Report from military shipments picket at Port of Aberdeen, WA

People are meeting in Aberdeen today (Sunday) at 2pm to confront the war
machine at the port in Aberdeen (directions to get there from olympia/I-5
are below). For Olympians, be at Harrison and Divison at 12:30 for a
carpool. There is a march and action planned in the afternoon with more to
happen later in the evening - so come whenever you can.

A quick recap from Saturday's events:

There were 50 people who showed up for a march and rally today. The rest
of the day was followed by police surveilance and intimidation. There were
several people who attended the rally who later went out to eat in
Aberdeen. They walked to the dumpster at the restaurant they were at and
noticed some toys next to it. One person played around with the toy gun he
had found and very soon thereafter 8 cop cars descended upon them and
harrased the people there. The cops on the scene said they were responding
to a gun threat (which means they were closely watching the protesters and
following them - trying to find any excuse to scare them and intimidate
them).

In the evening, several people were invited inside an all-ages concert at
the Polish Hall in Aberdeen to talk to kids about what's going on in the
port. Undercover cop cars and regular cop cars were circling the block,
and were parked outside of the Polish Hall watching people congregating
outside the building. Right before the invited people were about to talk
at the concert, the owner told them that Officer Slyter of the Aberdeen
Police Dept. warned him that if he let them speak then he would send in a
bunch of cops and shut down his building. He also said that the people who
were going to speak (all from Olympia) were violent Eugene anarchists who
want to destroy property. The notorious "Eugene Anarchists" were then
followed by undercover and regular cop cars when they left the Polish Hall
and were intimidated and harassed by cops and K-9 units with barking
dogs...

Today, Strykers were seen entering the port. As of now there are two
rows of six vehicles. Apache helicopters also landed in the port to
be shipped out. We have no word as to when the boat will be in, but
using the Port of Tacoma shipment as a reference, they will most
likely be arriving during the next few days, waiting there and then
being loaded onto the boat. So we basically have a week, perhaps a
week and a half.

This clearly shows that the Aberdeen police are afraid of us. We are
winning and they know it. The military isn't shipping through Tacoma
and/or Olympia now for a reason. We need to show the police, government
and military that we will not sit idly by when our ports are militarized
and the cops repress us. We're not sure how long the military shipments
will be in Aberdeen but we need to show them soon that this will be the
last time the military uses Aberdeen's port.

Tear it down!

So far, the plan is this:

Meet at the corner of 28th and John Stevens Way (directions below) this
Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm (until whenever). From there we can figure
out what to do and those with plans can relate them to others. The
cops have nicely set up a free speech zone for us which we should all
kindly ignore. We are in a much better location than in Tacoma. The
port is pressed up against neighborhoods (exactly on block away) and we
are not trapped in a wire cage, giving us a lot more to work with.

Please bring every one you know. If you HAVE to pick one of the days
to come, then come on SUNDAY! Things will be continuing after Sunday,
but this will be our first burst of energy. More details will be sent
out when they arrive. Hope you all can come down.

Directions:

From I-5 take exit 104 into Highway 101.

Follow 101 until it merges with Highway 8 (there should be signs for
Aberdeen near the split)

Follow until you reach Aberdeen.

After you enter the city, continue down main road through downtown. 101
suddenly appears downtown in the form of the main road (just look for 101
signs). Follow it until you reach 28th.

Take left on 28th and follow until you hit the water.

We will be meeting at the end of 28th. There is an observation tower
there and a public boat launch. We will gather there and decide what to
do.

Drive carefully.