Crowd Misses End of Speech Calling for Political Action [CORRECTION]

BY AARON BOWERSOCK

With everything we’ve been seeing from the Trump Whitehouse, the People are rightfully fired up and ready to act! Just last night, airports around the country were Occupied as demonstrators demanded all detainees be released.

SeaTac airport near Seattle was no different, and we thankfully saw all detainees released earlier today, with major support from lawyers and ACLU. In addition to last night’s emergency and impromptu demonstration, we had a planned rally for today, Sunday, January 29th.

I showed up early, just coming from Lunar New Year activities in Seattle’s International District, and was there to help set up a few tables and tents. This is my recount and interpretation of the Seattle Immigrants’ Rights Rally.

The night progressed with touching and heart-wrenching stories of families displaced by war, seeking a new life here in the United States. Some had left everything behind, literally only possessing the clothes on their back.

We heard a particularly moving story from a family… that no one in the audience could understand. Couldn’t understand their words, at least. See, they were to have an interpreter, but the microphones kept cutting out. The family members would speak and their emotions cut through all language barriers and the people in the crowd wept before even hearing the delayed interpretation. I can’t explain it. We simply felt the love and pain in their voices.

There were calls, of course, for unity with immigrants, a fight against Trump, and for a movement… but what? A lot of the local politicians offered their platitude. Our corporate Democratic Senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray sent proxies (who were booed by a few). Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Governor Jay Inslee added their “just enough to placate the populous” message. It was a strange contrast — the human emotion cutting through language barriers, and hollow messages from politicians.

City Council Member, Socialist, Kshama Sawant then took the microphone with a local labor leader. Kshama gave her speech with the “People’s Mic” technique. She would make a short statement and the crowd would repeat and amplify it, verbatim.

“I am an immigrant! I am a woman! I am a socialist!”

Here we go. She just got the thousands of people in the crowd to repeat this phrase, in the faces of corporate democratic leadership standing on stage with her.

She called out the Mayor and Governor for using the police force against peaceful protestors, and I turned to my friend and said “huh… I wonder how long they’ll let her go.”

As she started hitting her stride in her call and response speech, she began giving actual instructions on what we, as citizens, could do to influence our city and nation. She introduced the idea of a general strike or civil disobedience, she called for shutting down the construction of a new youth prison and police bunker.

She began to introduce something we could do…

“THIS WEEK. This coming week! On Wednesday at 9am, the Seattle City Council will be considering the bill for…”

And then a man grabbed her microphone and silenced her.

Someone had fainted and required medical attention. This person was tended to by medics and the police split the crowd to escort them out, safely. People went from criticizing the use of police to thanking them. Council Member Sawant was not given the microphone again.

It all seemed bizarre and suspect.

As of 10:52am, Monday 1/30/17, I have now received statements from an organizer and volunteer, and Council Member Sawant, that I hope will clarify other sides of this moment.

Organizer:

“I think clarity is important here. When the woman collapsed in front of the stage, one of our organizers took the mic from CM Sawant in order to call for aid. Sawant didn’t initially realize there was an issue, and held tightly to the mic, which is why on your video and others it vaguely looks like there was a tussle for it. Once she understood, she gave it up willingly; by the time the issue was resolved, our organizer in charge of the mic lost track of her. My job was peacekeeping behind the stage so I honestly can’t say if she was still up there, if she got down amidst the confusion, etc. Council member Gonzalez was near the front of the stage and was given the mic as she was next on the program. That’s the long and short of it — we kept things moving in the interests of time, doing what we could in light of the chaos, etc.

“I think it’s important to know that this wasn’t an establishment Democratic Party event. We reached out to everyone from the mayor to the governor hoping one might speak; the turnout we got was far greater and more official than we’d ever imagined when we started planning last Thursday. Clearly it was an imperfect event — Sound being one of our biggest concerns — but our intentions were not nefarious.”

I do appreciate the explanation. In my previous version of the article I cast a cloud that the message may have been intentionally silenced….

After speaking with organizers, I do not believe this to be the case and I apologize if any of the organizers felt this took away from their efforts, that was never my intention. I will say it does not change the fact that we did not hear the conclusion of the speech.

And with this in mind, I’d like to share Council Member Sawant’s statement, below, where she explains the remainder of her message:

“Yes, someone was really in need of medical attention, so it was appropriate that the event was suspended for a bit. I did hope they would give me back the mic, as I was about to announce the #NoDAPL legislation meeting Wednesday 9am City Hall. That’s a bill I’ve put forward with indigenous and environmental activists to divest the City of Seattle from Wells Fargo.”

As we are all very skeptical, I ask for your understanding that in my original recount I only intended to call into question a strange situation where many of us felt the message had been stifled, and amidst 11,000 people, it was difficult to truly understand all sides. I am thankful to all the organizers who created this excellent event, and handled an enormous crowd the best they could. I invite you to watch the video and read the transcript of the speech, so you get the story from all sides. I do believe it’s important to be vigilant and skeptical, and am thankful for the communication that’s happened in this short period of time.

Please read about the activity at City Hall, below.