


Message 60 of 112 (163229)
11-25-2004 2:18 PM
Reply to: Message 59 by Silent H
11-25-2004 12:15 PM


FOX is clearly a propaganda machine for Bush and Co, but the rest are not as easy to peg, except as worthless.
I think you give FOX and most of the others way too much credit.
IMHO, FOX's stance is called "Counter programming". They have no more vested interest in content, in supporting Bush or the right wing than in any of the other programs they air. It is a matter of marketing and demographics. As long as the Neilson's support the desired revenue stream they will support Bush. If advertising should drop off, so would the support.

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

This message is a reply to:
 Message 59 by Silent H, posted 11-25-2004 12:15 PM Silent H has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 61 by MangyTiger, posted 11-25-2004 6:35 PM jar has replied
 Message 63 by Silent H, posted 11-26-2004 5:29 AM jar has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024