----- Original Message ----- From: "Mitchel Cohen" <mitchelcohen at mindspring.com>
This is written in response to a letter by Alan Benjamin, of the Int'l Liaison Committee for a Workers International.
Dear Alan, et al. (cc'd to Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, whose article this week in the New York Press blasting the sellouts in Seattle is right on the money!),
Alan may not have been in Seattle, but I was. The fact is, the much larger body of affinity groups that had planned (and was successful in) non-violently blockading the WTO delegates -- including myself -- knew of the plans of the window-breakers. They announced it at various meetings, and it was one of the debates within the overall body of some 1,000 people: How does a movement deal with a subgroup within it which generally supports the ideals and strategy of the larger body, but announces that it will employ tactics that the overwhelming majority don't wish to engage in and actually oppose at that time? Do we call the cops? Do we police them ourselves? Do we let circumstances take their course? There was no agreement on any of this, except that we would not call the cops on anyone. It would just become part of an ongoing discussion. Throughout the prior week, this discussion raged through the direct action circles in Seattle, although it was, most certainly, hardly the only thing we were occupied with.
There is no doubt that the Seattle police knew not only of the window breakers' plans, but of those of every cluster of affinity groups as well. As soon as you walked into the main room of 420 Denny St., which the Direct Action Network and Art and Revolution worked out of, and which was central headquarters for all of the nonviolent blockade actions, you'd see a huge map of the convention center area covering an 8-foot-square wall, with affinity group clusters designated by letters A-Z in "pie-slices" sectioning off the spots they would occupy on November 30. Since the police were officially and unofficially in-and-out of that location throughout the week, any thought that the cops did not know what was being planned -- even to the point of having extensive knowledge of each and every affinity group cluster -- is ridiculous. Which is why they let 420 Denny remain open; they had full access to all the decisions being made at the nerve center. Why shut it down and make their job so much more difficult, as well as scatter affinity groups throughout the community?
And so we end up with the absurdity of people like Medea Benjamin, of Global Exchange, calling for the police to arrest the window breakers! In the name of non-violence! What an outrage. I am calling for a total boycott of Global Exchange and all of its activities until Medea seriously apologizes for her actions. Did she think the police would be less violent than those who broke a couple of windows -- at superstores (no small or "family" stores were touched) built on the blood of sweatshop workers and superexploited labor, such as Nike?
When you get down to it, a dozen windows or so were busted. Coming from New York, what's the big deal? The real danger was the stones bouncing back at the demonstrators from plastic windows! What an absurd scene, as protesters dove out of the way of the richocheting rocks! No stores were burned to the ground. No people were physically assaulted by the demonstrators, not even by the window-breakers. No burning dumpsters were pushed through the windows. And very little looting took place -- the windows were done in for political reasons, not for personal economic aggrandizement. I refused to take part in those actions NOT because I am against those activities in principle, but because our non-violent blockade was far more effective and powerful. And window-breaking is hardly adequate for what the mass-murderers who own Nike, The Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy actually deserve. (The latter three companies are all owned by the notorious Fischer family, which not only profits from sweatshop misery in Southeast Asia but has been clearcutting the last oldgrowth forests in the Northwest US.) The motives for targeting those particular stores are clear as Julia Butterfly's heroic tree-sit, and those targets were announced ahead of time. The anti-sweatshop coalition and environmental groups have repeatedly targeted those same stores here in New York, and throughout the country.
Interestingly, in one of the local corporate papers, a reporter asked some of those whom she recognized from the window-breaking the day before, why they were out marching with the Teamsters and other union members. "It's not like all we do is break windows," came the reply. Hey, these are our comrades!! Medea and the others (Norman Solomon, too? Oh, Norman!) have just placed themselves on the other side of the class divide.
One other item: In New York we'd been subjected to repeated mass and indiscriminate spraying of Malathion and other dangerous insecticides over the entire population, environment and waterways of the city. The spraying is expected to resume again in the Spring. Malathion is a neurotoxin, an organophosphate -- a class of chemicals derived from nerve gas prepared during World War 2, and responsible (so says the British government) for causing Gulf War Syndrome, which the officials in Britain claim is "organophosphate poisoning". Thousands of people have been coming down sick with all sorts of nerve-related ailments. In Seattle, it is becoming increasingly evident that some sort of neurotoxin was used either instead of or mixed in with the "pepper spray" in certain areas. Doctors have examined dozens of protesters whose symptoms are asymptomatic for pepper spray and more akin to being exposed to neural disruptors like malathion or some other neurotoxin. Also, various experimental genetically engineered vaccines, particularly for Anthrax, were shipped to Seattle -- were these distributed? We don't know. Could the federal government be performing chemical and biological warfare experiments on protesters in the US, using any excuse -- alleged encephalitis "epidemic" in New York (a total fallacy), "state of emergency" and "mass violence" in Seattle (another fallacy) -- to panic the public sufficiently into allowing all sorts of new weapons to be used? A friend who lives in Seattle writes to say that the following happened a few months ago. There wasn't much information, of course, but the TV news reported that construction workers at a chemical munitions facility in Washington had been stricken suddenly while working and overcome with symptoms similar to what the Direct Action Network medical team saw in Seattle. They were rushed to a hospital, and they said the nurses were overcome by the fumes on their clothes. Tests were done at the hospital and all they could come up with was that they were exposed to pepper spray. But their symptoms were totally different than symptoms of pepper spray. They said the chemical weapons place was "Umtilla"(? -- couldn't quite catch the name). The military denied everything, they just couldn't imagine what could have happened to these workers.
