Occupy Seattle Update: The March on University Bridge
image courtesy of Joshua Trujilla of the Seattle P-I
Yesterday marked two months of activists making a statement against income inequality and political corruption, as part of a movement founded in an encampment in New York's Zuccotti Park. To mark the occasion, occupiers around the country had spent weeks planning a "day of action", and recent tensions with authorities (particularly Mayor Bloomberg's illegal raid on the Zuccotti encampment) added another layer of significance to the day's events. Not a group to rest on their laurels, Occupy Seattle took to the streets.
Emotions were running high among the local branch of the movement. Many of our hometown protesters have been galvanized by scenes from New York, Oakland and other cities where encampments have been evicted, and Occupy Seattle has had its own (more limited) clashes with the police. The plan for Seattle's day of action was a rally at the movement's base at Seattle Central Community College, followed by a march to the University Bridge, to call for economically stimulative investment in the nation's infrastructure- a cause close to the hearts of the movement's supporters in organized labor, who represent many construction workers and other tradesmen hard-hit by the recessionary slowdown in new private construction.
Like every Washington Community College, Seattle Central has already made substantial sacrifices at the altar of the State budget. Tuition has gone up, employees have been laid off, and entire programs are being shut down. With our representatives in Olympia once again eyeing higher education spending to plug holes in the budget, some SCCC students, faculty and employees are using the conveniently-placed Occupation as a forum for their dissent. Yesterday afternoon, a special general assembly (the term the Occupiers use for their daily consensus-based, open-attendance meetings) was convened to discuss the challenges of the SCCC community specifically, and the subject of education in general.
After the general assembly, a crowd of nearly a thousand began a march to University Bridge, while a smaller group of a few hundred, mostly University of Washington students, approached from Husky Stadium. They converged on University Bridge, which was "occupied" through the most brutal hours of the evening commute. The protest at the bridge was organized in conjunction with Working Washington, a labor-linked group of activists calling for job-creating infrastructure investment. There are "structurally deficient" bridges in King County alone, and the protest organizers claim that spending to address these and other similar problems would create up to 30,000 jobs.
Seattle Police activity around the protests was subdued. Earlier this week, gratuitous, indiscriminate use of pepper spray brought unfavorable national press attention on the department, and earned them a rebuke from Mayor McGinn (and Stephen Colbert). Officers policing Thursday's events seemed generally careful to avoid a repeat- staying at a distance and avoiding confrontation. Despite the sustained, widespread civil disobedience, there were no arrests.
With strong attendance, a focused message, and no one ending the day frantically washing pepper spray out of their eyes or languishing in a cell, Occupy Seattle seems justified in calling their day of action a victory.
Activists are already looking forward to the movement's next big event- a rally at Westlake Park this Saturday. There will be music and guest speakers, including Dorli Rainey, the 84-year-old self-described "troublemaker" whose well-documented encounter with the SPD on Tuesday has made her a very unusual, put perhaps much-needed, celebrity of the movement.
