13 May 2012

Occupy Tacoma: Prime Target of Secret Police?

Note: I wrote the following report two months ago for the research branch of Occupy Washington D.C. Since then, the events of May Day have proven Occupy Tacoma and indeed the entire Occupy Movement are very much alive, which makes this material relevant not just to Occupiers but to all other emergent protest movements, especially in the ever-more-openly fascist United States. Hence this, edited only slightly for presentation here:


I. SUMMARY: Typical of Occupy Wall Street and its local offshoots throughout the United States, Occupy Tacoma was from its inception vexed by disorganization and chaos. The resultant obstructions – especially in planning and communications – prevailed from OT's birth-period (the last week of September through the first week of October 2011), until 26 February 2012, when the few remaining campers evacuated Occupation Park in peaceful compliance with a state eviction order. How much of the disruption that plagued OT during those five months was merely typical of newly formed grassroots movements? How much was caused or intensified by clandestine operatives working on behalf the One Percent – agents provocateur and other sorts of infiltrators? The question is impossible to answer at this point. But at least a dozen episodes or incidents, each of which is described in more detail below, display one or more characteristics that identifies them as the product of hostile operations.


II. BACKGROUND: In startling contrast to the protest movements of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, where from the beginning there was sufficient awareness of the oppressor's ultimate malevolence (and therefore a magnitude of paranoia that was both profound and entirely rational), Occupy Tacoma seemed dominated by an almost childish naivety – an attitude all the more astonishing given how the protest movements of yesteryear operated under constitutional protections that have since been notoriously abolished. As a consequence, the identification of possible infiltrators within OT was left largely to elderly women who are veterans of the Feminist Movement and a handful of aging males who are, as I am, veterans of the Civil Rights, Anti-Vietnam War, Back-to-the-Land and Alternative Press movements. Alas, because of a new and far more politically damaging generation gap – the enormous contempt with which younger U.S. Caucasians so often view those of us who are in our 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond – our cautions typically fell on deaf ears.

Though I was involved with the Occupy movement in Washington state even before the organization of Occupy Tacoma – I had posted on the Occupy Olympia website seeking information about Occupy activities in Tacoma several days before the Tacoma group was formed – by January all save one of the original approximately 14 movement-veteran seniors, myself included, had been quietly ousted. The primary means of our ouster, which may or may not be relevant to the infiltration question, was the refusal of what emerged as OT's dominant faction to accommodate our very real, health-mandated need for General Assembly meetings in spaces that were both heated and protected from the incessant and dangerously chilling rains typical of Pacific Northwest coastal winters. Rather than grant us the sheltered space we demanded, the OT core faction continued to meet in frigid and often torrential downpours until all but one of us stopped participating. Only then – after we were gone (and thereby silenced) – was a community tent erected in Occupation Park. Whether this was coincidence or something darker could not be determined.

The following report is therefore the product of two kinds of sources. Its primary source is my own on-the-spot observation through mid-December 2011, which given my 55-year background in investigative reporting, photography and journalism in general is definitively the work of a trained observer and analyst. (For details of my qualifications, see the resumé I sent with my e-note of 1 March 2012). The secondary sources, none of whom I am at liberty to identify, are a few people within Occupation Park and OT in general with whom I remained in contact from mid-December until the encampment's formal demise on 26 February 2012.


III. VITAL HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: When reading the following it is imperative to bear in mind the reluctant admission by Watergate felon John Ehrlichman that Washington state and the Puget Sound region¹ in particular is the One Percent's favorite domestic laboratory for perfecting its techniques of oppression. The late Ehrlichman, a Seattleite who climbed the Republican ladder to achieve infamy as one of All the President's Men, testified during the Watergate hearings, and it was there he revealed his home state's hitherto-secret rat-lab role. This disclosure made headlines in Seattle, particularly in the alternative press. But the news reports of Ehrlichman's revelations have all seemingly vanished down the proverbial Orwell hole. Hence no verification links exist – at least none I've been able to find. Moreover my own Watergate reference files – clippings and notes on the Seattle area's many connections to various Nixon outrages – were destroyed in 1983 by the same mysterious house fire that burned up all my life's significant work including two books in progress. Nevertheless Ehrlichman's description of the state and especially the Puget Sound area as a Ruling Class proving ground might explain a curious paradox of Washington's Occupy history: the astounding tolerance the authorities granted Occupy Tacoma, this in contrast to the anti-Occupy violence of the police elsewhere in the region, especially in Seattle, where the cops were so brazenly brutal they attacked an 84-year-old woman.


