Friends,

The first thing I want to say about DC is that the movement is getting younger. I have been an antiwar activist since 2003,
and I have never seen so many youth. They come into the movement with energy, indignation, courage and determination. This is a good thing.

When I arrived at Freedom Plaza between 7 and 8 PM last Friday, the 2500-3000 people on the plaza were holding a general assembly,
something that happens every morning and every evening. The idea is to develop "horizontal consensus",
where nobody is a leader and everybody is a leader. Giving everybody a chance to speak is a good idea, but in a group that size,
it made for some unwieldy meetings. Thank goodness there were some excellent facilitators.

I could tell right away that it was going to be an interesting visit, when it was announced that the permit to occupy Freedom Plaza
would expire at 10 PM on Sunday. I was going to have to find someplace to spend my last two nights.

There are two occupations in Washington, October 2011 at Freedom Plaza, and Occupy DC at McPherson Square,
about a half mile north. In the morning, a group of us decided to march to McPherson and invite them to join us on a march to the Capitol.
Gathering up our signs, and your banner, we stepped off the curb and into the street to march to McPherson.

This was my first experience of a phenomenon I noticed the whole time I was there, the incredible leniency of the police.
Though we had no parade permit and had not told the police of our plans, which had been made mere minutes before,
the police cleared the streets for us,
blocking intersections and the traffic behind us. Before we reached McPherson, I counted 15 cruisers protecting us!

When we reached McPherson and proposed our march to the Capitol, they replied, very reasonably, I think, that it was
Saturday on a holiday weekend and the Capitol would be empty. They were going to march on the White House.

We marched back to Freedom Plaza to get others to join their march on the White House, and found people preparing
for a march on the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which had been planned days before. The plan was to send in two teams,
the advance team to drop a banner and the second team to stage a die in under an exhibit of pilotless drones.
By the time we got there, we were nearly 1000 people.

The first team got in and got the banner hung, but it was pulled down by a "250 pound man" and we didn't get it back.

The die in team made the mistake of rushing the doors, so that 12 of them were between the inner and outer doors at the same time.
Security guards entered the vestibule and pepper sprayed the 12.
There was a very dramatic picture in the Sunday Washington Post of a woman laying on the floor, unbound,
and obviously immobilized by the spray.

One 19 year old woman from the Madison Wisconsin Movement was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer.
The charges were later reduced to creating a nuisance, She paid $50 and was released in time to address the evening general assembly.

Dutifully protecting your banner from being confiscated as a piece of evidence in a court case (and also because I had no money),
I chose to remain outside with the hundreds who didn't want to risk arrest. Besides, the museum displayed weapons of mass destruction,
ranging from the first atomic bomb, (obviously a replica) to the pilotless drones. Outside its doors was a good place for our NO NUKES banner.

Of course everybody bewailed the biased inaccuracy of the press the next day, when it was reported that a security guard had been shoved,
but there were many camera phones between those doors, and by the time of the evening assembly,
the talk was of an agent provocateur shoving a guard.
Still, there is talk of a suit.

That night I spoke to the man who shoved the guard. He said the rush of people coming through the door pushed him into the guard.

Code Pink had put together a banner made of thousands of pink squares stitched together. It was hundreds of feet long and
rolled into two heavy bundles. A group of us carried it to the White House on Sunday morning.
When unrolled, the first half of the banner bore the rather bizarre message I WILL NOT RAISE MY CHILDREN,
which made more sense when the other half TO KILL OTHER MOTHERS' CHILDREN was added.

That afternoon, a group made up of Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against War, March Forward, Vietnam Veterans Against War,
Intelligence Veterans for Intelligent Intelligence (Ray McGovern) and Military Families Speak Out marched to the White House
for "an action with a sense of humor". We were carrying mugs and there to have a beer summit with Obama to discuss the wars.

A veteran with PTSD was to get there before us, throw a shoe over the fence and sit with his hands behind his back, awaiting arrest.
I like to think that his PTSD kicked in, because he threw the shoe at a Secret Service agent.

So, we were sent to the opposite side of the street, while the arrest was made, a process which took 30 to 45 minutes.
While we waited, the representatives of each organization who were to speak to the Secret Service about the summit, including McGovern and Ann Wright,
addressed us.

When we could see the prisoner, we started chanting "We support you Vincent". (I actually can't recall his name.)
When we started that, the Secret Service moved a van between the prisoner and us.

I would like to pause here, to exclude the Secret Service from my admiration of the restraint of the police in Washington.
Whereas the Metropolitan DC and Park Police underreacted to transgressions, the Secret Service showed me that they can overreact,
when they trained assault weapons on two carloads of us, as we approached the gate of the Bush Ranch in 2004.They were obviously prepared to fire.

But, returning to my story, As soon as the prisoner was taken away, we followed our representatives across the street.
After a short conference, they were told that Obama was in Camp David. Handing the representatives cards with the
White House telephone number,
they said the White House has a "one voice policy", so, one of us pulled out a cell phone, put it on speaker phone,
dialed the White House and in "one voice" we all shouted that we wanted a beer summit with Obama, to discuss the wars.

