Fracking is the process of shooting a toxic cocktail of hundreds of chemicals into the ground to break it up and more easily extract natural gas. Fracking contaminates drinking water, forces people out of their homes, destroys the environment, and is being touted as an environmentally-friendly solution to keep this death machine called civilization alive in the era of peak oil.
Proppants, the solid material added to this chemical soup to keep fracking wells open, are shipped from China to the Port of Olympia, and then sent on trians to gas fields in North Dakota. We sit at a strategic chokepoint – action in Olympia could clog the proverbial arteries of capitalism.
But it’s a lot bigger than fracking. Let’s not delude ourselves – even without fracking shipments, the Port has got to go. Everything that goes through the port is part of a global system that subjugates life itself to profit and domination. The Port of Olympia is a primary organ of industry, and as such is an enemy. Let’s shut it down!
Solidarity. Members of the Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick have been barricading fracking equipment to prevent this same process on their own land. On October 18th, the RCMP arrested over 40 people and shot tear gas and rubber bullets at Mi’kmaq warriors at the blockade. In return, six cop cars were set on fire and a call for solidarity actions was issued.
We recognize our struggle against extraction equipment in the western US in the Mi’kmaq struggle against fracking on their land. We can act in solidarity with the people of Elsipogtog by confronting the very same processes of destruction in our own backyard.
We’ve done this before. In November of 2007, Olympia saw protests against the shipment of military equipment through the Port. At various points, railroad tracks out of the Port were quick-cemented, uncontrollable marches downtown caused significant property damage, and people constructed – and defended – barricades both at the Port and in major intersections in town. The military stopped sending their Strykers through Olympia because it was too difficult. We could do this again.
What would it take to shut down the Port of Olympia?
What would it take for anti-fracking anger to generalize into anti-capitalist revolt?
What would it take to give capitalism a heart attack?
11 x 17 poster
8.5 x 11 flyer