If you haven’t seen evidence of Occupy Seattle around town recently, it’s not just that the grassy plaza where tents used to stand at Seattle Central Community College is now an empty mud field. Since protesters were evicted on December 6, the activists themselves have become introverted and distracted from an agenda to reform Wall Street. Many supporters, including church leaders, have taken a step back to wait out divisive internal conflict. Others have fled the community entirely, saying it’s too toxic to touch.

The rift results from a vote taken on December 20, when protesters at a general assembly rejected a proposal that would “commit to using methods of nonviolent civil disobedience at all of our demonstrations…”

According to the minutes of the conversation that led up to the vote, several activists argued that Seattle’s protest was akin to the revolution in Egypt (and thus required violent clashes), while others said protesters must be free to use a diversity of tactics, if they choose. A man named Forrest warned that when martial law is declared (in Seattle, martial law?), “How many of us are prepared to stand before rifles, to subvert the police, to do everything possible to bring down the state as necessary?” Another man, named Greg, called the nonviolence pledge a “social fascist position” and a “domestic colonialist view.”

Those voices won in a particularly heated 16-to-54 vote, thereby rejecting Occupy Seattle’s attempt to declare itself a peaceful movement.

While those loony voices prevailed, cooler heads fled.

“I would never consider putting my name on a document of an organization that would not disavow violence,” says Jim Goettler, a member of the Occupy Seattle legal team. He’s obtained permits for WTO protest rallies and other demonstrations over two decades and had joined the Occupy movement to extend his expertise. After the vote, though, he says, “I’ve stepped back, as have many individuals. This is real serious.”

Votes like this prevail after some activists “pack the room,” Goettler explains. “If there are people of mixed feeling and the bullies take the floor with a really good rap, they may prevail.”

The vote to reject nonviolence alarmed local church groups that had been working closely with the Occupy movement. “We are concerned that for many in the Faith communities, this rejection will impact standing in solidarity with you,” wrote Reverend Mike Jackson, the Occupy Seattle liaison from St. Mark’s Cathedral, in an open letter sent in late December. Although Jackson remains an ardent supporter of the Occupy vision, he told me on the phone this week, “I think that for most of the faith community—not just Christians, but Muslim and Jewish groups—it presents a bit of a barrier to working more closely with them.” He says many like him are “waiting to see this challenge get resolved.”

Occupy Seattle had struggled with violence issues for months—the arguments are too numerous to unpack in these few column inches. However, it came to a head in December: A couple weeks before the vote, Occupy Seattle protesters trying to shut down the Port of Seattle were caught on video throwing plywood at police officers.

Since then, the movement has splintered: Some are occupying foreclosed homes, some support budget reforms in Olympia, and others have produced a declaration to oppose corporate personhood. There have been few, if any, of the protests aimed at banks that defined Occupy’s autumnal incarnation.

“Instead of having the energy going into actually organizing, all the energy is going into the squabble,” Goettler laments, citing general assemblies that continue to dwell on the violence versus nonviolence issue. “People are not participating until this is resolved.” recommended

74 replies on “Vacating Occupy Seattle”

  1. I think all this discussion is redonkulous. Are non-violent protests or violent action effective “game changers”. Answers to both- probably not.
    Violent action would be effective if 1,000+ banks were burned to the ground. That violence would force a very real conversation with a good chance for positive change, at least from the current quo.
    Non-violent tactics can and would be effective if actual protests happened and involved actual numbers- instead of a few hundred “invisible” communtiy activits in the rain at westlake. Non-violent protest especially depends on media converge, violent action couldn’t possibley be ignored.

    But what is happening on any front is neither ospicious, glorious or on-going (GA’s and promises don’t count). What ever happens in the spring or summer please drop the “Occupy” moniker- it’s time for re-invention (OWS has plenty of baggage at this point), there’s no need for nostagia – it’s time to drop it. Me personally? I will be forming a band of merry-men called “Pissed off Personages” a food fighting unit (throwing rooten food at legit targets). I will leave all the discussion to the slog on whether or not it was police-informants who gave us the idea in the first place.

  2. I think all this discussion is redonkulous. Are non-violent protests or violent action effective “game changers” right now? Answers to both- probably not. Not even if they were working together (lol).
    Maybe violent action would be effective if 1,000+ banks were burned to the ground (instead of 1/4 of one). If you grab CEO’s children and press pistols to their temples demanding “change”. Through that violence a very real conversation could happen with a good chance for positive change, at least from our current situation, but those willing or even capable of carrying out “acts” is startling limited. The crop of “violent” folks around are the paint bomb, noise-ordinance violating offenders than professional guerillas engaged in combat- I wouldn’t worry churches or Chinese invaders.

    Non-violent protest can be effective if actual protests happened and involved actual numbers- instead of a few hundred community activists in the rain at Westlake, envaporating with a firm municipal shove. Non-violent protest especially depends on media converge, violent action couldn’t possibly be ignored.

    Imagine if the OWS protest numbers from early fall held and those involved just..stayed (no matter what). Occupied, took the police brutality, came back no matter what–sacrificed. They would still be a force, a wonderful non-violent success, but they.. quit. And quiters (no matter the reasons, excuses) just don’t win.

