Yesterday was another dreary, rainy day in Olympia, but the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance group had called a rally down to the port to protest the war, and you could feel the excitement building. The local paper, The Olympian, estimated that there were about 350 in attendance, which might be generous but seems roughly right to me. They had drums, Che and even a Truther, so they were off to an official start.

Here’s a few of the things that kids make in art class nowadays.

This young man’s sign said “Class Struggle Against the Imperialist War Machine!”

If you wonder where he’s dredging up rhetoric like that, you might not need to look any further than the local school, Evergreen State College. This was one of the speakers.

He was introduced as Larry Mosqueda, a professor at Evergreen State College. This quarter he is teaching Marxist Theory. From the course description:

If one believes the current mass media, one would believe that Marxism is dead and that the “end of history” is upon us. As Mark Twain is reported to have said upon news accounts of his demise, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” The same, of course, is true for Marxist Theory.

Of course. Who could possibly look back at the 20th Century and get the silly notion that Marxism was an utterly failed ideology? From his personal web page at the college:

A little quiz (answers below)
…
3. What is the qualitative and quantitative difference between a “terrorist” who bombs a building and an “officer and a gentleman” who bombs a building?

Answers: … 3) What is the difference? You tell me.

From his speech at the protest:

We’ve had two weeks of protests here, and more importantly, two weeks of resistance. It’s five years after the war started, almost five years. It’s not even a question anymore whether the war is illegal and immoral. It is.

Which makes what’s going on in Olympia, and the port, complicit in war crimes.

We are not afraid of the police, and we have gone from protest to resistance. And it’s not just a moral statement but our goal is to no longer just to protest the war, to make a moral statement, our goal is to STOP the war.

And I put the emphasis on resistance, and stopping the war. It’s no longer enough just to write letters. They don’t pay attention.

He goes on to quote the discredited Lancet study on Iraqi casualties, and then talks about numerous inquiries that they have received from activists in other cities about starting their own direct action groups at their ports. Look for more sabotage in the months ahead.

Here are a few other speakers.

Ok, just kidding on that last one. By the way, perhaps someone with more experience in such matters can tell me if that is really a double hemp rope bra strap on the first speaker above? Good grief. Don’t they get TLC in Olympia?

A major topic at this rally was police brutality. They were repeatedly pushing the message that they were victims of the Olympia Police Department (OPD), in signs, press releases and speeches.

These two Olympia students are Patricia and Kathleen Hutchison, the twins that were arrested at one of the more violent protests. They are mentioned in the protest group’s press release above.

One of them launched into quite a profanity laced tirade against the police on the stage.

And speaking of the police, I would have gotten pictures of them, only they weren’t there. At all. The entire time. Not even a bicycle cop or a parked cruiser on the side. The march started, moved in front of cars on the street, and travelled down all lanes of one of the main streets in downtown Olympia, shutting down traffic. The protesters ruled the streets. Here is the start, and the tail end.

Note the cars behind trying to get past. Here is one car that got caught in the middle.

The “peace activist” in front lost his cool and started pounding on the cars hood. Hard. Some other protesters were finally able to get him to chill out and walk away. Remember that the women in this car were simply driving down the road when they were swarmed by these peace zombies. For a bit of irony, note the cap the guy was wearing. It says “National Lawyers Guild: LEGAL OBSERVER.”

The only other real tense point came when a counter-protester tried to get up on the back of the stage to take pictures and he didn’t leave his sign behind. Tempers flared briefly, but they were tamped down as quickly as possible by the organizers.

The guy in the second picture is one of the counter-protesters who went over to try and calm things down and get the other guy off the stage in one piece. As I was going through the pictures at home later I finally noticed his cap. The logo is for Caterpillar. This is the company that sold the bulldozer to Israel that crushed Rachel Corrie. It was unsuccessfully sued by her parents in that incident. Remember that Rachel was a product of the same Evergreen State College that many of the protesters attend. The guy’s got guts, that’s all I can say, going to the protest with that cap.

Despite these two incidents, I got the distinct impression from their comments at the beginning that they intended this march to be for the cameras and public consumption and that they didn’t want any incidents of violence or property damage to hurt their cause. It was challenging for some of them to change gears that way, and I heard one of them yell “Enough of this non-violence crap!” However the Stryker equipment has nearly all been moved, so for now there is not much incentive to attack the port facilities, at least in daylight.

This is one of the organizers, Phan Nguyen. He was also involved in the Ehren Watada press conference when that officer announced his plans for resistance.

Speaking of Ehren Watada, here is one telling endorsement for him. From the “Freedom Socialist Party.”

Earlier I mentioned that there were no police. Actually, there was one that showed up.

There were a few troop supporters waiting for them at the end of the march. Including an eagle.

Anti-war protesters lined up in front of them with a “Warning: Fascism!” sign, and an upside down American flag.

Even the doggies and children were brought along. I really wish they would just leave the kids home on these things.

An interesting take on this sign. By this logic it is just fine to commit perjury provided you don’t shoot someone afterwards.

Well that wraps up this protest. Just enough time left for one big group hug.

Click here for the full gallery of pictures.

Also check out this protest a couple days earlier at the Tacoma Mall against a recruiting station.

Finally, here is a message to the community from the President of Evergreen State College about the incidents. Apparently there has been property damage to the campus. I can’t help but think about chickens (moonbats?) coming home to roost. He calls on the adult organizers to get a message across to the youth they are stirring up. When you commit civil disobedience, you can expect a police response.

Hmm. Just maybe those kids will learn one useful thing in college.

UPDATE: Welcome, many readers! My bandwidth got exceeded. By double. Had to offload pics to another server and pay the piper. Not that I’m complaining, mind you :)