Tuesday, November 22, 2011

A brief history of occupying Seattle



Seattle Central Community College. Major protests and occupations (100+ people).

(1) 1969-1972. Clashes between BSU and SCCC administration, including BSU occupations. Link 1 | Link 2
(2) 1972. Minority workers occupy SCCC. Link 1 | Link 2
(3) 1976. Seattle Community College Federation of Teachers goes on major strike. Link 1 | Link 2
(4) 1988. Black Panther Party holds its reunion at Seattle Central Community College. Link
(5) 1990. No Blood for Oil protest of the Gulf War. Link
(6) 1994. Homeless youth set up encampment at SCCC (lasts less than a week; voluntarily taken down.) Link
(7) 1999. SCCC used as major staging area for entry into WTO protest action. Link 1 | Link 2
(8) 2000. SCCC epicenter of WTO demonstration commemorative protest. Link 1 | Link 2
(9) 2001. Students and community members protest police murder of Aaron Roberts. Link
(10) 2007. Hundreds march to protest Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Link
(11) 2008. Once again, hundreds march to protest Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as campus recruitment.
(12) 2011. Occupy Seattle, having been repeatedly forced out into the elements by Seattle Police, moves to SCCC. Link

Other schools; mainly, the U of Wash.

(1) 1950s. University of Washington students staged regular protests and walk-ins against McCarthy trials of UW faculty as well as the growing threat of U.S. nuclear armament.
(2) 1968. BSU @ UW stages sit-ins in protest of the Vietnam war. Link 
(3) 1970. Students at UW hold a strike against the Vietnam war. Link 
(4) 1975. Faculty of UW strike over firing of two Chicano professors.
(5) 1986. UW shantytown constructed by students seeking divestment from South Africa.

 
Occupations, generally.

(1) 1890. The Lakota encampment making its last stand at Wounded Knee suffers a massacre at the hands of the U.S. Army, which disposes of the Lakota corpses in a mass grave. Link
(2) 1900. Having had their longhouses burned down by the U.S. Army and other whites, the Duwamish make their last Seattle encampment along the Seattle waterfront. They are subsequently exiled to Ballast Island, where they remain for little over a decade before being permanently pushed out of the area bearing the name of one of their chiefs, Seattle. Link
(3) 1931-1941. Bounded by the Port of Seattle, warehouses, and Railroad Ave., Hooverville was the largest of many Seattle homeless encampments turned shantytowns during the depression era. Under protest, many tenants were evicted in 1938. The shacks underwent an elimination program and were burned down in 1941.Link
(4) 1934. An 83 day strike closes West Coast ports and railroads. Protestors treated violently by police. Link
(5) 1980. Puget Sound Peace Camp set up at Boeing's missile production site in Kent, WA. 
(6) 2000-2011. Dale City. Comprised of veterans and other homeless persons, this encampment town was destroyed by Virginia State Police and the VDOT on March 21, 2011. Link
(7) 2009-present. Nickelsville. Recently, long-time YWCA housing director Jeanice Hardy has said that she is sending desperate people to Nickelsville because there are no public resources. Link