    Nothing at the moment is auspicious, glorious or simply on-going.

  3. Not the smartest tactic.

    when my girl friend asks me if she looks fat, what should i say?

    when “society” wants to know if my movement is non-violent, what should i say?

    I am an athiest. but if somebody walked up and said, i will give you a million dollars if you believe in god, do you know what i would tell them? do i need to explain why?

    People really should learn to put there egos on leash.

  6. Americans cant stand Violence? did some one toss a friggen plywood stick at the world power and make the poor world power cry?

    these homeless beggars are baby killing steely eyed skull puckers following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and hiding
    yellow cake in abandon houses across America?

    Classic example of how America operates? admit nothing deny everything and them falsely convict and sentence them in media and court of law and united nations as well.

    they are trying to spread communism across the globe and that’s all these homeless beggars are doing! worst then them thar Vietnamese devils of far east.

    they just taint hillbilly’s from Arkansas like we’ins be.

  8. Ghandi would have died for nothing if it weren’t for the violent fighters who took British women and children and hung them in the square on pikes.

    How fucking ignorant are you? Gandhi was killed *after* independence by another INDIAN.

    I’m willing to bet I have more patience and I’m smarter than a bunch of goons with machine guns but I’m not going to tie my hands when they wouldn’t hesitate to blow me away.

    You’re going to be losing a lot of money then, buddy, because you’re an IDIOT. And, you are one of those goons.

  10. “No investigation, no right to speak.” – Mao.

    Dominic Holden would do well to remember that.

    Then again, it is in his material class interests to not mention how non-profit and democratic party forces have made 6 separate attempts at seizing power over Occupy Seattle.

    Because they lack a majority, all they can do is fall back into the very same undemocratic, Machiavellian politics and organizing practices of the Two Party dictatorship that brought us to Westlake in the first place.

    Read:
    http://www.allpowertothepositive.blogspo…

    Listen [to episode #70]:
    http://www.allpowertothepositive.info

  11. I stepped back a long time ago. Locally, the movement has been co-opted by a bunch of idiot teenage drug-addicted homeless punks and because the organization is designed the way it is, there is nothing that was able to stop the theft of the movement. Time to move on…

  12. General Assembly attendance is generally very high. The camp is gone, but the spirit isn’t. As a writer and activist. I have trouble keeping up with all the occupy actions, meetings, rallies, etc.

    And the wood throwing is an exception to what I consider to be a peaceful movement.

  13. Dogmatic pacifism, exemplified by the proposal that would “commit to using methods of nonviolent civil disobedience at all of our demonstrations…,” is ineffective and unrealistic.

    Go read “How Nonviolence Protects the State.”

  14. People who condone violence against others grow up to be totalitarians, regardless of where they started from. This is a concept that unites the extremes of right and left. Go read the history of the 20th Century to understand this. If you give up the moral high ground, you may win the battle, but you lose the war. Compare MLK and Gandhi v. Hitler, Stalin, and ObamBush.

  16. You’re the kind of reporter I never want to be. One who slanders and bastardizes fact for a paycheck. this is NOT an unbiased, professional report. Likewise, the Stranger has no place trying to fill a slot of opinion on the matter and mission of occupy Seattle.
    The Stranger’s back pages are lined with adds for personal escorts, meanwhile, Seattle takes the cake for the largest port in the US for Sex trafficking. Occupy Seattle has spread awareness of issues like this, and have opposed the complacent lifestyle of your average well-to-do American. All you have done, Dominic, is piss a lot of people off. You are a coward and a liar. Your misrepresentation will not be tolerated anymore.
    Outside of mindless ranting. I want to make on thing abundantly clear. The debate over violence and non-violence is not something that will tear the movement apart. Likewise, it’s not a matter that will hold water for much longer. The people involved in Occupy Seattle are resilient, and they know that what they’re trying to change is more important than diversity of tactics. As we speak, Occupy is moving toward a consensus process so that all Occupiers may be accurately represented. Get your fucking facts straight, Dominic.
    One last thing — This debate took place about three weeks ago, It’s not been brought up since. You’re tardy and repugnant as usual.
    Do yourself and the movement a favour, Stay the fuck away from us.

  18. @67

    From the tract you’ve linked:

    A handful of pacifists have shown such a sustained commitment to revolution and incurred such risks and sacrifices that they are above the criticisms typically deserved by pacifists, and even pose a challenge to the functioning of the status quo

    In other words, this rambling, painfully repetitive critique of pacifism doesn’t apply to the disciplined, effective sort of pacifism that many of us are calling for, when we say OWS should adopt the tactics (and rigorous constraints, and self-discipline) of the Civil Rights Movement.

    Of course, when one achieves any aim through violence, then what one has done is precisely to establish a hierarchical, coercive relationship– that of the victor over the vanquished. There is no acknowledgement of this unavoidable fact in that tract.

    Which isn’t a problem, of course, so long as one’s ends are never achieved (or “fully” achieved); as in, for example, a state of permanent revolution.

  21. This is like “The Movement That Time Forgot.” The rest of the world stopped thinking about Occupy around the same time Wham! broke up. Sorry folks. Its over, nobody cared nor cares.

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