The work of SWV in the pro-Palestinian movement
Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2024 1:15 am
The work of Seattle Workers’ Voice in the pro-Palestinian movement:
Stand with the Palestinian people!
Protest the US-backed war on Gaza!
Introduction:
By Eric Gordon, Seattle Workers’ Voice
As the massive over-response of Israel to the October 7 Hamas strike developed, so did the international pro-Palestinian response of the masses. This is a compilation of the reports of Seattle comrades, on the mass work and demonstrations we attended.
First, some observations overall regarding the development of the movement in Seattle. With the exception of the week between Christmas and New Year, the period from October 7 up to the January 6 demonstration, which took over the northbound lanes of I-5 for several hours, there were weekly demonstrations, called for the same time, same place.
Some time shortly after that January 6 demonstration, word went out that there would be no more weekly demos, and from then the demonstrations were somewhat less frequent, still every week or two, and called for different locations. This meant that one had to be plugged in to the right channels to know when and where they were. As well, the Facebook feeds of the main organizations, Falastinyat (a Seattle Collective of Palestinian feminists), SUPER-UW (Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return-University of Washington), Samidoun (Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network), and Palestinian Youth Movement were not reliable for posting demonstration information. There is the distinct possibility that these organizations were extremely busy, and updating their feeds with future actions fell by the wayside as a result.
On the other hand, among the masses involved in the protests, the dedication to continue demonstrating has continued without flagging for 9 months. Ordinary people are still bringing their own home made signs, still showing up in large numbers, still eagerly seeking leaflets, still in fighting spirit. We noted several times, individuals eager to do something, asking to take more than one of our leaflets, sometimes 20 or more, to give out. One thing that we noted among the masses, is a growing expression of solidarity from other oppressed groups: for example, signs combining Mexican flag with the Palestinian one, Latinx individuals raising slogans like “La Lucha por Palestina”, a contingent of Asians with signs expressing solidarity between Chinese massage workers and the Palestinian struggle, developments to be applauded and encouraged.
From October 2023 to May 2024 - reports on the work of Seattle Workers’ Voice in the pro-Palestinian movement:
Demonstration reports from Eric, October 12 and 14, 2023:
Now that I have a little time, I wanted to report on the demo on the University of Washington campus on Thursday 10/12. My estimate was about 4-500 people, mainly young, many Arabic people, some other national minorities. Organizers were handing out a sheet listing their organization social media handles: @samidounseattle, @super_uw, @falastinyat, @ilps.seattle.tacoma, @beldaan.
One speaker I heard put forward the slogan "Resistance is justified by any means necessary", which, while militant, is somewhat problematic as it is justifying Hamas’s attack on civilians. Another speaker talked about the attacks that have been waged against protesters supporting Palestine: media claims they're all supporting terrorism, the argument that all support for Palestine is the same as antisemitism, as well as cases in which whole Palestinian solidarity groups have been doxed and activists receiving death threats.
There were heated arguments against the few counterprotesters, but the main one I heard, the pro-Palestinian person was failing to make good arguments [not antisemitic, but using weak reasoning].
I didn't see any representatives of the main revisionist (pseudo-socialist) groups there. The one person I recognized is a long term activist who is loosely associated with FSP.
As well, Helen and I went to the protest at Westlake at 1 today (Oct. 14) We arrived at 2, and the protest was already starting to march. We estimated about 3000 people, maybe growing as it marched. It was a mix of young and older, maybe 50% young? Again, very heavily Arab/Palestinian makeup.
Chants were lively and taken up enthusiastically by the crowd. In addition to the chants which are common to many demos, I heard "One solution, intifada, revolution", "We want 1948, we were one in 48", "We don't want two states", "Not a nickel not a dime, no money for Israel's crimes", "In millions and millions, we're all Palestinians". They did several chants in Arabic, and there were enough there who understood that these were widely taken up. The chant leaders switched off in an effective way, and the main one was very dynamic.
They had a hand-pushed cart with 4 speakers mounted on it, which was great because it was very loud and could be heard by the whole march.
Handmade signs I noted in particular: "We will return to our 1948 homes", "Free Palestine is not a statement it is a promise", "The nakba never ended".
As the march proceeded, it stopped briefly for short speeches, again talk of doxing and death threats, another talked about the media and politicians' narrative that the land is one of two people who hate each other, and how we have to oppose it, another asked us all to raise a fist and talked about being united we will win. Another said that Palestine is not just for Arab Muslims, it's for Jews, Christians, etc.
I saw signs from these organizations: DSA, ANSWER, Freedom Road (one young woman holding it), Samidoun, Anak, Jewish Voice for Peace, PFLP, ILPS.
I got leaflets from PSL: "PSL Statement: Free Palestine, free all Palestinian political prisoners, end all aid to the Israeli apartheid regime!"
Half sheets handed out by the same people as were handing out the list of social media handles of organizing groups at UW: "Boeing profits from genocide in Palestine", "Gaza is under attack because Gaza resists".
Demonstration report from Frank, November 12, 2023:
There was a pro-Palestinian rally in a park in the suburb of Bellevue today. About 200 people attended, including Helen, Mike, Eric and me. (This is the first time we've all been together.) Some people seemed to be new, e.g., a middle-aged Asian man wanted to know where "the river" was, and what its name was. I also gave leaflets to some young Asians who I think I rode the train with yesterday. I thought the speeches were fine, although they seemed to include a little more Muslim stuff than I've noticed before. There was a Zionist counter-protest of 6-8 people about 70 yards away, but they seemed to just stand there holding Israeli flags.
WSWS had a guy leafleting, and PSL had two people there with signs but no literature. We low-key handed out the second Seattle Workers’ Voice leaflet. We've now easily given out more than 1,000 of the two leaflets.
Demonstration and mass work report from Frank, November 18, 2023:
Some recent activity in Seattle:
1) SUPER UW had another campus march yesterday. Again, I was about the first person there, so I gave out 67 leaflets to students walking across the Quad. About 50-60 demonstrators eventually arrived, but they were very spirited as we marched through several buildings shouting chants and slogans. (The buildings were Thompson Hall, where there's an Israeli studies department, the HUB, a Bill and Melinda Gates building, a building where there's a Boeing advanced research center, and another building.) A number of students joined us as we marched.
This SUPER UW group seems quite good, and it perseveres. (This was the third of its events that I attended, and I think Eric attended an earlier one.) The three speakers were Arab women who I didn't recognize. (I don't know if any of them were Palestinian.) The group also had a small leaflet that half-a-dozen Asians plus others gave to their fellow students--which shows that a trend exists among the demonstrators that wants to organize more widely. After a couple of sentences telling about what is going on in Palestine, the leaflet said, “Join us in demanding: End the siege of Gaza, end US aid to Israel! Ceasefire now! UW divest from weapons corporations! UW cut ties with Israeli institutions!” I gave out over 100 leaflets in all.
2) About 2,000 people marched downtown again today. For me these events are always an upper in a certain sense (the shouting of slogans and chants with others, etc.), but at the same time I keep thinking about the seriousness of the situation for the Palestinians. And I think the crowds share similar emotions and thoughts, which is why so many people are returning Saturday after Saturday. Of course, new people continue to come to the demonstrations too. Also, I'm really surprised by the number of Asians who are marching, as well as by the percentage of Asians who take leaflets on the streets.
That said, Ben and I probably gave out close to 400 leaflets today. (I'm pretty sure that Ben has distributed more copies of this leaflet than anyone else but me! He also took some extras so that he could use them in connection with future events.) Mike, who was again with the bicycle brigade, had a small handful, but I don't know how he did.
Mass work report from Frank, November 21, 2023:
When I went to Seattle Central College this morning I noticed that someone had pasted up 20” x 30” Palestinian flags on utility boxes on Broadway, which was nice. Also noticed that someone had stuck our leaflet on a bulletin board inside the building. I added another. Leafleting was going fine, and I had passed out 50 when a young Asian woman I'd given it to came to ask me for 10 more, which I gave her thinking that she wanted them for a class. Wrong. She began passing them out so fast that I had to re-supply her twice. We made a good team! Her approach was to say things like stop bombing Gazan children. She would also sometimes ask, “have you no humanity?” when a leaflet was rejected—something that I would never have done. So probably 120 or more leaflets got into the building today.
The woman told me that she's been going to all the protests, and that she's in her final quarter at SCC. But since she then had to rush to class, our only parting words were, “see you Saturday!”
Demonstration work report from Frank, November 25, 2023:
About 700 people marched in Seattle today, November 25. This time Ben had his own leaflet (a four pager) and I don't know where everyone else was. Nevertheless, I gave out roughly 150 of ours.
Demonstration and mass work report from Frank, December 3, 2023:
Some mass work activities during the past week:
* Today (Sunday), there was an “Indigenous-led March for Palestine and Vigil” starting at Westlake. About 10 people--mainly young Native Americans--were there at the announced starting time. (There was also an older Native American man who attended all of the John T. Williams protests, as well as a number of the anti-war protests earlier this century.) They had a good marching banner in support of Palestine and one Palestinian flag. The main organizer and speaker was a Native American woman in her 50s who's originally from Canada, and who I gave a leaflet to last Saturday. Except for her saying that the U.S. politicians are bought off by AIPAC, I thought her speech was quite good in both its content and delivery. (Her daughter also spoke, but I couldn't hear her.) The chants were mainly the same ones we hear at all the protests, plus a couple that worked Turtle Island and Indigenous Peoples into the same ideas. The crowd grew to about 18 as people passing by joined, and 2-3 did this after I had given them a leaflet and explained that there was going to be a march. Since the idea was that they were going to march to and through the market chanting “while you're shopping, bombs are dropping” and the turnout was small, I assumed we were going to march on the sidewalk. But, no; we took to the street with no interference from the cops! (I left at my train stop.)
I ran into the first really hostile element I've met while distributing this leaflet. His line was that all of the Gazans support Hamas, and that they therefore deserve what they're getting. He claimed that I supported Hamas too, and there was no arguing with him. And he ended by saying that I was going to get what was coming to me real soon. On the other hand, there was a half-naked guy who'd been running in the rain who stopped to take a leaflet, tell me that he'd been at one of the early UW campus marches that I attended, and tell me of the arguments he's been having with some of his pro-Zionist Jewish family members. Finally, a couple of 30ish women wanted to know what Seattle Workers' Voice was. So I briefly told them, and gave them the Communist Voice address, etc.
I liked this small event, and I gave out 35 leaflets while there.
* Yesterday (Saturday), Eric, Helen and me went to the regular Saturday march. Eric thought around 1,000 people were there, whereas I thought around 600-700 people were, although I could be wrong. In any case, the turnout was about 10% less than last Saturday. Helen had a nice sign from SAIC (Seattle Anti-Imperialist Committee) days, and between us I'm wildly guessing that we handed out close to 200 leaflets. (BTW, a restaurant manager invited Eric inside so that he could give leaflets to people at the tables = real supportive of the Palestinian cause.)
* On Friday, Eric and Helen went to a Palestine teach-in in South Seattle. When they arrived the place was already packed with 200 people, and on an unenclosed side people were even standing in pouring rain trying to hear what was being said. Eric quickly gave out 14 leaflets to people still trying to get in, but people were packed in so tightly that it wasn't possible to get into the building to leaflet and the strong wind and rain made it very difficult to pass out leaflets.
* On Wednesday, me and Eric passed out 116 leaflets at SCC.
So we've now given out roughly 2,300 copies of the two leaflets. I'm presently thinking about updating and slightly shortening the present leaflet, plus having Gaza be the main content of a MLK Day leaflet. But I have to first consult with the other SWV members.
Demonstration report from Frank, December 9, 2023:
Today, about 300 dedicated and spirited pro-Palestine demonstrators turned out in a cold rain at Westlake. Steve Leigh passed out the little SRS leaflet, and Ben had a new leaflet that he said he'd finished at 4:00 a.m. (I haven't read it yet.) I was able to give out around 130 copies of the new Seattle Workers’ Voice by standing in a couple of dry places. A young Arab guy, Ab (not to be confused with Abul, who gave out a larger number at the UW), gave out another 30.
