Thinking Strategically about the Antiwar Movement
During the the week of actions starting March 15, there was a flurry of media around the questions: what’s next for the antiwar movement? where to from here? I went to a panel organized by the Heads Up collective, I produced a program for KPFA, and there were tons of newspaper articles and radio stories.
I’d like to give a shout-out to the War Resisters League, for prioritizing listening and learning from the movement. Organizer Matthew Smucker is working on a report that details finding from interviewing over 100 grassroots organizers around the country. You can get a preview of the findings from his new article in The Indypendent: “What is to be done? Assessing the Antiwar Movement” Big ups to WRL for thinking long term, past the next big anniversary or march or demo.
Look! I made a booklet!
Yep, I made a booklet!
Last year I wrote a long article about the end of Clamor Magazine, and I was encouraged to revise and expand it by my friend Ramsey for his new publishing house, PM Press. Well, now it’s done, and all fancy! You can buy it, any moment now, through the AK Press website. I circulated the article last year on the internet, but the pamphlet version is revised and much expanded.
I’ll be doing some miscellaneous speaking events to support the pamphlet, and you can find out more on the “Upcoming Events” page, or you can find out more about the things I’ll be talking about by visiting my page at Aid & Abet Booking.
Writing the pamphlet felt good. It was good to process all of the stuff that had accumulated in my head for seven years, but honestly I could have written about 10 times the material. Here’s a small blurb from the back of the pamphlet to give you an idea of what I wanted to talk about: “This analysis is presented as a case study on how movement projects and organizations deal with vital but rarely discussed issues such as management, sustainability, ownership, structure, finance, decision making, power, diversity, and vision.” So, you kinda get the idea.
From the Streets — March 15 and 19, 2008
“I say all this to you because hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. I say this because hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency; because hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.”
– Rebecca Solnit, author of “Hope in the Dark,” from a Words Against War Read-out yesterday on the street in downtown San Francisco
On Saturday March 15 and Wednesday March 19, I protested the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I don’t feel it’s necessary to talk about why I am against the war, but I did blog at AllVoices.com about why I think protesting is important and a few thoughts on the future of the anti-war movement.
What I want to do here is give some photos and an account of what happened at at the two actions I participated in as part of my affinity group, Bay Rising, and the larger organizing group Direct Action to Stop the War, to give a sense of what it was like to be there.
March 15, 2008 – Rally and Direct Action at Chevron’s Refinery in Richmond, California
As part of a lead up to the anniversary of the war, we decided to target Chevron, which has its headquarters in San Ramon, California (we did a protest there last year), and a refinery in Richmond, California, just north of Berkeley.
Why Chevron? They are the perfect example of a corporation that has been a driving force behind our presence in Iraq, a clear beneficiary of any oil policy that gives control of oil to foreign corporations, as well as a clear criminal at home – their refinery in Richmond spews tons of toxic waste onto the community. Right now, community groups in Richmond are fighting against a proposed expansion (or, “retooling” if you prefer greenwashing), so it’s a clear link to war abroad to war at home – and a link to an ongoing community struggle. Organizers often get frustrated when they do actions and there are no next steps – here there are clear ones, like showing up to the planning commission meeting in Richmond about the expansion, which, incidentally, is happening about an hour from now.
I was really proud of the work of my fellow Bay Rising and DASW comrades. Although I wasn’t super-involved with the organizing, I was proud that we were good allies, by doing things like:
- meeting with groups in Richmond to make sure that they felt that our action would support their ongoing campaigns, and not hurt it
- making sure that the messaging and goals were agreed to by everyone
- having meetings in Richmond so that the community groups didn’t have to travel
- bringing community organizers from Richmond to DASW meetings so that other parts of DASW can connect with the community groups
What was planned was a rally at a park and then civil disobedience/direct action at the refinery. In the picture below, I’m locked down (in the middle) between two really good friends – roommate Max on the left of the photo and friend Matt on the right. The point of locking down was to prevent Iraqi oil from going in or out of the refinery for the time we were there. Though we had planned for there to be 20 or so people risking arrest, when we came up with the march from the rally and a bunch of people ran up and sat down, there were over 70 people either locked in boxes (like the ones pictured below), or sitting in, blocking the entire roadway. It was super powerful. My favorite part of the action was when a bunch of bicyclists got off their bikes, sat down, and chained the bikes together. That was hot because it was unexpected and some of the people were new to direct action and it looked cool. (I almost wrote “hella cool” there. Does that mean I’m a true Californian now?)