IV. TWELVE RELEVENT EPISODES: Here in chronological order are a dozen examples from Occupy Tacoma's first five months that strongly suggest infiltration or infiltration attempts, the activities of agents-provocateur and a miscellany of other hostile actions:

(1)-In angry, significantly unionized working-class Tacoma, the two-fingered peace sign of the 1960s is considered a symbol of silliness (if not outright submissiveness), and in union circles it is generally viewed with contempt. But this symbol mysteriously ousted the clenched fist of today's economic rage and thus – undoubtedly to Occupy Tacoma's detriment – became the movement's defining logo. Just how this came about is a mystery I was never able to solve, and I pursued it with reportorial diligence for several weeks. But the answers to my questions were always variants of “it just happened.” Indeed the peace sign, which I as a socialist have always found objectionable, was seemingly cemented in place even before OT became functional. (I was the first contributor to OT's “why I joined” testimonials, this on 6 October 2011.)  Indeed by then the peace sign had already become sacrosanct, so that every attempt to challenge it was shouted down – never mind that (in the words of one of my more articulate neighbors), it publicly declared OT, “nothing more than a bunch of kids trying to be hippies and relive the '60s.” The result was that OT was never taken seriously by the community at large. Was this curious choice of symbols – self-defeating in any context and downright inexplicable in working-class Tacoma – the product of infiltration? I don't know. But I regard it with profound suspicion. (Update: sometime after I filed this report with Occupy Washington D.C., OT did indeed replace the two-fingered peace sign with the clenched fist [scroll down to May Day], though the peace sign persists in all its insipid self-defeating obnoxiousness on OT's Facebook page. )
 
(2)-A few individuals whose online comments marked them as likely agents provocateur were evident from the moment the OccupyTacoma.org website opened its forum; the identities of these individuals will be obvious to anyone who peruses the forum's contents. Indeed many OT activists, myself included, stopped posting there because of its domination by posters whose sole purpose seemed to be antagonism and provocation. (Update: OT's website was destroyed by hackers in mid-March but was rebuilt by the end of the month.)

(3)-At OT's second GA, a longtime (and therefore presumably credible) local activist repeated in seemingly good faith a warning Tacoma City Council had recently amended its ordinances so that if anyone in a demonstration was charged with a felony – say felonious vandalism or assault on a police officer – everyone who had any connection with the demonstration (even non-demonstrating members of participating organizations) could be identically charged and arrested. That such a measure is reportedly being urged on states and municipalities by the Department of Homeland Security made the warning all the more believable – and all the more terrifying. But it was patently false. My own investigation revealed that no such measure had been considered – much less enacted – whether by Tacoma, Pierce County or any other municipality within the county. Nor could I trace the warning to its source; it was always “so-and-so said,” and then when I questioned “so-and-so,” the source was invariably somebody else. The fact similar rumors spread through Occupy organizations elsewhere suggests a classic combination of disinformation and psychological warfare – this of a sophistication that in turn evidences the most skilled sorts of military or secret police operations.

(4)-OT's communications were constantly disrupted. The email addresses of key work-group personnel were mysteriously blocked. E-messages went astray; important information was never delivered. At least one OT activist was worked into a state of psychological exhaustion by the associated frustrations. These obstructions clearly suggest communications countermeasures that, again, are indicative of military or secret-police capabilities.

(5)-I heard stories of several supposedly obvious infiltration attempts and encountered one such effort myself. A young man presented himself to the Media Work Group as a graphic artist with a heavy professional background but seemed, by attitude, physique and a certain characteristic look in his eyes, more like a special-forces guy than a cultural worker. I as a key member of the work group thus began questioning him about his education and accomplishments. As we talked I asked if he was familiar with Art Direction magazine, the now-defunct international commercial-art journal of which I was editor-in-chief in 1985 and 1986. He replied that he was indeed familiar with the publication, but did so with the vagueness that invariably reveals falsehood. Shortly afterward he left the meeting – and was never again seen on Occupation circles. Opportunist seeking to hitch his metaphorical wagon to the Occupation star? Infiltrator? I'd guess the latter – emphatically so – but again there's no definitive proof.

(6)-In late October an individual hitherto unknown to OT brought to a GA a proposal the group's communications be restructured to exclude anyone without Internet access. I instantly objected, vehemently so, pointing out that such economically-based discrimination is specifically the kind of class warfare Occupy is protesting. A few others, typically single mothers or elderly people of both genders, expressed their agreement with me. The exclusion advocate sneeringly replied that Internet access was available to anyone willing to make the effort to go to a public library. One woman's response was especially memorable: “How can we go to the libraries when the transit system is being shut down and the libraries are all being closed?” The exclusion advocate merely smirked, saying nothing. Soon however his proposal, though never formally adopted, had become the OT norm, with the result the methodical exclusion of a major part of OT's natural base. Infiltrator? Ayn Rander? I'd say maybe both – because why else would an Ayn Rander be interested in OT?