So Ab is the fourth person who has wanted to hand out the SWV. I don't think this is because of its content vs other leaflets, but because these people have been impelled by the events in Gaza to want to organize. Another example of the latter is that new posters, usually unsigned, are continually being put up. In going to the demonstration I saw three new ones (all different, and well done) at my light-rail stop, which is not in a part of town where one usually sees political posters.
Demonstration report from Frank, December 12, 2023:
A good morning at Seattle Central College:
Upon arriving I noticed four new posters wheat-pasted along Broadway, including one in Arabic. They were unsigned, but obviously put up by the same group of people. Then I received many supportive comments as I handed out 115 leaflets. And I got into a good discussion with an African guy with a heavy accent about Gaza and Ukraine. More, as we were talking, Sxx, the young Asian woman who two weeks ago passed out so many copies of the previous SWV joined us. This had some good results: Sam and the man—who had never met before—arranged to talk more; the man said that he will most definitely go to Saturday's Westlake demonstration; I now have Sxx as a Facebook friend, she wanted 15 more leaflets to give to classmates inside the school.
Demonstration report from Frank, December 16:
My guess is that 1,200-1,500 pro-Palestine demonstrators marched today, 12/16, in Seattle. This time we went to the Market, where we stayed a long time, and where Seattle Revolutionary Socialists even set up a table.
The usual left groups were there. Additionally, Red Flag, which split from PLP a decade or more ago, was there handing out its newspaper. (FSP was also handing out free copies of the “Freedom Socialist.”) Eric, me and Ben gave out over 550 copies of the SWV leaflet. (Ben also had a leaflet of his own that he gave to people who keep returning to the demonstrations, and he would sometimes give them both leaflets. And he eventually ran out of both leaflets.)
Mass demonstration report from Eric, December 16, 2024:
We got down to Westlake as the demo started marching, and I estimated about 1000 at that time. It snaked back and forth down to the market, stopped there for a time on the street where it turns in the market, and then snaked back to Westlake again. This was a good route, because there were lots of by standers and workers in the stores and restaurants, who stopped to watch, and often took leaflets. I stuck with the march until it got back to Westlake, at which point I peeled off.
Good chants, many of the same, good militancy. One of the chant leaders shifted out of chants briefly to say how weak Israel is.
My impression is that the portion of white people participating is increasing, but there are still a high percentage of Arab people, and a significant number of Asian and Black people participating or showing support from the sidewalks.
I distributed all the leaflets I had, but I didn't get a count. My best estimate is about 180-200. Lots of thanks, support. I encountered only two weak dissenters the whole time.
Mass work report, joint discussion, January 6, 2024:
Frank, Mike, Eric and Helen were there. It was one of the largest demonstrations since October 7. The demo gathered at the Starbucks Roastery, which had boarded all its windows and shut the store for the day. These boards were quickly covered in graffiti and posters denouncing Starbucks and Israel's actions. The organizers had planned a surprise, 200 to 300 people marching onto the I-5 freeway, and blocking all the northbound lanes, while the rest of the crowd rallied on a major overpass, which people hung banners over, and waved and chanted to cars and trucks passing south-bound, many of whom honked in support. The cops had almost no presence on the overpass, or anywhere else except on the freeway, a hundred yards away from the blockade. They also eventually managed to clear the backup on the freeway, by having cars turn around and exit somewhere south of the blockade. We had all left by the time the blockade broke up, but news reports said it was around 7pm, as much as 6 hours after it started. News reports indicated that this was a tactic taken elsewhere, e.g. L.A., so likely reflects coordination behind the scenes. We distributed 380 leaflets, having to get more printed in the middle of the day. Eric noticed that a group new to Seattle, International Marxist Tendency, was there with about a dozen people. Frank speculated that some of them may have come from out of town, which is what happened when Socialist Alternative established itself here. Helen remarked on how representatives various mass movements are coming together in these demonstrations, and that she and Eric had noticed an Asian or Chinese contingent, and at least one sign expressing solidarity from Mexican immigrants.
Mass work report from Eric, January 15, 2024 – Martin Luther Day:
I received a flyer today, put out by Students of King County, announcing a March for Palestine, Sunday January 28th at 1pm, Bellevue Downtown Park. It's put on by Issaquah Students League, a study group which Frank had conversation with at the march today, as I did separately. They were a contingent of about 8 high school students, holding red flags and a banner reading "Study revolution, fight exploitation". I had conversation with a couple of them, including the one who seemed to be most knowledgeable. They are Stalinist/Maoist, holding the view that the Soviet Union degenerated after Stalin died. I suggested that he read what we have to say about Stalin, and they indicated interest. I wrote an email to the contact I got for them today, with a little on our criticism of Stalinism and our theory of state capitalism. We'll see how he responds. [There was no response. We speculated afterward that they may be connected with the Maoist Puget Sound Revolutionary Study Group]
I estimated that at the height of the demo it was about 2000, while others thought somewhat smaller. The march traveled down Jefferson, then detoured past the Juvenile Hall, then continued down Yesler. We left as it crossed the freeway on the Yesler overpass. We both noted that the crowd was biggest in the first few blocks, and people started peeling away pretty quickly. The march was mostly low energy, the official chants were lackluster, sporadic, and very general, saying nothing about Palestine. The Palestine solidarity contingent of about 30-40 was vocal and spirited, and at one point someone with a bullhorn took over leading more spirited chants from the front for a little while.
Trends I saw: FSP, WWP, but not RCP.
There was more support for Israel at this event than any I've been to since October 7th, but mostly it was muted, calling for freeing the hostages, more or less only slogans any democratic-minded person would support, plus liberals slogans like peace – without any hint at what such peace might look like. I saw one man with multiple signs, some on Myanmar – I think taking a good position – and then some supporting Israel.
Then there was SWP, who had a sign up behind their table: "Fighting Jew hatred is a working class issue", and their newspaper had the front-page headlines: "Defend Israel's right to exist", "SWP campaign in Oakland joins protests against attacks on Israel" and "Call for Israel 'cease fire' gives support to Hamas".
Excerpts from Frank's Martin Luther King Day report:
Some of the headlines in the recent Militant are
1) “Defend Israel’s right to exist! Join fight against Jew-hatred”
2) “Defeating Hamas opens door to unite Jews, Arabs,” and
3) “Call for cease-fire is support for Hamas.”
Quickly replying:
1) But all progressive people oppose Jew-hatred (or antisemitism) while also opposing Islamophobia. The Militant's search function shows, however, that only five articles mention Islamophobia since 2018, with the last—written in 2023—being in defense of a Minnesota teacher who they say was falsely accused of Islamophobia. Moreover, what does fighting antisemitism have to do with defending Israel’s right to exist? Why connect them?
2) I don't think Hamas is going to be defeated, but I do think the longer the present war lasts the more this will close the door to unity between Jews and Arabs
3) Hooray for the IDF! Netanyahu himself says things very similar to “call for cease-fire is support for Hamas,” and a ceasefire indeed might help Hamas. But large numbers of progressive people globally are raising this call because they want to help the masses of Gazans, while the SWP leaves the suffering people of Gaza out of the equation.
[We noted that they also take a reactionary stance on abortion rights.]
.………..
Back to MLK Day, the crowd has gradually gotten whiter through the years, and that continued this year. Also, while some trade unions often have organized contingents, this year I only noticed some scattered SEIU people in the crowd. As well, there were a number of UFCW people handing out a flyer that called for support for their strike against Macy's. There are about 400 workers involved in this strike statewide.
On the left, all of the groups were there with the exception of the RCP (which seems kind of strange) and maybe the new Trotskyist group. Eric talked with a new group, the Issaquah Students League, which is composed of very young people who uphold Mao and Stalin and have a study group, and who weren't adverse to talking about Stalinism. They had a flyer advertising a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Bellevue on Sunday, January 28 that we'll surely attend. (We speculated afterward that the Issaquah study group may be connected with the Maoist Puget Sound Revolutionary Study Group, who I talked with last May Day. They're centered in south Puget Sound, also very young, and they were not adverse to discussing criticisms of Maoism with me.)
Literature not mentioned above: Red Flag gave out free copies of its newspaper. Muslims for Peace had a slick flyer that was purely religious, nothing about Palestine. Ben Seattle had his “The Palestinian” #4 leaflet. DSA had a small leaflet that says several correct things about Palestine and even calls for overthrowing the Israeli apartheid government. But similar to most of the Trotskyists, the latter is put in the context of the workers and poor people of the region taking power as a democratic-socialist republic. The leaflet also exaggerates the importance of what Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib have done in Congress, I think.
Eric, Helen and me did mass work with Seattle Workers’ Voice. Don't know how they did, but I handed out around 150. Considering the number of people there, I don't think this number was that great, however. (Percentage wise, I gave out many more at Seattle Central College on Friday.)
I chatted with various movement friends, but I didn't have any real political discussions. Nevertheless, I had some good experiences. An older African American woman wanted 4-5 leaflets to give to friends. A man I spoke with in Olympia—Native American, I think—showed up. (He didn't seem to know the group of 20 or so Native Americans already present.) A 30ish white man with a slight foreign accent wanted to know how people found out about the demonstrations he'd seen on television, and he was very happy when I showed him the two links to check out for the times and places of the Saturday demonstrations. (Also, one thing I didn't report about Olympia is that after a young man eagerly took the leaflet, he said to his friends that Seattle Worker's Voice is “real good!” Didn't get a chance to talk with him, though.)
Mass work report from Frank, January 23, 2024:
* I gave out 44 leaflets at SCC this morning. (I was a little late because students are arriving earlier this quarter and I didn't know it. It's therefore good to be there around 9:00 or slightly thereafter.) Good responses, and I also noticed that some MLK Day leaflets I had posted on a couple bulletin boards with both sides showing were still there! Naturally, I added this leaflet to the boards.
* I gave out a similar number of leaflets at tonight's Red Square vigil. The vigil started with people slowly drifting in from all directions to hold candles or watch pictures of murdered Palestinians being projected onto a wall. Maybe 90 people were there when I left, but there were some still arriving. Also, when I got over towards 15th I heard a woman begin speaking, but I chose not to go back coz I really had other things to do.
Mass work report from Eric, January 23, 2024:
Helen and I couldn't get to the vigil until around 7, and it had mostly wound down by that time. About 15-20 people left, standing around talking with each other. Longtime RCP supporter Cici was there talking with another woman. We couldn't stay long.
Mass work report from Frank, January 25, 2024:
At 11:00 am there was a solidarity event at Westlake that I just found out about last night. About 90 people turned out to chant and listen to speakers, and we then marched on the sidewalk a couple of blocks north to a little triangular park where the same thing was repeated. Not many people were on the streets, but I still gave out 80-90 leaflets. (One young African-American woman took a leaflet, read it for awhile, then joined the crowd and vigorously began chanting along with everyone else = nice!)
Mass work report from Frank, January 26, 2024:
Around 50 people were at this evening's healthcare worker vigil at the UW Link Station. It started with people holding candles, then there were couple speakers, then they read from a list of the names of people killed by the Israelis in Gaza. At first I thought it was a list of healthcare workers killed, but it was much too long for that (three people were taking turns reading). In fact, they were still reading out the names when I left. (Cynthia from the RCP arrived just as I was leaving.)
Seattle Revolutionary Socialists seemed to be the main organizer of the event, which is weekly. At any rate, they were there early, they had a large literature table set up, and the speakers sounded like ISO speakers from 20 years ago. The main speaker, a nurse (I think), began with well-researched comments on what has happened to the healthcare system in Gaza during the past three months (with denunciations of U.S.-backed Israeli war crimes interspersed), which she then expanded into comments on what has happened to the Gazans in general (with more denunciations of war crimes.) It was a very long speech, and I didn't hear all of it, but I don't think it was bad. That said, and while it's hard for me to explain, even though she or the other speaker or both of them pointed to capitalism or imperialism as being the underlying problem, I don't think the speeches were very political.
