The US military will have to think twice before it ever again tries to use Olympia, WA as a launching point for war.
For 13 unforgettable days in November, people in this small community engaged in a courageous and spirited campaign of resistance to the war in Iraq. Sixty-six arrests were made and untold numbers were assaulted by police during a campaign which made national and international news. Day after day, and night after night, people put their lives on hold and their bodies on the line to prevent movement of military equipment from the Port of Olympia to nearby Fort Lewis.
The campaign was organized primarily by the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (OlyPMR), a coalition of peace groups, students, and individual community members. As well, there were student groups such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and non-affiliated folks, all of whom have worked together in recent years to oppose shipments of war materials through the ports of Olympia, Tacoma and Grays Harbor.
Early in November activists learned that the USNS Brittin would arrive on Nov. 5, bringing Stryker combat vehicles and other equipment back from Iraq through the Port of Olympia to Fort Lewis. The equipment belongs to the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, whose roughly 3,600 soldiers returned home in October from a 15-month deployment to Iraq except for the 48 who died from injuries sustained in Iraq.
OlyPMR was founded in May of 2006 when activists attempted to block outgoing equipment in advance of the deployment of that same 3rd Stryker Brigade. Activists then united under the banner of Port Militarization Resistance, declaring a common mission to "end our community's participation in the illegal occupation of Iraq by stopping US military use of the Port of Olympia."
Thirty-seven arrests were made for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience during that campaign, which was preceded by two years of marches, vigils, forums and petitioning of public officials through multiple avenues to protest the use of Olympia's port for war-related shipments.
Just as in May of 2006, when activists blocked shipments directly supplying the war in Iraq, they resolved in November to block the same equipment now returning to Fort Lewis only to be refitted and redeployed to the war.
On Nov. 6, the group released a statement saying, "We oppose Olympia's complicity in a war whose disastrous effects have been felt worldwide and we will actively resist the use of Olympia's port to further that war. Through nonviolent actions we intend to stop the Port of Olympia from becoming a revolving door of military machinery furthering illegal war."
In another press release later that day, OlyPMR reaffirmed its commitment to a nonviolence statement written in February of 2007, including a pledge to refrain from physical assaults, verbal harassment and malicious sabotage.
Original article source: http://www.counterpunch.org/mayes12132007.html
