Tacoma SDS

A roadside bomb Tuesday killed two soldiers of a Fort Lewis Stryker brigade sent to southern Afghanistan to battle the Taliban, the Pentagon announced Sunday.

Pfc. Jonathan C. Yanney of Litchfield, Minn., and Spc. Troy O. Tom of Shiprock, N.M., became the first members of 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division killed since it deployed in June.

Protesters are resisting the US Military surge in Afghanistan by blocking Stryker Vehicles bound for the Port of Tacoma for shipment overseas.

May 3, 2009 Tacoma, WA – Activists staged a series of successful direct actions in several locations on the night of May 2, blocking striker vehicles bound for the Port of Tacoma from Fort Lewis. Blockades halted strikers at several points along Interstate 5, and 11 activists were arrested. Demonstrators have pledged to continue resisting the use of the port for war shipments.

Coffee Strong Sunday Meet-up

Meeting to coordinate actions and prepare for stryker shipments to the Port of Tacoma. Meet at Coffee Strong at 7pm.

15109 Union Ave SW in Lakewood, next door to Subway.

In the next few months, the US military intends to send 17,000 new soldiers to
Afghanistan. This will increase by one half the size of their hugely unpopular
occupation. Vice President Joe Biden himself has gone on the record to say he
expects an “uptick” in American deaths in Afghanistan. The CIA and US military have
begun bombing civilians in, and even sending in ground troops into, Pakistan, to
much popular opposition from the Pakistani people. The current administration is
already preparing to escalate and spread military campaign further into Pakistan.

Early this morning at the gate of Fort Lewis three activists using lockboxes stopped Strykers from entering the Fort for over twenty minutes. The action ended up stopping shipments for twenty minutes and cost various law enforcement agencies a great deal of money. The on site street medic said that there were more cops at the action then he had ever seen in one place.

At 8:00 p.m. demonstrators numbering 15-20 converged on Puyallup and East D. Estimates counted 30 police cars. Several convoys left the port beginning at 11:20 p.m.; last reported convoy at 3:30 a.m.