A problem with the rally was that it was held on the north end of the station, where very few people were walking and where it could barely be seen! Nevertheless, I gave out about 45-50 leaflets. One guy read it all under a light about 50 feet away, and then returned to listen to speeches for awhile. Another twice hugged and thanked me for being out there. An Ethiopian, a Latino and an Arab-looking man also expressed great gratitude before going to catch their trains.
So it was a good evening despite the bad location.
Mass work report from Frank, January 28, 2024:
I think 120-150 people were at today's Bellevue event. After having speakers and chanting in the park, we marched to Bellevue Way, and then up it to Bellevue Square, where we stopped in the street for more speakers and chanting. And while Bellevue Way was blocked by protesters for perhaps an hour-and-a-half, the police did not interfere.
The main speakers were high school women, plus one or two guys. They were spirited, but I thought some of them substituted hype about some kind of mass rebellion or advancing liberation struggle or revolution supposedly going on in Palestine today for the disaster that is really going on—a second Nakba that I think is worse than the first. (The speaker I liked best was a Palestinian-American who went to the West Bank to become part of the Palestinian women's soccer team, and to get to know her grandparents and others there, etc. A couple months ago she posted her story about what the West Bank and its people are like on Facebook, and I shared it.)
I think Helen, Eric and I gave out roughly 175 leaflets, including a handful I gave to Sxx to distribute. And Eric and I did well giving leaflets to people walking around the park as well as walking on the street.
We summed up that it was another successful event.
Mass work report from Frank, February 4, 2024:
I was in large-part focused on giving leaflets to people who hadn't come to march (“civilians”) at Green Lake, and my experience was very encouraging, i.e., three months into the war, and many people still really wanted a leaflet as soon as they saw what it was about, and 100% of the ten or so African Americans I saw wanted one. So I gave out about 120.
I think the crowd was over 100 people, and it was very spirited as it marched.
Mass work report from Frank, February 8, 2024:
Demonstration announcement:
!!NO CLASS AS USUAL DURING A GENOCIDE!!
JOIN US ON FEBRUARY 8TH AND WALK OUT FROM YOUR CLASSES TO MEET US @ THE [University of Washington Bothell] PLAZA AT 12PM.
Friday:
4 pm at the World Trade Center Seattle, 2200 Alaskan Way
Rally to end Israeli & U.S. genocide
Stop bombing Yemen!
End U.S. aid to Israel!
[I got this from SDS and SAARPR (Seattle Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression), but there are probably others circulating it.]
I've never been to the UW's Bothell campus before, and I was surprised by how big it is. Very few students were walking around outside, which meant that I could meet them one-on-one or one-on-two. The result was that at least 60% of them took the updated leaflet(!), and I handed out about 100. I don't remember doing better at leafleting in years.
22 people eventually arrived for the demonstration, about 17 of whom were Arabs. There were no speeches. We just walked over to a campus entrance, where we militantly chanted the usual slogans for some time. Two cops—one campus and one Bothell—then came and told the people with bullhorns that they couldn't use them because it disturbed the students. The organizers of the event (2-3 young Arab women) agreed not to.
This morning I walked by a poster on University Way NE that advertised tomorrow's rally at the World Trade Center. So news of it is getting around, at least a little bit.
Mass work report from Frank, February 9, 2024:
Yesterday's demonstration was not at all like Thursday's. About 90 people turned out. Most were white, but there were also some Asians, four African Americans and half-a-dozen or fewer Arabs. Freedom Road Socialist Organization seemed to be the biggest group, but SDS also had people there (and speakers), as did SRS (but no speakers). Ben was also there.
The speaking—with long sessions of chanting between speakers—just went on and on and on. Worse, all of the speakers said pretty much the same things about the IDF killing children and committing genocide (I wouldn't mind if I never heard the word genocide again!), and they resorted to other moral appeals plus hype, e.g., speaking as if the liberation of Palestine is very near, when in reality it remains very far off. Indeed, these people see no contradiction between explaining how the Gazan masses are being crushed in one breath, and in the next breath phrase-mongering about the imminence of liberation.
Anyway, fairly early in the rally one speaker announced that we were going to march up to Westlake, and there was also a large number of cops there to guide us. So when each speaker ended I thought we were going to leave. But no, after more chanting, another speaker would be introduced. Finally I left because I didn't think I would be able to keep up with the uphill march, and the streets were becoming pretty empty anyway.
There was very little foot traffic where we were, and I think I only gave out about 30-40 leaflets.
* The new SDS was organized in response to the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. (At that time, locally, someone tried and failed to set up a chapter at SCC.) One of Friday's speakers said she was from a brand new SDS chapter Seattle Pacific University, and another said she was from the U.W., where they are just starting out.
Added comment from Frank, February 10, 2024:
Geez, this happened after I left. From Falistniyat:
!SEATTLE PALESTINE MOVEMENT IS UNDER ATTACK!
In the last 48 hours we’ve seen a significant increase in violence and repression by the state including:
- chemical weapons used against protesters at the Seattle World Trade Center
- Seattle Police Department slashing the tires of cars that keep our protesters safe
- violent arrests of several comrades at the World Trade Center, downtown
- Washington state patrol threatening charges against protesters from previous actions
- Washington state patrol publishing photos of protesters in an attempt to silence us and turn our community against one another.
We know this means our pressure is working! We will remain steadfast in our fight for a free Palestine from the River to the sea! We will not be silenced!
Mass work report from Frank, February 16, 2024:
All of the pro-Palestinian posters on the utility poles and boxes along Broadway had been torn down. Surprisingly, however, the Seattle Workers’ Voice leaflets that I put on two bulletin boards inside Seattle Central College a month ago were still there! It used to be that our leaflets would be removed in a very short time.
There were not many students coming and going (it was really dead), but I still gave out 36 leaflets. One young woman brightened my day when she said “I totally agree with you!”--with emphasis on “totally.” Awhile later I talked with a black man with an African or European accent who was unhappy that he couldn't be at tomorrow's demonstration because he was flying back to his home in Washington D.C. (Our first exchange had been him asking me about where to catch the light rail to the airport.) But he had been at the large Washington demonstration a month ago, and from the way he talked it was clear that he remained excited about it.
Comment from Frank, February 18, 2024:
Tomorrow evening (Monday, February 19) there's a “Hands off Rafah! Emergency Action” at the University of Washington light rail station at 6:00 pm. It's a good idea to take a bus because Metro may close the station.
Comment from Frank, February 25, 2024:
Excellent! On Friday evening, March 8 (International Working Women's Day), there will be a solidarity with Palestine march on Capitol Hill.
https://www.facebook.com/ilps.seattle.t ... 7K84YAFmyl
Mass work report from Frank, March 7, 2024:
I gave out 110 leaflets at Seattle Central College in the past two days. Lots of supportive comments, even by people who didn't want a leaflet. Today I talked with a real interesting guy. He's 54 years old and probably knows as much or more about the history of Palestine and of the zionist project as me. He learned most of it from his mother, who's been a Palestine solidarity activist for many years. He himself doesn't seem to be an activist, but he said he would come to tomorrow night's march.
Mass work report from Frank, March 8, 2024:
I thought this demonstration had a lot going for it (the location, International Working Women's Day combined with the continuing horror in the Gaza Strip, 15 sponsoring groups) and I therefore expected a large turnout. But there wasn't one. Others can correct me, but I thought there were 150-160 people in the beginning, and that the number had dwindled to 100 or less when I left at 12th and Howell. What are the reasons for this?
Well, one reason may be political confusion caused by Biden's recent speech, actions and announcements, i.e., his standing up for abortion rights (in words, at least), the airdropping of aid to the Gazans (a small drop into the ocean of need) and the announcement that the U.S. will build a floating pier for aid (which may take weeks, and still doesn't deal with the problem of truck deliveries). But I suspect the main reason has to do with a mobilizing effort that didn't put up any posters(!) and relied on Facebook and maybe Instagram (which I'm blocked from). Moreover, while ILPS (the International League of Peoples' Struggle) may have expected that the various groups it got to sign up as co-sponsors were going to do a lot of mobilizing work, I suspect that some of the groups may not have mobilized anyone. 150 divided by 15 would = 10 for each group. But since ILPS and its ally Gabriela probably turned out scores of people, that doesn't say much for the other groups. And while one of the other groups was the important Falastiniyat (a Seattle Collective of Palestinian feminists), I only noticed one Arab family—which took a leaflet—coming to the event from my direction. I also noticed a couple of Afghan women who were probably members of—or had been mobilized by—the much, much smaller Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network. But I noticed several people from Seattle Central College, where, besides leafleting, I stuck up the Seattle Workers’ Voice leaflet with both sides showing (so the march info could easily be seen) on a couple bulletin boards. (Again, the previous leaflet was still up!)
I didn't see most of the crowd until it was almost dark. It seemed to have a lot of young women in it (which is good!) and to be pretty white. And although I thought the march should have continued all the way up Broadway, I thought it was fine.
Besides ILPS and Gabriella, the only revisionist leftists I saw were WWP's Jim, a FSP guy giving out a yellow-orange leaflet and the tall guy from RCP.
I only did fairly well leafleting on my corner, probably giving out less than 100. Most of the people who took one were just walking down Broadway, i.e., they were not going to the demonstration. But I did very well in giving leaflets to young African American men and women. On the other hand, I could see Mike giving out all kinds of leaflets in front of the light rail station, and I think Eric must have been doing well in his location too or he would have left it. (Mike, I think I gave you roughly 70 leaflets after you had handed out the initial bunch that Eric gave you.)
Added report from Eric:
I was also struck by how small the demo was. And I also thought it should have stayed on Broadway, maybe marching to the north end and then back to the south end of the business district. As it was, there was almost no foot traffic the majority of the march – on John, 12th, and Pine – that time of night. These days the only things open on 12th were fancy restaurants. As well, on Capitol Hill after dark on a Friday night there are more than a few unstable people (e.g. two guys walking alongside the march with their faces completely covered up, were tearing off all posters regardless of content, off all poles) which also added to the overall sense of unfocused energy.
Chants were hard to follow, partly because they didn't have the sound truck, and partly because they were doing chants in Tagalog and other languages, which essentially no one knew.
Much more than the recent pro-Palestine demos the content of the speeches was dominated by social-democratic content, singing, invoking of the rights of the Duwamish, and so on. Between the speeches and the chants, I had a hard time grasping any overall message.
I also saw only a few Arab-looking people.
Because of these factors, I chalked the weaknesses of the demo up to it being much more led by social democratic forces, with Falastinyat very much in the background.
We gave out a total of 275 leaflets.
We noted an officially marked Extinction Rebellion car at the front of the march.
Mass work report from Frank, March 12, 2024:
Protest against Boeing and other arms contractors at the Convention Center
I think around 350 people turned out for a rather isolated rally in Freeway Park bordering the south side of the Convention Center. There was no march, and although I didn't really hear the speakers, I don't think any of them were Palestinian or from other Arab countries. Most of the revisionist groups in town had a presence, including DSA. Since I could only give leaflets to people coming to the rally, I didn't think I would do very well leafleting. But it turned out that several times young people lined up to get one. This may be because they haven't been to previous events, or because they haven't seen us at previous events, or because they saw the poster around town and are they're quite new. And I might have given out 150 leaflets.
I met an interesting young man who was carrying a book by Marx in his hand. He said that he's just finished The State and Revolution and that he was impressed by it. I recommended a couple books by Engels and Lenin and we both agreed that without a revolutionary theory there cannot be a revolutionary movement. The guy likes to talk a lot (and he told me that he was looking for someone to talk with), and he also talked about things he's read by Max Steiner, Abbie Hoffman and Hunter S. Thompson.
A good day.
Mass work report from Frank, March 28, 2024:
I gave out 43 of the leaflet at Seattle Central College this morning, and since there seems to be a lot fewer students this quarter, I think that's pretty good. Met a friendly young guy in a cowboy hat who says he's in DSA. First DSAer that I remember meeting.