In Seattle, we struck a real blow against the WTO, and carried the struggle against all the institutions of global capitalism -- the IMF, World Bank, USAID -- to a new level. New (and tenuous) alliances were made "between Teamsters and Turtles", as my favorite sign there read. Another favorite: "Brush with Direct Action -- Helps Prevent Truth Decay". But the repressive apparatus of the State also advanced, testing out new and dangerous weapons, under the aegis of secret agents of the US military who were sent there.
Check out this CNN report that has received little notice: "Troops sent to Seattle as part of terrorism contingency plan."
SEATTLE (CNN) -- In addition to hundreds of very visible Army National Guard troops called-up because of the civil disturbances in Seattle, more than 160 active duty military personnel, including a small number of Special Forces troops, were sent to Seattle by the Defense Department for the meeting of the World Trade Organization.
The military mission, according to the Pentagon, is to "provide support" to the FBI, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Secret Service and other government agencies responsible for security there. The military specialists are in place largely to provide expertise and assist in coordinating a federal response in the event of a terrorist attack during such a high-profile event.
According to Defense Department documents obtained by CNN, 131 U.S. Army, 27 U.S. Air Force, and eight U.S. Navy personnel were sent to Seattle to perform roles from ordnance disposal to standing by for possible chemical or biological attack by terrorist groups.
Four special forces troops from the Joint Special Operations Task Force were deployed to Seattle to be on hand to advise FBI "crisis support" agents in the event of a catastrophic terrorist event involving chemical or biological weapons or hostage taking. Two of the four special operations experts have since left the city, according to an informed Pentagon official who spoke on the condition that he not be named.
Fifty-five military Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) teams, along with 25 explosive-detecting dogs and their handlers, were sent. The soldiers are "operating in civilian attire -- keeping a low presence," the Defense Department documents say.
Troops there are from various military fiefdoms including the U.S. Special Operations Command, the U.S. Forces Command, the U.S. Army Biological-Chemical Command, the U.S. Air Force Security Forces Command and the U.S. Joint Forces Command.
Eight divers, making up two Navy dive teams, were sent to provide support to the Secret Service for President Clinton's visit, which ended Thursday. The action is not unusual for presidential security.
The Department of Health and Human Services and FEMA have set up a "staging area" for their operations at the U.S. Naval Reserve Center-Lake Union in Seattle. Eight military personnel are assigned to that site. The HHS-FEMA site is pre-positioned to respond to major health catastrophes such as a biological agent attack, according to a well-informed source.
The "Domestic Military Support," or "DOMS" as it is known at the Pentagon, is provided through the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the request of other federal agencies. [End CNN report]
Questions that must be answered because of this are:
Who really was in command of all police and military personnel once the city went into a state of "Civil Emergency"?
Which, if any, of these military personnel and their equipment/munitions were actively involved in situations dealing with American Citizens?
What specific role did these military personnel and their equipment/munitions have in situations dealing with American Citizens?
It also raises the very serious question as to why police were allowed to roam the streets with authority to use deadly force if necessary without proper identification?
Were some of these unidentifiable police in actuality military personnel and is this the reason they refused to give proper identification when asked?
Another article of importance comes from the official USAF website's news section. The article was written by Army Master Sgt. Bob Haskell and published on December 3rd, 1999. http://www.af.mil/news/Dec1999/n19991203_992177.html
This article states:
"Sixty-six Air National Guard airmen were among some 425 Guardsmen called to state active duty to help local police restore order in downtown Seattle. Additionally, six members of the Wyoming Air National Guard lent a hand by flying 3,300 pounds of civilian riot control munitions from Casper, Wyo., to Seattle."
As John Novack, Seattle resident, writes:
Exactly what role were the sixty-six airmen here to fill?
In light of allegations of various "strange symptoms" not normally associated with the effects of tear gas on people and the possible harm to the environment, a disclosure of the exact contents of the 3,300 pounds of civilian control munitions from Casper, Wyo., to Seattle is indeed in order. Were neurotoxins part of this dispatch (or any dispatch) of "civilian control munitions"?
We need to re-examine our strategies and tactics in light of the willingness of the State, under Clinton and Gore as much as under Bush, to develop and deploy chemical and biological weapons against ANY protester here in the US, as well as people facing the might of the US military or weapons sold by the US to other forces elsewhere in the world. And, we need to ask: Who are the real purveyors of violence? Who are the Real terrorists?
Mitchel Cohen Brooklyn Greens, Green Party of NY, and the Red Balloon Collective