We returned to Freedom Plaza, to learn that 14 of us had been arrested at the National Security Agency. I have no more details about that action.

It was Sunday, and our permit was to expire at 10 PM. I took my belongings to McPherson Square before dark and returned to Freedom Plaza
to see what was going to happen. The Park Police (Freedom Plaza is a federal park) told the organizers, almost regretfully,
that they would be back at ten to "do our job". At that night's general assembly, a vast majority were in favor of holding the plaza and being arrested.

After the assembly, at 9:00 there was a dance party. At a couple of minutes before ten, I walked across the street to watch and see what would happen.
The dance music was replaced by a driving drumbeat and the energy level was sky high, as people marched swiftly around the plaza.
I stood watching until 11:15. Nothing happened, so I went to McPherson Square to sleep.
The grass was much more comfortable than the concrete I was used to sleeping on, but it wasn't Freedom Plaza.

The next morning, I returned to the plaza, to see what had happened. My answer was absolutely nothing. The police had never come.
There were rumors that they would come when the clean up permit expired at 2:00 PM.
Also, all weekend on Pennsylvania Ave, right next to the plaza, had been "A Taste of DC", where the street was closed and eateries had set up booths, selling food.
Thousands of people were there and another rumor was that the police would come that night, when "A Taste..."
was gone and not as many people would see.

Code Pink was going to march to the convention center, where war profiteers were showing off their wares to the military.
They had 17 pink umbrellas, which spelled out BRING OUR WAR $$ HOME. As we got closer, we saw people in military uniforms,
to whom we yelled "Resist!" and "Join us!" To the arms dealers in suits, we yelled "War profiteers!" and "No blood for money!"

When we arrived, we found that one war profiteer, BAE Systems, had set up a tent across the street from the civic center.
Inside that tent was displayed an articulated, sand colored armored personnel carrier. Three army officers were eating with the BAE war profiteers.

Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of Code Pink, said "Well folks, this is extremely rare, a weapon of mass destruction in plain sight and war
profiteers schmoozing with generals. I've been marching and I'm tired."
With that, she sat down with the profiteers and the officers. Protesters moved into the tent and sat down, effectively blocking access to the tent.
The officers literally slunk away.

Always mindful of the safety of your banner, I stood on the sidewalk.

Eventually, the police arrived. There is a DC ordinance that requires police to give protesters three warnings. At the first warning, everybody
jumped up and headed back to Freedom Plaza.

While we were at the arms show, four veterans disrupted a group of American and foreign dignitaries at Columbus Circle, who were celebrating
Columbus Day. They shouted "Genocide!" and "America's first war criminal!"
and broke up the celebration.

As I sat in the First Aid Tent, getting a foot blister treated, there was a call for a special assembly. I got there soon enough to hear that the police
wanted to meet with the original organizers, but since there were no leaders,
there had to be a general agreement as to whether to let the original organizers meet with the police, or require the police to meet with all of us.
I thought it would be easier for a small group to negotiate, but it was decided to ask the police to meet with all of us,
and if they wouldn't, to let the original organizers meet with them. They opted to meet with the original organizers.

At that evening's general assembly, those who had met with the police said we had been offered a four month extension of the permit!
The only conditions were that we observe the laws that said it was illegal to sleep or pitch a tent in the plaza, laws people had been ignoring all weekend.
The offer was accepted by all. After the inevitable exultation, a committee was formed to plan for the harsh reality of a DC winter.

I got to spend my last night at Freedom Plaza! I walked to McPherson to get my stuff and ran into the man who had pushed the security guard at the Smithsonian.
He said he had been asked to leave Freedom Plaza, because he was violent.

I find it hard to believe that the police would use an agent provocateur, because of their incredible efforts to avoid confrontation.
Maybe he worked for a corporation, but I don't have enough information to judge one way or the other.

Of course, everybody continued to sleep in tents. Because I was finally beginning to understand the way the police operated
(and because there was a chance of rain)
I pitched my tent for the first time and slept in it.

Tuesday, while I sat at the airport waiting on my flight, there was an occupation of the Hart Senate Office Building. It was much better organized than the
Smithsonian action. The building to be occupied was announced the same morning as the action, and there was no march.
People got there in small groups, or on their own.
You can see the results at http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/anti-war-protesters-storm-senates-hart-office-building.php.

Ann Wright wrtote yesterday "DC still going strong--action today in congress --secretary of defense."

2 days ago a great banner drop in Hart Senate building with 6 arrests including a retired judge from New Hampshire. Disruptions in senate finance committee on
"free trade agreements" with Colombia, Panama and South Korea-4 arrested and Bob Naiman
very close to arrest--his coat & tie threw the cops off!!!"

Yesterday protests at big corporate health conference--Marriott hotel refused to have arrested 3 protesters who got through the doors and sat in
the middle of the lobby for 2 hours! Marriott staff told us they have no health care!
Young woman told of her father committing suicide because of no health insurance for a major illness. Retired police officer told 6 patrol car loads of police
ready to arrest of his receiving $23,000 in retirement and spending $1000 month on health insurance.".

Rusty