BTW, we've given out over 6,000 copies of Seattle Workers' Voice since October 7.
Mass work report from Frank, March 29, 2024:
Again, there were very few students at Seattle Central College (SCC), but my security guard friend solved the mystery: it's finals week. (I've given leaflets to and talked with this woman many times over the years, and she supports our work there. Presently, she's furious at what Israel is doing in Gaza, and furious at both Biden and Trump for supporting Netanyahu.)
That said, I handed out 30 leaflets. Lots of supportive comments. 75-80 per cent of the African Americans wanted one. A Mexican guy shouted “viva Palestina!”
Demonstration report, March 30, 2024 – Palestinian Land Day:
About 2000 turned out in Seattle, and Frank said it was a varied event, including many younger people and a King County Labor Council (KCLC) contingent. There was also a group of Korean women, and Eric said that he was struck throughout this movement how many Asian women are participating, and how many are enthusiastically seeking out leaflets. Mike said that most of his interactions were positive, but there were people who didn’t understand the relationship between Palestine and communism. Helen said that it is important to know how to deal with Islam during this work. Mike said that some people had a problem with a sign which showed a map with Israel crossed out and replaced with Palestine. [Discussion on the need for a single secular democratic state followed.] Eric said that he thought that recent demonstrations had been influenced by Social Democratic groups, and they had tended away from being not mass actions and their speakers were generally pretty bad, some supporting Hamas.
Demonstration and mass work report from Frank and Eric, April 22, 2024:
Frank reported on the emergency demonstration of about 200 people that marched from the 1-line station near the University Hospital to the student encampment.
Mass work report from Eric, April 29, 2024:
I went to the encampment this evening. There were about 8 tents, including a small central "command center". A banner presented demands: Divest from Israel; Cut ties with Boeing; End repression of pro-Palestinian students, faculty and staff.
Although foot traffic was light, reception by passersby was pretty good, and everyone but one person that I approached in the encampment took one enthusiastically. In total, between leaflets I distributed and a small stack I gave to the people in the "command center", I gave 35 leaflets away.
Part of my time there was taken up by conversation with an older man, a retired Boeing computer draftsperson and self-identified Jew, who believed the propaganda that everyone in the protest movement loves Hamas and hates Jews, but who was willing to listen to me once I unhesitatingly denounced Hamas' Oct 7 attack, and when I surprised him by also denouncing that they did it knowing what Israel would do in response without regard for the wellbeing of the Palestinians. This made space to talk in some depth about various of the lines he initially spouted without thinking, such as that "Israel is surrounded by enemies". It was an interesting conversation.
If comrades want to find it, the encampment is in the Quad on campus.
Mass work report from Eric, May 1, 2024:
Got back out to the encampment this evening. It is much bigger, big enough that I couldn't easily estimate how many tents. Many more participants, and more people around, certainly helped by the sunshine. I passed out 49 leaflets, including 14 of the older March 1 leaflet (vol. 8 no.4) that I had around, almost entirely to passers by, though the dividing line was difficult to tell. Enthusiastic reception, multiple times everyone in a group walking together wanted on, one time it was hard to keep up with the people asking for one, and a couple of times people passed by and then turned back to ask for one. There was no other literature there, except for a "Liberated Zone Community Guidelines" half-sheet, some points okay, others not very good, such as not engaging with counterprotesters, which I think everyone should have a choice to do or not do as they see fit. With all the tents, and the general community in the area, it is hard to tell, but my best guess is several hundred protesters.
I omitted last time, the only indication of revisionist groups last time was a banner for FRSO somewhat sloppily laying on the ground. I don't know if that was still there, but this time I didn't see that banner or other left groups present. [Later I saw the same FRSO banner, it had been mostly obscured by new tents.]
It would be great to have a new leaflet out, but for now the latest somewhat dated one is great to have. I hope to get out there again, repeatedly.
Mass work report from Eric, May 6, 2024:
Again at the encampment this evening. The encampment size is about the same. I distributed 90 leaflets in 45 minutes, including 10-15 minutes talking with a man who described himself as security for the encampment. I got numerous warm thanks, several groups of people who all wanted one.
I received one leaflet back, with extensive comments: the woman said she was staff at the school, and a Palestinian. The general import of her comments is to defend Hamas. On the back, next to the headline "Against Israel's conflation of Hamas with the Palestinian people" she wrote "Resistance is a right". She underlined "Hamas ... is led by fundamentalist reactionaries who seek an Islamic state..." and wrote "Not correct. Gaza has a Christian minority that Hamas also defends. Furthermore, many Jews who have made it into Gaza have been provided protection by Hamas". She [argues] that we should not be telling an oppressed people how to resist.
I saw one longstanding Revolutionary Communist Party member who seemed to be checking things out, not distributing anything or engaging with anyone. Socialist Alternative/Workers Strike Back had a big presence, with 10-12 supporters, using their usual tactic of getting people to sign something to draw them into conversation. And the new organization, Revolutionary Communists of America had two people at a table. Their tactic was to call out to everyone who passed, asking, "Are you communist?" If the person answered yes, which many did, they would say "Join us", if the person answered they were a socialist, they would also say "join us", if they answered no, they would ask "do you hate capitalism?" and if the person said yes, they would also say "communism is the only way to fight capitalism".
Demonstration report from Frank, May 7, 2024:
There was an emergency demonstration against the attack on Rafah at 5:30 this evening. About 200 people turned out at the 1-line station near University Hospital. Speeches were militant. A female student from Seattle University spoke. No one had leaflets but me. We marched all the way up to the encampment on the Quad. I don't know if it has grown since Eric was there, but I was really surprised by how big it is. I gave out more than 150 copies of the March 27 leaflet (Seattle Workers' Voice, vol. 8, #5).
Mass work report from Frank, May 9, 2024:
May 9 at Seattle Central College (a Community College, with a diverse and working class student body). Got there late due to an early appointment I had. Noticed an attractive poster advertising the Nakba Day march at the Broadway light rail station. Gave out 74 leaflets. Several people made supportive comments. Three people said they would be there on Saturday. After reading it, a woman came back to get a second leaflet. Gave one to the Bangladeshi leftist who I used to talk with all the time. Didn't get a chance to talk with him today, but I know he opposes Hamas and supports the Palestinians.
I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I saw some posters calling for the release of Toomaj Salehi, the revolutionary Iranian rapper who is scheduled to be hanged by the mullahs. The posters were put up by an Iranian group whose name I can't remember. (Next time I'll write it down.) There have been fair-sized demonstrations in several countries calling for Toomaj's release.
Demonstration report from Eric, May 11, 2024 – Nakba Day demonstration:
An international call was put out to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, the terror which was necessary for the founding of Israel. In Seattle the protest met at Westlake Mall, an open mall area downtown. About 2000-2500 people gathered, and the spirit was good. Unfortunately the organizers held people hostage for 2 full hours of speechifying, well past when the mass of protesters were ready to march. It even seemed that some people left before the march started, becoming tired or impatient. When the march did take off, one of our contacts had inside information that the planned route was through the Pike Place Market, an area with heavy pedestrian traffic, where past demonstrations have found excellent reception, and even picked up in size. However, the march turned back to the Westlake Mall a couple of blocks for before reaching the Market, the reason given to our contact being that the organizers had “run out of water” and didn't want to “make people march” without water! The Market is full of food stalls where anyone can get water or other drinks. This reason is belied by the fact that I nearly tripped over a wagon loaded high with cases of water when we got back to the Westlake Mall. In the end, the march lasted less than 45 minutes. While it was a good demonstration, and it was great that so many turned out, these shenanigans show that the Social Democrats are gaining a strangle hold on the movement.
I had multiple positive interactions with passers by. One young man asked probing questions about where we were coming from, and expressed that he is in a phase of trying to understand where the different trends are coming from. Another interaction I had was with two Arab-looking men, one of whom said he was Moroccan. Initially we talked about proposed solutions, and they agreed with the idea of a single secular democratic state in Palestine. Both expressed concern about the slogan “From the river to the sea”, interpreting it to mean pushing Israeli Jews into the sea. But when I pointed out that the rest of the slogan was “Palestine will be free”, their demeanor changed completely, and they said they were fully in support.
We passed out close to 800 leaflets.
Demonstration report from Eric, May 12, 2024:
A right-wing church, part of the Praise church which has branches around the country, and which has a church located on “Frat Row” near the University of Washington had called for a counterprotest against the encampment. In response, supporters of the encampment put a call out to the community to meet the counterprotest with numbers, calling for a rally in the same location, to start an hour earlier than the reactionary protest. It is a guess, but about 1000 encampment supporters were there. The usual encampment population is a couple hundred, so the call to the community brought quite a few people out. The encampment had clearly considered strategies. At its height the reactionary rally numbered about 250. They waved Israeli and US flags, and a lot of the talk was from a Christian orientation.
Early on, the University Administration seems to have taken a hands-off approach, waiting the protesters out, anticipating the end of the school year. But in anticipation of the protest/counterprotest, the Administration put out a call to the encampment to voluntarily disband, “for everyone's safety”. A tactic to look good, but probably taken with the full knowledge that the encampment would not comply, which they didn't.
Instead, the encampment organizers planned ahead to defend their ground. There are six entrances into the “Quad” area where the encampment is, and the cops had put up token moveable metal barriers across these openings. Well before the reactionaries appeared, the encampment organizers had fortified these barriers with wooden pallets, plywood boards, chicken wire, bike racks, and other materials they had collected. They met and divided themselves into six groups, each assigned to defend one of the openings.
The entrance closest to where the reactionaries were gathering was fortified with three levels of barriers, and the bulk of the encampment supporters were gathered there. There were about 2 dozen State Police present, the bulk of them at this entrance as well, between the two groupings, but several positioned to prevent large masses of reactionaries pass around to the other entrances – in other words they played a surprisingly positive role, probably at the behest of the UW Administration who wanted to avoid a repetition of the all-out violence carried out by reactionaries who attacked the UCLA encampment a few weeks earlier.
Early on the reactionaries approached the main barrier and the encampment supporters gave a strong defense against them. The presence of the police probably prevented the reactionaries from descending into violence, which some of them clearly were gunning for. And clearly, the encampment supporters were ready to defend themselves against any violence perpetrated against them. After this initial confrontation, the reactionaries retreated to a spot a couple hundred yards away, and held their rally, after which they went home. [A discussion plus videos of the confrontation of this can be seen here: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/0 ... -a-buzzsaw]
I spent a significant part of the time inside the barricades. From there, fewer people were taking leaflets, I think because their attention was on the confrontation.
We passed out 250-300 leaflets.
Demonstration report from Frank, May 12, 2024:
I think the U.W. opted for a strategy of waiting the students out some time ago: summer's coming. But after getting news of the “United for Israel March,” it issued a statement (on Friday) calling on the students to “dismantle the encampment voluntarily for everyone’s safety...” This may have been to test the pro-Palestinian students resolve, but the U.W. probably also knew it would fail. And the administration could also look good in the public eye. At any rate, the students defied the administration's call to dismantle, and I think this should be pointed out in the article.
BTW, I'm sure there would have been fights (if not a fierce brawl) if the cops were not there. Some of the pro-Israel characters in my area were itching to get into one, provoking people, etc.
News report from University of Washington Daily newspaper, May 17, 2024:
The encampment reached an agreement with the University Administration to disband the encampment. Encampment spokespeople indicate that they do not consider this a victory, but without elaboration.
Demands which were apparently agreed to include: student representation on the Divestment Committee of the Board of Regents; scholarships for 20 displaced Gazan students; establishment of a faculty committee to review study abroad programs which exclude participation of students due to their background [e.g. programs to Israel, which disallow Palestinian student participation]; development of a center for study of Palestine; development of academic ties to Palestinian universities; University investment transparency.
Of course it remains to be seen how these agreed-to demands are implemented, and it remains to be seen what next for the movement, and the student groups' participation in it.