(7)-When OT was formed, Tacoma's First Methodist Church offered its facilities as an indoor locale for GAs. The offer was gratefully accepted; the frigid rains characteristic of winter on the Pacific Northwest Coast are of such monsoonal intensity as to discourage outdoor meetings – and GA sessions tend to last two, three, even four hours. But not long after OT took its first collectively approved policy stance – a list of formal demands it presented to Washington state's U.S. Sen. Patty Murray – the church withdrew its offer, forcing the GA outdoors in the rain and cold and thereby effectively excluding most elderly and disabled people from the decision-making process. The reasons for the church's sudden reversal have never been adequately explained, though it should be noted most OT activists emphatically assert the cause was nothing more ominous than administrative error and organizational confusion. Nevertheless it's difficult to overlook the fact the excluded seniors and disabled people had been amongst those most active in shaping the demands OT addressed to Murray. Citing Murray's position as co-chair of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, OT insisted she block proposed cutbacks in Social Security and prevent further slashing of Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits and federal aid to education. Was the church's ouster of OT a deliberately hostile action (perhaps ordered by the church's state or national hierarchy in response to some DHS edict)? Or was it mere coincidence? In this case it seems to have been the latter – though the demographic identity of the chief victims of the church's sudden denial of its meeting facilities is surely cause for continued suspicion.

(8)-Soon after ouster from the church facilities limited OT to outdoor meetings, a story spread through OT's dwindling ranks that the Teamsters (a union to which I have strong social and familial connections despite the fact I have never been a member), had been kind enough to offer its local auditorium as a permanent meeting place. But one of the leaders who had emerged within allegedly “leaderless” OT was said to have arbitrarily turned down the offer without bothering to consult the membership. If true, this was an anti-union coup. Indeed – especially since there was already growing tension between union members and anti-union “progressives” – I suspected the perpetrator was either a Green or a member of MoveOn.org. Both groups had self-identified members within OT, both share the anti-blue-collar bias that has characterized the nation's so-called “Left” since the class conflicts of the Vietnam Era, and each group is therefore as anti-union as any of its hard-right counterparts. Hence – hoping to blow the cover of an anti-union activist within OT – I telephoned several local union officials in an effort to ferret out the facts. (Disclosure: I am a member of the National Writers Union AFL/CIO, a former member of the American Newspaper Guild.) After maybe a half dozen conversations it became clear no such offer had been made – not by the Teamsters, not by any other union, not by the Pierce County Central Labor Council. Another classic example of what the Russians call dezinformatsiya? In this case I'd bet on it.

(9)-A self-proclaimed Iraq War veteran who belligerently identified himself as an OT activist was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine, this in Olympia during a confrontation between Occupy Olympia and Olympia cops. Ruling Class Media throughout Washington state seized upon the arrest to begin a Josef Goebbels-type campaign of characterizing Occupiers as undesirables. Coincidental? I doubt it – especially since three or four OT people later told me the man had been ousted from Tacoma's Occupation Park for offering free cocaine to campers.

(10)-By the end of December, the sociology of Occupation Park's approximately 30 overnight campers was changing dramatically; the park was increasingly becoming a homeless camp. Sources there told me some of the chronically homeless people – about half of whom were also severely mentally ill – claimed they had been sent to the park by (unnamed) local social service agencies to obtain free food and lodging. Meanwhile – again hardly a coincidence – the Ruling Class Media's hate campaign continued, portraying Occupiers as habitual drunks, drug addicts and mental patients who refused medication.

(11)-By the end of January, threats of violence by hard-core homeless people had driven so many of the original OT protesters out of the park, OT itself was recommending the park be evacuated, cleaned up and given back to the state.  Concurrent with the (imposed?) increase in numbers of chronically homeless people, Ruling Class Media reported a groundswell of complaints from (invariably anonymous) merchants that Occupiers were intimidating their customers and trashing the downtown Tacoma neighborhood around the park. Significantly, Ruling Class Media reporters ignored what – if my sources were correct – would have been a Pulitzer-class story: an equally dramatic increase in numbers of people flung into homelessness by the downsized economy. Typically, I was told, the newly homeless who came to Occupation Park were (bitterly angry) youths whose parents had been first thrown out of work and then evicted from their homes. It was in this context – conversion of Occupation Park into a homeless camp – the state issued its official eviction notice, with which OT then complied.

(12)-As I noted in the section entitled “Summary,” the degree of tolerance displayed by local law enforcement toward Occupy Tacoma is – especially given the unrestrained brutality unleashed against other Occupations in Washington state – not just astonishing but markedly suspect. The apparent coordination between state welfare bureaucrats, some non-profit social service agencies, Ruling Class Media and other state agencies including the Washington State Patrol (which despite its name is a de facto state police force) is strongly suggestive of a carefully planned and coordinated operation. It is especially significant to note that only the Department of Homeland Security possesses the requisite combination of capabilities and authority to impose such coordination. Hence – particularly given the Ehrlichman testimony – it's difficult to escape the conclusion the curious treatment of OT was part of an experiment, probably by DHS, to determine the most effective strategy and tactics (complete with the peace sign's symbolic ouster of the clenched fist) for dealing with rebelliousness sparked by the public's awakening to the savagery of capitalism and the murderousness of fascist governance. OT by its very existence also underscores the Father Gapon factor: providing the authorities with a unique opportunity to identify the largest possible number of activists and potential activists of all ages, genders and ethnicities who live in or near Tacoma.