There was tons of great media coverage, and it looked awesome, and we accomplished our goal of disrupting business as usual for one of the largest corporations in the U.S. It felt good. I hope that it was able to bring some much needed attention to what Chevron is doing in Richmond.
Eventually there were about 25 arrests, and I wasn’t one of them. I thought that it was a great way to start off the week. Oh yeah, I’m not sure who took these photos. I stole them from Matt’s Facebook album, but since he was locked down with me, I know he didn’t take them.
March 19, 2008 – Decentralized Direct Action in downtown San Francisco, California
Yesterday was different. DASW is organized as affinity groups, and all the different affinity groups planned different actions downtown, targeting politicians, war profiteers, and military recruiters. It took months of organizing and we were at it all day. I’ll let you know about the actions I witness. Bay Rising was pretty burnt from doing the Chevron work, so we split up a bit and worked to support what others were doing, including working on communication and media teams. Throughout the day, there were text message updates via Twitter, alerting us to what was going on where – super helpful, and recognized by the SF Chronicle and Wired as being savvy.
I first arrived at the Federal Reserve building at around 7:30 a.m. to see the last activists being taken away. There were tons of people on bikes (yay bike bloc!), tons of media, and lots of support. I had gotten a text message telling me where to go. There was a great photo of Adrian on the SF Chronicle site, with a chain around his neck and his arms in lockboxes.
Direct Action to Stop the War – March 19, 2008 in the SF Bay Area
Not sure yet exactly where I’ll be tomorrow, but here’s the official media advisory about what’s up tomorrow through DASW… see you on the street!
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Direct Action to Stop the War
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2008
CONTACT:
Blake McConnell, 415 308 3343
Michael Reagan, 510 846 0490
MEDIA ADVISORY
Nonviolent Direct Actions Throughout San Francisco
Mark 5th Year Anniversary of the Iraq War
Group that shut the city down 5 years ago will again target war profiteers and politicians with nonviolent civil disobedience and other creative protests
WHEN: Wednesday, March 19, 7:30 AM, continuing all day
WHERE: Gather at Market and Sansome Streets. Protest actions will be held at various SF offices of government officials and war profiteering corporations
WHAT: Tomorrow on the 5-year-anniversary of the U.S. attack on Iraq, San Francisco will join some 300 cities throughout the United States that plan to resist the tragic and costly war and occupation. Coordinated by the group Direct Action to Stop the War, Bay Area residents from all walks of life will participate in nonviolent direct actions. Planned actions include:
- 7:30 am peaceful civil disobedience begins: War machine tours of shame
leaving Sansome and Market throughout the day accompanied by the Brass
Liberation Orchestra. - Bikes Not Bombs: Bikers will be leaving Justin Herman Plaza at 7:30,
9:00 and 11:00am to support the day‚s actions. - 10:00am Guerrilla Street Theater with legendary performer Keith Hennessy
- 11:00am Words Against War, Market at Montgomery. City Lights Bookstore co-sponsors an anti-war read-out featuring Jack Hirschman, SF Poet Laureate; Guillermo Gómez-Peña, performance artist; Rebecca Solnit, author and activist; and MC James Kass of Youth Speaks.
- 12 noon Iraq War Moratorium action at Diane Feinstein‚s office, Market
at Montgomery. - Decentralized actions continue throughout the afternoon. Contact Blake
McConnell or Michael Reagan for updates. - 5 pm Civic Center March and Rally organized by A.N.S.W.E.R.
Other actions may included sit-ins and blockades of building entrances targeting the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and war profiteering companies such as Bechtel, Chevron, the Carlyle Group and URS Corp.
The actions in San Francisco and throughout the United States will highlight the human cost of the war–which includes more than 1 million dead Iraqis* and 3,900 dead US soldiers–as well as the loss of nearly $2 trillion in funds that could have been spent on people’s basic human needs instead of on death and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We want San Franciscans to stop and think about the damage that our government has done to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Five years of war and destruction is far more than any people should have to bear, and we need to hold accountable the government leaders and corporations that have let this go on for way too long–or even want it to continue because they’re making a killing off the war,” said Michael B Reagan, organizer with Direct Action to Stop the War.