(Also see *The Stranger* article on the settlement: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/0 ... nistration) <>
Stand with the Palestinian people!
Protest the US-backed war on Gaza!
Introduction:
By Eric Gordon, Seattle Workers’ Voice
As the massive over-response of Israel to the October 7 Hamas strike developed, so did the international pro-Palestinian response of the masses. This is a compilation of the reports of Seattle comrades, on the mass work and demonstrations we attended.
First, some observations overall regarding the development of the movement in Seattle. With the exception of the week between Christmas and New Year, the period from October 7 up to the January 6 demonstration, which took over the northbound lanes of I-5 for several hours, there were weekly demonstrations, called for the same time, same place.
Some time shortly after that January 6 demonstration, word went out that there would be no more weekly demos, and from then the demonstrations were somewhat less frequent, still every week or two, and called for different locations. This meant that one had to be plugged in to the right channels to know when and where they were. As well, the Facebook feeds of the main organizations, Falastinyat (a Seattle Collective of Palestinian feminists), SUPER-UW (Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return-University of Washington), Samidoun (Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network), and Palestinian Youth Movement were not reliable for posting demonstration information. There is the distinct possibility that these organizations were extremely busy, and updating their feeds with future actions fell by the wayside as a result.
On the other hand, among the masses involved in the protests, the dedication to continue demonstrating has continued without flagging for 9 months. Ordinary people are still bringing their own home made signs, still showing up in large numbers, still eagerly seeking leaflets, still in fighting spirit. We noted several times, individuals eager to do something, asking to take more than one of our leaflets, sometimes 20 or more, to give out. One thing that we noted among the masses, is a growing expression of solidarity from other oppressed groups: for example, signs combining Mexican flag with the Palestinian one, Latinx individuals raising slogans like “La Lucha por Palestina”, a contingent of Asians with signs expressing solidarity between Chinese massage workers and the Palestinian struggle, developments to be applauded and encouraged.
From October 2023 to May 2024 - reports on the work of Seattle Workers’ Voice in the pro-Palestinian movement:
Demonstration reports from Eric, October 12 and 14, 2023:
Now that I have a little time, I wanted to report on the demo on the University of Washington campus on Thursday 10/12. My estimate was about 4-500 people, mainly young, many Arabic people, some other national minorities. Organizers were handing out a sheet listing their organization social media handles: @samidounseattle, @super_uw, @falastinyat, @ilps.seattle.tacoma, @beldaan.
One speaker I heard put forward the slogan "Resistance is justified by any means necessary", which, while militant, is somewhat problematic as it is justifying Hamas’s attack on civilians. Another speaker talked about the attacks that have been waged against protesters supporting Palestine: media claims they're all supporting terrorism, the argument that all support for Palestine is the same as antisemitism, as well as cases in which whole Palestinian solidarity groups have been doxed and activists receiving death threats.
There were heated arguments against the few counterprotesters, but the main one I heard, the pro-Palestinian person was failing to make good arguments [not antisemitic, but using weak reasoning].
I didn't see any representatives of the main revisionist (pseudo-socialist) groups there. The one person I recognized is a long term activist who is loosely associated with FSP.
As well, Helen and I went to the protest at Westlake at 1 today (Oct. 14) We arrived at 2, and the protest was already starting to march. We estimated about 3000 people, maybe growing as it marched. It was a mix of young and older, maybe 50% young? Again, very heavily Arab/Palestinian makeup.
Chants were lively and taken up enthusiastically by the crowd. In addition to the chants which are common to many demos, I heard "One solution, intifada, revolution", "We want 1948, we were one in 48", "We don't want two states", "Not a nickel not a dime, no money for Israel's crimes", "In millions and millions, we're all Palestinians". They did several chants in Arabic, and there were enough there who understood that these were widely taken up. The chant leaders switched off in an effective way, and the main one was very dynamic.
They had a hand-pushed cart with 4 speakers mounted on it, which was great because it was very loud and could be heard by the whole march.
Handmade signs I noted in particular: "We will return to our 1948 homes", "Free Palestine is not a statement it is a promise", "The nakba never ended".
As the march proceeded, it stopped briefly for short speeches, again talk of doxing and death threats, another talked about the media and politicians' narrative that the land is one of two people who hate each other, and how we have to oppose it, another asked us all to raise a fist and talked about being united we will win. Another said that Palestine is not just for Arab Muslims, it's for Jews, Christians, etc.
I saw signs from these organizations: DSA, ANSWER, Freedom Road (one young woman holding it), Samidoun, Anak, Jewish Voice for Peace, PFLP, ILPS.
I got leaflets from PSL: "PSL Statement: Free Palestine, free all Palestinian political prisoners, end all aid to the Israeli apartheid regime!"
Half sheets handed out by the same people as were handing out the list of social media handles of organizing groups at UW: "Boeing profits from genocide in Palestine", "Gaza is under attack because Gaza resists".
Demonstration report from Frank, November 12, 2023:
There was a pro-Palestinian rally in a park in the suburb of Bellevue today. About 200 people attended, including Helen, Mike, Eric and me. (This is the first time we've all been together.) Some people seemed to be new, e.g., a middle-aged Asian man wanted to know where "the river" was, and what its name was. I also gave leaflets to some young Asians who I think I rode the train with yesterday. I thought the speeches were fine, although they seemed to include a little more Muslim stuff than I've noticed before. There was a Zionist counter-protest of 6-8 people about 70 yards away, but they seemed to just stand there holding Israeli flags.
WSWS had a guy leafleting, and PSL had two people there with signs but no literature. We low-key handed out the second Seattle Workers’ Voice leaflet. We've now easily given out more than 1,000 of the two leaflets.
Demonstration and mass work report from Frank, November 18, 2023:
Some recent activity in Seattle:
1) SUPER UW had another campus march yesterday. Again, I was about the first person there, so I gave out 67 leaflets to students walking across the Quad. About 50-60 demonstrators eventually arrived, but they were very spirited as we marched through several buildings shouting chants and slogans. (The buildings were Thompson Hall, where there's an Israeli studies department, the HUB, a Bill and Melinda Gates building, a building where there's a Boeing advanced research center, and another building.) A number of students joined us as we marched.
This SUPER UW group seems quite good, and it perseveres. (This was the third of its events that I attended, and I think Eric attended an earlier one.) The three speakers were Arab women who I didn't recognize. (I don't know if any of them were Palestinian.) The group also had a small leaflet that half-a-dozen Asians plus others gave to their fellow students--which shows that a trend exists among the demonstrators that wants to organize more widely. After a couple of sentences telling about what is going on in Palestine, the leaflet said, “Join us in demanding: End the siege of Gaza, end US aid to Israel! Ceasefire now! UW divest from weapons corporations! UW cut ties with Israeli institutions!” I gave out over 100 leaflets in all.
2) About 2,000 people marched downtown again today. For me these events are always an upper in a certain sense (the shouting of slogans and chants with others, etc.), but at the same time I keep thinking about the seriousness of the situation for the Palestinians. And I think the crowds share similar emotions and thoughts, which is why so many people are returning Saturday after Saturday. Of course, new people continue to come to the demonstrations too. Also, I'm really surprised by the number of Asians who are marching, as well as by the percentage of Asians who take leaflets on the streets.
That said, Ben and I probably gave out close to 400 leaflets today. (I'm pretty sure that Ben has distributed more copies of this leaflet than anyone else but me! He also took some extras so that he could use them in connection with future events.) Mike, who was again with the bicycle brigade, had a small handful, but I don't know how he did.
Mass work report from Frank, November 21, 2023:
When I went to Seattle Central College this morning I noticed that someone had pasted up 20” x 30” Palestinian flags on utility boxes on Broadway, which was nice. Also noticed that someone had stuck our leaflet on a bulletin board inside the building. I added another. Leafleting was going fine, and I had passed out 50 when a young Asian woman I'd given it to came to ask me for 10 more, which I gave her thinking that she wanted them for a class. Wrong. She began passing them out so fast that I had to re-supply her twice. We made a good team! Her approach was to say things like stop bombing Gazan children. She would also sometimes ask, “have you no humanity?” when a leaflet was rejected—something that I would never have done. So probably 120 or more leaflets got into the building today.
The woman told me that she's been going to all the protests, and that she's in her final quarter at SCC. But since she then had to rush to class, our only parting words were, “see you Saturday!”
Demonstration work report from Frank, November 25, 2023:
About 700 people marched in Seattle today, November 25. This time Ben had his own leaflet (a four pager) and I don't know where everyone else was. Nevertheless, I gave out roughly 150 of ours.
Demonstration and mass work report from Frank, December 3, 2023:
Some mass work activities during the past week:
* Today (Sunday), there was an “Indigenous-led March for Palestine and Vigil” starting at Westlake. About 10 people--mainly young Native Americans--were there at the announced starting time. (There was also an older Native American man who attended all of the John T. Williams protests, as well as a number of the anti-war protests earlier this century.) They had a good marching banner in support of Palestine and one Palestinian flag. The main organizer and speaker was a Native American woman in her 50s who's originally from Canada, and who I gave a leaflet to last Saturday. Except for her saying that the U.S. politicians are bought off by AIPAC, I thought her speech was quite good in both its content and delivery. (Her daughter also spoke, but I couldn't hear her.) The chants were mainly the same ones we hear at all the protests, plus a couple that worked Turtle Island and Indigenous Peoples into the same ideas. The crowd grew to about 18 as people passing by joined, and 2-3 did this after I had given them a leaflet and explained that there was going to be a march. Since the idea was that they were going to march to and through the market chanting “while you're shopping, bombs are dropping” and the turnout was small, I assumed we were going to march on the sidewalk. But, no; we took to the street with no interference from the cops! (I left at my train stop.)
I ran into the first really hostile element I've met while distributing this leaflet. His line was that all of the Gazans support Hamas, and that they therefore deserve what they're getting. He claimed that I supported Hamas too, and there was no arguing with him. And he ended by saying that I was going to get what was coming to me real soon. On the other hand, there was a half-naked guy who'd been running in the rain who stopped to take a leaflet, tell me that he'd been at one of the early UW campus marches that I attended, and tell me of the arguments he's been having with some of his pro-Zionist Jewish family members. Finally, a couple of 30ish women wanted to know what Seattle Workers' Voice was. So I briefly told them, and gave them the Communist Voice address, etc.
I liked this small event, and I gave out 35 leaflets while there.
* Yesterday (Saturday), Eric, Helen and me went to the regular Saturday march. Eric thought around 1,000 people were there, whereas I thought around 600-700 people were, although I could be wrong. In any case, the turnout was about 10% less than last Saturday. Helen had a nice sign from SAIC (Seattle Anti-Imperialist Committee) days, and between us I'm wildly guessing that we handed out close to 200 leaflets. (BTW, a restaurant manager invited Eric inside so that he could give leaflets to people at the tables = real supportive of the Palestinian cause.)
* On Friday, Eric and Helen went to a Palestine teach-in in South Seattle. When they arrived the place was already packed with 200 people, and on an unenclosed side people were even standing in pouring rain trying to hear what was being said. Eric quickly gave out 14 leaflets to people still trying to get in, but people were packed in so tightly that it wasn't possible to get into the building to leaflet and the strong wind and rain made it very difficult to pass out leaflets.
* On Wednesday, me and Eric passed out 116 leaflets at SCC.
So we've now given out roughly 2,300 copies of the two leaflets. I'm presently thinking about updating and slightly shortening the present leaflet, plus having Gaza be the main content of a MLK Day leaflet. But I have to first consult with the other SWV members.
Demonstration report from Frank, December 9, 2023:
Today, about 300 dedicated and spirited pro-Palestine demonstrators turned out in a cold rain at Westlake. Steve Leigh passed out the little SRS leaflet, and Ben had a new leaflet that he said he'd finished at 4:00 a.m. (I haven't read it yet.) I was able to give out around 130 copies of the new Seattle Workers’ Voice by standing in a couple of dry places. A young Arab guy, Ab (not to be confused with Abul, who gave out a larger number at the UW), gave out another 30.
