Tag: Seattle

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Decentralized Action: A Brief History and Tactical Proposal

The rebellion kicked off by the murder of George Floyd has rocked the so-called United States for over 160 days. On stolen Duwamish territory (“Seattle”), we have witnessed daily actions tying up and attacking the infrastructure which maintains the white-supremacist American police state. Regular actions like the Every Night Direct Demonstration (ENDD) and Every Day March (EDM), as well as periodic larger pushes against targets like the police union clubhouse, are met with repression by the Seattle Police Department. During these SPD frequently abandons their supposed duty to enforce “Law and Order” in the rest of the city by shifting to “Priority Only” calls. The majority of on-duty officers are placed on protest response duties. The high visibility of these ongoing actions opens up considerable space for decentralized militant actions to occur away from the public callouts.

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The World Opens Up: Recalling the First Week of the Uprising in #Seattle

Seattle. WA. In September 2020 a quiet call-out for submissions was put out to friends, comrades and accomplices to share personal experiences of the uprising that did in fact occur in Seattle as an organ of the George Floyd Rebellion. While we do not view our own contribution to the struggle against police and white supremacy as overtly exceptional in the broad landscape of insurrection that overtook our senses this summer, we find importance in reading and learning from our experiences for reflection and growth. We offer this collection as an attempt to glimpse the chaotic uprising that encompassed our lives and hope to provide an opportunity for those near and far to gain from it. The insurrection is very much over in Seattle. What lives and breathes now in its skeleton is much more like a giant octopus or squid, each tentacle representing a different arm attacking the city and the police in a variety of ways: through militant direct action in the streets, symbolic protest committed to raising awareness, mutual aid networks providing tools of survival for houseless folks as well as various legal and jail support teams.

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#Seattle, #WA: The Night of the Breonna Taylor Verdict

Seattle. Washington. The rain is light. The wind intermittent. We wait till it’s darker to move out. There’s about two hundred of us garbed in black. Masks on. Tools out. Anger in our hearts.

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#Seattle, #WA: #CHAZ / #CHOP Analysis – Glimmers of Hope, Failures of the Left

Seattle. WA. Out of the national uprising in protest of the racist police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis emerged a movement occupied space of 8-10 blocks in the Seattle neighborhood of Capitol Hill. The space began “as an accident” when on the evening of June 7 a man drove drove into the protests and shot a demonstrator. Quickly the crowds set up barricades at several intersections and an occupy style encampment emerged as the the mayor ordered the evacuation of the East Precinct police statement encompassed within the zone. Originally deemed the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) the space was soon renamed Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) and remained in place until July 1 when Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered police to clear out the space after a series of late night shootings. Written in late July 2020, this critical analysis piece was based on discussions and experiences of our Seattle Black Rose/Rosa Negra comrades.

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#Seattle: Police Sweep Mutual Aid Soup Kitchen, Black Bloc Returns Fire

Seattle. WA. In the morning hours of Tuesday September 1st, Seattle Parks Department and Seattle Police initiated a sweep of unhoused people staying at Cal Anderson Park and the soup kitchen and community center set up in and around the previously abandoned (and now repurposed) shelter-house at the center of the park. Police pushed people out of the area surrounding the shelter house, making several arrests and claiming the park was closed while people could be seen working out and walking their dogs on the other side of the field. Seattle Police also confiscated a cache of shields, as well as spike strips. Seattle Parks employees confiscated tents, clothes and camping gear, only to throw them in a garbage truck, while snacking on food donated for the Shelter House and unhoused people with Seattle Police. Several arrests were made.

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#Seattle, #WA: Black Bloc Attacks Two Police Precincts in One Night

Seattle. WA. On Monday night, August 24th, a crowd of roughly 200 in black bloc gathered at Cal Anderson Park ready to march. The park has been the site of multiple stand-offs with the police recently, as a previously unoccupied shelter-house in the park has been cracked open and taken over to provide hot meals and shelter for unhoused people. Police have multiple times swept the park and arrested anyone literally caught in their way, yet the occupation of the building continues, providing much needed support services for the most vulnerable in our community at the height of a pandemic.

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#Seattle, #WA: July 19th Anti-Ice Action Youth Reportback

Seattle. WA. July 19th’s Anti-ICE protest began with a call to gather at Westlake at 11am, with speeches at 1pm. Speeches were given on the importance of solidarity in the face of police violence, highlighting the ways in which policing hurts not only the Black community, but Indigenous people, queer people, and the working class. This was followed by a warning that the day’s actions would be more intense than other marches in Seattle over the past couple weeks. The crowd was informed not to film protesters partaking in illegal action, not to peace-police each other, and not to panic in the face of police response. A diverse crowd of 200-300 people, including 40-50 in bloc, was ready to move out by this time.

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These Colors DO Run: #Seattle Reportback from July 4th “Patriot” Rally

Seattle. WA. Today on July 4th, after spending a full month planning to “liberate Seattle”, fascists and the far-right managed to only get 30 people to bother to show up to shut down CHOP or whatever they thought they were going to do. The group, upon arrival at Cal Anderson were met with immediate resistance from the community and numbers were pretty much even, not counting police, throughout.

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In Defense of Autonomy: #Seattle’s #CHOP Advanced the Movement for Black Lives

CHOP is dead, long live CHOP! As the police moved to dismantle the Seattle Capitol Hill Organized Protest (formerly “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone”) earlier this morning, this piece by Seattle based historian Micheal Reagan eloquently reflects on the power, significance and important weaknesses inherent in the movement.

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