Tacoma SDS

Saturday night, May 2nd, Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) folks gathered at 21st and Pacific Avenue in Downtown Tacoma, successfully taking Pacific Avenue over and marched to the Pierce County Jail where the intersection of 9th and Tacoma Ave was occupied for about 15 minutes by a bad ass Coup sound track. Photos coming soon (please post if you have any!)

No downtown arrests as of 2:40am.

LAKEWOOD, WA -- As citizens converge on Fort Lewis to resist the deployment of Stryker vehicles to Iraq and Afghanistan, police have stepped up their interference with the legal activities of activists and bystanders. As of 11:40 pm, police have stopped numerous vehicles and detained and questioned their drivers and passengers.

LAKEWOOD, WA -- A Stryker brigade has begun deployment to Afghanistan from Fort Lewis tonight, Friday, May 1, 2009. Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) and Tacoma PMR are organizing blockades and coordinating direct action in order to delay or completely halt the deployment.

Strykers, also known as 'IAV Stryker' vehicles, are the primary mechanized tools used by ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. PMR seeks to prevent the shipment of Strykers and other military equipment through the use of direct acts, such as blockades.

As the Obama administration continues the war on Iraq and escalates the war in Afghanistan, opposition to U.S. imperialism only becomes more urgent, especially in the face of the failure of politicians to bring the wars to an end. Citizens who oppose U.S.-sponsored violence abroad are left with one option: to physically block the war machine. PMR actions put direct economic strain on the governments that support these wars and place direct social pressure on the politicians that continue them. At a time when rampant foreclosures affect families across the nation and the federal government still chooses to increase the military budget for these wars of occupation, it is up to our communities to resist US imperialism.

Port Militarization Resistance formed in May 2006, after a series of non-violent blockades delayed the shipment of Stryker vehicles leaving the Port of Olympia for Iraq. In 2007, PMR was involved with protests against the use of public ports to transport military vehicles to Iraq from Tacoma and Aberdeen. At the end of 2007, a Stryker brigade returning to Ft. Lewis from Iraq was blockaded at the Port of Olympia, the longest blockade lasting 17 hours. In August of 2008, PMR blockaded military equipment returning from Iraq at three different entrances to Ft. Lewis.

AIS is telling us that the USNS Brittin, a large medium speed roll-on, roll-off ship, has arrived this morning at Tacoma and is unloading now.

This is the same ship which dropped off the 3rd/2nd Strykers in November 2007 at Olympia.

We do not know yet which cargo the ship is dropping off, or loading.

We expect this might be the equipment of the 864th Engineers or the 4th/2nd
Stryker Brigade, both back from Iraq.

Monday, April 14, 2008 at 9:00am - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 4:30pm

Tacoma County-City Building
930 Tacoma Avenue South
Tacoma, WA

Contact InfoEmail:
peteryan@cox.net

On March 9, 2007, Peter was part of a crowd of peaceful protestors against the occupation of Iraq, and specifically the shipment of striker vehicles and other weapons from Ft. Lewis, through the Port of Tacoma, to Iraq to precede the troop surge.

We'll be gathering at Tacoma Community College's Building 11 Commons Area on Saturday, March 29th
at 2PM, for a 3 hour meeting to discuss these and any other questions or issues your local Port Militarization Resistance participants may have.

What do you want out of town participants to do when you call them to help you?

What resources will you need from our collective skill set / resource base?

What intelligence do we have?

We'll be setting agenda more specifically when we meet.

For the second time in a week, protesters successfully stopped military equipment from moving out of the Port of Olympia today. A couple of vehicles attempted to leave around 8:30 a.m. but with no
police on scene were stopped by protesters standing across the access road.

"I've talked to them," said Olympia police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad, referring to officials coordinating the equipment's movement. "They tried. It didn't work so they're just going to hold off."

The News Tribune published an article yesterday saying the bill for the Port of Tacoma police presence totaled $621,489 for the 24/12 -- 12 days 24-hours -- of militarization at the port. The city manager and the mayor are debating who should pay the bill and officials went to D.C. to ask the Department of Defense for assistance.