So Ab is the fourth person who has wanted to hand out the SWV. I don't think this is because of its content vs other leaflets, but because these people have been impelled by the events in Gaza to want to organize. Another example of the latter is that new posters, usually unsigned, are continually being put up. In going to the demonstration I saw three new ones (all different, and well done) at my light-rail stop, which is not in a part of town where one usually sees political posters.
Demonstration report from Frank, December 12, 2023:
A good morning at Seattle Central College:
Upon arriving I noticed four new posters wheat-pasted along Broadway, including one in Arabic. They were unsigned, but obviously put up by the same group of people. Then I received many supportive comments as I handed out 115 leaflets. And I got into a good discussion with an African guy with a heavy accent about Gaza and Ukraine. More, as we were talking, Sxx, the young Asian woman who two weeks ago passed out so many copies of the previous SWV joined us. This had some good results: Sam and the man—who had never met before—arranged to talk more; the man said that he will most definitely go to Saturday's Westlake demonstration; I now have Sxx as a Facebook friend, she wanted 15 more leaflets to give to classmates inside the school.
Demonstration report from Frank, December 16:
My guess is that 1,200-1,500 pro-Palestine demonstrators marched today, 12/16, in Seattle. This time we went to the Market, where we stayed a long time, and where Seattle Revolutionary Socialists even set up a table.
The usual left groups were there. Additionally, Red Flag, which split from PLP a decade or more ago, was there handing out its newspaper. (FSP was also handing out free copies of the “Freedom Socialist.”) Eric, me and Ben gave out over 550 copies of the SWV leaflet. (Ben also had a leaflet of his own that he gave to people who keep returning to the demonstrations, and he would sometimes give them both leaflets. And he eventually ran out of both leaflets.)
Mass demonstration report from Eric, December 16, 2024:
We got down to Westlake as the demo started marching, and I estimated about 1000 at that time. It snaked back and forth down to the market, stopped there for a time on the street where it turns in the market, and then snaked back to Westlake again. This was a good route, because there were lots of by standers and workers in the stores and restaurants, who stopped to watch, and often took leaflets. I stuck with the march until it got back to Westlake, at which point I peeled off.
Good chants, many of the same, good militancy. One of the chant leaders shifted out of chants briefly to say how weak Israel is.
My impression is that the portion of white people participating is increasing, but there are still a high percentage of Arab people, and a significant number of Asian and Black people participating or showing support from the sidewalks.
I distributed all the leaflets I had, but I didn't get a count. My best estimate is about 180-200. Lots of thanks, support. I encountered only two weak dissenters the whole time.
Mass work report, joint discussion, January 6, 2024:
Frank, Mike, Eric and Helen were there. It was one of the largest demonstrations since October 7. The demo gathered at the Starbucks Roastery, which had boarded all its windows and shut the store for the day. These boards were quickly covered in graffiti and posters denouncing Starbucks and Israel's actions. The organizers had planned a surprise, 200 to 300 people marching onto the I-5 freeway, and blocking all the northbound lanes, while the rest of the crowd rallied on a major overpass, which people hung banners over, and waved and chanted to cars and trucks passing south-bound, many of whom honked in support. The cops had almost no presence on the overpass, or anywhere else except on the freeway, a hundred yards away from the blockade. They also eventually managed to clear the backup on the freeway, by having cars turn around and exit somewhere south of the blockade. We had all left by the time the blockade broke up, but news reports said it was around 7pm, as much as 6 hours after it started. News reports indicated that this was a tactic taken elsewhere, e.g. L.A., so likely reflects coordination behind the scenes. We distributed 380 leaflets, having to get more printed in the middle of the day. Eric noticed that a group new to Seattle, International Marxist Tendency, was there with about a dozen people. Frank speculated that some of them may have come from out of town, which is what happened when Socialist Alternative established itself here. Helen remarked on how representatives various mass movements are coming together in these demonstrations, and that she and Eric had noticed an Asian or Chinese contingent, and at least one sign expressing solidarity from Mexican immigrants.
Mass work report from Eric, January 15, 2024 – Martin Luther Day:
I received a flyer today, put out by Students of King County, announcing a March for Palestine, Sunday January 28th at 1pm, Bellevue Downtown Park. It's put on by Issaquah Students League, a study group which Frank had conversation with at the march today, as I did separately. They were a contingent of about 8 high school students, holding red flags and a banner reading "Study revolution, fight exploitation". I had conversation with a couple of them, including the one who seemed to be most knowledgeable. They are Stalinist/Maoist, holding the view that the Soviet Union degenerated after Stalin died. I suggested that he read what we have to say about Stalin, and they indicated interest. I wrote an email to the contact I got for them today, with a little on our criticism of Stalinism and our theory of state capitalism. We'll see how he responds. [There was no response. We speculated afterward that they may be connected with the Maoist Puget Sound Revolutionary Study Group]
I estimated that at the height of the demo it was about 2000, while others thought somewhat smaller. The march traveled down Jefferson, then detoured past the Juvenile Hall, then continued down Yesler. We left as it crossed the freeway on the Yesler overpass. We both noted that the crowd was biggest in the first few blocks, and people started peeling away pretty quickly. The march was mostly low energy, the official chants were lackluster, sporadic, and very general, saying nothing about Palestine. The Palestine solidarity contingent of about 30-40 was vocal and spirited, and at one point someone with a bullhorn took over leading more spirited chants from the front for a little while.
Trends I saw: FSP, WWP, but not RCP.
There was more support for Israel at this event than any I've been to since October 7th, but mostly it was muted, calling for freeing the hostages, more or less only slogans any democratic-minded person would support, plus liberals slogans like peace – without any hint at what such peace might look like. I saw one man with multiple signs, some on Myanmar – I think taking a good position – and then some supporting Israel.
Then there was SWP, who had a sign up behind their table: "Fighting Jew hatred is a working class issue", and their newspaper had the front-page headlines: "Defend Israel's right to exist", "SWP campaign in Oakland joins protests against attacks on Israel" and "Call for Israel 'cease fire' gives support to Hamas".
Excerpts from Frank's Martin Luther King Day report:
Some of the headlines in the recent Militant are
1) “Defend Israel’s right to exist! Join fight against Jew-hatred”
2) “Defeating Hamas opens door to unite Jews, Arabs,” and
3) “Call for cease-fire is support for Hamas.”
Quickly replying:
1) But all progressive people oppose Jew-hatred (or antisemitism) while also opposing Islamophobia. The Militant's search function shows, however, that only five articles mention Islamophobia since 2018, with the last—written in 2023—being in defense of a Minnesota teacher who they say was falsely accused of Islamophobia. Moreover, what does fighting antisemitism have to do with defending Israel’s right to exist? Why connect them?
2) I don't think Hamas is going to be defeated, but I do think the longer the present war lasts the more this will close the door to unity between Jews and Arabs
3) Hooray for the IDF! Netanyahu himself says things very similar to “call for cease-fire is support for Hamas,” and a ceasefire indeed might help Hamas. But large numbers of progressive people globally are raising this call because they want to help the masses of Gazans, while the SWP leaves the suffering people of Gaza out of the equation.
[We noted that they also take a reactionary stance on abortion rights.]
.………..
Back to MLK Day, the crowd has gradually gotten whiter through the years, and that continued this year. Also, while some trade unions often have organized contingents, this year I only noticed some scattered SEIU people in the crowd. As well, there were a number of UFCW people handing out a flyer that called for support for their strike against Macy's. There are about 400 workers involved in this strike statewide.
On the left, all of the groups were there with the exception of the RCP (which seems kind of strange) and maybe the new Trotskyist group. Eric talked with a new group, the Issaquah Students League, which is composed of very young people who uphold Mao and Stalin and have a study group, and who weren't adverse to talking about Stalinism. They had a flyer advertising a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Bellevue on Sunday, January 28 that we'll surely attend. (We speculated afterward that the Issaquah study group may be connected with the Maoist Puget Sound Revolutionary Study Group, who I talked with last May Day. They're centered in south Puget Sound, also very young, and they were not adverse to discussing criticisms of Maoism with me.)
Literature not mentioned above: Red Flag gave out free copies of its newspaper. Muslims for Peace had a slick flyer that was purely religious, nothing about Palestine. Ben Seattle had his “The Palestinian” #4 leaflet. DSA had a small leaflet that says several correct things about Palestine and even calls for overthrowing the Israeli apartheid government. But similar to most of the Trotskyists, the latter is put in the context of the workers and poor people of the region taking power as a democratic-socialist republic. The leaflet also exaggerates the importance of what Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib have done in Congress, I think.
Eric, Helen and me did mass work with Seattle Workers’ Voice. Don't know how they did, but I handed out around 150. Considering the number of people there, I don't think this number was that great, however. (Percentage wise, I gave out many more at Seattle Central College on Friday.)
I chatted with various movement friends, but I didn't have any real political discussions. Nevertheless, I had some good experiences. An older African American woman wanted 4-5 leaflets to give to friends. A man I spoke with in Olympia—Native American, I think—showed up. (He didn't seem to know the group of 20 or so Native Americans already present.) A 30ish white man with a slight foreign accent wanted to know how people found out about the demonstrations he'd seen on television, and he was very happy when I showed him the two links to check out for the times and places of the Saturday demonstrations. (Also, one thing I didn't report about Olympia is that after a young man eagerly took the leaflet, he said to his friends that Seattle Worker's Voice is “real good!” Didn't get a chance to talk with him, though.)
Mass work report from Frank, January 23, 2024:
* I gave out 44 leaflets at SCC this morning. (I was a little late because students are arriving earlier this quarter and I didn't know it. It's therefore good to be there around 9:00 or slightly thereafter.) Good responses, and I also noticed that some MLK Day leaflets I had posted on a couple bulletin boards with both sides showing were still there! Naturally, I added this leaflet to the boards.
* I gave out a similar number of leaflets at tonight's Red Square vigil. The vigil started with people slowly drifting in from all directions to hold candles or watch pictures of murdered Palestinians being projected onto a wall. Maybe 90 people were there when I left, but there were some still arriving. Also, when I got over towards 15th I heard a woman begin speaking, but I chose not to go back coz I really had other things to do.
Mass work report from Eric, January 23, 2024:
Helen and I couldn't get to the vigil until around 7, and it had mostly wound down by that time. About 15-20 people left, standing around talking with each other. Longtime RCP supporter Cici was there talking with another woman. We couldn't stay long.
Mass work report from Frank, January 25, 2024:
At 11:00 am there was a solidarity event at Westlake that I just found out about last night. About 90 people turned out to chant and listen to speakers, and we then marched on the sidewalk a couple of blocks north to a little triangular park where the same thing was repeated. Not many people were on the streets, but I still gave out 80-90 leaflets. (One young African-American woman took a leaflet, read it for awhile, then joined the crowd and vigorously began chanting along with everyone else = nice!)
Mass work report from Frank, January 26, 2024:
Around 50 people were at this evening's healthcare worker vigil at the UW Link Station. It started with people holding candles, then there were couple speakers, then they read from a list of the names of people killed by the Israelis in Gaza. At first I thought it was a list of healthcare workers killed, but it was much too long for that (three people were taking turns reading). In fact, they were still reading out the names when I left. (Cynthia from the RCP arrived just as I was leaving.)
Seattle Revolutionary Socialists seemed to be the main organizer of the event, which is weekly. At any rate, they were there early, they had a large literature table set up, and the speakers sounded like ISO speakers from 20 years ago. The main speaker, a nurse (I think), began with well-researched comments on what has happened to the healthcare system in Gaza during the past three months (with denunciations of U.S.-backed Israeli war crimes interspersed), which she then expanded into comments on what has happened to the Gazans in general (with more denunciations of war crimes.) It was a very long speech, and I didn't hear all of it, but I don't think it was bad. That said, and while it's hard for me to explain, even though she or the other speaker or both of them pointed to capitalism or imperialism as being the underlying problem, I don't think the speeches were very political.