V. AFTERTHOUGHTS – IDENTIFYING INFILTRATORS AND COMBATING HOSTILE ACTION: The questions of how to identify infiltrators, informants and/or agents provocateur, and what countermeasures to employ against them, were hotly debated during the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Since these matters are obviously relevant again today, here is list of five principles from the '60s, updated to reflect present-day political and technological realities: 

(1)-Given the escalating imposition of fascist governance², most U.S. locales have longstanding communities of nonviolent resistance from which local Occupations drew their initial membership. The sudden appearance of any self-proclaimed activist who is a total stranger within these communities – particularly a stranger whose claims of radicalism cannot be confirmed – should be viewed with grave suspicion.³

(2)-Given the overwhelming military and police power of the fascist state – which possesses the capability of destroying our entire movement – the absolute necessity of maintaining the often-difficult disciplines of nonviolence is (or should be) obvious to even the most unseasoned protester. Any other course of action gives the authorities the propaganda by which to justify assaulting us with maximum lethal force. In this context, anyone who publicly advocates violence (as in General Assembly meetings or on discussion threads), is almost certainly an agent provocateur.

(3)-Given the Occupy principle of working toward consensus, individuals or groups of individuals who persistently disrupt the consensus-building process should be viewed with grave suspicion. This includes disruptive mentally ill or homeless persons whose presence may have been maliciously encouraged by the Ruling Class authorities.

(4)-Given our extreme dependence on social media (and the huge vulnerability that results from that dependence), we are easy targets for interdiction (outright blockage of communications), disinformation (incorrect dates and times), and illegal acts advocated by agents provocateur who have infiltrated our web sites. Hence people given moderator-access to Occupy websites and other communications media should be screened very carefully. Indeed each local Occupation should develop an access-screening working group.

(5)-Given our vulnerability to entrapment, we should be especially wary of anyone who makes a point of inviting us to break even seemingly minor laws, for example drinking alcohol on public property where alcohol consumption is forbidden. Such a person is best scorned as an agent provocateur. Otherwise – once arrested – we are in the hands of authorities who now today not only have the power to detain us indefinitely but to torture us into whatever confession fulfills their fascist objectives.

In keeping with the non-violent nature of our movement, our single most effective countermeasure is to deliberately plant false information with a suspected infiltrator – for example that 500 people intend to demonstrate in front of a bank. Then when the riot police show up for what turns out to be a non-event, we know the person on whom the false information was planted is indeed an infiltrator. Camera phones are superbly effective too: when the young man who 15 minutes ago was demanding violence is photographed laughing with his cop or soldier buddies around the corner, the evidence is irrefutable.

Above all else we should never forget the United States is no longer the nation into which even the most youthful Occupiers were born. “The Land of the Free” is but a memory. In bitter truth we are the subjects of the most oppressive, most relentlessly policed, most mercilessly punished nation on Earth.

***

¹The Puget Sound area or region includes the cities of Bellingham, Everett, Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. 

²It should be noted that fascist governance is in fact capitalist governance: absolute power and unlimited profit for the Ruling Class, total subjugation and genocidal poverty for everyone else. Capitalism – infinite greed exalted as ultimate virtue – has always been a powerfully compelling doctrine in the United States, particularly in matters of foreign policy. But after the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on 22 November 1963 and the decade's subsequent political murders (Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy), the nation lost the will to resist capitalism's inevitable transformation into fascism, hence the escalating tyranny at home and the brutal – indeed Nazi-like – imperialist policies abroad. The domestic imposition of fascism and the brazen re-emergence of capitalism's innate viciousness was further bolstered by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Though the U.S.S.R. was never the “workers' paradise” it claimed to be, its official Marxism appeared to offer an avowedly humanitarian alternative to capitalism. The resultant competition for “hearts and minds” forced capitalism to conceal its savagery, hence the unprecedented growth of the U.S. middle class c. 1945-1973, a pretense brazenly dropped after the U.S.S.R. was destroyed in 1990.

³This is a modern-day affirmation of the affinity-group principle that evolved during the '60s: the fact collectives of people with long mutual histories are extremely difficult to infiltrate. The protection granted by the longstanding solidarity of the affinity group is, by the way, precisely why the capitalists are forever engaged in the destruction and/or prevention of communities.


L.B./4 March 2012, rev. 13 May 2012

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