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August 15, 2017
Thousands march in Seattle to denounce white supremacists
Police attack protesters trying to counter far-right rally
Issued by Freedom Socialist Party, 8/15/17
Downtown Seattle was awash with opponents of white supremacy on Sunday,
August 13 as a diverse crowd of 2,000 marched in opposition to a
rightwing “Patriot Prayer” rally at Westlake Park. Participation swelled
dramatically as the counter-protest also became a response to the August
12 car attack on anti-racist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Although police blocked the main protest from entering the park, the
demonstrators’ message of solidarity reverberated through downtown
canyons. In addition, several hundred protesters managed to enter the
park and shout down the rally attended by 75 or so Trump supporters,
Proud Boys, and militaristically clad allies.
The “Patriot Prayer” gathering was planned weeks earlier by Joey Gibson,
of Vancouver, Washington, who claims to oppose racism, but whose events
consistently draw white supremacists and neo-Nazis. He previously
visited Seattle on June 10 as part of an anti-Muslim rally in Seattle
that drew hundreds of counter-protesters.
Many of the organizations that came together in an ad hoc coalition to
defend the Muslim community in June joined forces again for the August
13 march. Organizers and endorsers included Greater Seattle IWW General
Defense Committee, Freedom Socialist Party, Organized Workers for Labor
Solidarity, Veterans for Peace Chapter 94, Seattle Solidarity Network,
Radical Women, ANSWERSeattle.org, SAFE in Seattle, Party for Socialism
and Liberation, and Clifton Wyatt, former president of the International
Association of Machinists Local A 751.
The M.L. King County Labor Council encouraged unionists to attend with a
note stating, “If we are not fighting racism, sexism, homophobia we are
not really fighting for workers’ rights.” Speaking for an endorsing
union, Washington Federation of State Employees Local 304, Steve Hoffman
addressed the key role of the labor movement in opposing the far right
and roused the crowd before the march began with the slogan “An injury
to one is an injury to all!”
Approaching the city core, marchers became frustrated as Seattle police
repeatedly blocked their access to Westlake Park. Scores of police in
riot gear, with bicycles, batons, tanks and other vehicles, blocked all
intersections and alleyways leading to the park. They lobbed flash-bang
grenades and pepper-sprayed protesters in unprovoked attacks on a crowd
that included elders, children, and people with disabilities. In
response, protesters chanted, “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?”
and “Cops and Klan work hand in hand!”
“We need to protest to Seattle’s mayor and police chief for essentially
taking the side of the racist reactionaries by teargassing locals who
came to take a stand against them, while providing a military-type
escort for the bigots,” said Patrick Burns, a union carpenter who was a
marshal for the counter-protesters’ march.
“I urge everyone to call the City Council and demand that the police be
brought under control,” said Annaliza Torres of Radical Women. Torres
said sixty organizations and community leaders signed onto a letter
protesting "biased policing" at the June anti-Muslim rally. She said
police allowed the Proud Boys to repeatedly attack the anti-racist
rally, but then pepper-sprayed and arrested the people who attempted to
defend themselves. "We haven’t yet had a reply to our complaint.
Instead, we got intensified police harassment today,” said Torres.
Su Docekal of the Freedom Socialist Party, one of the march organizers,
said, “The police and the city absolutely violated our constitutional
rights to protest and free speech. We know from experience with the
Aryan Nations and others here in the Pacific Northwest that the way to
prevent fascism from taking root is through direct, disciplined
confrontation when they come out in public to recruit. Our goal is to
build a broad, democratic united front able to stop them in their tracks.”
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Drop charges against Inauguration Day protesters!
Stand up to attacks on the First Amendment! Sign a petition to U.S.
Attorney Channing Phillips denouncing the unlawful mass arrests by DC
police at Inauguration Day protests in January. More than 200 people
have been charged with eight felonies punishable by 75 years in prison.
Because the activists were arrested illegally, all charges must be
dropped. Petition sponsored by Defend J20 Resistance.
Sign now>>
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