A problem with the rally was that it was held on the north end of the station, where very few people were walking and where it could barely be seen! Nevertheless, I gave out about 45-50 leaflets. One guy read it all under a light about 50 feet away, and then returned to listen to speeches for awhile. Another twice hugged and thanked me for being out there. An Ethiopian, a Latino and an Arab-looking man also expressed great gratitude before going to catch their trains.
So it was a good evening despite the bad location.
Mass work report from Frank, January 28, 2024:
I think 120-150 people were at today's Bellevue event. After having speakers and chanting in the park, we marched to Bellevue Way, and then up it to Bellevue Square, where we stopped in the street for more speakers and chanting. And while Bellevue Way was blocked by protesters for perhaps an hour-and-a-half, the police did not interfere.
The main speakers were high school women, plus one or two guys. They were spirited, but I thought some of them substituted hype about some kind of mass rebellion or advancing liberation struggle or revolution supposedly going on in Palestine today for the disaster that is really going on—a second Nakba that I think is worse than the first. (The speaker I liked best was a Palestinian-American who went to the West Bank to become part of the Palestinian women's soccer team, and to get to know her grandparents and others there, etc. A couple months ago she posted her story about what the West Bank and its people are like on Facebook, and I shared it.)
I think Helen, Eric and I gave out roughly 175 leaflets, including a handful I gave to Sxx to distribute. And Eric and I did well giving leaflets to people walking around the park as well as walking on the street.
We summed up that it was another successful event.
Mass work report from Frank, February 4, 2024:
I was in large-part focused on giving leaflets to people who hadn't come to march (“civilians”) at Green Lake, and my experience was very encouraging, i.e., three months into the war, and many people still really wanted a leaflet as soon as they saw what it was about, and 100% of the ten or so African Americans I saw wanted one. So I gave out about 120.
I think the crowd was over 100 people, and it was very spirited as it marched.
Mass work report from Frank, February 8, 2024:
Demonstration announcement:
!!NO CLASS AS USUAL DURING A GENOCIDE!!
JOIN US ON FEBRUARY 8TH AND WALK OUT FROM YOUR CLASSES TO MEET US @ THE [University of Washington Bothell] PLAZA AT 12PM.
Friday:
4 pm at the World Trade Center Seattle, 2200 Alaskan Way
Rally to end Israeli & U.S. genocide
Stop bombing Yemen!
End U.S. aid to Israel!
[I got this from SDS and SAARPR (Seattle Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression), but there are probably others circulating it.]
I've never been to the UW's Bothell campus before, and I was surprised by how big it is. Very few students were walking around outside, which meant that I could meet them one-on-one or one-on-two. The result was that at least 60% of them took the updated leaflet(!), and I handed out about 100. I don't remember doing better at leafleting in years.
22 people eventually arrived for the demonstration, about 17 of whom were Arabs. There were no speeches. We just walked over to a campus entrance, where we militantly chanted the usual slogans for some time. Two cops—one campus and one Bothell—then came and told the people with bullhorns that they couldn't use them because it disturbed the students. The organizers of the event (2-3 young Arab women) agreed not to.
This morning I walked by a poster on University Way NE that advertised tomorrow's rally at the World Trade Center. So news of it is getting around, at least a little bit.
Mass work report from Frank, February 9, 2024:
Yesterday's demonstration was not at all like Thursday's. About 90 people turned out. Most were white, but there were also some Asians, four African Americans and half-a-dozen or fewer Arabs. Freedom Road Socialist Organization seemed to be the biggest group, but SDS also had people there (and speakers), as did SRS (but no speakers). Ben was also there.
The speaking—with long sessions of chanting between speakers—just went on and on and on. Worse, all of the speakers said pretty much the same things about the IDF killing children and committing genocide (I wouldn't mind if I never heard the word genocide again!), and they resorted to other moral appeals plus hype, e.g., speaking as if the liberation of Palestine is very near, when in reality it remains very far off. Indeed, these people see no contradiction between explaining how the Gazan masses are being crushed in one breath, and in the next breath phrase-mongering about the imminence of liberation.
Anyway, fairly early in the rally one speaker announced that we were going to march up to Westlake, and there was also a large number of cops there to guide us. So when each speaker ended I thought we were going to leave. But no, after more chanting, another speaker would be introduced. Finally I left because I didn't think I would be able to keep up with the uphill march, and the streets were becoming pretty empty anyway.
There was very little foot traffic where we were, and I think I only gave out about 30-40 leaflets.
* The new SDS was organized in response to the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. (At that time, locally, someone tried and failed to set up a chapter at SCC.) One of Friday's speakers said she was from a brand new SDS chapter Seattle Pacific University, and another said she was from the U.W., where they are just starting out.
Added comment from Frank, February 10, 2024:
Geez, this happened after I left. From Falistniyat:
!SEATTLE PALESTINE MOVEMENT IS UNDER ATTACK!
In the last 48 hours we’ve seen a significant increase in violence and repression by the state including:
- chemical weapons used against protesters at the Seattle World Trade Center
- Seattle Police Department slashing the tires of cars that keep our protesters safe
- violent arrests of several comrades at the World Trade Center, downtown
- Washington state patrol threatening charges against protesters from previous actions
- Washington state patrol publishing photos of protesters in an attempt to silence us and turn our community against one another.
We know this means our pressure is working! We will remain steadfast in our fight for a free Palestine from the River to the sea! We will not be silenced!
Mass work report from Frank, February 16, 2024:
All of the pro-Palestinian posters on the utility poles and boxes along Broadway had been torn down. Surprisingly, however, the Seattle Workers’ Voice leaflets that I put on two bulletin boards inside Seattle Central College a month ago were still there! It used to be that our leaflets would be removed in a very short time.
There were not many students coming and going (it was really dead), but I still gave out 36 leaflets. One young woman brightened my day when she said “I totally agree with you!”--with emphasis on “totally.” Awhile later I talked with a black man with an African or European accent who was unhappy that he couldn't be at tomorrow's demonstration because he was flying back to his home in Washington D.C. (Our first exchange had been him asking me about where to catch the light rail to the airport.) But he had been at the large Washington demonstration a month ago, and from the way he talked it was clear that he remained excited about it.
Comment from Frank, February 18, 2024:
Tomorrow evening (Monday, February 19) there's a “Hands off Rafah! Emergency Action” at the University of Washington light rail station at 6:00 pm. It's a good idea to take a bus because Metro may close the station.
Comment from Frank, February 25, 2024:
Excellent! On Friday evening, March 8 (International Working Women's Day), there will be a solidarity with Palestine march on Capitol Hill.
https://www.facebook.com/ilps.seattle.t ... 7K84YAFmyl
Mass work report from Frank, March 7, 2024:
I gave out 110 leaflets at Seattle Central College in the past two days. Lots of supportive comments, even by people who didn't want a leaflet. Today I talked with a real interesting guy. He's 54 years old and probably knows as much or more about the history of Palestine and of the zionist project as me. He learned most of it from his mother, who's been a Palestine solidarity activist for many years. He himself doesn't seem to be an activist, but he said he would come to tomorrow night's march.
Mass work report from Frank, March 8, 2024:
I thought this demonstration had a lot going for it (the location, International Working Women's Day combined with the continuing horror in the Gaza Strip, 15 sponsoring groups) and I therefore expected a large turnout. But there wasn't one. Others can correct me, but I thought there were 150-160 people in the beginning, and that the number had dwindled to 100 or less when I left at 12th and Howell. What are the reasons for this?
Well, one reason may be political confusion caused by Biden's recent speech, actions and announcements, i.e., his standing up for abortion rights (in words, at least), the airdropping of aid to the Gazans (a small drop into the ocean of need) and the announcement that the U.S. will build a floating pier for aid (which may take weeks, and still doesn't deal with the problem of truck deliveries). But I suspect the main reason has to do with a mobilizing effort that didn't put up any posters(!) and relied on Facebook and maybe Instagram (which I'm blocked from). Moreover, while ILPS (the International League of Peoples' Struggle) may have expected that the various groups it got to sign up as co-sponsors were going to do a lot of mobilizing work, I suspect that some of the groups may not have mobilized anyone. 150 divided by 15 would = 10 for each group. But since ILPS and its ally Gabriela probably turned out scores of people, that doesn't say much for the other groups. And while one of the other groups was the important Falastiniyat (a Seattle Collective of Palestinian feminists), I only noticed one Arab family—which took a leaflet—coming to the event from my direction. I also noticed a couple of Afghan women who were probably members of—or had been mobilized by—the much, much smaller Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network. But I noticed several people from Seattle Central College, where, besides leafleting, I stuck up the Seattle Workers’ Voice leaflet with both sides showing (so the march info could easily be seen) on a couple bulletin boards. (Again, the previous leaflet was still up!)
I didn't see most of the crowd until it was almost dark. It seemed to have a lot of young women in it (which is good!) and to be pretty white. And although I thought the march should have continued all the way up Broadway, I thought it was fine.
Besides ILPS and Gabriella, the only revisionist leftists I saw were WWP's Jim, a FSP guy giving out a yellow-orange leaflet and the tall guy from RCP.
I only did fairly well leafleting on my corner, probably giving out less than 100. Most of the people who took one were just walking down Broadway, i.e., they were not going to the demonstration. But I did very well in giving leaflets to young African American men and women. On the other hand, I could see Mike giving out all kinds of leaflets in front of the light rail station, and I think Eric must have been doing well in his location too or he would have left it. (Mike, I think I gave you roughly 70 leaflets after you had handed out the initial bunch that Eric gave you.)
Added report from Eric:
I was also struck by how small the demo was. And I also thought it should have stayed on Broadway, maybe marching to the north end and then back to the south end of the business district. As it was, there was almost no foot traffic the majority of the march – on John, 12th, and Pine – that time of night. These days the only things open on 12th were fancy restaurants. As well, on Capitol Hill after dark on a Friday night there are more than a few unstable people (e.g. two guys walking alongside the march with their faces completely covered up, were tearing off all posters regardless of content, off all poles) which also added to the overall sense of unfocused energy.
Chants were hard to follow, partly because they didn't have the sound truck, and partly because they were doing chants in Tagalog and other languages, which essentially no one knew.
Much more than the recent pro-Palestine demos the content of the speeches was dominated by social-democratic content, singing, invoking of the rights of the Duwamish, and so on. Between the speeches and the chants, I had a hard time grasping any overall message.
I also saw only a few Arab-looking people.
Because of these factors, I chalked the weaknesses of the demo up to it being much more led by social democratic forces, with Falastinyat very much in the background.
We gave out a total of 275 leaflets.
We noted an officially marked Extinction Rebellion car at the front of the march.
Mass work report from Frank, March 12, 2024:
Protest against Boeing and other arms contractors at the Convention Center
I think around 350 people turned out for a rather isolated rally in Freeway Park bordering the south side of the Convention Center. There was no march, and although I didn't really hear the speakers, I don't think any of them were Palestinian or from other Arab countries. Most of the revisionist groups in town had a presence, including DSA. Since I could only give leaflets to people coming to the rally, I didn't think I would do very well leafleting. But it turned out that several times young people lined up to get one. This may be because they haven't been to previous events, or because they haven't seen us at previous events, or because they saw the poster around town and are they're quite new. And I might have given out 150 leaflets.
I met an interesting young man who was carrying a book by Marx in his hand. He said that he's just finished The State and Revolution and that he was impressed by it. I recommended a couple books by Engels and Lenin and we both agreed that without a revolutionary theory there cannot be a revolutionary movement. The guy likes to talk a lot (and he told me that he was looking for someone to talk with), and he also talked about things he's read by Max Steiner, Abbie Hoffman and Hunter S. Thompson.
A good day.
Mass work report from Frank, March 28, 2024:
I gave out 43 of the leaflet at Seattle Central College this morning, and since there seems to be a lot fewer students this quarter, I think that's pretty good. Met a friendly young guy in a cowboy hat who says he's in DSA. First DSAer that I remember meeting.