WHO: Direct Action to Stop the War is a decentralized network of individuals and organizations committed to ending the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. We demand an immediate and unequivocal end to the war. Tomorrow‚s actions are in solidarity with the students who are protesting at the UC Regents‚ meeting nearby, with those who are protesting at the Marine Recruiting Center in Berkeley, and with the acts of civil disobedience in Washington DC organized by United for Peace and Justice.
For more information about the San Francisco action, see http://www.actagainstwar.net. For a list of actions throughout the United States, including a massive nonviolent civil disobedience planned for
Washington, DC, see http://www.5yearstoomany.org/
* Opinion Research Business, January 2008
Media Advisory: Protest at Chevron’s Richmond Refinery
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 11, 2008CONTACT:Moira Birss, 734-834-2356Mitch Anderson, 415-342-4783
MEDIA ADVISORY
Non-violent Land, Sea and Bike Blockade of Chevron Refinery to Kick Off National Anti-War Protests on Fifth Anniversary of Iraq Attack
Rally and nonviolent direct action at Richmond Refinery will target Chevron’s war profiteering and toxic pollution of Bay Area community
WHEN: Saturday, March 15, 2008, 11 AM Rally; Nonviolent Direct Action, 1PM
WHERE: Rally begins at Judge G. Carroll Park, W. Cutting Blvd. & S. Garrard Blvd, Richmond; Nonviolent Direct Action at Chevron Refinery, 100 Chevron Way, Richmond
WHAT: Just days before the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, concerned Bay Area residents will engage in peaceful civil disobedience aimed at the war profiteers who have helped shape the Bush administration’s disastrous foreign policy, using “bikes”, “blockades” and “boats” to stop all Stolen Iraqi Oil from entering or leaving Chevron’s Richmond refinery for 1⁄2 a day.
Chevron, the US’s second largest oil company, processes more than one million barrels of crude oil from Iraq every month at its refinery in Richmond, California, allowing the company to profit as Iraqi men, women and children die and US taxpayers foot the bill for an unnecessary war that is costing trillions of dollars and the lives of thousands of US soldiers.
The protest at the Richmond refinery will kick off a series of nationwide anti-war demonstrations expected in some 300 cities. It also seeks to illustrate the connection to the oil industry’s disregard for human rights at home and abroad; carcinogenic and asthma-causing emissions from the refinery are causing health problems among the people of Richmond. Despite this, the company seeks to expand the refinery to process more dirtier grades of oil, increasing the threat to community health in Richmond.
“In Richmond we pay with our health; in Iraq they pay with their lives; in Ecuador and Nigeria they pay with their human rights; and we all are paying with Global Warming. If you think the price of Chevron gas is too high, you’re right. It is time that Chevron pays for the loss of lives and environmental damage,” said Dr. Henry Clark of the West County Toxics Coalition.
So far, independent experts have estimated that the war in Iraq has cost the lives of more than one million Iraqis* – in addition to the official US statistics regarding the loss of 3,900 US soldiers – as well as costing US taxpayers approximately $2 trillion, according to a recent report released by Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz.
“We are gathering on March 15th because Chevron is profiting from the blood spilt in Iraq, from the hospitalization of children in our communities here at home, and from continuing to promote oil consumption despite everything the scientists are telling us about the gathering impacts of global warming. Chevron must be held to account,”said Jess Bell, organizer with Direct Action to Stop War. Read the rest of this entry »
Protesting the War – March 2008
March 15 and March 19, 2008 are two very key dates here in the SF Bay Area and around the U.S., as thousands of groups step out to protest the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
In the Bay Area, Direct Action to Stop the War has called two actions, one on March 15 to protest war profiteer Chevron – for their links to war for oil but also their role in the war at home. The company is seeking to expand its refinery in Richmond, CA, which will have additional negative health and environmental impacts on the surrounding community. On March 19, DASW will be holding decentralized protests in downtown San Francisco.
March 15 Info from DASW: Read the rest of this entry »