BTW, we've given out over 6,000 copies of Seattle Workers' Voice since October 7.
Mass work report from Frank, March 29, 2024:
Again, there were very few students at Seattle Central College (SCC), but my security guard friend solved the mystery: it's finals week. (I've given leaflets to and talked with this woman many times over the years, and she supports our work there. Presently, she's furious at what Israel is doing in Gaza, and furious at both Biden and Trump for supporting Netanyahu.)
That said, I handed out 30 leaflets. Lots of supportive comments. 75-80 per cent of the African Americans wanted one. A Mexican guy shouted “viva Palestina!”
Demonstration report, March 30, 2024 – Palestinian Land Day:
About 2000 turned out in Seattle, and Frank said it was a varied event, including many younger people and a King County Labor Council (KCLC) contingent. There was also a group of Korean women, and Eric said that he was struck throughout this movement how many Asian women are participating, and how many are enthusiastically seeking out leaflets. Mike said that most of his interactions were positive, but there were people who didn’t understand the relationship between Palestine and communism. Helen said that it is important to know how to deal with Islam during this work. Mike said that some people had a problem with a sign which showed a map with Israel crossed out and replaced with Palestine. [Discussion on the need for a single secular democratic state followed.] Eric said that he thought that recent demonstrations had been influenced by Social Democratic groups, and they had tended away from being not mass actions and their speakers were generally pretty bad, some supporting Hamas.
Demonstration and mass work report from Frank and Eric, April 22, 2024:
Frank reported on the emergency demonstration of about 200 people that marched from the 1-line station near the University Hospital to the student encampment.
Mass work report from Eric, April 29, 2024:
I went to the encampment this evening. There were about 8 tents, including a small central "command center". A banner presented demands: Divest from Israel; Cut ties with Boeing; End repression of pro-Palestinian students, faculty and staff.
Although foot traffic was light, reception by passersby was pretty good, and everyone but one person that I approached in the encampment took one enthusiastically. In total, between leaflets I distributed and a small stack I gave to the people in the "command center", I gave 35 leaflets away.
Part of my time there was taken up by conversation with an older man, a retired Boeing computer draftsperson and self-identified Jew, who believed the propaganda that everyone in the protest movement loves Hamas and hates Jews, but who was willing to listen to me once I unhesitatingly denounced Hamas' Oct 7 attack, and when I surprised him by also denouncing that they did it knowing what Israel would do in response without regard for the wellbeing of the Palestinians. This made space to talk in some depth about various of the lines he initially spouted without thinking, such as that "Israel is surrounded by enemies". It was an interesting conversation.
If comrades want to find it, the encampment is in the Quad on campus.
Mass work report from Eric, May 1, 2024:
Got back out to the encampment this evening. It is much bigger, big enough that I couldn't easily estimate how many tents. Many more participants, and more people around, certainly helped by the sunshine. I passed out 49 leaflets, including 14 of the older March 1 leaflet (vol. 8 no.4) that I had around, almost entirely to passers by, though the dividing line was difficult to tell. Enthusiastic reception, multiple times everyone in a group walking together wanted on, one time it was hard to keep up with the people asking for one, and a couple of times people passed by and then turned back to ask for one. There was no other literature there, except for a "Liberated Zone Community Guidelines" half-sheet, some points okay, others not very good, such as not engaging with counterprotesters, which I think everyone should have a choice to do or not do as they see fit. With all the tents, and the general community in the area, it is hard to tell, but my best guess is several hundred protesters.
I omitted last time, the only indication of revisionist groups last time was a banner for FRSO somewhat sloppily laying on the ground. I don't know if that was still there, but this time I didn't see that banner or other left groups present. [Later I saw the same FRSO banner, it had been mostly obscured by new tents.]
It would be great to have a new leaflet out, but for now the latest somewhat dated one is great to have. I hope to get out there again, repeatedly.
Mass work report from Eric, May 6, 2024:
Again at the encampment this evening. The encampment size is about the same. I distributed 90 leaflets in 45 minutes, including 10-15 minutes talking with a man who described himself as security for the encampment. I got numerous warm thanks, several groups of people who all wanted one.
I received one leaflet back, with extensive comments: the woman said she was staff at the school, and a Palestinian. The general import of her comments is to defend Hamas. On the back, next to the headline "Against Israel's conflation of Hamas with the Palestinian people" she wrote "Resistance is a right". She underlined "Hamas ... is led by fundamentalist reactionaries who seek an Islamic state..." and wrote "Not correct. Gaza has a Christian minority that Hamas also defends. Furthermore, many Jews who have made it into Gaza have been provided protection by Hamas". She [argues] that we should not be telling an oppressed people how to resist.
I saw one longstanding Revolutionary Communist Party member who seemed to be checking things out, not distributing anything or engaging with anyone. Socialist Alternative/Workers Strike Back had a big presence, with 10-12 supporters, using their usual tactic of getting people to sign something to draw them into conversation. And the new organization, Revolutionary Communists of America had two people at a table. Their tactic was to call out to everyone who passed, asking, "Are you communist?" If the person answered yes, which many did, they would say "Join us", if the person answered they were a socialist, they would also say "join us", if they answered no, they would ask "do you hate capitalism?" and if the person said yes, they would also say "communism is the only way to fight capitalism".
Demonstration report from Frank, May 7, 2024:
There was an emergency demonstration against the attack on Rafah at 5:30 this evening. About 200 people turned out at the 1-line station near University Hospital. Speeches were militant. A female student from Seattle University spoke. No one had leaflets but me. We marched all the way up to the encampment on the Quad. I don't know if it has grown since Eric was there, but I was really surprised by how big it is. I gave out more than 150 copies of the March 27 leaflet (Seattle Workers' Voice, vol. 8, #5).
Mass work report from Frank, May 9, 2024:
May 9 at Seattle Central College (a Community College, with a diverse and working class student body). Got there late due to an early appointment I had. Noticed an attractive poster advertising the Nakba Day march at the Broadway light rail station. Gave out 74 leaflets. Several people made supportive comments. Three people said they would be there on Saturday. After reading it, a woman came back to get a second leaflet. Gave one to the Bangladeshi leftist who I used to talk with all the time. Didn't get a chance to talk with him today, but I know he opposes Hamas and supports the Palestinians.
I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I saw some posters calling for the release of Toomaj Salehi, the revolutionary Iranian rapper who is scheduled to be hanged by the mullahs. The posters were put up by an Iranian group whose name I can't remember. (Next time I'll write it down.) There have been fair-sized demonstrations in several countries calling for Toomaj's release.
Demonstration report from Eric, May 11, 2024 – Nakba Day demonstration:
An international call was put out to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, the terror which was necessary for the founding of Israel. In Seattle the protest met at Westlake Mall, an open mall area downtown. About 2000-2500 people gathered, and the spirit was good. Unfortunately the organizers held people hostage for 2 full hours of speechifying, well past when the mass of protesters were ready to march. It even seemed that some people left before the march started, becoming tired or impatient. When the march did take off, one of our contacts had inside information that the planned route was through the Pike Place Market, an area with heavy pedestrian traffic, where past demonstrations have found excellent reception, and even picked up in size. However, the march turned back to the Westlake Mall a couple of blocks for before reaching the Market, the reason given to our contact being that the organizers had “run out of water” and didn't want to “make people march” without water! The Market is full of food stalls where anyone can get water or other drinks. This reason is belied by the fact that I nearly tripped over a wagon loaded high with cases of water when we got back to the Westlake Mall. In the end, the march lasted less than 45 minutes. While it was a good demonstration, and it was great that so many turned out, these shenanigans show that the Social Democrats are gaining a strangle hold on the movement.
I had multiple positive interactions with passers by. One young man asked probing questions about where we were coming from, and expressed that he is in a phase of trying to understand where the different trends are coming from. Another interaction I had was with two Arab-looking men, one of whom said he was Moroccan. Initially we talked about proposed solutions, and they agreed with the idea of a single secular democratic state in Palestine. Both expressed concern about the slogan “From the river to the sea”, interpreting it to mean pushing Israeli Jews into the sea. But when I pointed out that the rest of the slogan was “Palestine will be free”, their demeanor changed completely, and they said they were fully in support.
We passed out close to 800 leaflets.
Demonstration report from Eric, May 12, 2024:
A right-wing church, part of the Praise church which has branches around the country, and which has a church located on “Frat Row” near the University of Washington had called for a counterprotest against the encampment. In response, supporters of the encampment put a call out to the community to meet the counterprotest with numbers, calling for a rally in the same location, to start an hour earlier than the reactionary protest. It is a guess, but about 1000 encampment supporters were there. The usual encampment population is a couple hundred, so the call to the community brought quite a few people out. The encampment had clearly considered strategies. At its height the reactionary rally numbered about 250. They waved Israeli and US flags, and a lot of the talk was from a Christian orientation.
Early on, the University Administration seems to have taken a hands-off approach, waiting the protesters out, anticipating the end of the school year. But in anticipation of the protest/counterprotest, the Administration put out a call to the encampment to voluntarily disband, “for everyone's safety”. A tactic to look good, but probably taken with the full knowledge that the encampment would not comply, which they didn't.
Instead, the encampment organizers planned ahead to defend their ground. There are six entrances into the “Quad” area where the encampment is, and the cops had put up token moveable metal barriers across these openings. Well before the reactionaries appeared, the encampment organizers had fortified these barriers with wooden pallets, plywood boards, chicken wire, bike racks, and other materials they had collected. They met and divided themselves into six groups, each assigned to defend one of the openings.
The entrance closest to where the reactionaries were gathering was fortified with three levels of barriers, and the bulk of the encampment supporters were gathered there. There were about 2 dozen State Police present, the bulk of them at this entrance as well, between the two groupings, but several positioned to prevent large masses of reactionaries pass around to the other entrances – in other words they played a surprisingly positive role, probably at the behest of the UW Administration who wanted to avoid a repetition of the all-out violence carried out by reactionaries who attacked the UCLA encampment a few weeks earlier.
Early on the reactionaries approached the main barrier and the encampment supporters gave a strong defense against them. The presence of the police probably prevented the reactionaries from descending into violence, which some of them clearly were gunning for. And clearly, the encampment supporters were ready to defend themselves against any violence perpetrated against them. After this initial confrontation, the reactionaries retreated to a spot a couple hundred yards away, and held their rally, after which they went home. [A discussion plus videos of the confrontation of this can be seen here: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/0 ... -a-buzzsaw]
I spent a significant part of the time inside the barricades. From there, fewer people were taking leaflets, I think because their attention was on the confrontation.
We passed out 250-300 leaflets.
Demonstration report from Frank, May 12, 2024:
I think the U.W. opted for a strategy of waiting the students out some time ago: summer's coming. But after getting news of the “United for Israel March,” it issued a statement (on Friday) calling on the students to “dismantle the encampment voluntarily for everyone’s safety...” This may have been to test the pro-Palestinian students resolve, but the U.W. probably also knew it would fail. And the administration could also look good in the public eye. At any rate, the students defied the administration's call to dismantle, and I think this should be pointed out in the article.
BTW, I'm sure there would have been fights (if not a fierce brawl) if the cops were not there. Some of the pro-Israel characters in my area were itching to get into one, provoking people, etc.
News report from University of Washington Daily newspaper, May 17, 2024:
The encampment reached an agreement with the University Administration to disband the encampment. Encampment spokespeople indicate that they do not consider this a victory, but without elaboration.
Demands which were apparently agreed to include: student representation on the Divestment Committee of the Board of Regents; scholarships for 20 displaced Gazan students; establishment of a faculty committee to review study abroad programs which exclude participation of students due to their background [e.g. programs to Israel, which disallow Palestinian student participation]; development of a center for study of Palestine; development of academic ties to Palestinian universities; University investment transparency.
Of course it remains to be seen how these agreed-to demands are implemented, and it remains to be seen what next for the movement, and the student groups' participation in it.
(Also see *The Stranger* article on the settlement: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2024/0 ... nistration) <>
